if sonic mania had an identity crisis

the main game fluctuates wildly in quality with some fantastic songs and levels in the beginning that drops in quality as the game continues. the bosses suck, straight up. most of the emerald powers are either lame or extremely broken but i don't like that they're used as a crutch during boss fights.

i like trip and am very glad that she's playable after the main game. unfortuantely, her story is even worse than the main one with stupidly long boss fights and the worst final boss i've fought in a while. i hate insta-kill moves in boss fights with no checkpoints.

the true final boss just sucks. no comment.

the music makes me so sad. some great tracks on display by tee lopes and toriena (toriena i love you) but many of the fm-wannabe sonic 4 styled tracks fall extremely flat.

multiplayer is extremely frustrating, don't even bother with it.

sorry for the poor formatting but there's my thought dump i guess