>>714100319
i played all the classics + DIMPS sonics besides 3d blast in 2 months for /STHG/ and even participated in a bunch of fun time attack races in sonic origins and advance 3. Since my only game before those was sonic frontiers, I expected to hate all the non-boost games in the franchise since sonic feels pretty OP in frontiers.
I think people are mostly right about the franchise that the games arent especially fun on your first playthrough since you are relegated to the bottom route or equivalent for most of your play time. Sonic games don't really get fun until you replay the maps over and over again to explore for secrets and smooth out your runs so you can nail all the inputs or stay top path the whole time. It wasn't until people in /sthg/ started challenging me with time attacks that I appreciated sonic games. It's almost embarassing to have an opinion about sonic games before you do time attacks because the game is soooo much different when you are getting smooth runs (not necessarily speedruns) without mistakes or hesitations.
It feels like most people have an opinion from playing through the game like a campaign a few times and retaining nothing from it. Thats why I think sonic relies so much on spectacle and automation in the popular releases.