Honey the Cat is based on Honey (AKA Candy) from the game Fighting Vipers. She was planned for the original arcade release of the game, but was eventually scrapped. However, she was later reinserted into the 2012 re-release of the game as a hidden character. Due to her being an homage to a character from another game, Honey the Cat's appearances throughout the Sonic the Hedgehog series have been limited to rare cameos due to certain rights issues regarding her similarities to the original character, despite both being owned by Sega.