To be perfectly honest, I like the idea that Sonic gathers companions on his journey to defeat Eggman on a regular basis. It was one of the reasons why I enjoyed Sonic 3 & Knuckles so much, because Tails and Knuckles had powers that allowed them to access routes Sonic could not access. But everywhere I go, people are criticizing the Sonic franchise for its ensemble cast of anthropomorphic animal friends, without giving any good reasons why.

So why hate Sonic's friends, yet be perfectly okay with other heroes gathering their own respective companions on their journeys, like Mario and the way he carried around characters like Wario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Rosalina?

Wario is awesome, Big the Cat is an abomination.

Because the design of the characters are hated by the majority of the world.

Have you ever seen a cutscene with Charmy the Bee?

Honestly, I've never understood the hate either. I don't necessarily give a damn about any of Sonic's friends aside from maybe Knuckles, Tails, and Amy, but none of the others seem particularly terrible in any way to warrant the amount of shit they get. They all just sorta seem like your average cartoon character meant for a younger audience or something, but so does Sonic so maybe that's why they never really bothered me.

I don't understand it either. I love Sonic's friends and for me any Sonic game has to feature his friends.

I think I a lot of it originates from the idea that when people play a Sonic game they want to play as Sonic the gosh darn Hedgehog. Once Sonic Team started shoving all of Sonic's friends into the lime light and forcing players to go through some truly irritating gameplay (or rather, gameplay where you aren't playing as the titular character), people really started souring on them. Then they started adding more. And more. Their characters started getting worse. And worse still. Suddenly you've got a Sonic game where Sonic himself somehow feels like he's guest starring in his own game, and that's not what a lot of people wanted.

I'm not super big into the Sonic fandom, so maybe there are other factors besides Sonic fans being crazy at this point, but I've always felt that's where most of the hate for the "Sonic Pals" comes from.

It probably didn't help that they started featuring a lot more of these characters at the same time the general consensus says that the series took a downward turn in terms of quality.

I think most people don't like the Sonic franchise much in general. Sonic was as good as it gets in the earlier games when it was basically just him. As the series got progressively worse new characters kept coming in and fewer people cared about them or the games they were in.

Every character in the Sonic and Mario franchises is bad and dumb. Sometimes they make good games in spite of it.

Because they get all the spotlight and Fang the Sniper is nowhere to be seen.

Mainly because they have no reason to exist beyond Sonic 3 and Knuckles/Sonic CD really; they're instantly associated with the downfall of Sonic as a critically and financially respected franchise.

I honestly think Sega should swallow the hard truth that they have no clue what to do with the series and publish/co-develop a 3D Sonic with Nintendo, preferably with Retro Studios at the helm, translating the fundamentals of what made the 2D games so appealing into 3D like they did so masterfully with the first Metroid Prime.

Sonic has been so repeatedly bungled, with not ONE solid 3D entry, that they're only hurting themselves by continuing to insist they know what's best at this point.

Voice acting.

This, so much. Sonic Adventure was a terrible game and painted all of those characters in a bad light. Even Adventure 2, which I remembered liking more than the original, ruined Tails and Knuckles for me with their stupid, stupid levels. Also, Tails' voice acting is horrible. He was my favorite video game character from Sonic 2 until Sonic Adventure.

I have to agree that Tails from Sonic 3 and Knuckles in all the original Sonic games using the add-on was awesome. Their abilities were great for finding new paths through levels and it was a lot of fun. Once they went to 3D, though, they completely dropped the ball.

Go look up some Big the Cat gameplay on Youtube. I played that as a teen when Adventure came out, and I feel like my dislike of Sonic's friends is justified.

I think it's all in the writing. If Yoshi wouldn't ever shut the hell up like Tails, people might hate him as well.

You know, there was one game that handled multiple playable characters right, and that was Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The reason was because Tails and Knuckles played the same as Sonic but with their own powers, without deviating from the Sonic formula like they did in Sonic Adventures 1 and 2. As for their powers, the two of them could use those powers to access routes not even Sonic could access. Tails could fly over most of the zones and access upper routes, while Knuckles could go through lower routes with his giant fists.

And the one thing that makes this fact strange is that Tails' flight and Knuckles' strength all make Sonic himself look less like the awesome, speedy character we'd make him out to be, and more like an average, every-man protagonist. In other words, Sonic 3 & Knuckles literally kept the title protagonist himself from living up to the hype, while his own sidekick and rival unintentionally took all the glory with powers that make Sonic's speed look like nothing.

Because they are bad characters.

All Sonic the Hedgehog characters are dumb. Also, I believe Dan was the one who said something along the lines of "Sonic the Hedgehog is just a T-ball stand for furry fanfiction, huh?" which is a great quote.

@atwa: As I said before, Sonic 3 & Knuckles did multiple playable characters right. Tails and Knuckles could all go fast like Sonic, but have their own powers that lets them access routes not even Sonic could access. For example, Tails could fly and take the upper routes as a result, while Knuckles could take the lower routes with his giant fists. As for Sonic, without Tails' flying and Knuckles' strength, he's stuck taking the middle routes, which would technically imply that despite his speed and bad attitude, he's just some Average Joe protagonist with nothing special about him compared to Tails and Knuckles.