Both games have Ai Ai, Beat and BD Joe so Transformed isn't a downgrade for me. Plus it does have the Hornet car...as the land form for AGES.
I mean yeah but we also lost Jacky driving the OutRun car, Billy Hatcher, the ChuChus, etc.
the second game added some cool picks like Vyce, Ninja Joe and Gillius but losing the likes of the ChuChus, the Bonaza Bros, the zombies, Akira and Jacky, and Opa to instead get secondary reps and guests was pretty wack
I played it mostly on console but I do have the PC version as well and they went way overboard with guests. Ralph I'm kinda okay with since Sonic had a role in his movie about games but real life NASCAR driver Danica Patrick and the freaking Yogscast (even if it was a charity thing...) just irk me. Football Manager and Shogun at least have relationships with Sega but they are still downgrades from more colorful and fun characters
And then there's the TF2 crew. I love TF2 but they really didn't have any reason to be there, and they couldn't even bother to get their actual VAs.
Then there was stuff like Pudding, Gum, and MeeMee, which are fine and all but not at the cost of other series like Bonanza Bros. And House of the Dead characters, or even more new series like Yakuza, Sakura Wars, Puyo Puyo, or even stuff like Altered Beast or Streets of Rage. Idk I just feel like doubling up on non Sonic series wasn't necessary.
Also I think they shouldve done Blaze or Rouge rather than Metal Sonic