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SEGA may be trying to win back its fanbase earnestly, but I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that the fanbase will still find something to complain about.
I don't want to sound negative about it, but this sort of thing always seems to happen.

But the complaints may be something that's on their personal preference, not glaring problems everyone can see.

It becomes a problem when they act like their opinions are the only ones that matter.

SEGA may be trying to win back its fanbase earnestly, but I'm betting dollars to doughnuts that the fanbase will still find something to complain about.

I don't want to sound negative about it, but this sort of thing always seems to happen.

Too be fair, The Mario games didn't have much of a story. It was just Mario saving the Princess. Then again, they could have made it an animated movie with more elements from the game. Bowser and his minions being giant turtles for one thing.

Actually, the film was originally conceived to be an animated movie. But they decided to make it live-action in the end (possibly to draw in a larger audience).

The first draft (which can be found online, by the way) had it set in a familiar-looking, fantasy world, going for an "Alice in Wonderland" meets "The Wizard of Oz" type of plot. This was probably the closest one to match the games. But thanks to studio executive meddling, the draft was heavily revised at least a dozen times, going through several different genres before finally settling with a sci-fi, dystopian setting.

In fact, it was one of the earlier drafts which caught Bob Hoskins' attention, which is why he signed on to star in the film. But by the time he arrived on set, the movie's direction was drastically changed and it was too late for him to sign out.

What does this mean for Robotnik/Eggman? Did Maria and Professor Gerald get retconned?

No, they're still present and accounted for (albeit dead). So Eggman/Robotnik still has an implied family, but like Knuckles, they can never explore it deeper. If there's a newly released game which further explores his family tree, then by all means, they'll be allowed to depict them. But considering SEGA's current direction, I doubt that's ever going to happen.

I'll have you know Donald Duck has a very expansive family going back many generations on both sides, leaving out only Huey, Dewy, Louie's pop.

Scrooge McDuck even has a age of Death.

As I said, despite never really changing, some of these mascot characters were given creative leeway by their owners. This allowed others to play around with them and give them more depth.

Nintendo's Mario was once one of them. Prior to the infamous live-action movie, Mario was everywhere: from cartoons to comics. And the creatives behind the products were given permission to do whatever they wanted with him. But after the movie, Mario and other Nintendo characters have never appeared in anything else outside of video-games. Recently, they seem to be warming up a bit (what with Bowser appearing in "Wreck-it Ralph" and Donkey Kong appearing in "Pixels"), but I doubt they're going to be making another Mario movie anytime soon.

Sonic is another example. Like Nintendo, ever since the bad-reception of 06 and Penders' run on the comics, SEGA has gotten more strict with their characters since then, out of fear of another disaster. They haven't banned Sonic from appearing in other media yet, but you can tell any of his modern appearances are sticking closer to the official canon. The one exception, so far, appears to be "Boom", but only because it's a spinoff series commissioned by SEGA themselves. There's no telling what direction the upcoming movie will take.

Makes it all the more awkward when you realize that Geoffrey was sorta Penders' pet character. That's not even getting into the age difference. Sometime after "Endgame" (I forget when), there was an article containing information about the character which revealed Geoffrey was in his 30's by the time he joined the FFs. Compared to Sally's official age, which is 16, this makes their old relationship downright creepy.

Of course, considering his true allegiance, it doesn't surprise me all that much.