" 

 ::Ah, but do you KNOW it's simply gameplay-only - Or are you just speculating? Why the sudden and complete deviation of pretty much EVERYTHING from even the Dreamcast games in terms of plot? Why the mention of only a SINGLE Chaos Emerald instead of all seven? How is it that suddenly, this one-and-only Chaos Emerald is the secret to the Flames of Disaster? Despite some similarities to the Sonic Adventure games in terms of style (taking place in a realistic world), this new direction for Sonic is also vastly different thematically from the Sonic Adventure titles. You say there's a ton of hints that it takes place in the current continuity when I seem to have factual evidence on my side that it, infact, does not. Just because it's a franchise reboot doesn't mean Amy can't appear, or Tails can't appear, they could simply write that off as, ""Oh, well, they're Sonic friends and they've always been there"" - they don't HAVE to re-introduce every single character one-by-one all over again.  "