Non of the Sonic games since Sonic Adventure are really bad. They're just:
1. Different from the classical Sonic games and
2. Mostly designed for hardcore freaks.
If by hardcore freaks, you mean fanboys who will buy anything with Sonic's face plastered on, I agree.
Only because there are a lot of people who dislike/hate this kind of game concept, it doesn't mean that the recent Sonic games were bad.
Just because handful of "hardcore freaks" like running along a thread suspended over a bottomless pit doesn't mean it's good.
Have you ever noticed how much people are out there who really enjoyed/loved Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog? So, concidering this, it can't really be that these games were BAD. They were only different from YOUR expectations!
Again. That can mostly be attributed to brand loyalty. Most of the people who praise Heroes and Shadow are below the age of 12 and big fans of Sonic X. The kind of kids who will like anything as long as it has their absolute favoritest character on it.
Please try to understand this! (I don't mean specifically you, Light Speed, I mean all the people who hate the recent Sonic games.) You can say that you hate the recent Sonic games, you are not forced to like them.
If you're not forcing him to like them, why are you defending them? I mean, he has a right to voice his opinion, just as you.
But you CAN'T say that these games were only crap and Sonic Team has killed our blue beloved hedgehog!
Yes I can. Heroes and Shadow were crap.
Don't get me rong! I never said that I prefere the new game concept over than the classical game concept. I always wanted to see a 3D Sonic game with REALLY classical gameplay, since there even hasn't been a SINGLE one.
Shouldn't that be a sign, then? These aren't Sonic games because they're not based around the Sonic gameplay established early on. Therefore, they effectively HAVE killed Sonic. To make an analogy, let's say that instead of making Starfox Assualt, Nintendo decided to continue to make goofy, shitty, adventure games with the Starfox characters like Rare did. Now, the StarFox style would effectively be dead. The characters would live on, but without the fun gameplay that made their series interesting, there would be no reason for them, too, and thus no reason to celebrate. A similar thing could happen if say, Metroid Pinball was the only aspect of Metroid to ever be made again.
Similarly, the early Sonic gameplay of exploring expansive levels with branching paths and hidden surprises has died. And thus that aspect of Sonic has died, as well, to be replaced with "run from point A to point B across tiny strips of land suspended over bottomless pits that exist in areas that don't even make sense for them to be there such as deserts and cities". Therefore, Sonic is essentially dead.
But I also love all the recent Sonic games (except the Advance games)! And why I can enjoy these games, but you can't? It's because I look to them from a different angle than you and I don't compare them with the old games, because the newer games are DIFFERENT games, and they are enjoyable in their own way, even with their flaws! Please try to cognize this!
Even when judged against other 3-D platformers, such as Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, Jak and Daxter, the new games come up short. When you make an opinion about something, you have to compare it to other things. That's pretty much how people think in the world, ya know? We only know the sky is up because there's a down. Similarly, we know the recent games are shit, because there are games that are not.
Besides, did you REALLY want Sonic Team to make the same kind of game over and over again? Some 3D Sonic games with classical gameplay would be really nice, but don't you some time get TIRED of this?
You make a good point. In fact, I'm getting tired of having to run Sonic over magical tracks 1,000 miles in the air. Do you really want Sonic Team to make that over and over?
In my opinion, it is actually very good and necessary, that Sonic Team always tryed to make Sonic Games with almost completely other game features every time, while still keeping the main Sonic game concept in all of them.
Except they haven't. I already pointed out that having the same characters or setting is not the same as having the same game concept.
Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog weren't Sequels to the original Sonic games, concerning gameplay. But all of them have their own special features, which makes each of them unique, while still being kind of a Sonic game. Believe me, this is really necessery for the current generation.
Why? The constant complaint we hear from everybody is that Sonic Team is trying to fix what isn't broken. Sonic doesn't need guns or fishing minigames in the same way that Mario doesn't need a hose strapped to his back. A change in gameplay that has been equally reviled as Sonic. Outside of our little fan-community, and 12-year old boys, nobody cares about Sonic anymore. At least not with the same respect they care about Mario. He now carries as much clout as any other generic cartoon character. And that's a damn shame.
