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.