On the early releases of the game, Sonia from the non-canon animated series "Sonic Underground" appears on a playing card representing the Queen of Diamonds which can be spotted on the ground of the race track, Roulette Road. Sonia's head was taken from a piece of fan art from DeviantArt drawn by a user formerly known as Lightning_duchess (now RianaLD). Game director Steve Lycett commented on the cameo by saying: "We take these things seriously at Sumo and will be contacting the original artist directly to offer our sincere apologies to her, this was entirely unintentional. Not much else I can really add!" This image was only supposed to be used as a placeholder.