>>538115849
Hard disagree. Classic Sonic was a direct response to Iizuka, Maekawa, and Nakamura taking over. SA2 is when the franchise split de facto, Heroes was transitory, and 06 cemented it.

This is why I argue >>538116084 that Blaze could be added to classic without any fuss. Adventure and Rush were written and directed by Nishiyama and followed up S3&K. Nishiyama directed the Advance games which were a continuation from Pocket Adventure which was the first game to use the modern designs. Those titles were made by Dimps and unaffected by the mainline games.

>>538115717
>>538116517
Iizuka ruined the franchise with his edgy hedgy and when he retires we'll suffer through Nakamura and his edgy hedgy and when *he* retires maybe we can finally return to the games being fun again.