User blog comment:Phantom R/Next Sonic Game: Details (Nintendo helping?)/@comment-115265-20111105113949/@comment-1669199-20111105115000

Because, according to many a hardcore/"true Sonic fan", the other characters, if they're playable, "steal Sonic's spotlight" and "get in the way" instead of flushing out the game universe, arguements which were adopted after Shadow's game was announced. It doesn't matter whether or not the other characters play well at all, and most of these people want every single support/main characters besides Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman gone, since according to them they're all apparently crappy. People just want to force-feed Genesis-style gameplays on everybody.