Sonic Generations and the "Cargo Cult" Effect

Sonic Generations, on the outside, seems to be much like the classic Sonic games. The old Sonic design is usable, there's many of the old zones, enemies, and music,  the plot is back to simplicity, and even the gameplay seems to have returned. But in reality, the game is not very akin to the originals. First, lets take a good peek at the classic gameplay:

In the actual Genesis games, when Sonic rolled, he was able to use momentum based physics to gain speed. This is not present in Generations, where instead there are automatic running sections. Classic Sonic's top speed outisde of these sections is that of Mario. The stages of Classic have Mario-esque design. Second, another factor that turned some people off: Classic's cuteness.

In Sonic Generations, Classic Sonic uses the original japanese design, a creation heavily based on Felix the Cat:

Isn't he cute?

However, the gammes target demographic remembers the American deisgn more, which was edgy, radical, and somewhat inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Back in the 90's, some non fans thought he was a dinosaur

When Classic used the Japanese version in Generations, people were fine before the game came out, but when it did, they complained that he looked like a baby Sonic and needed to be edgy.

The same thing applies to Robotnik. In Japan, this visual approach was used:

I admit, this one is actually somewhat lame

American gamers, however, were on the reciveing end of this:

People were utterly dissapoitned by this. Some fans even hoped these guys would see the light, but no, they had to balk about these two.