Emerald Chaos

OP mentioned Angel Island and Little Planet as examples of settings that have a cohesive theme. But I disagree that they do. Stages like Ice Cap Zone and Sandopolis are as far apart as you can get in terms of theme, after all. So I'm less sure if it's varied level themes that are actually the problem you have here. Maybe it's more about the games having a more unified style? I would like to see more revisiting of established locations in the universe in a way that makes sense based on what's been shown before. Real world building as opposed to Sonic Forces "80% of the world is Green Hill Zone", jeez. SEGA seem intent on treating Sonic's world the same way Nintendo treat Mario's. As something malleable that can be molded to whatever they want the content of the new game to be. However on a case by case basis, the locations in the series have more relevance to the story and Sonic is a more story driven series. So when they then treat it as though the places have no real permanence they undermine the player's investment. It was really frustrating to see the Lost hex introduced as YET ANOTHER mysterious flying landmass in the sky when you already have Angel Island and Little Planet. Just how many of them ARE there in the sky of Sonic's world? It just feels lazy to me. Done with no respect of what came before it.

At this point I feel like a Sonic game literally only featuring Sonic and Eggman would be a waste of the potential of the other characters. I'm fine with Sonic being the only playable character, but there's virtually nothing you can do with just Sonic and Eggman that couldn't also be done in a game that features the other characters in some way

Wasn't someone doing a similar project to this for Triple Trouble? I got the two confused for a moment. I think the Triple Trouble one is less Mania style and is more attempting to capture the feel of the original game though

Throw me in the side that doesn't like the way Wisps are implemented in Sonic's gameplay. I prefer Sonic's core gameplay to be as gimmick free as possible and what the Wisps do is changing his form for a shallow one use power up, especially when a lot of what they do are abilities that Sonic should have the ability to do on his own, things that already have some kind of representation in the series or would make for more interesting gameplay if played out normally. I would rather use Sonic's abilities to scale heights, or at least a spring, than use a rocket power up for instance. For a series that has such potential in its unique forms of movement it's a shame to see that potential squandered on power ups that feel generic, like they could be found anywhere else. I also am not a huge fan of how disconnected they feel from Sonic's world being literal aliens. They have no history to add to the series, in comparison to the Chao whose backstory in SA1 shows they've been around for a long time and implies a connection to the chaos emeralds. Wisps are just kinda aliens who are here now. They do little for the mystique and intrigue of the world, which I suppose is very indicative of Sonic Team's current approach to the series. They aren't distinct enough to be characters, they don't feel personal enough to be pets. I do agree that recent showings, like the Wispons show some potential in fun and creative usage of Wisps, it builds on a more literal interpretation of the Wisp's concept as a power source, which is the most interesting thing about them, rather than using them as a cheap power up gimmick, so if you ask me, keep them away from Sonic's gameplay and do more stuff like that with them and I'll be fine with them.

Surely they'd have some say in who voices Sonic. It's their franchise, at the end of the day

It's odd for them to change their priorities for something like this, however. Lately they seem to have been stressing consistency/recognisability of the brand. Changing his voice actor for the movie seems to run counter to that. And if they plan to replace Roger with the new actor in the games, then surely they realize that introducing a new Sonic voice through this spin off movie is a pretty risky move. Or maybe they don't. It's SEGA after all.

But Roger voiced Sonic in Wreck-It Ralph. So there's already precedent for him providing the voice for Sonic in a Hollywood movie

Seen it twice in this thread. What is meant by "classic pandering"? At any rate, I personally like the modern designs of the characters and I really enjoy the style of the Advance series. I would like to see it make a comeback while being expanded on and more depth being added. From my perspective I feel like there's a sweet spot in between the classic and modern styles that would make the perfect aesthetic for Sonic for me. The Mania team would probably be most likely to nail it. But SEGA seem set in their ways of separating the two at the expense of the quality of modern games and a lot of classic fans don't want these games to have any kind of influence from the later parts of the series. So it probably wouldn't happen even if they were interested.

It looks like Mighty is going to be easy mode for boss fights. His unique ability doesn't look like it does much for him in terms of movement overall, however. That's a bit of a shame. I hoped he'd look more fun. Ray looks potentially super busted, even more than Tails. His air movement looks to have more freedom than I expected.

I just want to say that I think the whole "team" and defined "Speed", "Power" etc roles thing is even dumber in a racing game where the characters aren't using their own abilities. There should be even less reasons for those restrictions. 15 characters is a bit disappointing, it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to add more but SEGA said no. Wisps are meh. The visuals don't look great. Sad to say, but I'm not super interested in this one. If I have to say something positive, vehicle customization is something new for these games, so that could potentially be interesting.

It's a bit of a shame some of these teams didn't happen on the grounds that now the characters are apparently locked behind some pointless mandates which force them to be usable in limited context. Some of them sound pretty crack-y tho. Specifically the SA1 team and the Metal Sonic + Mighty and Ray team. I heard the story for Sonic Heroes was written up at the last minute and the writer had to work around the game that had pretty much already been made. It sure would've been fun to see scenarios they came up with for these teams

My question is, why does Amy "need" a sidekick character? What does it add? What incentives would a hypothetical sidekick character have for being Amy's sidekick, so on so forth. As you said, Amy is not the main character. Her primary motivation in the games is attempting to get Sonic's attention, it isn't exactly the kind of thing which calls for a sidekick, nor is it the kind of thing that from an outside perspective is admirable in the sense of "I want to follow in this person's footsteps" ala Sonic and Tails.

It was Shaymay's Sonic Spitball series where I first heard the suggestion that a rewrite for Shadow's backstory to simplify it and make him a clone of Sonic would be a good thing and he does a good job of making an argument for it. I personally like the idea because it explains a lot about the character without precluding any depth, even though the concept is cliched, I don't really feel that his backstory as it is now ISN'T cliched. It's just a lot less understandable due to being a large pile of cliches. From my perspective it's more about having a simple base to work from. To address the OPs comment that "Scourge is not Shadow". I'm not saying that he should be. For one, if I'm going to argue specifics, Scourge isn't a literal "clone" of Sonic except in a meta sense, but if it's a meta sense that you're arguing that point from, then Shadow IS like Scourge. For another, there are countless variations in which a character can be a foil to Sonic's traits. As the series is, most characters, especially those who have been designated rivals to him are foils in one way or another. Making Shadow's backstory accurately describe his "function" in the series does not limit the possibilities of his presentation.

I haven't played Colours DS, but I kinda like the way they used the characters in this. It feels oddly out of place in this game for EVERYONE to be at the amusement park though. I always felt like that kind of usage where all the characters are there and active, if not directly involved with what Sonic/the player is doing, would have made much more sense for a game like Sonic Unleashed.

I think this is an unpopular opinion, not sure. I actually prefer Sonic's mouth in his 3D models to be centered. It makes more sense in a 3D space and historically it tends to lend itself to more expressive models. Whenever I think of models that have the side mouth I tend to think of him having a dull, static smile on his face. Compare his model in Brawl to Smash 4 for an idea of what I'm talking about. Also my mind often gets stuck on the fact that it shows up on both sides of his mouth, like he has two holes on either side that seal up when you're not looking at one. I know the side smile is iconic of the character, but I feel like it doesn't work as well in 3D My preference is a more centered mouth and maybe have it move slightly to the side if he's grinning or something