This petition was created to spread awareness to SEGA about the ongoing issues regarding the declining quality of NOT ONLY the gameplay of Sonic games, but the story quality, so if you don't like Sonic the Hedgehog, PLEASE DON'T BOTHER signing this petition.

First of all, for those who aren't familiar with Shiro Maekawa, he was the writer for the Sonic games, most notably, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic and the Black Knight. His stories were some of THE best ones ever written in the Sonic franchise, and it shouldn't be hard to see why.

Some of the reasons that we need Shiro Maekawa back include:

- His Sonic stories were compelling, and many of them had a lesson to teach to the audience. Sonic games need to have similar stories with important life lessons (example: Sonic and the Black Knight).

- While Maekawa's stories did get dark in places, the dark moments were always balanced out with more lighthearted ones.

- All the characters featured in Maekawa's stories were fleshed out, with backstories that made them more relatable, unlike some of the newer characters introduced in the Pontaff-era games.

- Many of Sonic's friends were given a lot of significant character development that is lacking in the newer games. Plus, many of them could be more emotional in certain scenes.

So, when SEGA decided to hire Ken Pontac and Warren Graff to write for Sonic, the writing quality began to decline drastically, and judging by their writing style, the story quality was also beginning to decline as well. How, some of you may ask?

Some of the reasons that Pontaff (Pontac & Graff) has caused Sonic games' stories to decline in quality include:

- The dumbing down of Sonic and friends into one-dimensional versions of themselves (i.e. Amy being an obsessive fangirl, Knuckles being a gullible idiot, Tails being a coward, Shadow being an edgelord, etc.), resulting in countless out-of-character moments.

- The introduction of new characters who are ridiculously one-dimensional (i.e. The Deadly Six, who embody the stereotypical "Destroy the World for no other reason than because we can" type of villain, or Infinite, who comes off as nothing more than a petty and childish edgelord)

- Use of jokes that make people cringe and facepalm, including "Baldy Nosehair/McNosehair", and repeated use of said jokes across multiple games.

- A serious lack of emotional storytelling

For these reasons, these clearly show that Pontac and Graff did not do enough research of the Sonic franchise, which may have resulted in Sonic being like this. While they aren't exactly bad writers, Pontac and Graff are clearly NOT suitable for writing for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

However, these aren't the only reasons why we need Maekawa back. Other reasons that Shiro Maekawa needs to return to the Sonic series include:

- His stories were told through scripts that allowed the voice actors to really show that they can really act, in turn giving the characters far more depth than the Pontaff stories ever could.

- Any new characters introduced in his stories are fleshed out, complete with detailed backstories that explain who they are and how they came to be the persons that they are in the present. If he returns, then recent additions to the franchise like Infinite and the Deadly Six could be fleshed out to feature such backstories.

So, in short, Pontac and Graff are clearly incompatible for writing for the Sonic franchise, as their writing shows that they don't do much research on the Sonic franchise. Not to mention, they have since admitted that they don't even care about the franchise either. Plus, Mr. Maekawa wants to write for Sonic again, so these reasons above should be more than enough to explain why we need him back on board.

One last thing: SEGA has since confirmed that they will no longer release Sonic games yearly to improve the quality of the games; HOWEVER, we have to let SEGA know that it's NOT just the gameplay quality or the animation quality that matters most for the Sonic franchise... It's the story AND writing quality that matters most as well 'cause we care about the Sonic characters.

So, if you are a fan of Maekawa's writing, PLEASE sign this petition. We want to be able to spread awareness about the ongoing issues that SEGA currently has to deal with due to poor management decisions. If we can spread awareness about the problems that are still happening right now, maybe SEGA would be able to listen to us about it and hopefully fix what NEEDS to be fixed.