I revitalized my love of Sonic from childhood in 2017 when I played Sonic Mania, but it was picking up Sonic forces and being blown away by it's mediocrity that I decided to stay.
I've played a game from each era of Sonic and I have something I love about each of them, but my loyalty lies mostly with the sincerely cheesy games of the 2000s. The messy, volatile history of this series as a franchise and fandom is infectious, and I mean that with all the affection possible because there's really nothing like Sonic.