It has finally happened. I've beaten Sonic '06... and I can muster no hatred for it whatsoever. It is, quite obviously, an unfinished mess of a video game. It is full of bad decisions. Each level has at least one poorly conceived piece of nonsense which greedily consumes either a player's time or their stock of lives. The automation of its spectacle setpieces cannot be trusted. Sonic '06 is a game that must be played safe. Flirting with shortcuts will only invite destruction. Its story crumbles to dust under the weight of a single glance of scrutiny. Its voice direction is simply wrong in so many places. On an actual Xbox 360 hard drive rather than my PC's SSD, the loading times are so horrific that I would never, EVER recommend that anyone play it in that way, which until about a decade after its release was the only possible way to play Sonic '06.

And yet... this was fun. I had fun with Sonic '06. More than I have had with Sonic Heroes. I don't know if this makes me a defender or a hater.