Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)/Trivia


 * A Let's Play video marathon session of the game was done by Something Awful goons Pokecapn, Kung-Fu Jesus, medibot, and IlluminatusVespucci; to view the tropes used in those videos, visit here.

""NO! Shut up! Shut the fuck up right now! We vowed never to speak of that whole ordeal...""
 * Executive Meddling: Hoo boy. This arguably explains why the game was such an Obvious Beta -- Sonic Team wasn't given enough time to fix the bugs in the game.
 * The fans may also be blamable, as they kept on asking for the games release, but Sega is still at blame as well, for having forced it out for a Christmas release, meaning that they may have completely known that the game had all these bugs, but released it anyway because they knew it'd sell well. This wasn't good for their reputation.
 * Sega fired their entire Quality Assurance team some time after this game's release date, so it's doubtful they were aware of the bugs before it was released.
 * That's an easy executive scapegoat tactic. It probably saved them money anyway.
 * Plus it meant no updates for the poor suckers who bought the game-- the Xbox 360 supports patching game bugs, Sega just didn't care.
 * After this game, Sega learned not to rush out games anymore.
 * Fan Nickname: The game was known as Sonic Nextgen or Sonic 360 amongst fans for quite some time before the official title was announced at E3 2006. Nowadays, it's usually known by Sonic '06.
 * There was also Sonic the Disaster, Sonic: Birthday Bust, and Sonic: Now Loading.
 * A variation: when they reconvened to do Sonic Unleashed, pokecapn's band usually referred to this game as "that other game" whenever the subject came up. Not surprising considering the effect "that other game" had on their sanity...

""My rings! They're getting physics'd!""
 * They also refer to the magma-lizard enemies as "Dodongos" or "Thriller lizards" (after the funny dance they do when Silver telekinetically picks them up) and the flying magma enemies are "Fire Keese", after the flaming bat enemies in the Legend of Zelda, in keeping with Medibot's need to make everything fit into some other game's logic.
 * They dub the Demonic Spider black hole things from End Of The World "Time Dimensions".
 * They also give Sonic the name Rockman Classic/Rockman Blue, Shadow the name Rockman Charcoal, and Silver the name Rockman Steel / Rockman Chrome.
 * Mephiles is referred to as Mephistophiles, Satan, or Mephisto.
 * Referring to Silver's Psychokinesis as "Physics". As a result of their Sanity Slippage they use the word "physics" as a verb.


 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Lacey Chabert, the English VA for Elise, was also Eliza Thornberry. And Gwen Stacy. And Gretchen Wieners. And (for the first season) Meg Griffin.
 * Apparently Mewtwo has given up on finding the meaning of life and decided to destroy everything again.
 * Let's Play: The video marathon playthrough (i.e. the whole game is played from start to finish with only breaks for bathroom and such) of the game done by pokecapn, Kung-Fu Jesus, medibot, and IlluminatusVespucci (and NoTimeForSocks, but he leaves fairly early) is possibly one of the most popular LPs on the Internet, for reasons including their Sanity Slippage throughout the ordeal, the many, many Cluster F Bombs, and medibot's wonderful Cloudcuckoolander tendencies. It has its own tropes page.
 * There's also a playthrough by HellfireComms with NTom64 and Fastest Thing Alive, and as if they didn't sit through enough torture, they've begun anew, with The Helldragon replacing Fastest Thing Alive.
 * Old Shame: Sega fired the game's writers, apologized on its multiple issues, and are recently taking the game off of shelves. All as an effort to forget that the game existed, and to hope that this problem never happens within the series again.
 * Sega weren't quite ashamed enough to write it out of Sonic canon forever, as evidenced by the appearance of a level and boss fight modeled after it in Sonic Generations, albeit with a major gameplay overhaul.
 * Promoted Fangirl: Actress Lacey Chabert, a longtime Sonic fan, who voiced Elise in the English version.
 * Lee Brotherton, who sings "Dreams of an Absolution", got his start making music on OverClocked Remix.
 * Shout-Out: The music from "Town Mission 4" sounds dangerously close to "Flashman's Theme" from Mega Man 2.
 * Stunt Casting: See Promoted Fangirl.
 * What Could Have Been: This game was a failed attempt at a reboot.
 * Oh, so much. Early trailers and demonstration videos promised things like a day/night system, multiplayer minigames, and a "free mode" that allowed you to play as any character without storyline constraints. Several functions described in the manual are not actually in the game, including things like the implementation of the Action gauge (it is completely pointless for Sonic and is rather barebones for Shadow and Silver), "maturity" levels for Sonic's custom actions (there are none), and a flight gauge for Omega's hover (he can hover forever, there is no gauge). Most depressingly, code was found for a purchaseable gem that allowed Sonic to relive his glory days of going Super Sonic in-level, rather than just for the final boss. Such a thing was never used until Sonic Colors.
 * Really, the entire game could have been awesome if it were actually finished. And even if that were to be fixed, there was still problems with the writing.
 * As mentioned before, the game was intended to have a LOT of features that simply are not in the final game, mainly because they weren't finished, or were removed for whatever reason. The most common theory for this is that the game was rushed; it was made public as a tech demo at E3 2005, and released in late 2006 for the Christmas period. It's not known for sure exactly how much time was spent on development, but it certainly wasn't enough to actually finish the game on time.
 * This can't have been helped by Sonic Team working on Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Riders and Sonic & the Secret Rings at the same time as this title was in development.
 * There were originally plans to create a Wii port of this game, but time constraints had them make Sonic and the Secret Rings.