During one Games Done Quick event running this game, a donation comment said "There are more levels after Toxic Caves?"
I fucking felt that.

I honestly can't tell you whether this or Unleashed is the best "boost" game, but what I can tell you is that Classic Sonic is a much less obnoxious gimmick than the Werehog.

The best Sonic OST ever made is stuck on a clunky racing game that I only truly enjoyed when I was playing Sonic Gems Collection as a kid.

Janky as all fuck. And yet, I could declare it as the best official 3D Sonic game.
Says a lot about this series, doesn't it?

I badly want to give this the 5 stars it deserves, but the last third of the game isn't really that good. I'm sorry.

Isn't it funny, or perhaps a bit sad, that "The game gets worse from Oil Ocean onwards" applies to both this and Mania?

The Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony only having a Crush 40 remix of "Sonic Boom" to represent this game just makes me think about what a fucking travesty it was for the U.S. soundtrack to exist in the first place. The Japanese soundtrack is one of the best Sonic OSTs ever made, and I will fight to the death over that opinion.
The game itself is okay, I guess.

Marble Zone might still be among the shittiest second levels to ever be put in a game. And sadly the rest of the game isn't much better.

A solid game in its own right, but also a massive fuckup of a sequel. The story isn't coherently mixed with Doom 2016, the gameplay is fundamentally broken because bosses have to spawn fodder enemies for ammo, Mick Gordon got the composer curse, Snapmap and traditional Deathmatch were removed to the detriment of replay value, and the Invasion mode was canceled for good measure.

Maybe the artstyle wasn't the best for the series, but given the hindsight of Doom Eternal, this has aged pretty damn well.

The absolute pinnacle of "short but sweet" in the video game industry.

I respect the purpose of showcasing the Source Engine's features, but when viewed as a video game, this is so much more boring than Half-Life 1 and nothing will ever change my stance.

Between its fast-paced gameplay, sound design and variety of weapons and enemies, replaying this never gets old.

You know how I said that Vectorman 1 should have a fan remaster or a spiritual successor to unleash its full potential? This is why.
It's about as bad of a sequel as Half-Life 2 and Doom Eternal.

Flawed as hell, but also solid as hell. Incredibly tight controls, interesting level design and banging music all mesh horribly with a crippling screen crunch, reused level aesthetics and some gimmicky boss fights.
If this got a fan remaster or a spiritual successor to unleash its full potential, it could be on par with the classic Sonic games.