Similar to the first one, but with a bit more polish. There's a wider variety of stage aesthetics too. While you have your mainstays like grass starting level, and snow level, you also get some more unique choices. I think Music Plant is one of my favourite 2D Sonic stages now. Techno Base is also a really interesting zone, but I can't decide how I feel about it because it's so overly bright and flashy that I love it, but it also hurts to look at so I hate it.
There is a MASSIVE increase in boss difficulty here. It's obvious from the first boss, but the second boss honestly presented a legit challenge and I'm ashamed to say how much I died to it. They're also some of the most inventive bosses I've seen in a 2D Sonic game. For the challenge, it's never really to a point of being frustrating (except the Knuckles boss, fuck him), but this game loses a quality of life feature from the first, where you could restart any zone from either act. Now zones must be restarted from the first act, so it's much harder to try and actually get used to the patterns of the tougher bosses, leading to more frustrating defeats as you have to go through 2 stages again.
Difficulty in stages themselves was great up until the last zone. Egg Utopia is just full of unfair bottomless pits, blocks that can crush you etc.
My biggest complaint is the Chaos Emerald system in this one. First of all they don't share between characters like last time, so to get the true final ending you need to get them all as Sonic. But actually getting to a special zone now requires you to find 7 collectables in a stage rather than just one secret spring. And they don't save between playthroughs so you need to get them all in a single go. Way too much hassle, I honestly never even saw a special stage because I couldn't be bothered going through that. They could have easily made it more tolerable in many ways, like maybe having the requirement being 7 rings across both acts, this would still allow players who get all rings to have an advantage since they'd get 2 chances per special zone instead of 1. Maybe have the rings save between playthroughs. Have Chaos Emeralds shared. So many ways it could have been better.
I actually kinda like Cream as an addition though. I only tested her out in the first stage, but she doesn't have the handicap of not having spin attacks like Amy in the last game, and using a Chao as an attack is pretty fun.
For the majority of this game I loved it, my only complaint was the chaos emerald system. But as I neared the end, some extremely frustrating boss and stage designs put me off, especially when coupled with the changes to quality of life regarding level selecting. I'd still say it's an overall better game than the first, but by the time I ended, I'd say only just, whereas if I was asked after the first half an hour of playing I'd have claimed this one was far superior.
There is a MASSIVE increase in boss difficulty here. It's obvious from the first boss, but the second boss honestly presented a legit challenge and I'm ashamed to say how much I died to it. They're also some of the most inventive bosses I've seen in a 2D Sonic game. For the challenge, it's never really to a point of being frustrating (except the Knuckles boss, fuck him), but this game loses a quality of life feature from the first, where you could restart any zone from either act. Now zones must be restarted from the first act, so it's much harder to try and actually get used to the patterns of the tougher bosses, leading to more frustrating defeats as you have to go through 2 stages again.
Difficulty in stages themselves was great up until the last zone. Egg Utopia is just full of unfair bottomless pits, blocks that can crush you etc.
My biggest complaint is the Chaos Emerald system in this one. First of all they don't share between characters like last time, so to get the true final ending you need to get them all as Sonic. But actually getting to a special zone now requires you to find 7 collectables in a stage rather than just one secret spring. And they don't save between playthroughs so you need to get them all in a single go. Way too much hassle, I honestly never even saw a special stage because I couldn't be bothered going through that. They could have easily made it more tolerable in many ways, like maybe having the requirement being 7 rings across both acts, this would still allow players who get all rings to have an advantage since they'd get 2 chances per special zone instead of 1. Maybe have the rings save between playthroughs. Have Chaos Emeralds shared. So many ways it could have been better.
I actually kinda like Cream as an addition though. I only tested her out in the first stage, but she doesn't have the handicap of not having spin attacks like Amy in the last game, and using a Chao as an attack is pretty fun.
For the majority of this game I loved it, my only complaint was the chaos emerald system. But as I neared the end, some extremely frustrating boss and stage designs put me off, especially when coupled with the changes to quality of life regarding level selecting. I'd still say it's an overall better game than the first, but by the time I ended, I'd say only just, whereas if I was asked after the first half an hour of playing I'd have claimed this one was far superior.