They have lost their soul... ish. I think the thing that's been missing since Unleashed was Shun Nakamura. He's responsible for some of the worst decisions in the franchise to some fans though, because he's mainly the guy who wanted to force a lot of self-serious narrative over the games and he wrote for Sonic 06 (mainly Silver I think).That said, I think Colors is the peak of this franchise next to the classics, obviously. I did enjoy the idea of exploring a more narrative aspect of Sonic because I think it can be done with Mario, such as in Odyssey which despite staying whimsical still had epicness, just like Galaxy, and it's that sense of them really trying to create something epic and grand like Sonic Unleashed, damn their failures at it but still, it was nice to see them have some serious ambition. Both could be said for 06 and Unleashed - both also failed at it because they were largely too boring in their grandiosque plots. It just had potential and despite how poor it is technically I actually still like Sonic Adventure quite a lot, and I'm still hoping some day they'll make a 3D action platformer like that again but then they keep the focus to Sonic and other runner-type characters and not all the friends with their strange gameplay.All things considered though, I actually enjoyed Forces a lot and I consider it in the same calibre as Colors. I actually want to replay this game more than Generations for some reason. I just think Colors and Forces has a nice feel to the way they control and they both have decent boss battles. That said though, there's definitely a downscoping of the level of ambition in these games. It's kind of like Mario Galaxy 2 and 3D World vs Galaxy 1 and Odyssey. The former are in some ways objectively better but just for Sonic I really liked it because it meant they finally got laser-focused on just making Sonic's gameplay feel good and have some longevity with Colors. Forces actually has longevity in the red rings collecathons as usual and other bonuses which I'm enjoying but it's definitely gotten way too easy and lenient with ranks and overall stage length/difficulty which is a sign that the budgets have decreased or current Director since Colors, Kishimoto is out of ideas.I also suddenly remember how excited I felt after the cringe-curve was past with Sonic Boom's reveal trailers. Man, a good Jak & Daxter like game but with speedy Sonic gameplay, co-op and quality cheeky writing. That was the promise the game just couldn't live up to and not even close to it, but man, I was feeling the vibes of Sonic Boom for a while. I craved for it until it turned out to be the worst shit. (way worse than Sonic 06 - I'd much rather replay that than Boom)