Sonic wasn't exactly enticing me in 2D, back then it was more the comics, animated series's, and Sonic Adventure 1 that helped me get obsessed with it.
As for Jandau's question, there ARE good 3D Sonic games...Sonic Adventure 1, 2, Sonic Heroes, AND Sonic RIders...are all good 3D Sonic games, despite their flaws, because they focus on speed, story telling, and give me more people to care about besides Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles...After these four came out, we had Shadow the Hedgehog...Which was a case of "Good concept, horrible execution", and it started going downhill from there.