This game starts out feeling great, the character pairing is a great way to add variety to the gameplay and most of the levels are designed to encourage experimenting with that mechanic to find the best way through each one.

But this is overshadowed by some glaring issues. The first that came up to me was the Twinkle Snow boss, it's a difficulty spike that feels really bad because if you get hit once then you will just fall and die and have to start again.

Where I think this gets really bad is in the final zone. This already has the issue of an overabundance of bottomless pits and enemy/spike traps that you can't predict (there was literally one point where I didn't see an enemy because it was obscured by foreground elements in the level.) This is really bad in the third act where the entire stage is basically one whole bottomless pit and much like the Twinkle Snow boss one hit will send you falling to your death, sure there are checkpoints but once you get your first Game Over you only have 3 lives to work with before having to start the Act over.

The boss of this level is also frustrating, because of how the arena is setup it is very easy to not be able to recollect your rings when you get hit. Add to this how the boss can easily hit you without warning and this too saps a lot of lives.

I think the final boss after this may be somewhat less frustrating but honestly at this point I just wanted the game to end so I quite literally Cheesed the boss using Cream's Chap.

I really want to love this game but the final moments bring it down for me.

Sometimes a licensed game comes along that manages to be good. Then in cases like this one comes along that manages to be great.

Obviously no game is perfect and that does become evident by the last 2 levels of the game. The missions are made up of a bunch of different objective types that are linked together in different ways to make a full mission. This in combination with the small map sizes can result in the game feeling a bit repetitive towards the end, thankfully the game ends before this becomes a significant problem.

Really didn't go much on this one. Sure the controls and physics were good but there were too many fundamental problems that stopped this game from feeling good for me.

First up the level design doesn't follow the standard Classic Sonic rule of fast but difficult top routes and slow but easier bottom routes. Instead it goes for a labyrinth style structure with falling usually dropping you into into a previous part of a stage or a short diversion that brings you back to where you just were. Whilst some people might enjoy this, and it can be considered a good adaptation of the 3D Blast level design to 2D, I just found this frustrating.

Second is enemy placement. There were a lot of times where I would get blindsided by an enemy that is hard to react to in time. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem as enemies like that are usually placed in areas where you should be rolling and that will take care of them, but this game also places those types of enemies on slopes going upwards, where you would likely be running not rolling. It isn't even easy to slow down to avoid these enemies as you will struggle to keep the momentum needed to get up the hill.

My third and final problem is the bosses, a lot of them have attack patterns that are hard to predict and very short windows of opportunity where you can get an attack in, leading to a lot of lost rings and lost lives. Sometimes I would even get rebounded into the bosses attacks after a successful hit of my own.

By far the best way to play Sonic CD. Takes the already great base of the 2011 port and elevates it to the next level. (Played with the & Knuckles add-on).

Sonic has access to his full classic moveset with the drop dash and insta-shield being added to the game, the former being a great tool for time travel.

Tails hasn't changed much appart from the added flight cancel, making it much easier to fly through the stages quickly.

Amy is a new addition in Restored, she is limited to the Sonic CD spindash meaning she can't pick up speed as well as the others but her double jump makes up for that turning her into a platforming focused character.

Knuckles is a part of the "& Knuckles" addon and is a perfect addition to this game. His gliding and climbing are really well suited to hunting for robot generators and Metal Sonic holograms.

This is just scratching the surface of what these two mods together have to offer, with a whole host of options being available to change up the gameplay. For example I turned on the options to start in a random time zone and play as a random character at the start of each stage/when traveling time to make a Pseudo-Encore Mode.

[Played as Espio Alone]

I'm not really one for playing this game with the Team mechanic. Instead I prefer to play as one of the individual characters and playthrough Sonic 1 and 2 with their specific moveset.

Originally I didn't think Espio's wall and ceiling running would be that useful but the more I played the more I was proven wrong as it can open up some good shortcuts, especially in the later zones of each game.

This is a great choice for Classic Sonic fans (in particular Sonic 1 fans) who want an extra challenge. This game remixes the content of Sonic 1 to give the player something that is faster but also more challenging, whilst feeling familiar.

Sonic's moveset in this is interested, he has what you would expect, the spin jump and spin dash. But there are also two unexpected additions, those being the homing attack and light speed dash.

First up the homing attack in this game isn't something to be used wildly, if you do you will likely slam into spikes and projectiles, on top of that there are certain Badniks that are difficult to use it against due to their defenses (those being Catakiller, Yardin and Orbinaut) and there are also inonveniently placed Eggman monitors to make you think about what you are using it on.

Then there is the light speed dash, for the most part this is used to gain speed as the momentum gained from using it is retained as you exit the trail of rings. There are also some shortcuts designed to make use of it.

I would definitely recommend playing the Mega Drive version on this game (v3) over the Mega CD (v4) as this is the more polished version.