At the first time in Sonic 1 when I had to stop and do actual platforming, that's when. Up until then I was enjoying the game.

5 minutes into the first game. jk

For real though, I can generally find some enjoyment in the sonic games as long as they stay 2d. The minute I'm navigating a 3d environemnt I want to stop. It's never translated well from the second dimension to the third and I doubt it ever will.

Labyrinth zone, where they introduced the water. That was it for me. Honestly the drop off in fun after the first zone, Green Hill Zone, was pretty steep.

Well, pretty much every Sonic I've played other than Adventure 1 & 2 has been the opposite of fun for me so i guess that's my answer. I do wanna try and play Generations one of these days though.

Well, apparently Jim Sterling and I feel the same way about Sonic games. 1-4 and CD are on another level that the handheld games come close to. I liked Advebture 1 and 2 when they came out but not now. And of the newer games I disliked the 2006 (?) game and unleashed, thought the Secret Rings and Colors games for the Wii were ok (3/5), and that Generations was legitimately really good (4/5).

Green Hill Zone is the only part of any sonic game that's still fun for me. And most of that is the music. That being said, I first started to dislike Sonic after Heroes.

I really like Lost World...

After CD. Admittedly, that's largely because I stopped paying much attention to Sonic by then, moreso than the drop in quality.

And now, whenever I see Sonic, my first thought is always "A lot of people are finding this to be highly erotic", and then I'm sad.

It is so weird. But I think the sequels ruin everything. Sonic 1 had some speed and was really about some solid platforming. You had a few sections of a level where it sped up but mostly, it was about jumping and landing right and doing a pattern to kill enemies. Then Sonic 2 came along and everything was about going faster and more tubes and stuff.

We get to Sonic Adventure. I had a lot of fun with that game as cheesy as it was. This is where it went wrong where it needed and epic story to go with it. Mario didn't need no real story. Sonic just needed the Collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds and thats it. Instead we got Big the Cat, Amy, the fucking robot. Tails. Oh god tails. And some back lore about Knuckle's people. Anyway, the game still had some good gameplay, at least the Sonic part. It was awesome, not all fast sections, some good platforming bogged down by a weird camera, but still fun. We get to SA2 and its all about going fast and until generations thats all it seemed to be about. I blame their need to go with some big story with forced lore and multiple characters and the misguided idea that it has to be fast all the time for the downfall of the series. I dont think it doesn't belong in this gen, it just needs to go back to what made Sonic 1 and Sonic Adventure so good. Platforming. Not stupid ass characters.

After Sonic Rush. Seriously. The series stopped being quite prolific after Sonic 3 and Knuckles - though CD is also great, but I didn't have the luxury of playing it back in it's day. Yet I still enjoyed all of the GBA incarnations and the first DS one was serviceable too. Sonic Rush Adventure tacked on some really dumb mechanics to prevent the fluidity of moving from stage to stage. The actual gameplay might very well have been okay if not for that.

Sonic was never good.

Not only is generations the only good 3d sonic game, it's the best sonic game that isn't all star racing transformed

I grew up a Nintendo kid, so while I played a fair bit of Sonic, I never really -liked- Sonic. I always liked the pacing of Super Mario better. Then again, why would I want to play Sonic when I could play Streets of Rage or Golden Axe?

The gimmick of Sonic, the speed loops and stuff never really got my attention and the Genesis games all kind of felt the same to me, gameplay wise. Whereas the Mario games changed radically.

Once Super Mario 3 came out, there was no hope for Sonic ever being a 2d platformer I'd enjoy.

Good sonic died with the dreamcast.

Sonic 2 is the only game in the series that matters.

Agreed. Hate to hate but yeah, for me, Sonic's never been much more than an impressive 30 minute blast processing demo that got out of control.

I liked it when Sonic was 2D and had fun music. Now, they try to put in rock/punk music, go too far with his "edgy" appeal, and the environments just suck. When it was 2D, it was simple and more about getting through the level quick with lots of rings. When you complicate Sonic, it shows that the game isn't very deep or interesting. And when the level design has stayed the same with the transition to 3D, it's not fun.

The only time I had fun with a Sonic game was playing as Knuckles in Sonic and Knuckles, and playing Sonic R.

I think this is a bunk poll. There are still Sonic games that came out within the past few years that people enjoy. Colors and Generations are games that people, including myself, rather enjoyed. There was a time when almost every Sonic game was bad or mediocre and I think that harmed the franchise as a whole because when there's actually a good Sonic game people won't believe you or say you have bad tastes or say your being tricked by nostalgia or whatever.

It even caused some retroactive dislike for those games. The Adventure games got way more heat post 06 than before. I see more hate for the original Sonic games after the post Adventure 2 era when they were releasing stuff like Heroes and Shadow and 06.

I never liked Sonic, but it's nice to see a childhood character endure for so long, albeit in a less than stellar way.

Sonic 1, 2, and Adventure are the only games in the series that I consider to be great. Sonic 2 being the best game in the series. The series went downhill after the first Adventure. Sega lost something when it went from being a console manufacturer to software sales only. There were lots of great games developed by Sega during the Dreamcast era but not so much since then.

I thought the Sonic Rush games weren't that bad also. Sonic CD seems great also but I never played it back in the day.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will always be one of the all-time greats in my eyes. People try to disparage the older games but they have to consider when those games came out and what was around at the time. Sonic was a new and inventive thing as opposed to something that has been driven into the ground repeatedly. It's like someone looking at all Atari 2600 games and saying they "suck".

Post 2 for me. I played CD and thought it was ok, but the only times I was excited to play the Sonic games were 1 and 2. Adventure interested me in a "new console, new approach" way, but lost interest after a few levels. Thank god the Sonic Adventure intro is right up there for greatest intro of all time, as Drew and Dan recently re-discovered.

Generations actually almost kinda won me back. Good game. That was the anomaly though, haven't seen anything very good since then.

Heroes was the first bad game, which I think means I should vote for Post Adventure 2?

I don't know, I can't say I enjoyed even the first game all that much. My go-to Genesis game was always Ecco the Dolphin.

I also haven't really actively disliked any of the Sonic games, not even 2006, so I guess I still rank all of them higher than Diablo III.

I loved Sonic when it first came out. Then I didn't play it for years, I think I only played 1 and 2. Every time I've tried going back to play it since then, I can't stand it. So even though I loved it as a kid, I hate it now.

I've only played Sonic Advance 2, which I liked. I'd like to play more, but I don't know which ones to play, and which to avoid (besides avoiding 2006 and Sonic Boom).

Personally I didn't particularly care for any game past Sonic & Knuckles.

Sonic is still fun though, since I love watching Jeff getting exposed to bad Sonic games. So there's that.

I liked Green Hill Zone and thought the rest of the games were pretty lame. I always made fun of kids with Genesis systems for having to play Sonic while I got to play Super Mario World.

1. Fun
2. Sonic

Pick one.

Sonic Adventure.

Adventure 2 was just frustrating. I hated that I had to play through different characters in order. At least in Adventure I could just constantly play as Sonic. Now I've gotta do some shitty Emerald hunt whilst listening to the worst rap in history.

I haven't checked anything on the poll because I feel like the quality of Sonic games has been all over the place, even before I officially became skeptical of subsequent releases after playing Unleashed (I never played '06). But, while Sonic Boom looks to be pretty rough, I thoroughly enjoy both Color and Generations, and I could even appreciate Lost World, though I would certainly not give that glowing praise.

Anyway, I'll be curious to see your blogs, as it sounds like you'll be focusing more on the 3D games, and those are actually what I would consider my my "sacred cow" games. I didn't have a Genesis of my own when I was younger, so I didn't get to play the 2D games except for over at my cousin's house. I've since played further in them than I ever could when I was younger, and I appreciate them, but 3D Sonic games are my go-to, with Sonic Adventure 2 being my favorite. So, yeah: not a lot of people here go for that.

Adventure 2: Battle.

I was in junior high and that game kicked ass. Or maybe not. My friends and I played it and I loved the Chao Garden.

But in retrospect they're all bad games, nostalgia-aside.

About the same time I got pubes.

Excuse me?.....EXCUSE ME?

It never did. Cause you see, I only play the good ones. When they started to introduce the long-legged, green-eyes freak I kinda stopped acknowledging him as Sonic. Some videogame characters should stay silent.

No option for "never was fun". Always thought it was pretty boring, but I don't really like most platformers so that could have something to do with it.

Even my infantile brain could detect that Sonic & Knuckles was a dark portent for the series. I have not been interested in the series since. However, I will concede that Sonic CD is the high mark of them all--playing it a decade after its initial release--even though it was of course released after Sonic & Knuckles.

Knuckles is just a real jerk.

I remember in elementary school I would arrive early at school for what was essentially a pre-school day care program for families who went to work before school started. There they had a Genesis that you could sign up for and play. Luckily I arrived the earliest and had about half an hour or so all to myself. After trying the handful of games out I eventually settled on Sonic.

I played quite a bit of Sonic but eventually just burned out on it. The platforming, especially in the underwater levels, was too intense and precise for me at the time. From then on Sonic games were always interesting but never something I was into. I would try Sonic and Knuckles at my dentist's office (the only place I knew that had it) but even playing through the first level or so I never found myself itching to play more.

Never seen a mic-hog spit like a menace. Wild Canyon fun, I gotta chase a bat, huh, Yeah, Rouge, she's sexy and smooth.

words ill never forget

post generations is the answer. 

sonic 06 is so bad that my roomate and I had a great time laughing through it.

generations is great but lost worlds is where they totally lost me.

@frostyryan: Are we being straight up real? I just watched that new South Park episode about the Let's Players being a big thing and now I feel like all of my views have been questioned anyway.

That... that wasn't good Hip-Hop... right?

I was semi-joking. I think it's just as enjoyable as the rest of the music in the games. It's cheesy and pretty stupid but catchy and charming...for the right people. I do enjoy the song. I don't like the term "guilty pleasure" but that's probably the term that fits here. haha

I really liked Sonic Adventure 2 even though it's janky as hell. I thought 1 was okay. I thought heroes was kind of bad but acceptable. Shadow the Hedgehog was terrible. Anything after that point I didn't play but didn't want to play. I voted for Post Heroes?

Sonic 4 Episode 1 was the closest I got to falling off for good. HOLY SHIT I HATE THAT GAME. Nowadays I don't think there's anything that can push me to the edge like that did. Even Sonic Boom is dumb as hell, but I am fine with it.

Sonic Advance was very good.

Sonic and Knuckles was probably the last Sonic i really enjoyed. I still think Sonic 2 and Sonic and Knuckles are fantastic games.

*edit* not including some of the portable games. I am just talking main line console Sonic.

@odie_esty: Halfway through Sonic 2. I burned through most of my patience in Sonic 1 keeping the Genesis on long enough to get all the chaos emeralds.

Around the 4th or 5th time I died in the very first game because the platforming and level design isn't so great.

Those hot Knuckles rap songs are probably the high point of the entire franchise.

HUNNID-P ON THAT CHAOS CRYSTAL TIP

It always surprises me when people say Adventure 1 and 2 were bad. I thought those games were pretty good and playing them again recently, they have some flaws but they're still great. After that it pretty much goes to hell though. Generations is good though, and Sonic and All Stars Racing is awesome if that counts.