There's not a single Sonic game that I'd say is a must play. Sonic Generations is pretty good but it's still just fine at best.

On top of what everyone else said. Try mean bean machine. Great game! Love the music.

There's only a handful of MUST plays.

-Sonic 1, 2, 3, CD and Knuckles

-Sonic Mania

-Sonic Generations

-Sonic X Shadow Generations

The rest of the series is meh.

It doesn't get a lot of love, but my favorite has always been Sonic Adventure. It was the first real 3D sonic and the open world, multiple playable characters (Yeah the fishing sucks), and level pacing made it stick out for me.

Its one of the few sonic games where I feel like you don't have to memorize a level's paths to actually play the game well. You feel like you're moving fast, but still feel like you can make active decisions while playing.

However, that probably puts me on the outskirts of the sonic fandom.

Go buy Sonic X Shadows Generation, now.

Its an excellent way to enter the franchise gameplay wise. After that, you could either play Sonic Origins if you like Classic gameplay or Frontier for modern gameplay.

• Sonic 1, 2, 3 & Knuckles on the Sega Genesis.
• Sonic Generations
• Sonic Mania
• Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart (Fan Game)

Only played the earlier games as they were included in some super old collection (Sonic Mega Collection Plus), but of these, all were pretty fun.

A tip: in one those earlier games, if a moving barrel never seems to fully move enough up or down, stay still and hold the directional button to the direction you want.

This will be controversial as as far as I am aware it isn't held in that high regard but in my opinion the best Sonic game made is Sonic Spinball.

It is an odd mix of things, there are a few sections where you need to do some very simple platforming but other than that it is basically a pinball game where you can influence the direction the ball (sonic) is travelling in a very small way. You need to hit certain objectives on each level to acquire chaos emeralds that then open up a boss room. I tend to return to it and complete a play through each year!

As a Sonic adjacent game I also always liked Doctor Robotniks Mean Bean Machine which is a match 3 type puzzle game where setting up combos of colours will trigger blocks to drop on an opponent and you have to survive whilst trying to push their game to the ceiling. Nothing ground breaking but I always enjoyed it.

Aside from that all of the original 2D platformers are decent and Sonic R on the Saturn was alright at the time, although not sure how it has held up over time.

All of the 3D offerings I have tried have been utter shite imo

My brief answer is 1, 2, Mania, & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed. Very minimalist.

Just noticed that the Sonic Advance games haven't been re-released in the west, they're tough but good platforming games of the GBA era. Sonic Battle is another GBA game that is actually a fun battler.

Of the 3D games, people always prefer Sonic Adventure 2, which I also think is better than Sonic Adventure 1 - it shows its age more than 2 - and although most people don't seem to like it, most levels of Sonic Heroes are interesting or fun, but having to play through all of them 4 times to unlock the final ending is a fucking chore.

Sonic 06

If you're on PC, you should consider these fan ports as well!

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Sonic Unleashed

Project 06 / Sonic 06 Download link is in the description

Sonic Chaos was pretty great

Haste :)

(sonic mania is my real answer btw, but haste is what I wanted out of a 3d sonic, only downside is that its levels are arcadey and procedurally generated rather than handcrafted.)

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Robust kart racer with advanced mechanics that reward good driving and still-working online multiplayer!

I collect them all, however none of the 3D ones are particularly gratifying for me. I enjoyed Sonic Mania. I also really wanted to like the one which is 2.5D 4 player coop, however it has some very serious balancing issues. The difficulty is all over the place.