Trash, absolute garbage.

To be a Sonic fan means to be prepared to eat shit at least once every five years, a factoid I had to learn back in '93 when I played this junk. Stage design that is mysterious beyond belief with dumbass barely functional Earthworm Jim-style gimmick stages, and the most woeful water stage in recent memory that is somehow both frustrating and boring at the same time. I literally lost a life once running straight into the Aqua Lake boss because the camera wasn't oriented properly for me to see him in time.

All of that was from the Master System version. Now zoom in on the screen and add in mean-spirited measures to make the game harder, and you get the shit stain that is the Game Gear version. The ball bounce patterns for the first boss are now random instead of being set at a certain height, and the hang glider portions of the stage afterwards are almost-impossible due to not being able to see a fucking thing in front of you. The sad part is that I played this on emulator, if I played this thing on original hardware it'd be even more torturous due to the Game Gear's small screen and the absurdly bright backlight.

Arguments can be made that this game doesn't deserve the lowest score possible, but the promise of quality due to Sonic's face being on the game's cover back then makes the sting hurt a lot more during childhood similar to Spyro Enter the Dragonfly, but instead of miserable disappointment it's blood raging frustration.

Sonic Shuffle and Sonic 06 are paradise to me compared to this shit.