I beat this game on an iPhone a few years ago when I needed games to play while I commuted to work. People love to give the Sonic franchise crap, and for understandable reason, but I legitimately enjoy the originals, and even if they're silly and poorly designed I've even gotten some enjoyment out of some newer ones. I would've definitely been a SNES kid but the Sonic games knew how to take advantage of the Genesis hardware for a great look and sound. The iOS version saves after you beat each level, and I'm pretty sure that's not how the original version worked, but on the other hand I was playing on a touch screen. Also I didn't get the chaos emeralds but I didn't care enough to do so.

It's not as good as Mario's best. There are plenty of great ideas and great style and the game is very good, but it's not as well designed as most Mario platformers. And the end is a bit anti-climactic after all the crap I had to go through to get there. But for the most part it still holds up as a great classic.