To be honest growing up, I never paid attention to them as "mascots"

I just went "hey cool cartoons!", and went on playing games. Maybe since I was so young I didn't really care about marketing schemes.

I liked the DC sonic adventures. The fast-paced flying around the screen in spin dash stuff was still there, so i was set. Plus the levels looked cool, and the robot portion was pretty funny.

I dont understand the "on rails" complaint. All of the 2D ones are "on rails"

There's basically only one way through each level: To the right.