>>6790
It's because they were using the base/alpha designs for referecnes which had SOnic and co look like some abstactive mix between literal hedgehog and disney esque elements that just name off like a Lilo and Stitch ripoff. So SEGA came in and told them to fix their shit, and so Sonic Team took some of their shit and added Modern cast on top.
And likely thanks to that outburst in disapproval, they likely took it too far and nitpicked the fuck out of Big Red Button's progress to the point the game shat itself. Basically it's really SEGA's fault for saying "give them freedom" and then got triggerd they gave them something they wasn't looking for.