6, 7, or 8 Chaos Emeralds? »

          Huh? 6, 7, or 8 Chaos Emeralds? Come on, there's 7 — Dur. If you only know about the 7 Chaos Emeralds, then it would surprise you to know that the amount of Chaos Emeralds varied between the old games quite frequently. Some titles had five or six Chaos Emeralds and one REAL big plotholer introduced an eighth Chaos Emerald. Sonic Spinball doesn't count since it is meant to portray the Archie storyline.

           I mean sure, today, there are 7 Chaos Emeralds. That sole number doesn't seem to be going anywhere and officially, that is the undisputed number of Chaos Emeralds: 7. I mean, if it were 6 or 8, then they wouldn't be spinning off of Dragon Ball. God forbid that.

           When regarding the Sonic games that offered only five or 6 Chaos Emeralds and the one title that offered 8, there are a few ways to justify the obscure relay of gems. First off, let's look at which Sonic games there were only six Chaos Emeralds in. In fact, six Chaos Emeralds probably was the amount of emeralds there were meant to be from the start. Who do we probably have to thank for the 7th one? Super Sonic. Super Sonic is a lot like a Super Saiyan, and in Dragon Ball Z, there are seven dragon balls. So, to make it seem more spoofed, they probably made the 7th one to go along with Super Sonic's debut. But who knows, to be honest. Anyway…

Sonic games where there were less than 7 Chaos Emeralds:

(1). Sonic the Hedgehog, 1991 (both 16 and 8-bit versions)
(2). Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 1992 (8-bit version only)
(3). Sonic Chaos, 1993
(4). Sonic Triple Trouble, 1994
(5). Tails Adventures, 1995
(6). Sonic Blast, 1996

Sonic game that introduced an 8th Chaos Emerald:

(1). Sonic the Fighters

            And there you have it. Notice the only Genesis game that had six Chaos Emeralds was Sonic 1. The rest were Game Gear titles. That is probably due to the fact that they couldn't implement Super Sonic into those games (the post Sonic 2 ones), so they just made six Chaos Emeralds. You don't get much space to do much stuff on an 8-bit system, mark my words. Then there is that pesky 8th emerald.

This rather cheap screen rip from a Sonic The Fighters ROM shows that in the opening sequence, and throughout the game there are 8 Chaos Emeralds.

             Not only are there 8 of them, but the colors were completely disoriented to match the color of the character that guards it. Why it was necessary to add an 8th Chaos Emerald and change their colors so dramatically in the first place is beyond me. But hey, they're the boss, right? Anyway. The 8th Chaos Emerald plothole is the only substantially perplexing asset of this entire continuity error in general. The 5 and 6 Chaos Emerald plothole is a simple fix. So let's start with the solutions. Remember, keep in mind that the undisputed, continuity-faithful and canon number of Chaos Emeralds is the big 7.

Solution #1 for the 5, 6 Chaos Emerald games: Solution one is simple and is meant for those who want to stay canon. Just say that 5 or 6 Chaos Emeralds were all that was necessary at the time or that 5 or 6 were all they could get their grubby hands on at the time. You can't say that they didn't know there were seven, since 75% of the Sonic games with 5/6 Chaos Emeralds take place after Sonic 2, in which 7 is retrieved.

Solution #2 for the 5, 6 Chaos Emerald games: Ignore it and just say that there were seven Chaos Emeralds the whole time. There was no Super Sonic in the 5/6 Chaos Emerald games, so that gives you an excuse to just say there were seven to make it like a Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island scenario. Remember, this is fixing the continuity for YOUR pleasure, not the gameplay.

              And now the solutions to the much more difficult Sonic The Fighters plothole.

Solution #1 for the 8th Chaos Emerald: The 8th Chaos Emerald was a fake and an all-around very, VERY convincing imposter. You can't say it is some rare extra and unknown 8th Emerald since that obscures continuity.

Solution #2 for the 8th Chaos Emerald: Ignore it, and say there were seven the entire time and whoever was carrying the 8th Chaos Emerald actually didn't have it, and just wanted to fight in the tournament for the heck of it.

Solution #3 for the 8th Chaos Emerald: This one right here is a little drastic, but by all means sensible. Just say that all emeralds in Sonic the Fighters were fakes. This is actually makes sense in an odd way since not only was there an unofficial amount of Chaos Emeralds, but they didn't, by any means, conform to the original color scheme. This could mean they were all imposters. Remember, Super Sonic was just a gameplay element and had to be unlocked. He had no actual significance to the storyline.