I remember seeing a post where Sakurai said he took inspiration for Sonic in Smash mainly from Sonic 1, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, Sonic the Fighters, and Sonic and the Secret Rings, and someone said that’s like using Hotel Mario, Mario’s Time Machine and Mario is Missing as inspiration for Mario. Like what??
He took inspiration from the most recent MAIN LINE games, and a fighting crossover to fill out other parts of his moveset, thats different from literally picking and choosing the worst games in a series just to piss off fans.
Really, in general, I hate when Sonic fans think Sakurai hates Sonic. It’s just not true.
I just ignore those claims and enjoy the thing.