>>133368407With Sonic, it's the reverse. In the West, they've always wanted it to be one world (except for Fleetway) whilst Japan wanted it to be more ambiguous starting from Sonic X into Colors onward. Mario has always had it so that it's mostly the western stuff barring that one OVA that has them coming from a separate world like our own, whilst everything else makes it so that they've been inhabitants of the kingdom from birth. And the post-Miyamoto stuff has only ever enforced hard 'rules' about the setting like this.
I agree that it doesn't really matter in the end, regardless of what the truth of the matter is. But its still strange to be going with the older lore at all, since pretty much nobody but major grognards will care.