Sonic for me, died after Sonic & Knuckles. So I'm going to have to say 2D.
Mechanically the 3D games are a mess and SEGA just keep adding to them (no, piling features on) with every new release.. when they should look at their older entries and get back to basics.
I personally stopped playing the games after Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast. It's passable, but not great. Never got around to complete it. Bought the HD rerelease last year and played it for about 1.5-2 hours before getting bored. The older games.. I can still go back to (1-3 + S&K), and they are a delight to play.