Is it weird that I'm excited for Mania just because of the killer music and beautiful sprites? Like I'm not even a Sonic fan but I still wanna play the game?
As a kid, I was heavily into the online sprite-making community, especially Sonic sprites. I tried my hand at making an OC and editing sprites to make him look cool, but ultimately I fell out of it once high school hit. I frequented sites such as Sonic Stadium, Mario Fan Games Galaxy, The Spriter's Resource, etc., all because I loved the art of making sprites and appreciated them a ton.
Sprites from the classic Sonic games, in particular, impressed the shit out of me because of the high level of detail and massive amount of frames. Say what you want when comparing classic Sonic to classic Mario, but the pure amount of love and detail that went into every frame of animation of the former was unrivaled between the two.
Generations, to me, was a celebration of the fandom as a whole. As much as I hate to admit it, I've been in this shit through thick and thin. I beat Shadow the Hedgehog with every ending, I played through at least half of Sonic '06 and I tackled some of the weirder Game Gear games. I've been through some shit, man! Generations took the best moments of the best (And worst) games and made it all seem pretty good!
Mania, however, will be a reflection not only of the games themselves, but the community I was apart of for so long. I look forward to appreciating every little detail the visual designers managed to cram into this thing!