Well a lot of people think if Sega is so obsessed with shoving all these characters into Sonic games, to take the path of the Mario series and make ensemble spinoff games so fans can play as characters they want to. You don't see Daisy, Birdo and Waluigi being shoved into main games though a lot of Mario fans, myself included wished that NSMBWii had had more choices in the four player aspect as opposed to just two toads. Though according to Miyamoto he could've added Daisy or Wario but it would've delayed the game because they would've had to design whole new character models.
I do recall fans whining about lack of friends in Unleashed but I make the point of what would Shadow and Knuckles have contributed to Unleashed's story? Unleashed was about Sonic trying to stop Eggman by restoring the Chaos Emeralds so that he could put the world back together, change back to normal and help Chip find his memory. Tails was there to help Sonic fly from one country to another (and for the stupid flying mini games in the 360/PS3 version).
The biggest problem the Sonic series had from Sonic Adventure was trying to shoehorn every character under the sun into the games which eventually came to a head in the clusterf--- known as Sonic06. In trying to incorporate so many characters and gameplay elements, nothing was polished. While half of Unleashed was slow and clunky, at least the game was able to focus on two types of gameplay thus having a more polished experience.
This is a major problem with a lot of modern games. Devs try to lump too many gameplay aspects into one game and for some, it can be a turn off or confusing. Sonic doesn't need RPG leveling up systems, nor does he need to do Zelda-esque questing. Instead of using Sonic for insane experiementation, they should focus on his high speed platforming and give the friends their own spinoffs. Make another Tails Adventure or another Knuckles Chaotix.
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