The Biggest Plot Holes of "Sonic '06"

"Sonic The Hedgehog"--aka Sonic '06 (because this particular title released in 2006)--is notorious for being the, quote en quote, "worst Sonic game in history." Sonic Team got split into several groups to work on other games, such as "Sonic Unleashed," which left a tiny group to finish Sonic '06. Because of the deadline looming over so few people, they had to release the game quickly. Which meant bugs were never fixed, items that didn't function were not taken out of the game entirely, glitches abounded, and... oh, those loading screens. Those infamously long loading screens. And the problems only hurt more because Sonic '06 had been hyped as a great game while it was in production, only to be the exact opposite upon release.

But glitchy game or not, there's one thing that Sonic Team never could've repaired no matter the amount of people working on it: the storyline.

Don't get me wrong; the Sonic '06 storyline isn't a bad one. It has good values at its core and some incredibly gripping moments, both in action and emotion (as well as some oddly placed romance). But it had plenty of plot holes, mostly small ones. There are also some moments that feel like plot holes, but are simply poorly explained, and in actuality make some sense. So I'm going to touch on the biggest seeming plot hole some may wonder about, as well as the biggest plot hole of the entire game.

The seeming plot hole is when Mephiles appears in the ruined future, where Silver and Blaze have battled Iblis. Many ask, why didn't Mephiles merge with Iblis right then and there? Well, Mephiles needed the Chaos Emeralds to merge with Iblis (because every Sonic villain ever requires all the emeralds for one reason or another), and when he arrived in the future, he only had one emerald. And the monstrous lava-like form of Iblis was not ideal for Mephiles to merge with. He needed the younger flame of Iblis (what was trapped inside Elise).

Now, among all the little plot holes of Sonic '06, the biggest one is the most memorable, mainly because it comes at the end--the very end. The end is remarkably satisfying, however, despite the big plot hole in the post-climax resolution. (Warning: spoilers ahead for those who've never played the game! Although you've likely heard the ending anyway.)

The emotional and action-packed climax sees Sonic killed--yeah, killed--by Mephiles, Mephiles and Iblis merge into Solaris, Sonic resurrected by the Chaos Emeralds (and a romantic kiss from Elise--who is a human girl, by the way), going super with Shadow and new pal Silver (my personal fave), and defeating Solaris. No plot holes there, and ignore the weird moment where Elise kisses Sonic smack on the lips.

But right after Solaris was defeated, Sonic and Elise were quietly transported the past and found the Flame of Solaris--a tiny, innocent, white flame. Although Elise didn't want to because it would erase everything that had just happened--including her and Sonic's romance--she blew out the flame. And as everything disappeared, the whole thing apparently never occurred. A little while later, we see Elise waving to the crowds during a festival, like she was at the beginning of the game, like nothing had ever happened. And here's where the plot hole caves open.

The festival at the beginning of the game was a festival for Solaris (whom the people of Soleanna considered a sun god). So if Solaris was extinguished, never to exist, why was the festival still going on? Let's chalk that down to "possible plot hole, but maybe the festival was for something completely different then."

As Elise goes through the parade parade, a blue blur whooshes past with such a gust of wind, it blows her feathery adornment from her hair. Elise looks up, and for a moment seems to be trying to remember something. But she can't remember why the wind was so familiar, and continues with the parade. Meanwhile, Sonic watches from a rooftop, smiling, and watches her feather adornment float up toward the moon. While he never says anything, the way he watches and smiles alludes to him clearly remembering what happened. He wouldn't have smiled at Elise so affectionately otherwise. So if Solaris being extinguished was supposed to wipe the memory of the adventure from everyone's mind, why does Sonic seem to remember?

And that's how the game ends. May not seem like a massive plot hole, but there are a couple more that echo after the resolution.

Silver, obviously, is a recurring character in the series, and is good friends with Sonic and the other main characters. But he would never have met them if Solaris's nonexistence truly wiped everyone's memories of the incident. Why? Well, Solaris was split into two beings: Mephiles and Iblis. Iblis ruined the future world, which Silver sought to repair. If Iblis had never done this, Silver wouldn't have met Mephiles, and Mephiles was the one who guided Silver to the past, thus turning Silver into a time-traveler. And if Silver had never gone to the past, he wouldn't have met Sonic and all them. But in the games that follow, he knows Sonic and all them very well, and it becomes habit for him to return to the past when his future has been ruined. But it all started with the adventure in Sonic '06... that, at the end, is said to have never happened.

Then there's the question (and a rather subtle plot hole) that spans the entire game: the duo of Silver and Blaze. Blaze is from a completely different dimension, not the future of Sonic's world, and they never once explain how she wound up in the future of Sonic's world, met Silver, and the two became best buds. SO WHAT DA HECK IS SHE DOING THERE?! And after Silver sealed Iblis inside of her and she vanished, did she return to her dimension? The scene made it look more like she perished, but her fate was never clarified. So is Iblis still inside Blaze? Technically he should be. But we never hear "Iblis" (or "Elise," for that matter) uttered again.

All that to say, it's not false to call Sonic '06 the "worst Sonic game in history." For the Simon Cowell of Sonic, it's easy to spot all the game's faults and glitches. But it's also easy to enjoy the characters, and for its time, the animation was phenomenal. (I think the game's CGI humans can rank as some of the most realistic). The story may have its plot holes, but where the ground is smooth and whole, the story is gripping till the end. And like I said, even with the plot holes, the end is still pretty satisfying.

I think Sonic '06 could easily make an awesome remake, and I know I'm not the only one. Maybe with a remake, they could repair not only the glitches and the bits of less-than-desirable animation, but the plot holes, too.