In Response to all the negative comments...

have a feeling that if this was a Mario game there wouldn't be nearly as much cynicism. The press, and fanboys, would probably call the decision inspired, innovative, a great reinvention, or some other marketing buzzword.

Which is quite unfair seeing as there has only one Game that reviewers said was poor - Sonic 06 and one game that they said was mediocore-Shadow the Hedgehog. The rest of the Sonic games have been competent to outstanding!