I know that a lot of people like to [overdivide](https://teddit.net/r/SonicTheHedgejerk/comments/10gp24t/i_dont_even_know_what_to_say_anymore/) the era creating "dark ages" to the era, sometimes for the Saturn games, sometimes for the games from Shadow the Hedgehog to Sonic Unleashed included, sometimes creating a "Meta era" that start from Sonic Colors onward… But it's simply not a good idea, it's even really bullshitty.

My first issue with that is calling eras "Dark Age" or "Meta Era" (often meant to be derogatory), or sometimes "Golden Age" is a big issue, because it shows that they're more interested about trying to say "this era was bad" or "this era was good" and miss completely what these classification should be about : An era is about categorising games of a time period to give a great understanding of what bring them together.

First, using good/bad stuff create division about what should go where : Shadow the Hedgehog was deeply divisive, and many saw it as an insult to SA2 to make a sequel that basically flanderize the entire game. It can be seen as a "fun-but-flawed" plateformer-shooter, but for many people, it wasn't enought after the Adventure and/or the classics. So Dark Age with 2006, or in the same era of Heroes (and some would also make Heroes part of a "Dark Age") ?

And I've also a lot of issue with the common division of "Dark Age" and/or Meta Era :
- As I said just before : Heroes or Shadow as the beggining ? Or 2006 ?
- Separating Colors and Unleashed just because "Unleashed is cooler" is missing a lot of points. Colors was made to emulate what was seen as a lot of people as the "better parts" of Unleashed, but with a more plateforme-y approach. A lot of elements that are present in Colors (emphasis on slapstick humor, more colored world, Sonic-only, boost gameplay) where introduced in Unleashed. Sure, we think that Unleahed is good and Colors bad (or the opposite), but it doesn't change their connection.
- The definitions of "Meta" used for the Meta era are different for several games present in the definition. This is kind bad, because it makes the category be included together based on a vague feeling, instead of intrisacate 
  - Sonic Colors is called "meta" because there is a joke about not being afraid by copyright. Honestly, it wasn't something meta to the Sonic IP at the time, so it makes the name of Meta Era from Colors onward kinda dumb.
  - Sonic Boom have a lot of Meta humor about storytelling, the world, and breaking the forth wall (way more than any official games of this era)
  - Sonic 4, Sonic Generation, Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces are celebratory titles that reuse a lot of content.
- Sonic Frontiers, despite a lot of people wanting to separate it from the "Meta Era" have as much meta humor as the previous joke (it lends better due to Flynn's writing imo) and reuse stage gimmick. So Meta Era ? Ah, now the gameplay is important ? Weird :D
- Shouldn't Sonic Chronicles be seen as a Meta Era title as well ? A lot of Meta Humor, and a HUGE amount of reference to the past (it even have Green Hill !)

So let's just use some era loosly based around the big gameplay concept that was the most used at that time, shall we ?