It's a game of high highs, but low lows.
"Day good, Night bad" has been said ad nauseam, because it's true. The daytime stages are fast-paced thrills, requiring precise reflexes to keep moving. When you fail in one of these stages, it's generally because of your own error, and you learn something from it. To me, they're what Sonic is all about. Speedy gameplay, diverting routes that reward masterful platforming, and wonderful setpieces. They're just plain fun to blast through. My complaints for the day stages are minimal, and boil down to them sometimes overusing QTEs. Meanwhile, the Werehog stages kinda suck. They're full of repetitive brawls, tedious tightrope sections, boring backtracking, and so on. They really kill the pacing of the game, as does returning to them because you missed a few medals. They're not all bad, but I just can't say this is what I'm playing the game for. They really hinder the sense of progression, which is a shame.
I did at least like the boss fights. All of them were memorable, and Dark Gaia was a great sendoff to the game.
Where the game truly shines is in its presentation. I love the globetrotting nature of the game, exploring the vast array of communities that you come across. The music never misses, and the game looks and runs stunningly on Xbox Series X|S as well. I was also fond of the cutscenes. You can tell a lot of love was put into these aspects of the game, so I just wish it was this consistently fun to actually play.
I don't play Sonic games for the story. That being said, it was pretty inoffensive. It added some interesting lore to Sonic's world, which is a big plus. I enjoyed seeing the friendship between Sonic and Chip flourish too. I wish the other characters didn't get so sidelined, but oh well. Everything else was fine; I liked how Sonic was motivated by a personal goal as well as by saving the planet.
All in all, fun game, but some questionable design choices hold it back, sadly. 7/10.
"Day good, Night bad" has been said ad nauseam, because it's true. The daytime stages are fast-paced thrills, requiring precise reflexes to keep moving. When you fail in one of these stages, it's generally because of your own error, and you learn something from it. To me, they're what Sonic is all about. Speedy gameplay, diverting routes that reward masterful platforming, and wonderful setpieces. They're just plain fun to blast through. My complaints for the day stages are minimal, and boil down to them sometimes overusing QTEs. Meanwhile, the Werehog stages kinda suck. They're full of repetitive brawls, tedious tightrope sections, boring backtracking, and so on. They really kill the pacing of the game, as does returning to them because you missed a few medals. They're not all bad, but I just can't say this is what I'm playing the game for. They really hinder the sense of progression, which is a shame.
I did at least like the boss fights. All of them were memorable, and Dark Gaia was a great sendoff to the game.
Where the game truly shines is in its presentation. I love the globetrotting nature of the game, exploring the vast array of communities that you come across. The music never misses, and the game looks and runs stunningly on Xbox Series X|S as well. I was also fond of the cutscenes. You can tell a lot of love was put into these aspects of the game, so I just wish it was this consistently fun to actually play.
I don't play Sonic games for the story. That being said, it was pretty inoffensive. It added some interesting lore to Sonic's world, which is a big plus. I enjoyed seeing the friendship between Sonic and Chip flourish too. I wish the other characters didn't get so sidelined, but oh well. Everything else was fine; I liked how Sonic was motivated by a personal goal as well as by saving the planet.
All in all, fun game, but some questionable design choices hold it back, sadly. 7/10.