Even with all my frustrations with a lot of the games post Dreamcast era, I still love this guy.
BUT
I didn't like Sonic at first as a kid. The marketing behind him made him seem very try-hard cool. "This person is too much of a jerk." I would often think. At some point my cousin was heading out to sea, and my aunt asked my mother if I'd be interested in borrowing my cousin's Sega Genesis and game collection while he's away. She knew I loved playing on the NES, so figured I might enjoy this too.
I think the first few things I played on it were Altered Beast, Streets of Rage, and lots of Golden Axe with a friend. Eventually it came down to Sonic. Right from the start I was immediately sucked in. Vibrant colors, super catchy music, robots-- very cute bug robots. A combo of two things I was really into then. This wasn't try-hard cool, Sonic wasn't some jerk. This was cute and cool in a different way than advertised. I was hooked and suddenly a Sega kid.
I was all about Sonic. Was thrilled about SatAM and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, lost my mind when I saw issue #0 of Archie Sonic sitting on the comic rack at Walden's Books on a mall trip. I'd pick up a comic every time I'd go to Walden's or the grocery store. Got the McDonald's meals, eventually got my own Genesis. Never owned a SegaCD or 32X, but did borrow a friend's copy of Sonic CD to just listen to the red book audio and flip through the manual, surprised to read that Sally from the cartoon might be in it. Reading through a game magazine at the store, I saw screenshots of Knuckles Chaotix and my imagination went into overdrive. That robot Sonic is in this, it's so colorful. That robot Sonic looks so cool!! All of these new characters look so cool, who are they?? I'd never play that game until 32X emulation got better, but learned about the characters and Metal Sonic through the Archie comic adaptations.
Sonic Jam opened my eyes to the OVA, and the Japan-side of Sonic. He was suddenly even cooler. Who's Sarah? I love Eggman. Knuckles has a cool hat now! This music rocks! Why don't we have this here? It would pop up as a movie 1-2 years later, and ever since I would be searching for the soundtrack. I'd wish to see this version of Sonic again eventually.
Played an import version of Adventure at an Electronics Boutique and was bouncing off the walls at the potential of the rest of the game. I think after Adventure 2 I was kind of losing my enthusiasm for the series. The Archie comics got messier attempting to cram an Adventure adaptation into their already overly convoluted story. Sonic Heroes was a frustrating experience. I'd eventually approach any new game with caution instead of getting it immediately, mostly opting to rent instead of buying first.
Sonic Colors wowed me though, seeing Planet Wisp for the first time was amazing, and when I got my hands on it, it felt amazing. Unleashed was fine, so was Lost World. Music always stayed consistently good, though. I feel like I'm back on board. The Jakks Pacific figures of classic Sonic characters and badniks have been pretty great, I still frequently go back to play Mania and Generations. Happy to see Colors getting an updated release, interested in the new game despite Forces being a thing, and one of two movies I saw before the Pandemic hit was Sonic, which was fine. Sonic looked cute. Kids were going bonkers over it. ||They especially went feral with the Tails reveal. Of course he'd pop up, but I was still happy to see him too.|| Funny enough, they didn't react to the scenes of him flossing. I still find it funny they changed that dancing animation from the early trailer to a very stiff flossing one.
Anyway, still a bumpy ride following a series that had and continues to have a massive identity crisis, but there's signs of improvement finally. IDW's fresh start has been pleasant, Mania was great, Sonic in Monkey Ball is fun. Interested in this Prime series. Despite its many flaws, I still enjoy seeing further developments in Sonic Land.
That poor thing was left running for days!