This review contains spoilers
Note: This review is actually an observation of the entirety of my wife's playthrough -- she did 100% of the game on HARD difficulty (100% including all vault keys, all side-cutscenes, all optional emblems used for the side-cutscenes, MAX for all stats, and all the logs from Robotnik in fishing along with 100% of fish types caught).
I'm just going to go all over the place about this game. To start with, it should be noted that -- at least for the Switch -- the game has absolutely horrible pop-in. When looking for required emblems to advance the story, so much platform terrain just kinda pops in when you come within about 20 feet of it and it's a bit silly when you're running around at the speed of sound.
It's also worth noting that this pop-in seems to happen with a certain particular platform type -- one that requires you to press the correct button in order to launch yourself in the correct direction or else the platform drops you. In this instance, there are times where the platforms will simply fail to display the required button press in order to successfully use the platform. Whoops!
I get what people say about the overworld feeling rather lifeless at times, as it really is just cutscene spots and platforming areas for emblems, along with the occasional regular enemies and mini-bosses. Moreover, the music feels largely like ambience in the overworld and not really indicative of the usual Sonic fare that's upbeat and energetic.
Enemies are simple, but interesting enough when it comes to utilizing the mechanics you've learned. Mini-bosses shine a bit more, as they do require some significant work to deal with and some of the design behind them can feel rather clever -- I'm particularly fond of the Strider and Sumo mini-bosses, myself.
Actual bosses are much less interesting, as they devolve into battles with Super Sonic, where he's either taking so little damage as to be negligible while trying to dish out combos or it's QTEs that can result in instant death.
My wife is pretty good at Sonic games in general and has played through nearly all Sonic games that have been released, and she's stated that the game feels significantly too easy, even on HARD difficulty. It should be noted that HARD difficulty is required in order to fight the "true" final boss, but you might be better off for skipping it -- I'll go into that later.
The combos and abilities that you get by earning skill points through completing map puzzles and defeating enemies or exploring the maps are fun and allow you to feel like a wrecking ball of super damage. You'll max out your skill points eons before finishing the game -- my wife finished the game with approximately 700 extra skill points available.
The actual levels you find to play in each area are the real treasures of the game, as most of them are designed well enough and have lots of optional pathing to them, even if the pathing is simple in nature and ultimately leads back the same way. The soundtrack for the actual levels is anywhere between pleasant and downright solid. There's no real matching thematics between the overworld areas you're in and the actual levels (other than the last area having all levels with a similar background).
The most damning thing about this game is the optional final boss if you decide to play on HARD mode. There are points in the story where you'll be required to do mini-games to proceed and a couple instances, you get to play a bad version of Ikaruga. Your reward for reaching "THE END" (the final boss) is another Ikaruga sequence, but ridiculously long and with no way to exit the sequence at all -- if you die, you keep coming back and starting the fight anew. It's not a short fight, either -- it's probably about ten minutes long? And it doesn't care about whether you're Super Sonic, as it follows the same rules as the regular Ikaruga mini-games -- get hit three times and you lose and restart ad nauseum. No spin-dashing, no homing attacks (well, the ZR shot when you build enough charge is like a homing attack, I guess), nothing in the vein of what you'd expect from a Sonic boss fight. It's utterly absurd and I can't fathom why they thought it was a good idea for an end boss. But hey, there's a Super Sonic QTE set at the end, so it's fine, right?! ...RIGHT?!
Some positive things I want to touch on that were just a bit of everywhere for me, personally:
-- The training screen when loading in or out of levels is a great idea, especially since it lets you stay in them for as long as you want and lets you refresh yourself with random lessons.
-- The fishing mini-game is very relaxing and I could see the music being used as a YouTube Lo-Fi Beats track SO EASILY.
-- The platform bits for getting optional emblems were largely well-designed and a number of them evoked the speedy feeling you're looking for from a Sonic experience.
-- The ABSOLUTE BEST THING about this game might be the bugs. There is one annoying bug with a map puzzle that can be resolved by saving and reloading if it doesn't work properly.
In general though, the big bug with this game that makes for a stellar experience for anyone who wants to feel that Sonic speed in full is that certain texture planes in any of the second or later areas can be boosted into at certain angles and the game simply chooses not to limit your acceleration, so you can blast off into the sky so very far if you want. At one point, my wife was able to mostly climb to the highest points in the desert plateaus because she just kept using certain outcropping textures as points to launch herself into the sky. In one instance, she managed to fling herself halfway across the map in one boost, simply because as long as you don't boost again after you launch, the game just lifts you higher and higher (and you can do tricks for skill points while it's happening!). Although there's a hypothetical limit before deceleration kicks in, it's so absurd how much you can exploit it just to have a good time that it doesn't even matter that there's any limitations.
-- To add to that point, there are aspects of boosting in the actual levels that allows this kind of subversion of the design expectations for said levels. You can sometimes just boost under the right conditions and fling yourself drastic distances beyond what you'd normally expect. I encourage you to mess around with these things. Good times abound, I assure you.
All-in-all, I think it's a good enough time for your average Sonic fan and just blasting around in the overworld areas via boosting off textures is grand (to watch and do). My wife adores the game, outside of a couple pointless mini-games, so I'd say for anyone who really enjoys Sonic games and doesn't have too much judgment about them beyond just wanting to play more of them, you can probably feel fulfilled in picking this up. For anyone else, I'd say to wait for at least a half-off sale, and I'd advise everyone to avoid the Switch version just because of the awful pop-in issues the game has.
I'm just going to go all over the place about this game. To start with, it should be noted that -- at least for the Switch -- the game has absolutely horrible pop-in. When looking for required emblems to advance the story, so much platform terrain just kinda pops in when you come within about 20 feet of it and it's a bit silly when you're running around at the speed of sound.
It's also worth noting that this pop-in seems to happen with a certain particular platform type -- one that requires you to press the correct button in order to launch yourself in the correct direction or else the platform drops you. In this instance, there are times where the platforms will simply fail to display the required button press in order to successfully use the platform. Whoops!
I get what people say about the overworld feeling rather lifeless at times, as it really is just cutscene spots and platforming areas for emblems, along with the occasional regular enemies and mini-bosses. Moreover, the music feels largely like ambience in the overworld and not really indicative of the usual Sonic fare that's upbeat and energetic.
Enemies are simple, but interesting enough when it comes to utilizing the mechanics you've learned. Mini-bosses shine a bit more, as they do require some significant work to deal with and some of the design behind them can feel rather clever -- I'm particularly fond of the Strider and Sumo mini-bosses, myself.
Actual bosses are much less interesting, as they devolve into battles with Super Sonic, where he's either taking so little damage as to be negligible while trying to dish out combos or it's QTEs that can result in instant death.
My wife is pretty good at Sonic games in general and has played through nearly all Sonic games that have been released, and she's stated that the game feels significantly too easy, even on HARD difficulty. It should be noted that HARD difficulty is required in order to fight the "true" final boss, but you might be better off for skipping it -- I'll go into that later.
The combos and abilities that you get by earning skill points through completing map puzzles and defeating enemies or exploring the maps are fun and allow you to feel like a wrecking ball of super damage. You'll max out your skill points eons before finishing the game -- my wife finished the game with approximately 700 extra skill points available.
The actual levels you find to play in each area are the real treasures of the game, as most of them are designed well enough and have lots of optional pathing to them, even if the pathing is simple in nature and ultimately leads back the same way. The soundtrack for the actual levels is anywhere between pleasant and downright solid. There's no real matching thematics between the overworld areas you're in and the actual levels (other than the last area having all levels with a similar background).
The most damning thing about this game is the optional final boss if you decide to play on HARD mode. There are points in the story where you'll be required to do mini-games to proceed and a couple instances, you get to play a bad version of Ikaruga. Your reward for reaching "THE END" (the final boss) is another Ikaruga sequence, but ridiculously long and with no way to exit the sequence at all -- if you die, you keep coming back and starting the fight anew. It's not a short fight, either -- it's probably about ten minutes long? And it doesn't care about whether you're Super Sonic, as it follows the same rules as the regular Ikaruga mini-games -- get hit three times and you lose and restart ad nauseum. No spin-dashing, no homing attacks (well, the ZR shot when you build enough charge is like a homing attack, I guess), nothing in the vein of what you'd expect from a Sonic boss fight. It's utterly absurd and I can't fathom why they thought it was a good idea for an end boss. But hey, there's a Super Sonic QTE set at the end, so it's fine, right?! ...RIGHT?!
Some positive things I want to touch on that were just a bit of everywhere for me, personally:
-- The training screen when loading in or out of levels is a great idea, especially since it lets you stay in them for as long as you want and lets you refresh yourself with random lessons.
-- The fishing mini-game is very relaxing and I could see the music being used as a YouTube Lo-Fi Beats track SO EASILY.
-- The platform bits for getting optional emblems were largely well-designed and a number of them evoked the speedy feeling you're looking for from a Sonic experience.
-- The ABSOLUTE BEST THING about this game might be the bugs. There is one annoying bug with a map puzzle that can be resolved by saving and reloading if it doesn't work properly.
In general though, the big bug with this game that makes for a stellar experience for anyone who wants to feel that Sonic speed in full is that certain texture planes in any of the second or later areas can be boosted into at certain angles and the game simply chooses not to limit your acceleration, so you can blast off into the sky so very far if you want. At one point, my wife was able to mostly climb to the highest points in the desert plateaus because she just kept using certain outcropping textures as points to launch herself into the sky. In one instance, she managed to fling herself halfway across the map in one boost, simply because as long as you don't boost again after you launch, the game just lifts you higher and higher (and you can do tricks for skill points while it's happening!). Although there's a hypothetical limit before deceleration kicks in, it's so absurd how much you can exploit it just to have a good time that it doesn't even matter that there's any limitations.
-- To add to that point, there are aspects of boosting in the actual levels that allows this kind of subversion of the design expectations for said levels. You can sometimes just boost under the right conditions and fling yourself drastic distances beyond what you'd normally expect. I encourage you to mess around with these things. Good times abound, I assure you.
All-in-all, I think it's a good enough time for your average Sonic fan and just blasting around in the overworld areas via boosting off textures is grand (to watch and do). My wife adores the game, outside of a couple pointless mini-games, so I'd say for anyone who really enjoys Sonic games and doesn't have too much judgment about them beyond just wanting to play more of them, you can probably feel fulfilled in picking this up. For anyone else, I'd say to wait for at least a half-off sale, and I'd advise everyone to avoid the Switch version just because of the awful pop-in issues the game has.