Recent Sonic titles have appealed more to kids than die-hard fans, and the quality will take some time to improve, according to Sega of America’s VP of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe.

Speaking about recent poor review scores, Ratcliffe said, “The quality is something that will be fixed over time. It’s not something where you wake up one morning and say, ‘You know what, we’re going to improve our quality on this franchise,’ and it magically happens. A lot of hard work goes into striving for quality.

“Interestingly, I think Sonic Unleashed was very well received by the kids. There was some talk about the werehog aspect, the slower pacing and more combat-oriented gameplay, but when we go out and test this stuff and sit down with the consumers, kids actually like that. I think older, die-hard Sega fans who grew up with the franchise and the first Sonic the Hedgehog associate Sonic more with 2-D side-scrolling super fast, and they liked the daytime gameplay, but when it came to the slower paced gameplay they were fairly critical of that, and that’s fine – they have their opinions.”

We do indeed have our opinions, and hopefully Sega will actually begin listening to them some time soon. Ratcliffe continued by saying the company is open to the possibility of another 2D side-scrolling Sonic title, which could be made available via digital download.