Okay, let's look through the polls so far.
January: Shadow with Infinite (50.1%) vs Cream (49.9%) - The closest poll by far. I saw a claim that Infinite won by only 35 votes. It feels like Cream has more people that really like her, but Infinite does have apologists because he looks cool and some people want to him have have more appearances so Sonic Team can "fix" him. And Shadow has more of a connection to Infinite whereas he has none with Cream and some people are wary that the two interacting would be a one-note joke. So both these factors probably gave Infinite an edge.
February: Amy with Blaze (53%) vs Metal Sonic (47%) - Not that Metal Sonic is unpopular, but I feel like Blaze has more intense like from her fans and she hasn't gotten as many appearances in recent games as MS has. Also while there's curiosity as to how Amy and MS would interact, there's also people that really like seeing more of Amy and Blaze together.
March: Tikal with Chaos (58%) vs Pachacamac (42%) - Pachacamac barely appeared and he was asshole, so even though he would be more the dark horse in this poll it's unsurprising he lost. The only reason anyone would even vote for him is just out of curiosity as to how they would use him in a way where he's not being a dick.
April: Silver with Elise (51%) vs Merlina (49%) - The second closest and most intense poll. Merlina got a lot of support because she's a pretty obscure character from a less bought game whose fans want to give it more attention, plus she's not disliked unlike Elise who probably had people just voting against her. On the other hand, Elise's game is even older with no appearances since and she's never had any official 2D art. And kind of like the Infinite scenario above, some people want Elise to have more appearances so she's less hated and she has more obvious connection to Silver, so she barely won in the end.
May: Vector with Vanilla (71%) vs Cream (29%) - Vanilla has even less appearances or official art than Cream, and some people really want to see more Vector/Vanilla.
June: Tails with Marine (68.8%) vs Wave (31.2%) - Marine has had nothing at all since her first appearance in Rush Adventure and this seemed like about the only opportunity to change that. That desire to have Marine do anything again was stronger than people wanting more Tails and Wave rivalry stuff.
July: Orbot & Cubot with Gemerl (51.9%) vs Metal Sonic (48.1%). A much closer poll than last, but I think it comes down to the same thing. Gemerl hasn't been in anything since his first appearance in Advance 3 and this is the only opportunity to change that.
They should pair Metal Sonic with Cream, since they both lose twice.
In any case, I have the hunch that Marine is more popular than Wave. The Babylon Rogues have their fans, but kind of get the impression Wave never won anyone's heart due to being kinda generic. She is the girl to boastful cocky Jet (who is not that popular either) and Storm (who is just dumb). Her more interesting side is the rivalry she has with Tails.
Marine by comparison is associated with Blaze, and has a more open personality.
It's a hunch. I may be wrong, since Marine is also quite disliked due to her personality.
To win, you need to adapt, and to adapt, you need to be able to laugh away all the restraints. Everything holding you back.Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka has been sentenced to 2.5 years prison for insider trading.
Edited by Druplesnubb on Jun 6th 2023 at 1:18:43 PM
TIL in the Brazilian Sonic Triple Trouble manual, Knuckles has a younger brother named Crucules
.
Official Sonic Tumblr
dropped some very interesting information about regional differences for Tails's name.
.........

BTW, you can sign up for a Sonic Origins Plus newsletter online for downloadable versions of those neat boxarts.
I love how each are modelled after different regional variations of Sonic boxart, and they even modify some of the small details to match too, like the carts Knux is holding or the Mega Drive Sonic is holding.
Are explosions science?