Sonic Mania

I've never been a huge Sonic fan, but I fell in love with this. This is truly the definitive Sonic experience, as in, this is the only Sonic game you'll ever need to play. It takes Classic Sonic, boils it down to its best design elements and then throws extra sugar and icing on top as a treat. The Encore DLC is a mandatory purchase; the two new characters are probably more fun to play as than any of the original three. (Mighty the Armadillo ftw)

Sonic I want to like you but I can't, you're so boring and somehow have the seediest fanbase.

Decent entry in the series, wish it didn't have so many frustrating slow parts.

Cleans up most of the flaws of at least Sonic 2, though Sonic will always be only a semi-interactive "game". It gets progressively more boring as pressing down and A starts to wear on as well as increasingly cheap deaths as the game goes on. Having to repeat an entire 2 act level just to fight the last boss again is also tedious and annoying. I got to the last boss but died, not sure I'll go back to kill it.

Sonic Mania is a very well-made game. It's very similar to Sonic CD and Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but that's not a bad thing. The only thing holding Sonic Mania back from true greatness is that the creators weren't given much room to make truly unique levels, and most of the levels are recycled. Regardless, it's a love letter to the classic Sonic games and it makes me hopeful for the future of this series. It's also a game made by fans for fans and I hope that more games are made like this.

Best 2d Sonic game.

A solid example of a retro style platformer done well. Big emphasis on the "retro" here - they could have released this almost unchanged on Genesis in 1995 as Sonic 4 and you'd never have questioned it.

I just don't think I "get" Sonic. The problem is most likely me. As much as I tend to enjoy platformers, this ended up more annoying than fun.