The game itself was good. The platforming part was really great. All the areas were transferred from 3D to 2D. It's great... Now let's talk about the negative points. Unfortunately, there are some, and my main complaint is about the special stages... I'm sorry, but they are bad. I never liked the special stages in Sonic 2, but here.... The controls are somehow even worse. Objects such as rings and bombs appear too soon, with no time to react to their appearance. In fact, the original Sonic 2 special stages had some specific rules for the appearance of rings. For example, when the tube spins, the rings and bombs appear only on the side visible to the player and not on the side where nothing is visible.
Now, I am not saying that the game is bad because of this. No, of course not. But I will say that these special stages really ruin the experience for some players who hate tube special stages. And yes, even Saturn Sonic 3D Blast had these stages, BUT they were easier because they were in 3D and gave time to react, and again followed the rules in placing rings and bombs along the way.