I think it's disappointing how Sonic was one of the pioneers of marrying story and gameplay in platformers only for its most recent entry to be one where the two couldn't be more separate. Sonic's always been kind of arcade-y but Frontiers takes it to another level.
Why is the story here locked off behind an arbitrary collectible? Why won't Amy talk to me unless I have 50 hearts I found inside some boxes and busted robots? The cutscenes here just do not take place in the same world as the gameplay.

Levels are accessed through random portals that lead to literally different worlds with no attempt at connecting anything together. Gone are the days of a Sonic game feeling like you're going on one cohesive adventure through a well-defined locale like Angel Island in Sonic 3.

It's a shame because Forces actually made great strides in making sure every level had a justification to exist within the world and the story, and even made sure that they all ended in ways that could lead into the following cutscene, a far cry from the usual goal rings the series employs when it runs out of ground for Sonic to run on.

It's like, alright beyond that, but it didn't exactly blow my mind like it seems to have done for so many other people.