I've said this before the catch 22 of gaming is "innovation without alienation" if a series doesn't innovate, it stagnates, but if it changes too much it risks alienating its audience. Yes people should be open to new ideas but in the end you have an easier time making water not be wet. Sonic tired all sorts of "innovations:" playable friends, questing, weapons, slower beat em up gameplay and we saw how well those resonated with audiences.
Let's face it, aside from things like the homing attack and boosting the only true innovation that people weren't alienated by was Colors powers. Sonic has to be able to run fast and do platforming or it's not Sonic. Look at Banjo. Rare tried to "innovate" by essentially removing all his signature moves and making him build cars, ever nearly everyone hated it because it wasn't a Banjo game, it was Banjo copy/pasted into some other game. Black Knight might have been different but it bombed. Nobody wanted to play Sonic with a sword. Remember when Nintendo tried to give Mario a weapon in the form of a water pack and drastically change the gameplay? Sure the game still sold a million but a majority of folks looked at it and said "this isn't Mario" hence why people's fondest memories of that game were the floating areas where Mario was robbed of his water pack.
But then there are people who think the abilities in Colors were too "gimmicky" and would rather the series just repeat Generations formula which people will get tired of but then Pokemon has made the same game year after year with only added critters and minor changes and it still sells a buttload with each installment.
So it comes down to the what the consumer market demands.
Same old thing=$$$ New and innovative things= no sale
It sucks I know and there's nothing you can do about it. I've ranted numerous times about how consumers buy the same old same FPS sequels and EA roster updates while new and innovative games like Psychonauts, Okami, etc. tank this is why game companies are too afraid to try new IPs. The same applies to movies and a lot of media.
Phillip Fry said it best: "New things make people scared and smart things make people feel dumb. People want to see the same thing over and over again." But bear in mind I'm not singling out induviduals quoting another character "A person is smart. People are dumb and panicky." This is why Hollywood is wasting time and money adapting every board game and toy line into film and cranking out endless sequels as opposed to trying new and unique ideas.
Sorry phc, don't expect to see any major innovations in Sonic now. Sega tried that for a while, people didn't buy it.
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