This is a weird janky mess with clearly a lot of heart behind it. The story and tone, the enemy design, the characterization is pretty much all I want in future Sonic titles, they nail all of that. The gameplay and level design can get repetitive, frustrating, kinda dull sometimes, but Sonic Team is also a team with not much money and not that big of a crew and they're clearly pushing their limits with big spectacles like the bosses (which are all awesome). Despite everything, I still really enjoy running around these islands and exploring and collecting and doing little platforming chances. There's so, so much potential here and I know I should want more than just "potential" from Sonic at this point, but if they can just stick with this formula and improve from here I think the series could have a truly bright future ahead of it. I don't know if anyone who isn't a Sonic fan would get much enjoyment out of this, but… I am a fan. So, ya know.