Pretty much true. Look at the accurate history of the mainstream games.
1991-1994: Sonic debuts on various SEGA consoles and becomes a star.
1995-1997: Sonic goes on a partial yet very notable hiatus, particularly after Sonic Xtreme is cancelled and no full 3D game of the platformer genre is released on the SEGA SATURN.
1998/1999: Sonic Adventure 1 is released as a launch title on the SEGA DREAMCAST and is met with great financial and critical success, soon becoming the console's best selling game.
2001: Sonic Adventure 2 is released. Is a critical success as was its predecessor. Due to being released after SEGA announced that they were dropping out of the Hardware Business, it didn't sell as much as it could have on its original platform.
2002-2003: Ports are released, obviously for money. Sonic Adventure 2's port's, Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, criticism was particularly strange, for it was released very shortly after the original, and many reviewers suddenly start picking out the flaws. Sonic Adventure 1's port, Sonic Adventure DeluXe: Director's Cut, is mainly criticized for not fixing what some thought were problems.
2003/2004: Sonic Heroes is released to a passable critical reception and with huge financial success. Ironically, the game was highly mixed with many others in the gaming community.
2005: Shadow The Hedgehog is released and has a very underwhelming critical reception. It still had loyal fans and sold well. With the release of this game, the critical reception of Sonic Games would begin to drop.
2006: Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) is released and despite huge hype and anticipation for the game, is heavily rushed and is not met with sucess with critics as well with many others in the gaming community. The game still sells well.
2007: A year full of spin-offs for Sonic. The closest to a mainstream game was Sonic and the Secret Rings which is considerably better received than the last game.
2008/2009: Sonic Unleashed/Sonic World Adventure is announced to high anticipation and hype. Unfortunately, the game surprisingly performs barely average for the most part, with some reviews significantly low. However, many have expressed the theory that there was a lot of bias involved with the reviews. The game is wellreceived by the fandom and is a financial success.
2010: Sonic The Hedgehog 4 is to be released, being a complete 2D title, and has garnered alot of hype and anticipation.
Now, let's look at the overall quality in Sonic's recent games. The ports weren't as wellreceived as the original versions.
Sonic Heroes was wellreceived critically but isn't as successful in the overall and general opinion. The game still sold well. Now, what's strange about Sonic Heroes' review is how multiple reviewers went on to say how Sonic's transition to 3D was rough and even began to insult Sonic's 3D games in general, even though everybody was demanding for a 3D Sonic Game years earlier and how Sonic's earlier 3D adventures were very wellreceived. It should be noted that these reviewers were different and particularly OBVIOUS haters of SEGA. Don't you find it strange how the games were wellreceived on a SEGA platform, but aren't as on Nintendo platform?
Shadow The Hedgehog is then released. Contrary to what many have said, the drop of quality began with the game. Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) was also announced as Sonic's foray into the next generation and was met with particularly high hype and anticipation. The critical reception when it was released, though, was something else. The game was simply rushed.
Sonic and the Secret Rings was better received than Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) in the critic mind, it didn't do much to raise the general opinion of Sonic Games.
Sonic Unleashed/Sonic World Adventure had great hype and anticipation as it was said to be a return to form... but has a barely mixed critical reception. Many fans went on to say how there was so much bias in the reviews... because the game seriously was not like what most of the reviewers said.
The thing is though, why are there so many complaints about Sonic's recent games? I have yet to see why people insult Sonic Heroes. What was the general criticizm of the game? The game overall did play similar to the Adventure with a few added elements and flaws, such as the team element and lack of polish in Sonic Heroes. Shadow The Hedgehog lacked even more polish, but that game did have similarities to previous Sonic Games. Why was Shadow The Hedgehog so complained about? It had weapons which were a very underappreciated feature and most of the criticizm there was the idea of Shadow, the "Ultimate LifeForm" even needing weapons. That's an unfair criticizm because many comicbook characters with very similar titles as Shadow use weapons. Really, weapons shouldn't usually make you look weaker. They are a tool.
Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)'s reception was understandable, mainly because it was rushed. Sonic World Adventure/Sonic Unleashed was seriously met with bias. The game played VERY similar to the Sonic Adventure Games, which were wellreceived. It had the Werehog which many see as a gimmick and is criticized, but the Adventure games were full of gimmicks and had the most out of any Sonic game. And don't insult the Adventure games, BECAUSE THOSE WERE THE BEST EVER.
I have yet to see why Sonic Unleashed was so criticized. As for Project Needlemouse, meh. I was skeptical of it from the start and the gameplay video lowered my expectations.
In short, please tell me the problem of recent Sonic games.
