Compared to SA2, this game is very disappointing.

It seems like after admitting defeat in the console war, Sega and Sonic Team just does not give a shit about their games anymore. We lost the multiple well executed playstyle we got in SA2 and instead got what I can best describe as a team rotation playstyle. It is executed decently. However instead of developing more individual levels, Sonic Team decided that it's best for us to play the same levels four times over. Yes, there were slight variations for each of the 4 teams but the layout of the levels were essentially the same. It feels like cheap cost-saving measure.

I have a lot of problem with the controls of this game. We went from the responsive and predictable controls of the adventure era to what can only be described as ice skating. Seriously, the characters move so fucking slippery that you can somehow die from scripted loop segments due to being off from a spring. The controls are not good for this game at all and will lead to a significant amount of frustrating deaths.

I have no idea why they decided to make Sonic and friends look like they are made of plastic. Somehow the aesthetics in this game became worse than that in SA2, and SA2 didn't exactly have stellar aesthetics either!

The plot and characters are also whatever to me. None of the character moments stick with me. Even Neo Metal Sonic is forgettable with "What I am made of" playing in the back ground.

This is a painfully average game. The only redeeming part is the music and the somewhat not too bad level design. But everything else about it is just not good. It really looks like they didn't put any effort behind this game at all.

Jogo bem divertido com uma gameplay diferente de outros Sonic e com uma boa quantidade de campanhas e personagens jogáveis, apesar de não mudar muito de uma a outra, terminei apenas a do Sonic e do Shadow pois não curto muito o restante. Porem o jogo é extremamente bugado em algumas partes com pulos extremamente imprecisos, acredito que na época ainda estavam aprendendo a fazer sonic 3D. Esse jogo PRECISA de um remake ou sequencia para todas as plataformas atuais com a jogabilidade e graficos atualizados.

It breaks my heart to know that director and lead designer Takashi Iizuka crunched so hard to make this game that he couldn't sleep and lost 22 pounds. A game that was so formative to me was hell for the people that made those memories possible. I know that lots of games I love were made with the same callous disregard for workers that happens all the time in this capitalist hellscape, but it stings just a bit more with this one. A game regarded by many as the beginning of the decline, marking the start of Sonic's “dark age” (a time where the series had lots of good games, but that's besides the point).

But this game is way too cool and made with too much passion for that to be its legacy. Firstly, this game's aesthetic is aggressively vibrant. Sonic and co. are such bold primary colours that at times they look almost cel shaded. The level themes and set pieces are all really inspired too; Ocean Palace and Egg Fleet are both all-timers. While the title track is a bit too “cartoon theme song” for me, there's still plenty of great music here, Mystic Mansion and What I'm Made Of are personal favourites. Being able to switch between different characters on the fly and having them all work together is such a great premise. It makes the game feel dynamic in a way that having all those same mechanics used by just 1 character wouldn't be.

And the cast of characters here is, as far as I'm concerned, iconic. Not only do we have the classics from the Mega Drive and Dreamcast, but also obscure characters from the 32X are brought back, along with 2 brand new mainstays (Cream did appear first in Advance 2, but she was made for this game). This was around the time that the “Sonic’s annoying friends” narrative started to develop, but I'm officially here to say, fuck that shit. Wanting these games to only have Sonic, Tails and Eggman is boring. From the very beginning every Sonic game introduced new characters, each one with a unique personality and great character design. There is a reason that Sonic OCs are some of the most prevalent OCs of any fandom (like, who wants to make a Mario OC?).

You can really tell that Sonic Team wanted to take advantage of this being the first multi-platform Sonic game. A game that would introduce newcomers to a large feeling world full of colourful characters, while blowing them away with blistering speed and non-stop pacing. A game that says “Hey! This is what you guys have been missing!” and for all its problems (and there are many), it certainly succeeds in leaving an impression. It’s definitely not the best Sonic game, but in some ways, it is the MOST Sonic game.

Also fun fact, the 60hz option in the PAL release of this game is a goddamn turbo mode, seriously. For some inexplicable reason, in order to make the PAL version run at 60hz, they actually SPEED UP the game by about 17%! This also includes all in-engine cutscenes, which means they gradually go out of sync with the audio. Now tell me, how can you not love that?