I'll start - I actually quite enjoyed Sonic 06, despite the bugs and long loading screens. I may be biased because I'm a huge Silver fan but I actually also really like the gameplay with the stories focusing on their main characters, but occasionally intersecting and having sections with their supporting characters. It had huge potential, but as we all know, it was unfortunately quite rushed. I think, in my very non-critical views, that it deserved a better chance.

Shadow the Hedgehog, of course

Why the game is pretty awful, I still support the idea of Shadow having his own games. They should've gone with the SA2 movement/engine instead of Sonic Heroes.

It also has the best presentation of Shadow to date in the high-quality 3D scenes.

SA1 doesn't hold up to modern expectations, but its really fun! I really wish the controls were better because that was why my friend couldn't get into the game.

It also has the best presentation of Shadow to date in the high-quality 3D scenes

Ah, a true furry, but you are correct. The opening track "I am" is seriously good and I want to make a heavier version as a cover.

I implore you to play BetterSADX on PC:

https://gamebanana.com/mods/49933

I implore you to play Project 06:
https://m.youtube.com/c/ChaosX

Spinball has some good music even if some of the stages are frustrating

I never understood why it got so much flack. It's a lot of fun to play (minus Big/fishing) and was a pretty solid transition to 3D. Sure it had some jank, but I haven't played a sonic game since that I enjoyed as much.

Good shout! I looked into it a while back but my laptop wasn't good enough to run it. It might be worth seeing if my new one can. Though it's still not the whole game I think it'll be cool to see what a less janky 06 woulda been like

I'm gonna be honest, yet again, to my very uncritical self, I've been really enjoying it. I've been playing it for the first time recently and the sorta karma system is cool, and I'm easy to please (Sonic media = neuron activation) so I'm quite enjoying it tbh

I think its fair to compare it to games that came out around that time. A game like Super Mario 64 feels better to control. The problem is that Sonic runs so much faster that the same control scheme doesn't quite work. It could have been done better and SA2 is a solid upgrade. The mechanics of SA1 are amazing though and thats why I keep going back to it about once a year

I do use that mod

Mario 64 is definitely the more polished game.

However, the different play styles, repurposed levels, story, open world exploration, etc. make it more fun to return to Sonic Adventures over Mario 64 in my opinion. There is certainly a lot of jank, but that era was pretty much defined by jank.

That being said, I think the N64 era holds up the worst for Nintendo. I tend to prefer SNES or GameCube games over most N64 games, so I'm probably biased.