The Sonic series could be handled far better...

I don't know about you but I personally can't say I'm fully down with how this much-loved franchise has been handled over the past four years. Don't get me wrong, I'm very, very passionate about the Sonic series and always have been but lately it's just been underwhelming.

I've consistently held the view lately that the direction the game series has taken is not allowing the games to be what they could potentially be and this current direction in no way monopolizes on the potential the series holds as a whole on multiple tangents. The games can be so much more than what they currently are and have proven that they have been so much more than what we're currently getting or to be more specific - What we've been getting for the last 4 years.

It's as if the series is taking 2 steps forward and then 4 steps backward.

The characters other than Sonic are being sidelined, Wisp forms shunting them sideways gameplay-wise because they fill-in for their abilities. They don't factor into the games to any real degree and are delegated to acting like generic cheerleaders (Everyone who isn't Sonic sans villains obviously) or walking toolkits who get sidelined (Tails). I'm not the only one who found it downright ridiculous how Generations was intended to be a 20 year celebration of this series yet treats the cast with such irrelevance? They don't even interact with Sonic that meaningfully! I mean he doesn't even reply to their speeches when they are rescued. 

Sonic's character has taken a huge step backwards after games like the Storybooks and Unleashed, being in no way well-utilized as a character and not being given any room for development or an interesting portrayal because he's being shoehorned into inhibiting roles that don't monopolize on the plethora of traits he has and which flanderize him into a character who is fixated on talking smack and basting about his awesomeness to a truly obnoxious degree when he used to treat it like it was obvious and not something to flaunt in such a way. However, Lost World healed the damage to an extent. Eggman has been an ineffective villain and all pomp regarding his final boss status is utterly undermined by the fact that he's never treated as the threat that he is, his villainy is never worked up to in the narrative in any decent manner and because the final bosses lately suck royal donkey balls anyway. Again, like with Sonic, Lost World undid the damage to an extent.

The feeling that I'm playing in, that I'm part of a living, breathing virtual world packed with loving intricate detail a 'la Adventure series and Unleashed is now practically non-existent. Instead we get a generic map screen or a white void with a few disjointed levels dumped into it with no real grace to it at all. In SLW, the game even takes place on the titular Lost Hex and yet absolutely no gravity is given to the nature of this world. Which makes me bleedin' wonder why the game was titled 'Lost World' in the first place when no focus is put upon why it's "lost"

The storylines have been completely threadbare and lack satisfying conclusions, Generations' story being labeled even as a narrative being a huge stretch because like it's world, it's practically non-existent. With other games, I had the distinct impression that I was working towards something due to the way the story progresses, that there was characters with depth and whose predicaments I was intrigued by (Shahra, Chip, Merlina) and they held my attention despite some of the issues these narratives still had. Can't say that about some recent stories because they take their tones far too seriously and are clearly not focused on actually telling a cohesive story and because the characters are just mostly 1-bit versions of their former selves who aren't utilized in any truly creative way or are simply not interesting at all/Not developed at all. Again, SLW improved upon this but is still a missed opportunity.

The series keeps experimenting and only coming-out with half-baked and/or unrealized gimmicks like Wisps, Classic Sonic and Parkour instead of taking one or two very solid ideas to base a game around and focusing upon it.

I have mentioned SLW as making leaps in certain regards and I feel that it is a deeply interesting game but as a particularly good direction? I'm more of the mind that it isn't and whatsmore it's only a single game. 

And Sonic Boom? Yeah...I'm not getting good vibes truth be told. Alarm bells rang with Knuckles' completely needless redesign and the premise of the show as has been described. I may very well get proven wrong however and I would love to see Boom be something special but I'm not motivated to get my hopes up about it.