Has a completely unbeatable energy and I love everything about it (except the mech mission stages). From the Speed Stage gameplay to the convoluted plot with lovable characters and voice acting, this represents everything I love most about the series.

SA1 feels like a perfect transition between the classic games and the 2000s in terms of design and scope. The 6 different perspectives is something I really love even with some of the less fun characters, and the story feels like a classic Sonic plot just with lots of dialogue. SA2 built well on a lot of it's ideas but this one is still unique enough in itself.

It's not hard at all to see what makes Sonic Mania such an amazing and fun Sonic game. It just oozes love and polish, and for someone like me who was unfamiliar with 2D Sonic at the time, it was an instant sell. Mania is also basically the reason why I even got back into Sonic, so it's rather important to me too.

I used to regard CD as a beautiful but fundamentally flawed mess, but after putting it in the context of the other classic Sonic games I've completely changed my mind and might consider it my favorite 90s Sonic. It's completely different from what the series became, taking the foundation of Sonic 1 and going towards being a speed-based puzzle platformer. And once you understand and respect that, it really comes together as a solid gem.

I played a bit into this and stopped when it got to games I wasn't familiar with. I'll go back on that one day, but what I played up to then was absolutely addicting! If the game had more charm in the story and character department I would put it higher for sure.

Metal Sonic is such an utterly slept on character, it just drives me up a wall. His design in itself is amazing and the way he's set up in his few appearances and the OVA creates potential for a really fun and complex robot character. But he hasn't shown up as a major antagonist in 21 years...

Shadow is also super underrated, less in underuse, but in misinterpretation. It's sad he might be one of the most complex and well-developed characters in the series yet is always reduced to just being EdgyHedgy all the time. His character is rather touching to me, and combined with his unironically amazing design and musical themes, I just fucking love this guy.

Sonic is such an interesting main character, he's got a timeless design, infectious, free-spirited personality, and a charm that falters between cool and cheesy depending on how well he's written. There's something elementary about this lil blue creature that makes him just endlessly appealing, and it's what brings people like me back to this series no matter how much it changes.

Like Metal and Shadow, Knuckles is a pretty awesome foil to Sonic, but I think that the fact that he is also just some dude doing his own thing on an ancient island makes him fun too. His connection to Angel Island and spirituality combined with his brash and strong personality just creates a really fun character balance.

Amy, my good friend Amy. I have a softspot for characters like her in media that regularly get thrown under the bus for being moony and girly. I'm a sucker for her shenanigans, and as much as I respect stuff now trying to make her more mature and less ditzy, I think it loses something for her to not get to be silly while also competent. Silly cartoon girls are very important to me.

This has to be one of my favorite video game OSTs of all time honestly, but it's also up here for very personal reasons. This is the soundtrack to some pretty rough times in my life, but I think the temporal theme really helped it be a soundtrack to my recovery too. My favorite theme is Tidal Tempest, with all it's variations being very meaningful for me. But each zone has the same pattern of incredibly, pumping music going through a whole suite of themed variations that makes it just so unique and magical to listen to.

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 both excel at having very diverse and character-filled soundtracks, but I think something about the way the themes of SA2 enhance the already amazing story really cements it as a fave. The job it does introducing characters like Rouge and Shadow as well as leaning into more hardcore genres than it's predecessor make it a fucking iconic delight. Only downside is that SA1 It Doesn't Matter is way better sorry. My favorite song is Shadow's theme - Throw It All Away.

TEE LOPES BABY! This soundtrack is so interesting for featuring both remixes and re-imaginings of original classic Sonic music as well as originals for the new stages. And like good remakes it doesn't strive to sound exactly like the original, but like the enhanced version of it the originals are meant to evoke! It just adds to how beautiful of an homage this game is to the genesis classics. Favorite song is Press Garden Act 1, underrated as hell!

Of all the 3D games excluding SA1, Sonic Colors' OST seems to harken back to the classic structure in the most tasteful way. Each zone theme is as catchy and imaginative as the levels themselves, and the distinct Act 1, 2, & 3 structure is a fun way to flesh them out. The soundtrack alone is my biggest inspiration to get back around to this game, I just dread how it won't be in service of a captivating narrative like the rest on this list. Fave track is Terminal Velocity Act 1, absolutely unmatched energy and an absolute banger.

Sonic Unleashed was maybe my first Sonic game, but when I was a wee idiot child and I was never really able to get very far in it. My most distinct memories are of Endless Possibilities, Windmill Isle (Day), and the infamous Werehog Battle music - that last one is actually a favorite of my mom's. The game in general I think is most notable for its insane production value, and it really shines in the classiness of the music that still doesn't betray the series' identity at all! I'm addicted to the night stage themes, but Windmill Isle (Day) may still be my favorite, it just brings back so many memories and is a perfect first stage theme for this game.

In terms of just straight artistic quality as an animated movie, the OVA clears the others with its story and visuals. A lot of others rely on just being a StH property to make up for faltering quality, but I think this OVA - though not a masterpiece - is a genuinely fun and wonderful lil film.

I hear AoStH gets flack for being so weird and random, but I feel like with how serious yet wild other US Sonic cartoons were, this one's actually perfect. It's just very fitting Looney Tunes style hijinks with the most iconic Robotnik in the US canon.

Sonic X is the classiest Sonic adaption next to the OVA, and it embodies the spirit of its era better than any other. And like other stuff from the 2000s, I think it has the most interesting interpretation of Sonic as this caring but oddly aloof character. He's uh... also the Sonic I had a crush on as a child...

This show got me through a very rough time in my life, and I adore it for that, but it's also unironically just drop-dead hilarious. If one good thing came out of Boom and the irony era of the 2010s, it's this evolving into one of the funniest liscensed shows ever.

This show is incredibly promising, and it's great to see a Sonic cartoon that is engrossed in itself thoroughly as an action-adventure comedy. The lively 3D animation is also such a treat, we haven't gotten anything this lovely since Unleashed, I haven't finished it but I have heard poor things about the ending's canonicity (which I'm not concerned about).

Unlike Mario who was created as sort of a stand-in to then have his design minorly refined over time, Sonic's conception as both a character design and brand mascot was a laborious process. I really think that it's the reason why through thick and thin this series has kept it's popularity, the character of Sonic and the entire franchise's visual identity is as iconic as it was once edgy. One of Sonic's earliest designs, Mr. Needlemouse is very beloved to me, because it definitely fits the bill of the character (and I really like it personally myself), but looking at it is a really clear to see what sort of small but careful refinements created the character he is today. And it's those refinements that have really managed to stick with Sonic even after he's been redesigned for so many eras over the past 3 decades.

Amy is quite possibly next to Shadow as the supporting character with the most butchered traits and backstory. Not as tragically as Shadow whose had his whole very meaningful backstory upended, but the fact that she is the only leading girl character and has lost so much characterization is a lil sad as well. She's from Little Planet which has never been touched on from my knowledge, she used to be into Tarot Cards which is sometimes brought up nowadays, and she was introduced alongside Metal Sonic (my other under-appreciated babygirl) yet any relationship between them is never mentioned. With all the attempts at re-imagining Amy to be a more serious character, I wish writers would lean on this old weirdness instead of trying to mellow her out.

Something that I adore about the classic games as much as I am a stickler for the 2000s era, is the weird non-mainline stuff. There's a lot of lost media and obscure characters buried in the 90s, which is so interesting cause I feel like there is a lot of energy put into white-washing the 90s as just being the 4.5 mainline titles and never anything weird or mediocre. Mean Bean Machine and Sonic R might be the well known ones, but a fave of mine is Sonic the Fighters. It has an amazing art and animation style and some bangin' ass fighting game music too. Fighting game spin-offs are great at bringing out the character of a franchise, and StF does in a very novel and enjoyable way.

I was never a lover of the Archie Sonic comics, and in all honesty I used to find Archie fans a little pretentious about their canceled comic. But when I looked into the backstory of the comics and their evolution and destruction due to the actions of one very weird man, my heart was moved. I could never imagine how ridiculously painful it must be to lose such an icon of video game comics due to the self-absorbed whims of one of the comics most unhinged ex-writers. As tragic as it is, it's doubtlessly one of the most entertaining bits of Sonic series trivia out there.

COMING SOON!