IntelliHeath
As in "Heathcliff"
Haha, I don't mind Sonic in Smash. He fits like a glove and for the way I see the series is one of the most appropriate third party additions. I don't think it would be right to dabble in third party mascots and not include Sonic, given the mascot's history, especially relative to Nintendo. If it were up to me he wouldn't be removed.
I'm mostly trolling / posting hyperbole. I've long felt Sonic is one of the most mangled and poorly handled legacy mascots in the entire medium. I fucking loathe Sega's general direction with the franchise. It's like the anti-Mario: much of why Mario has remained relevant and appealing to all ages, Sonic ignored and pissed away. Kind of ironic, and funny in retrospective.
I can appreciate the mascots relevance to the medium, and welcome him to Smash with open arms (even if he played pretty rubbish in Brawl). But that won't stop me hating on the shitty series, its shitty games, and shitty characters.
Yeah, sadly. Your reason was just spot on for me since I was disappointed with the direction that SEGA went as well.