So, what was the point in saying Shadow the Hedgehog sucks and that the Forces script was a big mess and should therefore not be counted into any sort of timeline theory. You’re starting to derail this topic from the Timeline theory to Sega makes shitty games and this is how they should improve
I'll be honest with you for one second: I think that Sega didn't want Mania to be canon so they made that "Timeline" thing so they could simply ditch Mania into the closet so they won't have to deal with the timelines shenanigans anymore.
I think that Sega's mistake was trying to tie the series together by making every game connected so we ended up having a mess like 2006.
I'm thankful that Unleashed, despite taking a lot from the first Adventure (having a big monster, hubs and multiple play styles), didn't try too hard to talk about the events of Adventure 1, 2, Heroes and Shadow.
I think that officially we got Sonic 1, Generations for Classic, 2, 3, & Knuckles, CD, 4 Episode 1, 4 Episode 2 then the first Adventure game.
Maybe Unleashed was actually kind off a semi-reboot as nothing was mentionned before and we haven't seen Knuckles nor Shadow but it's unsure.
I hope that the upcoming "Sonic Rangers" will be a self-contained story like Colors.
And I kinda wish Sega would officially say that the Modern era ended with Forces and that this will be an entirely new one.