Honestly I say just watch some funny LPs of the game, you'll get to laugh at the frustration without being frustrated yourself.
If you're going to go this route, be cautious of how many garbage Sonic '06 LPs there are. (Mainly just teenagers trying to act like Game Grumps.) I recommend the Pokecapn LP of Sonic 2006, as that's the one I found most enjoyment out of. There's also the Game Grumps LP, though it gets stale at around the half way mark and they never complete the game. Oh yeah, there's the Brainscratch LP too. That's another good one.
06 can be enjoyable. I tend to play the game in a way that avoids all the glitches. I hardly have an LP, just a few videos here and there, but I enjoy watching my own videos . The only Sonic game I won't play is Sonic GBA. The screen is just too small and it's just...not a good title. Edit: On the old topic of time travel-- One of Shadow's cutscenes (Where Rouge and Shadow were teleported from Kingdom Valley to Crisis City), Shadow's dialogue reads "We're still in the Doctor's base", except they were never there to begin with. Suddenly a computer in front of them? What? These inconsistencies lead me to believe that the story was changed, and new dialogue was never recorded.
Retsupurae has a Sonic 06 LP going on right now. Fair warning though, the upload schedule is kind of sporadic and they're playing it out of order.
Run Button's Sonic 06 LP as part of their Let's Play 20 Years of Sonic series is also good, though they only got as far as Kingdom Valley with Sonic and only got a few stages into Silver and, I think, Shadow's stories. For what it is, it's entertaining.
SomeCallMeJohnny's playthrough of Sonic 06 would be my recommendation too. His playthrough isn't full of him overreacting to like deaths, he knows what he's doing and it's a fun watch.
Am I the only one who likes Sonic Labyrinth? Or Sonic Blast to a certain point? Then I hear there are people who think ALL the Game Gear Sonic games are bad...that's where I draw the line.
Labyrinth and Blast were mediocre but far more playable than what many suggest them to be. Blast was the one 8 bit game you could play as Knuckles after all. Sonic 1 was good if a bit basic. Sonic 2 was good if unfairly difficult. Chaos was good if short and easy. Triple Trouble was good though probably stands as having the worst soundtrack of the bunch. Mean Bean Machine has laughable graphics but plays fine and has a cool Puzzle Mode as extra. Spinball was bland, but playable I suppose. The Drift games were okay for racers on an 8 bit console, if having difficulty issues (Drift 1 was patronisingly easy, while Drift 2's rubber band physics made winning a game of luck). Tails Skypatrol is about the same Labyrinth. A mediocre gimmick but hardly awful. Tails Adventure is a fun roamer, but really should have been on a higher tech console.
Whenever I think about the MS/GG games I swear they're all awful. Then I play Triple Trouble and Chaos and remember I actually do like some of them. Sonic 1's great, too.
Hoo boy...well, plenty of opportunity to answer this one I wouldn't say its worth the frustration when it comes to playing some games in the series. I can say however that its worth playing these games, to study them. Bad games tend to be easier to pick apart and to understand then well designed games, because all of its design elements are pretty much scattered all over the place in the form of glitches, silly story telling, or mostly gameplay flaws. I'd say its worth trying any of the bad reputation games since you never know if you may enjoy one. We have guilty pleasures and even if some games are bashed to the ends of the Neither world and never to return, some I can enjoy. One on the list that's been bashed to death is Sonic 3D Blast, a game known for its awkward transition for Sonic into pseudo 3D, controls, and mostly boring level design. Even with its bad reputation that 3D Blast holds, I still make sure its one of the Sonic games I play yearly since it still pulled the right notes for me. Sonic 06 is worth playing, like what the others have said if only for the humor you can have and the potential to just have a great laugh. If you're a consumer who is unaware of 06 and the many flaws it has, and you intend to take it seriously...no, you won't have a good time with it. Its worth dipping your feet into these games, not because of frustration. Examining them, making fun of them, or just seeing what kind of games you may like that others don't. I enjoy Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Heroes, and Sonic Unleashed but other games like Sonic and the Secret Rings make me cringe and want to snap my wiimote in half. Speaking of playthroughs actually, there's of course Somecallmejohnny as others have mentioned, plus BrainScratchComms playlist on 06 is pretty good as well.
I noticed in the past couple of years that a lot you have implied that you actually went out and purchased the more recent Sonic games that have gotten terrible reviews (Boom, Lost World, etc.). Why though? I skipped out on Boom and S4:E2 and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Now I know some people are going to want to say, "You don't know how bad/good it is until you've actually played it, therefore you can't say it's bad", but if a game is floored by all critics, then chances are it's a bad game that's probably not worth your time (yes I know S4E2 wasn't "floored" by critics, but I sure as hell know it still doesn't live up to S3&K, and I sure as hell know that Boom WAS floored by critics and everyone alike). Why purchase the badly received titles? Is it to support the series, or just because you're hoping there's good qualities in it? There was a time where I would always get every new Sonic release but that time is long gone for me.
In the case of S4:E2, while most critics didn't think it was great, most people around here, myself included, thought it was a gigantic step up from E1, and an okay game. On the rest, it comes down to novelty, I imagine.
I play them until I'm fully convinced that they stink, then I try not to touch them again. ...Unless I forget how bad they were, then the cycle repeats.
Its the battered women's syndrome. You saw something good in him 21 years ago, and no matter how much crap Sonic throws at you, you are still holding tight to the memory of the good times. The games after Generations were the final straw and thats where I stopped buying Sonic games. Its easy to distinguish the good from the bad games. The good refer to the villain as dr. Ivo Robotnik (which is his true name, ffs y'all) and the bad as his NICKNAME Eggman. Sonic Adventure 1 is halfway good/bad because it uses both. Then Ivo stopped caring about his nickname. Or if you are going to say 'but thats his Japanese name', alright. Start referring to the Capcom games as Biohazard and Rockman.
I didn't get any of the Sonic Boom games because I don't own any consoles those are on. I've got Lost World on Steam because, to be honest, I didn't even hear it was a 'bad' game, to be honest. And to add it to my Sonic collection. It's not that bad really. As for S4:Ep2, I got it in a bundle and play it more than S4:E1 as I enjoy it... as bit.
It depends on the player but some may actually like the game. Others may be putting up with that game for charity streaming. Or they may just want to see the quality of the game for themselves. Me though? It varies between the three.
Sometimes for me it's the case of unpopular opinion of liking the game, like how a lot of people can't stand Black Knight while I actually enjoy it. Other than that, it's to get my own perspective of the game so I can actually judge it for myself rather than deciding whether I myself think the game is bad based on other people's opinion. Black Knight comes to mind again about this point, and 06 to an extent but a lot of the fun I get from that comes from how broken it is, which is the case for some other people too. I skipped out on Boom though of course as I could tell just by footage and how much was wrong with it that it wasn't a game I'd enjoy, and I tried the demo of the 3DS one only to be disappointed.
