Simply put, the best classic Sonic game of the era. And probably my favorite title on the Genesis so far. Also in terms of classic Sonic titles in general, it's probably only outclassed by Mania. The games are better judged when put together into the complete package, so that's how I'm going to judge them.
This series kept improving with each installment mostly, and this game is the proof of everything learnt during each game. Boy did they manage to go out with a bang with the finale of the main classic Sonic saga. Almost every zone here slaps, while the more questionable zones like Marble Garden and Flying Battery are just okay. (I didn't find many issues with Carnival Night and Sandopolis surprisingly enough) And the ending of this game isn't crazy strict like the final zone of Sonic 2, even including the bonus final boss for getting all of the Chaos Emeralds or Super Emeralds.
And speaking of the Emeralds, thankfully the special stages here are actually good here unlike Sonic 1 and 2! The main issue with them I find is that there is a bit of input lag, though I'm not sure if that's an issue with the re-release but oh well. Plus the new save feature is really great! It makes the game a whole lot more fair while pairing really well with the special stage system. Say if you don't get all of the emeralds in your first run, you can play the game again with your emerald progress so you can get everything left on another run instead of having to do it all in one run. This also pairs well with how the special stages are reached, with the entries being scattered throughout each level incentivizing taking different paths you didn't go through before. Though if you like doing everything in one run you're allowed to play without a save if that's your thing.
This is still to this day one of the best Sonic games, even though it's held back a bit by a couple of zones, it's still the best classic Sonic game of the time, and an amazing sendoff to the original classic Sonic saga.
This series kept improving with each installment mostly, and this game is the proof of everything learnt during each game. Boy did they manage to go out with a bang with the finale of the main classic Sonic saga. Almost every zone here slaps, while the more questionable zones like Marble Garden and Flying Battery are just okay. (I didn't find many issues with Carnival Night and Sandopolis surprisingly enough) And the ending of this game isn't crazy strict like the final zone of Sonic 2, even including the bonus final boss for getting all of the Chaos Emeralds or Super Emeralds.
And speaking of the Emeralds, thankfully the special stages here are actually good here unlike Sonic 1 and 2! The main issue with them I find is that there is a bit of input lag, though I'm not sure if that's an issue with the re-release but oh well. Plus the new save feature is really great! It makes the game a whole lot more fair while pairing really well with the special stage system. Say if you don't get all of the emeralds in your first run, you can play the game again with your emerald progress so you can get everything left on another run instead of having to do it all in one run. This also pairs well with how the special stages are reached, with the entries being scattered throughout each level incentivizing taking different paths you didn't go through before. Though if you like doing everything in one run you're allowed to play without a save if that's your thing.
This is still to this day one of the best Sonic games, even though it's held back a bit by a couple of zones, it's still the best classic Sonic game of the time, and an amazing sendoff to the original classic Sonic saga.