Sonic Advance 1 was a very average experience. I almost gave it the same rating I gave Sonic Superstars but after thinking about it, at least the bosses in this game didn't take an eternity.

Advance 1 isn't a bad game, but its definitely a "first game syndrome" type of deal, where there's alot of stuff that works, but there's small things here and there that hinder the experience to a notable degree. Bullshit spike placement and pits. Beginner traps but its still kinda lazy. Level design was pretty okay, it didn't feel very smooth in terms of navigation.
The screencrunch could definitely contribute to the issues too by the way.

At most, I do wanna check out the widescreen version of the game to see if my opinion will change, but that won't be for a while.