I played this expecting to hate it but I was pleasantly surprised (somewhat).
I think the main Sonic/Shadow stages were generally enjoyable, I liked how Sonic and Shadow controlled and the levels themselves were big, open and let you experiment with the physics a lot and I mostly had fun playing them at least when they weren't full of annoying trial and error insta-deaths, Shadow's gameplay was a bit gimmicky for my liking but nothing too egregious.
Too bad I can't say the same for those bloody plane levels, good god they were awful, just what I want when playing a Sonic game, long boring segments where I'm slowly flying around trying not to bump into something that will insta-kill me while trying to snipe an enemy that will also insta-kill me if I get too close!
These levels were so bad that I couldn't be bothered to make it to the end of the game and fight the supposedly awful final boss, whoever approved this needs to be kicked in the balls.
UPDATE:
I have since downloaded a completed save file that allowed me to skip the god awful flying stages, turns out I didn't miss much, a poorly designed Sonic stage and some crap bosses, avoid it and save the 8gb of space.
I think the main Sonic/Shadow stages were generally enjoyable, I liked how Sonic and Shadow controlled and the levels themselves were big, open and let you experiment with the physics a lot and I mostly had fun playing them at least when they weren't full of annoying trial and error insta-deaths, Shadow's gameplay was a bit gimmicky for my liking but nothing too egregious.
Too bad I can't say the same for those bloody plane levels, good god they were awful, just what I want when playing a Sonic game, long boring segments where I'm slowly flying around trying not to bump into something that will insta-kill me while trying to snipe an enemy that will also insta-kill me if I get too close!
These levels were so bad that I couldn't be bothered to make it to the end of the game and fight the supposedly awful final boss, whoever approved this needs to be kicked in the balls.
UPDATE:
I have since downloaded a completed save file that allowed me to skip the god awful flying stages, turns out I didn't miss much, a poorly designed Sonic stage and some crap bosses, avoid it and save the 8gb of space.