Sonic Mania is great, but fewer people seem to know the team also went on to create Penny's Big Breakaway independently of SEGA, and I actually liked that game even more!

It was just Sonic music, SFX, and some sprites in a WAD. I was just messing around, no real goals in mind. I think SRB2 is a phenomenal project that's really pushed the limits of what the Doom engine and Sonic community can do and showcases, better than Sega has ever done until fairly recently, how well the classic Sonic formula can work in 3D.

One of the key factors in the history of Sonic that I didn't know until recently was that he was a total flop in Japan. In fact the Mega Drive struggled to gain traction there. That's why they kept trying to reinvent the formula into the 2000s and beyond; from Sega (of Japan)'s perspective, unlike Mario, they hadn't established a gameplay template that they knew would be a worldwide hit, only a character they knew was popular in the USA and Europe.

But the SRB developers got it. They knew what made classic Sonic work, and sought to replicate that with the strengths—and limitations—of the Doom engine and produced an absolute banger of a project.