Sonic the Hedgehog 2, on the Sega GameGear and Master system made me want to run off a cliff with a hang glider despite having no idea what's at the bottom of the cliff.

Sonic does it a bunch in this game so it must be safe, right?

I would say that pretty much all of the early 2D Sonic games fall in the same realm as "not incredible, but slightly above average platformers", but this is definitely one of the weaker entries in the series.