A couple weeks ago I found out that "South Island" is in fact a real place and in New Zealand. And it's one of the most gorgeous natural places I've ever seen on Earth (some of these aren't South Island, just other parts of New Zealand)

And, I'm willing to bet, it's what inspired a lot of the early Aesthetic in Sonic's world. The sheer scale, the colors, even the name "South Island" for the first game. They were clearly inspired by real places and I think I found one.

All things considered, we know very little about Sonic's Japanese development (maybe why Sonic 2's development is more documented). The aesthetics of the original world was very particular in JP media. Real-world vacation spots though a funky cgi and Memphis style lens.

You really got to see this style come through 10-fold when Naoto Ohshima was in charge of the art direction. You can even see part of that art style in Ohshima's other games.

And I think some of this idea of Sonic's world aesthetic being a heightened scale world designed to give an empathetic response to the environment gets lost on some people. (It's not just wacky for the sake of wackiness, it's exaggerated).

Pointing out that what makes Sonic's world feel the way it does is far more than just "checkers and silly shapes". It contributes to it in a big way, but it's not the whole formula and it's not random. It's far more considered than you might think at a glance.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles (probably the best actual Sonic game) tones a lot of the crazier aspects down, but the atmosphere and elements are still present, just not as overblown. Something that also gets heavily overlooked in Sonic is the massive amount of 80s anime influence.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles (and bits of the whole classic trilogy actually) seem to take a lot of influence from Hayao Miyazaki's "Laputa" (aka "Castle in the Sky"). In fact, S3K beat for beat matches a lot of the ideas in Laputa very closely.

More:

Even more:

Also, if you haven't seen Laputa, you absolutely should, it's a fantastic adventure story.

That last shot in particular. People who know Sonic very well probably also know that Hidden Palace was originally going to be used for Sonic 2. That should give you a hint about how long this movie influenced the series. And if that doesn't, this might help.

Quick addendum to the Goliath/Flying Battery images. Got a camo pattern shot too.

My point is, there's some genuine inspiration here that went into Sonic at its core and I think it's something many overlook these days. But I think if you understand these influences, you can take it and make something genuine and new at the same time.