According to designer Shiro Maekawa, there were originally going to be six teams with very different line-ups. Two of the teams, Team Sonic and Team Chaotix, had the same members as they appear in the final game, but the four early teams include:

• Amy, Cream and Rouge
• Chaos, E-102 Gamma and Big
• Fang, Bean and Bark
• Metal Sonic, Ray and Mighty

Due to time constraints and balancing purposes, the number of teams was reduced from six to four, and the members of Team Dark and Team Rose were swapped and adjusted after it was decided that Shadow Spoiler:would not be dead after the events of Sonic Adventure 2.