I’m just gonna say this in regards to Sonic game art styles

Sonic’s original art style was supposed to be a surreal take on something “real”. It takes themes that could exist in a real world, like a green hillly area, a casino, a mine, or icy cave and then....

....injected surreal elements like the various stage elements, the loops, a decent-to-high amount of color, and visuals inspired from 80s computer graphics.

That’s what the Sonic series looked like

So when a Sonic game over-exaggerates cartoonyness (like Lost World) or realism (like 06 or Shadow), it feels less unique, and less Sonic-like.

Sonic games should take after the Classic games’ art style and take real world concepts but do them in a surreal and distinctly Sonic way.

Sonic Heroes does this and besides the character models looking like plastic it still looks great, even 16 years later