Ten thousand premeditated murders via deliberate inaction is not balanced out by a million visas granted. The severity of the crime gives it more weight. A life extinguished does not equal a life improved somewhat.
Why a shooter? Superheroes aren’t known for using guns, and tend to be bulletproof themselves. Did they just copy the current trend and apply a Marvel coat of paint? That’s stupid.
My original idea was “If Sega decided one of these characters is gay tomorrow, who is it going to be?”. It morphed into the list you see before you. I took into account both actions and how Sega treats them, as well as just general vibes.
Sega has a bunch of mandates regarding how Sonic is allowed to behave, so there’s meta reason for his placement. They don’t even let him cry, so coming out of the closet would be enormous.
TBH, I didn’t know what to do with Charmy, since Team Chaotix doesn’t really get that much development. I stuck him in the middle just to be safe.
I grew up with the N64 and I never needed realistic pores and eyelashes to get immersed in a game. All I needed was a world and characters I liked. I can’t imagine someone picking up a classic and being like “WTF, where’s the individually rendered nostril hair? I can’t get invested in this!” That just feels silly to me.
Honestly, why do you need graphics to create that level of detail? In regular gameplay, you aren’t getting closeups of your characters face. It’s just a waste of energy on the part of the animators.