Pretty inoffensive but has a lot of good ideas and makes me hope that we continue to get a lot of these smaller sonic experiences I feel the series has been missing since the 2000's.

Characters control super well and I wish they played more into the physics allowed because the game is pretty on rails in some sections. Level design while I think is pretty great for exploration, is pretty wide and makes going through stages pretty straightforward. That said it is fun to just move around as sonic and friends so it kept the game enjoyable. It has the kinetic energy the sonic/shadow action stages from adventure 2 has which I missed from the series.

It's amazing to have a playable Sonic roster this big again. However, while there are six characters to play, you really only get 3 playstyles between the three types so I wish they leaned into giving everyone individual traits (Amy still never uses here hammer besides an aesthetic these days. The parry in the frontiers dlc doesn't count). I also feel a lot of the "get to the goal" Acts get ruined after the first playthrough since the stage/door unlocks remain unlocked after the level ends. They are able to get a lot of content out of reusing levels and I really think the extra missions were super fun.

I feel most of the problems and restrictions the game has is have is due to the nature of this being designed and budgeted for mobile platforms (please port to other platforms). I do think if Sega Hardlight is given a chance to make a bigger scale, they seriously can knock it out the park. The potential here is huge and it's brimming with a lot of good to be salvaged. I don't see myself playing this again anytime soon unfortunately since it's locked behind an apple arcade subscription I don't want to pay to do daily tails missions. (I'd pay an apple sub for original sonic runners to come back tho...)

I've started playing through this game every year around the winter and I'm just convinced it's one of all time favorites. Such a simple game but I'm a sucker for the aesthetics and gameplay. Love doing loops and seeing how high of a score I can get and Nights is such a cool character design. Music is probably one of my favorite gaming soundtracks also. Simply no other game that fits it's vibe.

I've played through the pc port a number of times but if you're interested there is a 60fps mod and an input improvement mod for the steam version that fixes the deadzones that make it more in line with the Saturn version. It made my recent playthrough more enjoyable this year. Really a game changer.