Well, I admit I overreacted, I already new this when I was writing that stuff, but overreacting is kind of in my blood. :P
See, I know that Myamoto is not a terrible guy and that he deserves a lot of recognition, but I still believe he is overworshiped. And he definately isn't actively or intensionally ruining Sonic, but look what is happening: Sonic and Mario have always been big rivals. Even nowadays they get compared to eachother alot. In the early days both had good reputations. Now, Mario games are praised as if they where gifts from heaven, same goes to Zelda, Smash Bross and pretty much any other game developed by Nintendo, hell even NINTENDOGS, while Sonic is more and more smashed into the ground. The number of Sonic Haters who don't even know much about Sonic has been growing in recent times. Now, I'm not saing Mario games are bad and Sonic games are perfect. Mario games are definately very good games, otherwise they couldn't become this popular. However, as someone who knows near to all Sonic games very well and has also tried out alot of Mario games, both old and new, I just believe what is going on here is totally unfair. Why people bitch and nit-pick about Sonic so much is a long descussion for itself, which I wish to spare at this point. But the thing is, nowadays most people have learned to love bitching about Sonic without even realizing how unique Sonic games really are and how many things are soooooooooo cool about Sonic. All they are able to see are the flaws and thats because that is the only thing "Professional Reviewers" tell them! Most people just blindly follow reviews and sometimes even forget what they liked or didn't like about a game in the first place. On the other hand, no "Professional Reviewer" even DARES to really critisize any work of Myamoto! So what do you think happens? Yes: Most people start/continue to worship games developed by Nintendo, even stupid sport-spinoffs by Mario. I mean really, how the hell can a game like Mario Golf get a better average score than Sonic Adventure 2 Battle?! As time goes by, more and more people start to kiss Nintendo's ass, because Nintendo, with Myamoto on the front, has played a very big role in the games industry, both hardware-wise and software-wise. Even Sonic is here because Mario started it all. It's Nintendo's history that makes it such a great company. So, what is wrong with Nintedo? Nothing, acactually! It's just that the number of ass-kissers has grown so much, that rarely someone even dares to critisise what Nintendo, with Myamoto at the front, does. So, what happens to games that are considered rivals for Nintendo games? They are usually disrespected by the ass-kissers. Yes, I am talking about Sonic here! I mean look at this: There are a lot of hardcore Sonic Fans who also like Mario. But, compared to that, howmany hardcore Mario Fans you can think of who actually really now much about Sonic? Sonic games are disrespected without even really being known! But Sega doesn't seem to realize what the actual problem is. What they see is that Myamoto is worshiped and Sonic is apparently dying. So, what they do is go Myamoto-Style! They decide to feature Sonic in a shitty Sports game and give the project to Myamoto to "get sure that nothing gets messed up". After all, Myamoto is god, so what could go wrong?
It is right that Myamoto hasn't actively or intensionally ruined Sonic, but I hope now you can undersand why I partly make him responsible for what is happening to Sonic in the moment. And my very biggest fear is that Sonic gets too much influenced from Myamoto-games, especially after M&S in OG, and if that really happens, then there can be no one who I can ever hate more than Myamoto! It's not something that has already happened, so, as I said, I don't really hate him and saing that I want to kill him was an intensional exaggeration which wasn't meant seriously. But all what is happening now to Sonic is just giving me the creeps and with Sonic starring beside Mario in a game directed by Myamoto, whos style of game I absolutely don't like, I just fear that my biggest fears could come true in the near future!
Well, I usually don't like games which are easy to play for everyone, since these games are just usually some shallow party games. I prefer hardcore games which require a lot of skill and gaming experience. I am not saying that it is a bad thing to have more family friendly games. In contrary, I am all for it to make more and more people interested in Video games and I support Myamoto for doing this. And as you said, M&S in OG is just a sports game, so it doesn't need to be hardcore. But my problem is that Sonic is in it! I just hate to see Sonic in a sports game! All these years I've been happy to play real Sonic games while Mario was making loads and loads of Spinoffs. Now, it's like Sonic going on his knees in front of stupid Mario-sport-spinoffs! This is what pisses me off most about this game!
So, what I meant with "I don't want Sonic to become family friendly" was that I want Sonic to stay hardcore. Sure, a lot of kids like Sonic, because he is cool, but how many of them have actually beaten a Sonic game? The majority of Sonic gamers are teenagers who are well experienced with video games; not children; not parents.
EggFL, you have writen so much stuff and I wished I could reply to all of that, but I have already been writing for so long already myself and I should go to bed now! :)