Why do you reckon SEGA has done an about-face on Sonic's friends lately?

[Scritch the Cat]

Seems like only yesterday I was posting and responding in threads about how Sonic Team was too receptive to the crowd that hated "Sonic's shitty friends" and in probably the wrong way.  While most of the characters had stuck around, they'd been relegated to borderline-useless cheerleaders for Sonic and hardly ever playable.  Soon enough, people angry at those characters being not being playable than those who were angry at those who were angry at them being playable, even if their complaints seemingly fell on deaf ears. 

Then, within what seemed like only a few months, all of that changed.  It started with the other characters getting more dignity in the Sonic Frontiers story than they had in years, arguably in over a decade, then Origins cutscenes seeming to revise history to make Amy look more important to the games' stories than she actually was, which many of us rightly predicted was a prelude to her actually becoming playable.  Then came the announcement that Tails, Knuckles and Amy would be playable in free DLC for Sonic Frontiers, then Sonic Origins getting upgraded likewise to include playable Amy, then Sonic Superstars being announced with the same characters playable, and finally, to usher in this new era, two social media campaigns focuses on Sonic's friends, with a special attention to emphasizing the "Core Four".  So, what happened to cause this shift?

I personally think a number of factors causes this.

1) Let's go back to the sentiment that first spawned the backlash to Sonic's friends, because I was there to see it.  The presumed conflict between people who disliked a lot of the cast and people who liked them was actually the tip of a much bigger iceberg; the larger conflict was more between people raised on the SEGA Genesis era of Sonic and people raised on the SEGA Dreamcast era of Sonic, albeit mostly on the Nintendo Gamecube and then other platforms.  The  complaints about "Sonic's shitty friends" thus came mostly from people who wanted the series to go back to how it was on the SEGA Genesis.  So while SEGA eventually at least said they listened to those complaints and took the other playable characters out, what Sonic became after that was likely not what they had in mind.  Firstly, I don't remember anyone complaining about playing as Tails and Knuckles, except when those complaints were specifically about things like the crappy emerald radar in SA2, treasure hunting being arguably not an ideal objective for Knuckles, and Tails being locked in a mech.  Since then, a lot of pontification has occurred about whether being able to glide, climb, and fly breaks 3D levels too much to be worth it, but I don't remember any such complaints at the time.  Secondly, what the series became after stripping out the other playable characters was hardly more like the Genesis games.  The debut of solo-Sonic had him spend most of the time as a werewolf in a slow beat-em-up, earning the scorn of both Sonic fans and critics, though both have come around to Unleashed.  Sonic 4 Episode I managed to win critics over but not many old-school fans, and while no Sonic Team game released since has been that broken again, it was emblematic of a broader trend; the decision to see Classic Sonic more in terms of what it wasn't than what it was.

TLDR; a lot of people who were complaining about the newer games where Sonic had too many friends might as well have been asking for Classic Sonic to come back, and it didn't.

Until it did, courtesy of Sonic Mania...and it brought along some of Sonic's friends.  A conservative amount compared to the Dreamcast era, sure, but a lot compared to what we got in the Boost era, and thus Sonic Mania arguably put the final nail in the coffin of the myth Sonic Team had fostered since 06, that taking out every playable character that wasn't Sonic automatically equated to a return to the glory days.

2) The movies happened.  They arguably started on the wrong foot by putting Sonic into the tired-out family film scenario of a cartoon character being shoved into the mundane real-world; an approach that "works" in the sense that it's cheap enough to make that it has an easier time profiting, but still most children would prefer more animated aspects, and the same went for most of the adults who would choose to see a Sonic movie.  The film we got nailed home that no, you cannot distill the essence of this series down to just "Sonic fights Robotnik"; it's the world that got built around that scenario that gave Sonic its unique visual flair.  But when they got to the sequel hook that showed Tails, moviegoers around the world exploded in applause, videos of that went viral, and presumably the powers noticed.  

So then more info came out about the second movie, with not only Tails but Knuckles included, people got hyped, the movie came out and children and adult Sonic fans alike mostly loved it, and the sequel-hook that showed Shadow once again got people hyped and spawned viral videos.  In sum, adding characters and making them important got fans hyped...and made new ones.  As was the case after SEGA went third-party and scores of players suddenly got their first look at Sonic and what that first look was influenced their view of what Sonic should be, now lots of youngsters were introduced to Sonic in a new medium that made his friends out to be important.

Those are my theories.

What are yours?

[GX -The Spindash-]

I would argue that the "Boost" format of gameplay wouldn't have been seen as conducive to building around multiple characters. In the modern style, Sonic Team-developed Sonic games generally don't give the cast equivalent movesets, so from Unleashed through to Forces, unless you're going to give Tails and Knuckles the ability to boost (or separate gameplay styles like in Adventure), they don't fit with that philosophy of design.

I'm not saying this was the right or wrong philosophy to have, but if I'm thinking as a development studio managing a major brand, that's the kind of thought that might influence decisions, much in the same way that Miyamoto talked about character choice in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, that Peach would need to fly and Wario would need to fart. They obviously don't, and someone in his position could twist arms to get parody, but there can be a mindset of Character X is defined by Y and must be able to do Y to justify them being there.

[Diogenes]

It's just the pendulum swinging in the other direction. People have less reason to shout "just focus on Sonic" when they have been (to better or worse results) focusing on Sonic, and the people who want more characters have more reason to shout about it the longer they aren't getting them. Sega still has no idea what to do with Sonic so they're following the shouting.

[Sega DogTagz]

In addition to the movies, the TV shows also did a ton of heavy lifting in pushing the other characters into the foreground. Each of the side cast members were a major part of Boom, with several episodes devoted to each as individuals. Follow that up more recently with Prime, which shoves more variants into your eyeballs than should be legally permissible. In the advertising and the episodes themselves, the extended cast is front and center and that means a lot in terms of changing the narrative as to what the franchise as a whole is focused on. It keeps them relevant and ignored the calls to cast them to the sidelines - even when the games themselves were doing just that.

 

When it comes down to it, the same overwhelming appeal that draws people to Sonic is there with the extended cast as well. They all have eye pleasing designs. They all encapsulate something that is aimed directly at a signature market of the times in which they were created. (Shadow for the edgy kids, Amy for the Minnie Mouse crowd, Knux for the muscle heads, ect)  Which gives each of them a place in an all encompassing approach to attracting more fans. In terms of growing the brand, you were never going to keep them down for long. They add the diversity that Sonic and Eggy can't bring on their own. Tails can reach and appeal to people that Sonic can't. The same is true with Blaze and Espio and most everyone else.

I personally believe the whole "shitty friends" narrative was just a roundabout way for Sega to give themselves an easy runway toward quality control when it became abundantly clear that said quality control was the biggest issue facing the brand.

[Wraith]

The people who wanted Sonic's friends back never let up, never stopped complaining, while Classic fans got their fill with Sonic Mania and have been quiet since. It was already a popular position in the fandom back in 2011 when this whole thing started and it only grew in prominence since, as people who grew up with Dreamcast era Sonic reached their mid-twenties and took complete control of the conversation around the series. The Dreamcast era didn't enjoy nearly the same amount of the success that the classic era did, but there was a smaller group that got really attached to those games. That group would form the  Sonic fanbase as we know it.

Most of the modern Sonic games also just aren't very good, so a lot of people who felt strongly about a singular focus on Sonic improving the games were proven wrong again and again by Sonic Team themselves. Colors and Generations showed signs of life for sure, but on either side of those games you have Secret Rings, Black Knight, Sonic 4, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic Forces. It was reasonable to believe cutting down on cast bloat and the feature creep that came with that would make the games better, but that was only true maybe a third of the time. Even in those cases it wasn't the dramatic improvement for the IP people actually wanted when we talk about the good old days. The people that loved Colors and Generations the most were already Sonic fans. They weren't the genre defining, head turning classics that people associated with Classic Sonic iconography.

That only came with Sonic Mania. A game with 5 playable characters in it. Everyone was forced to acknowledge that the argument was more nuanced than that at that point.

Forces and Frontiers were such obvious hail marries to Dreamcast kids that I'm surprised it took this long, to be honest. Classic Sonic audience had dried up and Boom had been a failure as far as establishing a new audience for the brand. The films were a surprise hit, but before then there was no other audience to listen to.

[CrownSlayer’s Shadow]

Long story short—time flew and things have changed.

It’s been gradual but noticeable, and over time the fandom has come to further learn the actual problems instead of scapegoating something else that, while connected to the problem, weren’t the actual faults such as the extended Sonic cast.

That and we have a whole new generation of fans that *gasp* like these characters! Weird, huh?

Add onto what’s already been said, and yeah, it’s a pleasant surprise to come and realize how much things have changed from the dark ages in terms of perception of these characters.

[Phoenix]

Sonic Team could not live with their failure. And where did that lead them? Back to Sonic's friends.

But seriously, I've always been surprised by the lessons companies take. Sonic 06 did badly? Must've been because of Sonic's friends, and not, you know... the rushed released, the bugs, the anti player mechanics, etc.

[LongcrierCat]

The way I see it is that it's a good step in the right direction after Sega course overcorrection from toxic Game Criticism that was shaped more on the bias that Sonic had a rough transition to 3D after Sega lost the Console Wars but Sonic was still their best seller in most markets that weren't Japan. That whole "rough transition" talk was a huge course of videogame history revisionism I feel too. I know I didn't hallucinate most major game critics doting on the Sonic Adventure games before the Dreamcast went under. Sonic had an excellent transition, thank you very much.

And you know how Sega of Japan and Sega West fight in the company's history.

So a lot of the Games Criticism Scene used to complain about Sonic's friends, and now after games where Sonic was the main playable dude have met either great or mixed reception now they have genuine need to reconsider what it is about their quality control that's missing while they fix the overcorrection and go back to a healthy course of correction and reintroduce what fans really do love about the series.

The wide assortment of story themes, gameplay styles all emphasized on how each friend does their own thing in their own speedy way, and reintroducing all of that back into the Sonic gameplay formula.

Sonic Prime is also showing that not only are they considering Sonic's friends, but considering the idea of going Spider-Verse on the series. If this opens the door for fans of non game Sonic stories to finally be thrown some meat their way after being tossed aside by the Canon Police of the Sonic Society, then we're in for a much brighter future for the series overall as we tell Toxic Destructive Criticisms of the series to take a hike for the actually helpful Constructive Criticism.

And they have a lot more will to want to ensure Sonic's quality control now due to the fact that Frontiers changed the series history forever now that we finally have the first Sonic game to actually be successful in Japan.

Sega of Japan cares to listen to Constructive Criticism over Toxic Criticism and overcorrection now.

And that's much more healthy for the series direction.

[Scritch the Cat]

On 9/18/2023 at 3:08 PM, Sega DogTagz said:

When it comes down to it, the same overwhelming appeal that draws people to Sonic is there with the extended cast as well. They all have eye pleasing designs. They all encapsulate something that is aimed directly at a signature market of the times in which they were created. (Shadow for the edgy kids, Amy for the Minnie Mouse crowd, Knux for the muscle heads, ect)  Which gives each of them a place in an all encompassing approach to attracting more fans. In terms of growing the brand, you were never going to keep them down for long. They add the diversity that Sonic and Eggy can't bring on their own. Tails can reach and appeal to people that Sonic can't. The same is true with Blaze and Espio and most everyone else.

 

This reminds me of last time the extended cast really took off in the brand, which was in the early 2000s.  It might've been completely by accident, but I'd argue they were lucky that the series had been expanding its roster leading up to the time they went third-party.  SEGA in the 1990s had marketed itself to a large degree as the "cool kids club", something not everyone would be hardcore enough for but you best hope you were or else you'd be that dork who got lambasted on the playground as much as SEGA lambasted Nintendo in their ads, and Sonic himself inevitably became the face of that, on at least some level.  That elitist attitude obviously wasn't going to fly after SEGA gave up on console manufacturing, but that the Sonic series had evolved into one with "something for everyone" helped their transition a lot.  The Sonic series having all sorts of characters in it helped create the impression that all sorts of players were welcome, too, so it's not surprising that Sonic's first simultaneous multi-console release went even further with the multiple characters.  So yeah, multiple characters definitely helped expand the brand, even if at a cost.

On 9/18/2023 at 3:08 PM, Sega DogTagz said:

I personally believe the whole "shitty friends" narrative was just a roundabout way for Sega to give themselves an easy runway toward quality control when it became abundantly clear that said quality control was the biggest issue facing the brand.

Well, it didn't start that way but SEGA certainly exploited it as such.

On 9/18/2023 at 3:09 PM, Wraith said:

The people who wanted Sonic's friends back never let up, never stopped complaining, while Classic fans got their fill with Sonic Mania and have been quiet since. It was already a popular position in the fandom back in 2011 when this whole thing started and it only grew in prominence since, as people who grew up with Dreamcast era Sonic reached their mid-twenties and took complete control of the conversation around the series. The Dreamcast era didn't enjoy nearly the same amount of the success that the classic era did, but there was a smaller group that got really attached to those games. That group would form the  Sonic fanbase as we know it.

 Mostly correct, except I'm not sure it was smaller, depending on how you define eras.  The "Dreamcast" era was much less successful than the Genesis era in that critics were less enthusiastic towards it, and eventually downright hostile, but going multi-console quite possibly brought in a lot more players to the Sonic series than it ever could have hoped for when it was confined to one company's consoles.

On 9/18/2023 at 3:09 PM, Wraith said:

Most of the modern Sonic games also just aren't very good, so a lot of people who felt strongly about a singular focus on Sonic improving the games were proven wrong again and again by Sonic Team themselves. Colors and Generations showed signs of life for sure, but on either side of those games you have Secret Rings, Black Knight, Sonic 4, Sonic Lost World, and Sonic Forces. It was reasonable to believe cutting down on cast bloat and the feature creep that came with that would make the games better, but that was only true maybe a third of the time. Even in those cases it wasn't the dramatic improvement for the IP people actually wanted when we talk about the good old days. The people that loved Colors and Generations the most were already Sonic fans. They weren't the genre defining, head turning classics that people associated with Classic Sonic iconography.

I think back when people were pushing the "Sonic's shitty friends" bit, they weren't as cognizant of what actually made Sonic Team tick.  Back then, a lot of people just assumed that Sonic Team was just spitballing a bunch of ideas and only a third of them happened to be well-suited to the Sonic series.  That in itself would be pretty shameful, but it also made people think that at least it would be pretty easy to fix, just by taking out the ideas that didn't work and keeping the ones that did.  What people weren't aware of back then, but were largely forced to acknowledge the moment they saw the Werehog, is that those slower-paced segments of this series marketed around speed were not just stupid ideas they accidentally had; they were deliberately conceived because Sonic Team just plain refuses to accept the short game length that would inevitably result from playing an entire game going fast.  Not only did that make it clear that this problematic mindset wasn't really innately linked to playable characters other than Sonic, but it made people realize it's actually been in the Sonic series from the very start. 

The more that Modern Sonic alienated people, the more that Classic Sonic also became an acceptable target for game critics, and while Sonic fans were not about to forgive IGN saying Sonic was never good, even many fans have gotten a bit less rose-tinted.  For example, I remember a time when Labyrinth Zone was regarded somewhat like Judge Doom; yes, it traumatized people as children but they still remembered it fondly and saw it as a vital part of the work containing it.  That has changed; today the most common opinion of Labyrinth Zone seems to be that it was the "Big the Cat" of its time, something completely antithetical the intended appeal of the game containing it, which should never have been in the game and was only there to pad it out.  You'll even hear more extreme positions that Green Hill Zone is the only good level in the first game, conveniently the first level as a way to mislead consumers.

So just as this paradoxical attitude towards speed has always been present, it has never really left.  Some games display it more and some games display it less, some levels display it more and some levels display it less, but it never really goes away, and with Sonic Frontiers it's back in full force.  Not only does it gatekeep Sonic's speed in a whole host of ways (though the most egregious of those was alleviated in Update 2), but it also throws in a bunch of combat, puzzles, and shooter minigames.  It even has a fishing minigame featuring Big the Cat.  In short, it was the Sonic Adventure approach to gameplay in absolutely every regard except having multiple playable characters, which is why I predicted some months in advance that this would be the game that would bring other playable characters back, or at least the structure of the future game that would.  Lo and behold, it's the former, and the way things are going, looks to be the latter, too.

On 9/19/2023 at 6:19 PM, Phoenix said:

Sonic Team could not live with their failure. And where did that lead them? Back to Sonic's friends.

But seriously, I've always been surprised by the lessons companies take. Sonic 06 did badly? Must've been because of Sonic's friends, and not, you know... the rushed released, the bugs, the anti player mechanics, etc.

Had they finished 06, then there would still probably be some people who objected to playing as Silver and Omega, as they just aren't built for what quintessential Sonic play is, but others would probably be in the clear.  Likewise, there'd still be issues with the realistic humans, the arguably pretentious story, and of course, the romance bit.  But all of those on their own would have just made for a game that wouldn't necessarily age well, as opposed to this reality where it remained talked about enthusiastically for well over a decade, for all the wrong reasons.  Thus, in that alternate reality, the series would not necessarily have stayed in the mores of the Adventure era, but the change would likely have been more evolutionary than reactionary.

[Wraith]

7 hours ago, Scritch the Cat said:

 

 

 Mostly correct, except I'm not sure it was smaller, depending on how you define eras.  The "Dreamcast" era was much less successful than the Genesis era in that critics were less enthusiastic towards it, and eventually downright hostile, but going multi-console quite possibly brought in a lot more players to the Sonic series than it ever could have hoped for when it was confined to one company's consoles.
 

Statistically it did not. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were still the best selling games in the series even on the genesis.
 

Quote

I think back when people were pushing the "Sonic's shitty friends" bit, they weren't as cognizant of what actually made Sonic Team tick.  Back then, a lot of people just assumed that Sonic Team was just spitballing a bunch of ideas and only a third of them happened to be well-suited to the Sonic series.  That in itself would be pretty shameful, but it also made people think that at least it would be pretty easy to fix, just by taking out the ideas that didn't work and keeping the ones that did.  What people weren't aware of back then, but were largely forced to acknowledge the moment they saw the Werehog, is that those slower-paced segments of this series marketed around speed were not just stupid ideas they accidentally had; they were deliberately conceived because Sonic Team just plain refuses to accept the short game length that would inevitably result from playing an entire game going fast.  Not only did that make it clear that this problematic mindset wasn't really innately linked to playable characters other than Sonic, but it made people realize it's actually been in the Sonic series from the very start. 

The more that Modern Sonic alienated people, the more that Classic Sonic also became an acceptable target for game critics, and while Sonic fans were not about to forgive IGN saying Sonic was never good, even many fans have gotten a bit less rose-tinted.  For example, I remember a time when Labyrinth Zone was regarded somewhat like Judge Doom; yes, it traumatized people as children but they still remembered it fondly and saw it as a vital part of the work containing it.  That has changed; today the most common opinion of Labyrinth Zone seems to be that it was the "Big the Cat" of its time, something completely antithetical the intended appeal of the game containing it, which should never have been in the game and was only there to pad it out.  You'll even hear more extreme positions that Green Hill Zone is the only good level in the first game, conveniently the first level as a way to mislead consumers.

So just as this paradoxical attitude towards speed has always been present, it has never really left.  Some games display it more and some games display it less, some levels display it more and some levels display it less, but it never really goes away, and with Sonic Frontiers it's back in full force.  Not only does it gatekeep Sonic's speed in a whole host of ways (though the most egregious of those was alleviated in Update 2), but it also throws in a bunch of combat, puzzles, and shooter minigames.  It even has a fishing minigame featuring Big the Cat.  In short, it was the Sonic Adventure approach to gameplay in absolutely every regard except having multiple playable characters, which is why I predicted some months in advance that this would be the game that would bring other playable characters back, or at least the structure of the future game that would.  Lo and behold, it's the former, and the way things are going, looks to be the latter, too.

Had they finished 06, then there would still probably be some people who objected to playing as Silver and Omega, as they just aren't built for what quintessential Sonic play is, but others would probably be in the clear.  Likewise, there'd still be issues with the realistic humans, the arguably pretentious story, and of course, the romance bit.  But all of those on their own would have just made for a game that wouldn't necessarily age well, as opposed to this reality where it remained talked about enthusiastically for well over a decade, for all the wrong reasons.  Thus, in that alternate reality, the series would not necessarily have stayed in the mores of the Adventure era, but the change would likely have been more evolutionary than reactionary.

I have never seen anyone compare the more controversial levels of the classics to the style shifts in the dreamcast games. Not one time.

Sonic games aren't short because "he goes fast." They're short because they're designed in the style of arcade games that are meant to be played and replayed.  Sega only decided that that was an issue that could only be corrected by different gameplay styles and minigames after the series had gone 3D. Before that there wasn't any padding, just different types of levels that put players in many varied situations to keep them on their toes. Maybe Sonic 1 strayed a bit too far from it's comfort zone with Labrynth, but to say it's comparable to genre roulette is an insane take. One that absolves Sonic Adventure of accountability for it's missteps in a way I find as typical as it is exhausting for 3D Sonic fandom.
 

[Scritch the Cat]

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

Sonic games aren't short because "he goes fast." They're short because they're designed in the style of arcade games that are meant to be played and replayed.  Sega only decided that that was an issue that could only be corrected by different gameplay styles and minigames after the series had gone 3D. Before that there wasn't any padding, just different types of levels that put players in many varied situations to keep them on their toes. Maybe Sonic 1 strayed a bit too far from it's comfort zone with Labrynth, but to say it's comparable to genre roulette is an insane take. One that absolves Sonic Adventure of accountability for it's missteps in a way I find as typical as it is exhausting for 3D Sonic fandom.

 

Sonic games are short because designing levels that are large enough to take a fast character any appreciable length of time is not quick or easy, not to mention the added issue of those levels needing vertical depth to facilitate alternate paths.  This is, in fact, a feature of SEGA's thinking that a disgruntled employee leaked a bit before the time of Unleashed, warning people about the Werehog.  I would agree that comparing Labyrinth Zone to Big the Cat is too big a stretch, since at least Labyrinth Zone is still a platformer, but for better or worse, I would compare the slower Sonic 1 levels to Amy's levels in Sonic Adventure and the mech stages in Sonic Adventure 2.  Personally I think Marble Zone is a lot worse than Labyrinth Zone, but both go pretty hard against what was supposed to be appealing about Sonic.  Also, I consider aspects of classic Sonic design that practically demand replay, such as ambushes and purposefully inefficient means of entering special stages, to be forms of padding in themselves, so saying a game is "meant to be played and replayed" does not negate my point.  Especially not when you factor in eventual extremes of that mindset like Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, which literally force you to replay the game multiple times to see the true ending. 

I've never been shy in admitting that I'd far rather play a Sonic game that pads itself out with slower alternate play styles than one that doesn't have a save feature and forces people back to the beginning on Game Overs.  I don't speak for everyone, but the fact that more and more gamers were feeling like myself is a big part of why Sonic Team was left scrambling for padding in the Modern era; the old expectations they had designed for had essentially been killed by technological progress and the expectations of convenience that brought.

[Kaotic Kanine]

I personally believe that SEGA has always liked the cast and wanted to make use of them. Or at least, SEGA of Japan always wanted to make use of the non-main characters, what with Sonic Channel having always featured artwork and comics of the whole cast (including the Babylon Rogues and Marine), and the wholly Japanese-made Sonic Runners bringing back Mephiles of all characters. Not sure about SEGA of America, but I can assume that the only characters they didn't like to use were Big the Cat and Cream the Rabbit, strictly due to their respective personalities/archetypes having more Japanese appeal (though Big certainly turned that around by now).

But of course, 2006 saw almost the entire Sonic fandom and even the gaming community in the West start calling the characters "Sonic's shitty friends" and blaming them for everything going wrong with the franchise at the time. Both branches of SEGA had to give the cast a break after that, and no doubt the use of the characters was further discouraged with fans making artwork of Classic Sonic being horrified with having to associate with his future friends, and certain reviewers docking points off of Generations for daring to include the cast. Like, you can't get a clearer message about how undesired the characters were than that nonsense. So, the main series games would only focus on Sonic, Tails, and Eggman while the rest of the cast could only be included in multiplayer spin-offs, and only because multiplayer spin-offs require additional characters to fill out the roster.

Since then, though, attitudes towards the extended cast began to improve due to varying factors. Unleashed and Lost World effectively silenced the fans and critics who blamed the friends for "alternate gameplay" since both games were strictly Sonic only, with only two/three other characters involved in the plot (but not even by much), yet ended up having differing gameplay anyway. And indeed, the fact that the franchise as a whole wasn't actually improving with the complete focus on Sonic, Tails, and Eggman further proved that the extended cast were never really "everything wrong" with the franchise. Fans who complained about the cast simply because they preferred the Classic Era with its minimalistic cast were appeased with Mania. And of course, the fans who were children in the 2000's grew up and became the dominant voice in the fandom; bringing up how much they love and miss the characters that used to be major players in the franchise, and pointing out those characters' merits that were previously ignored. It also helps that the type of gaming journalists who contributed the most to the "Sonic's shitty friends" shit aren't taken seriously anymore, with stuff like "Too much water", "Sonic was never good", and the "Cuphead tutorial level" ruining much of their credibility.

The hatred for the whole Sonic cast is practically dead and current fans are begging for them to return, so SEGA is more than happy to oblige. Especially SEGA of Japan for the reason I said in the first paragraph.