Dear SEGA:

Having played many of your games, and just about all of your Sonic titles, I have a question for you (and it's an easy one)...

What is so hard about making a quality Sonic game?! It seems with every yearly release you get an inch or so closer than the year before to regaining some kind of playability and enjoyment in the games. But for some reason you INSIST on shipping in Q4 to maximize holiday sales (rather than finishing your games).

I think Yuji Naka would be disappointed in you.

You've gone as far as to go on the record to state that Sonic 2006 was "unpolished". Yeah, "unpolished". Falling through solid ground more times than I can count, obnoxious loading times, furry-on-princess make-out session... I'd have a few more choice words for that mess besides "unpolished", but I'm sure you don't want to hear them. That game could have been good. It even showed promise, at least graphically. But the levels were untested, the load times were unforgivable, and the story was absolute garbage. I quote myself:

"I wanted to like [Sonic 2006], I REALLY did, because it's one of the few Japanese games on the [360] with a recognized brand. However, abysmal collision detection and boundary issues caused me plummeting to my death from what appeared to be solid ground...not to mention the glitchy camera, incessant load times, and poor level design issues (pressing a button to run over poorly placed pits of sand without sinking, mere milliseconds after hitting a speed booster? No thanks.) that caused me to utter many an expletive in distaste at Sonic Team's disgustingly bad QA in an attempt to release the game for the holiday season last year. The worst offender of the collision detection and bad level designs are the "mach speed" sections of the game, which play like poorly laid out racing levels. Sonic races along (all too fast) and if you hit an obstacle or enemy, you die. Simple as that. The problem is, Sonic moves too quickly, and the "wide, expansive" environments make it somewhat difficult to figure out where you're supposed to go next. Furthermore, the design of these sections feels almost random. I found myself continuously fighting the game trying to figure out what the developers WOULDN'T PLAN on a player doing, so I wouldn't fall victim to unnecessary death-by-bug. Sadly, I still ran into bugs over and over again while keeping this in mind, and never wanted to press through to obtain even one single achievement award."

Though it pains me to say it, Sonic: Unleashed isn't much better. It provides some 2.5D segments that push the series in the right direction, but other parts of the game are ripped directly from those nasty Mach Speed sections (fortunately you don't die if you hit an obstacle this time) and others are pilfered from God of War (the corny WereHog levels). Please, MAKE IT STOP. Just make a sequel to the original Sonic games, put it in HD, and stick it on the PSN and XBL. At this point, that's about all any of us former fans could ask for...and it wouldn't even cost you as much as these big-budget diarrhea discs you're farting out every year. Enough. Please. Enough...