During the game's development, Tails wasn't initially planned to be a playable character and was only added for story purposes. Series creator Yuji Naka was asked several times if Tails was going to be playable, but gave different answers every time, ranging from "wait and see" to actually saying no. Eventually he was added because of an outcry amongst fans.

Many speculate that this is the reason Tails pilots a mech in-game. However, since he is fully controllable without it in the Chao Garden and through means of hacking (retaining his flying ability), it was most likely changed at a later time to prevent inconsistency with the play styles the game has to offer.