Looking at that modernized Sonic design entry and 3D Blast's Japanese art, it reminds me I'll always have a soft spot for Sonic Adventure 1 because it really felt like an actual modernization of Sonic not just at the time, but especially in retrospect.
So like... how to explain... anyone with half a brain knows Classic Sonic always had real life-looking areas in the games like cities, arcades, stuff like that right alongside the fantasy-looking zones? Star Light Zone vs Labyrinth Zone, official art from Sonic Jam (the kind Mania copied, in fact), etc. Not to mention the specific look and animation style Sonic CD and the OVA had, yes? Adventure 1 to my teenaged American ass at the time just saw all of that as finally being fleshed out into a coherent whole, the Japanese influence in the games and the official Japanese art (such as that aformentioned Sonic Jam art) being brought over fully for American Sonic's media. Sonic himself in the game, even with his redesign, still felt very much in continuity to Classic Sonic in personality. He still saved little animals and smashed badniks, still went through bright and colorful zones urban and natural, Eggman was still being an insane scientist ready to take over the world. While even then I preferred Classic Sonic's world that felt like a cross (to me) between the stereotypical Studio Ghibli nature/rural living and urban facades looking like colorful arcades, Adventure 1 was as good a "maturing" or "deconstruction" of that aesthetic as you could ask for. Especially if we'd go back to Classic Sonic afterwards.
Of course, that never happened till Mania.
Adventure 2 really began the push to the legendary Sonic 'tism via Shadow essentially canonizing the OCDonutsteel design concept and going way harder on the drama and "realism" than Adventure 1 ever did. It began to feel less like Sonic in the first place. The Classic Sonic aesthetic and gameplay points like springs, badniks, etc. felt less and less inherent and more like tacked-on stuff because they had to put it in because that's what Sonic was "supposed" to have. It's why I checked out of Sonic for ages until Mania suddenly brought back everything everyone loved about Classic Sonic in gameplay AND how his world looked and felt like - an "arcade Ghibli" is how I describe it.
I wonder how it'd be if we had Sonic Team stick to a "Modern" Sonic that hewed much closer to Classic, IE one that looks like the 3D Blast's packaging and gameplay also similarly evolved but not radically changed up. No doubt much healthier for the brand and fanbase than what happened in reality.
