Sega listened to fans and decided to give them exactly what they wanted -- a new 2D Sonic game that focuses only on Sonic and doesn't deviate into other type of gameplay. Fans found reasons to decide why the game wasn't what they wanted before the game came out and then let those expectations fester in their heads for months and then finally got the game and confirmed their own fears. (I'm writing this from the future, btw.) There's only one thing Sega can do after this -- Give the Fan base a game consisting entirely of things they vehemently DO NOT want.

**MAIN CHARACTERS AND GAMEPLAY STYLES
So I figure the main characters of Sonic 5 would be Sonic, Elise, Shadow, and a re-tooled and edgier version of Big the Cat.

-- Sonic would only be playable in one level and it would be modeled after an "Adventure Field" from SA1 where he has to go through a Zelda-esque barter/trade quest. At the end of the level Sonic would be ambushed by the new villian character, an Evil Wizard, who turns him into stone. Sonic is not playable for the rest of the game.

-- Most of the stages would center around Shadow and his mission from GUN to find a way to revive Sonic. Shadow's stages would be 2D and feature an assortment of guns and play like a bastard child of Contra and Metroid. There would be blood and points where he needs to utilize stealth to sneak past enemies he can't just gun down.

-- Elise would have a connection to the Evil Wizard and feel a need to save someone, though she doesn't remember Sonic and just has fleeting feelings of a lost love. Her playstyle would be like an old J-RPG with big tactics-styled battles where she commanded Chao and soldiers from the Royal Soleana army. The battles would involve alot of units and take a good amount of time to complete. Despite the complicated nature of the battle systme all of Elise's story sequences would be done in an overly optimistic Disney fashion and the color scheme would be brighter than the other colors.

-- It would turn out that Big the Cat was a lab rat from GUN who suffered from extreme mental retardation and mental disorders. Froggy ended up just the opposite, though, and is ultra-intelligent. He wants to help Big unlock his powers and uses his psychic abilities to start giving Big memorries back. Big's gameplay would actually be based on the game of Mah-Johg; Instead of a traditional point and click interface, though, Big would be in a 3D area and the tiles are literally piled up and you had to select tiles by preforming a butt stomp on them. Through solving these puzzles Big's mind would come clearer into focus.

-- As a bonus unlockable Super Silver is playable in all game modes but plays mostly the same as the original character.

--If I'm designing a game that nobody wants you'd think I'd include a dark and angsty fan-character type of character...But I decided not to put that in the game because secretly, in the bottom of your heart, you're yearning for the day when your oiwn character Rifle The Wolf makes into into thegame. I thereby defy your desires by not including him.

*Other Story Details** 

-- In a dramatic plot point, Knuckles dies when being shot by an uzzi. Later on in the game Shadow finds an intelligence report that states after Knux's death Rouge stole the Master Emerald and and the Floating Island sank into the ocean. The resulting tsunami wiped out Station Square.

-- Amy is in the game, but in classic "Master Treasure Hunter" tradition, continunity is more or less thrown out the window and it's ret-conned so that Amy never liked Sonic and doesn't want to help revive him, but feels it would be better for the planet. Instead of a Piko-Piko Hammer she attacks with her magical purse that she swings like mace and can shoot lazers when opened. (Note, however, that Amy is not a playable character.)

-- Sonic's petrified form is falling apart as time passes. The longer you take to complete the game the less of Sonic that can be revived in the ending. In the best ending Sonic's body is completely normal, but the longer you take the closer you get to a zombie-fleshed Cyborg Sonic. The worst ending features Sonic not being reivved. If you get the best ending you are also treated to the first sex scene to ever appear in a Sonic game, although you only see their silhouetes from a distance and it plays beautiful orchestral music in the background; it would still skate past the ESRB with a T Rating somehow.

-- It turns out that Big the Cat's original body is gone and that the body he's in now was built up molecule by molecule to be the ultimate apoctlyptical device. He's actually the final boss, as he tries to activate his terrible power in revenge for Gun's testing. Elise manages to activate her super form out of her overwhelming love for Sonic that was stolen away from time. The skills she can use in battle mode are replaced with vastly more powerful spells.

-- It turns out that the Evil Wizard is Doctor Eggman who has left science behind and embraced the arcane arts.

-- There are at least two plot holes that prevent the story from making sense.

** Other Notes **************

-- Sonic's eyes would be purple, he would have one extra quill, and he would be bow legged. His running animation never goes into that whirly red circle thing.

-- The start of this new era would be marked by letting go of all of the 4-Kids vocie actors and finding new ones. Drummond would return but would only voice Human NPC's in the first level.

--This would be the least glitch-filled Sonic game since the Genesis days.

-- The "Speed Shoes" power up would be replaced with "Slow Shoes" that reduce Shadod/Elise/Big's speed by half.

-- You cannot go to the next level until you get an S rank on the previous level.

-- Linkin Park would provide the music for Shadow levels and Taylor Swift would compose songs for Elise's mode. The music in Big's levels would be abstract compositions written by The Fiery Furnaces. Crush-40 would write the song to be used in Sonic's level but it would be rap for some reason.

-- The game's controlls would be completely dependant on the WiiMotionPlus/Playstation Move/Natal systems.

-- Chao Gardens make a comeback but the Chao are redesigned as grotesque creatures and they try to kill you while you feed/play with them.

-- Sonic 6 would be marketed as returning to Sonic's roots and Sonic fans would widely consider Sonic 6 superior to Sonic 5.