went back to this one to get all emblems after letting my last playthrough sit for about 2 years. in some ways, i find it more charming and endearing and impressive. level design feels so robust and shooting for the stars compared to a lot of its contemporaries. on the other hand, the camera was never quite able to match the ambition of the level design and, as a result, critically drags down a lot of the joy of learning how to perfect levels in this game. seriously, fuck sky deck. i love that level conceptually, but it is such a god damn nightmare of bad camera angles and shit hitting you from everywhere.

on the whole i feel largely the same about this game if slightly more understanding of where people come from when they have complaints with 3D sonic. i think almost all of the issues this game presented were resolved or absent come the sequel, but it's easy to see how this could really sour someone. still, you can feel a lot of the passion that sonic team had for this game and this setting, so it's easier for me to forgive the faults than i would with a conveyor belt new super mario bros. game or something along those lines.

look. i love big the cat's design, but we all agree that his gameplay is probably the single biggest nadir in any big name 3D platformer to ever exist, right?