This is sure to bring out either chuckles or frowns from anyone old enough to remember the console wars of the 1990s: the design of Sonic's recent titles has been altered to appeal to Nintendo fans.
Sonic Team's Takashi Iizuka tells IGN: "From a general game design perspective, in recent years we've been able to introduce Sonic to new fans, a lot of the Nintendo/Mario fans, and because of that, we've made changes to the design, and we've designed things in Sonic Colours that we think will really appeal to people who are unfamiliar with the Sonic brand and the Sonic gameplay."
"So from that perspective we hope that fans of Mario will really be able to enjoy playing as Sonic in Sonic Colours."
Well...it's an explanation, if not an excuse.
Sonic Team Talks Sonic Colours [IGN, via Gamasutra]