In 2006 I not only couldn't afford a next gen console, I was also a huge Nintendo fanboy. Subsequently I fucking hated Sonic Next-Gen and every trailer I saw of it was a classic example of the Fox and the Grapes.

I posted negatively about the game on message boards like 1up.com at the time, saying it will probably suck and how it doesn't look very good, and now 19 years later I really regret that because when I play the game now and I have the context of the team rushing to finish it for Sonic's arbitrary 15 year anniversary (really probably an order down from Sony who wanted a bigger launch lineup) and Yuji Naka quitting in the middle of development, it really ruined a game that I now feel had a ton of potential and one of the last truly Japanese remnants of Sonic in that pre meta era which actually presented new environments rather than rehashed shit like we get now. The following three games which were Secret Rings (which I was also excited about in 2007 for obvious reasons), Unleashed and Black Knight were the last of Sonic as we knew him. 2010 on was something else. Not the Sonic I grew up with.