Ok, here me out on this. Sega makes a true reboot of the Sonic series. The story would go something like this (I know it might suck, but this is just an idea I have. And besides, when did the story NOT suck in a Sonic game).

>Every Sonic game on the genesis from 1-Knuckles actually happened. After Sonic and Knuckles defeated Robotnik, he was placed in a maximum security prison, and Sonic got in a deal with Sega to make games based on himself.
>Robotnik was actually the main person behind the Cold War, planning to use the badniks to take over the world, stealing Earth-like animals from another planet. He was a major target of Capitalists and America.
>Sonic CD was the first one. The reason it came out before Sonic 3 was because the last time Sonic time-traveled, he sent it back for the Sega CD because it originally had nogaems.
>Every game afterwards was really a fictional work (Adventures, 2006, Unleashed, even Generations).
>The person who you know as "Eggman" is really just an actor playing him in the game, as is Shadow, Rouge, Cream, Big, and most of the other characters.
>The reason Sonic has green eyes and longer legs is because of plastic surgery, and just the fact that he got older. Same with the other characters.
>Sonic X-treme actually happened, it's just that Sonic failed to actually save w/e world he was in.
>Amy still exists, but she actually loathes Sonic with a passion. She was actually trying to stop Robotnik in Sonic 1&2, but Sonic and even Tails were too fast and got there before her. Basically, very independent.
>With Sega going down financially, Sonic just gets annoyed, but not emo in any sense.

So now, Robotnik breaks out of prison, builds a new machine and plans to wipe out most of the world. Sonic, feeling that now it's his time to ACTUALLY save the day, decides to get the 70 chaos emerald fragments and defeat Robotnik.


NOW FOR THE GAMEPLAY

>Game is set in an open world, sort of a hyrbid between Jak and Daxter and Crackdown
>World is divided into seven territories, each containing 10 chaos emerald fragments
>There are multiple people to take missions from, including Tales, Knuckles, Amy, Metal Sonic (who is actually a good guy), and the Chaotix.
>There are two types of controls for Sonic: the regular one from the 3d games, and one where you hold down RT/R1 and steer with the analog stick, allowing for trickier turns.
>Transitioning between the controls can be done by just holding down the button.
>Of course there is jump, lock on system in place of a homing attack, and spindash.
>You can also learn new moves throughout the game, a la Banjo-Kazooie or Infamous
>Hard mode has a 168 game hour time limit
>Other than these, gameplay elements such as rings and orbs stay the same

Now I'm looking at this idea thinking "Wow, this sounds really shit, or at least the story part," but I'm just posting this thinking that at least someone can make a revision or something. Like I said, this is just a general idea, not something I fully thought out.