Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26502876-20161125231915/@comment-679780-20161126020919

Heres my theory of what Sonic '17 be about.

I believe it will be adventure that takes place between two alternate realities created from time travel shenanigans.
 * The "Sonic Timeline" is the canon timeline of the games we've had since Sonic 1.
 * The "Eggman Timeline" was created when Dr. Eggman goes back in time to assure victory of all his past conflicts with Sonic and GUN creating the post-apocalyptic world in the trailers.

However Dr. Eggman changing the past did not assure Sonic and his friends destruction. Instead of five adventures (1, 2, 3&K, CD and 4. All taking place on the Sonic Timeline) instead this caused a butterfly effect in which Sonic and his friends only had the one game in the Eggman Timeline: Sonic Mania.

During or after the event of Sonic Mania, Sonic becomes aware that time itself has changed and somehow time travels forward in time to the future. It is here he finds Sonic from the timeline he is suppose to live in, the Sonic timeline. Thus Sonic from the past of the Eggman Timeline (Classic Sonic) and Sonic from the true timeline (Modern Sonic) team up to assure a favourable future.

As for how Dr. Eggman is able to time travel, there are four possible ways he could do so. Sonic '06 introduced two methods of Time Travel. Dr. Eggman uses the "Solaris prototype", a time machine that threw Team Sonic to the future. Sonic '06 also shows that when more than one Chaos Emeralds are used for Chaos Control it is possible to cause rifts in time and space which can be used for time traveling. Sonic 06 shows many examples of time travelling throughout the game. Solaris destruction caused Sonic and Elise to go back in time to blow out a candle and caused a paradox to auto-correct the timeline that the entire game never happened. Sonic Generations introduced the Time Eater who is perhaps the most powerful time traveller in the game. Able to rip stages from Sonic's personal history and dump them into white space. The whole game was a time travelling adventure but the game was mostly a tribute game full of nostalgia-fanservice for the fans.

So for Sonic '17 there is lots of ways for Dr. Eggman to change the past. I think it's likely Dr. Eggman would either use something already done from '06 or Generations or Sega will make up something new for Eggmans time travelled shenanigans. However, I am hoping from all the possible choices, there is that fourth method of time travel which I've yet to mentioned. From all the possible choices that Sega may grant Eggman for time travel, it is this one I am hoping for, but at the same time it is probably the least likeliest.

I'm hoping Dr. Eggman will use the Death Egg mk.II as his personal TARDIS. This Death Egg was constructed in Sonic the Hedgehog 4 somewhen during or after Episode Metal. This Death Egg was constructed around the Little Planet a small world from Sonic CD that shares roughly the same orbit as Earth and the planets meet annually for a month. Located on the Little Planet are Time Stones which is the planets own seven crystals. Instead of great power they can warp and rewrite reality as well as grant Little Planet it's own "time" as well as the source of power to the Time Warp Plates around the planet. Episode 2 ended with Sonic and Tails disabling the Death Egg but not destroying it and due to Sonic 4 critism, Sega had not bothered to finish Sonic 4. But Sonic '17 can do that for them.

I would like Sonic '17 to be about Dr. Eggman repairng the Death Egg mk.II and what he used to create the Eggman Timeline. The adventure could have gameplay similar to Sonic Generations only instead of stages from Sonic's personal past, these are brand new stages introduced. Classic Sonic plays the stages how they were in the past while Modern Sonic plays the stages how they were in the future. Perhaps certain actions Classic Sonic does in his versions of the stages make changes in Modern Sonic's versions of the same stage.

The Sonic's are after the Time Stones because with these seven gems one can rewrite history itself merely by wishing. In Sonic CD collecting all the Time Stones was an alternate way of assuring a "Good Ending" in the game, the other was actually destroying robot teleporters and hologram projectors to assure stages have "Good Futures".

Sonic '17 can then end with Sonic making the very wish Sega wish for... for the events of Sonic 4 to have never happened. Thus like Sonic '06, Sonic '17 will end with a paradoxical "it never happened" ending, but it will still be an awesome game and Sonic 4 will be erased from the canon Sonic timeline.