Sonic Advance was the Sonic the Hedgehog 4 before Sonic Mania or Sonic the Hedgehog 4 were ever a thing. The game brings back what made the original trilogy great however with that it brought back what made the original Sonic The Hedgehog bad; starts good but then becomes mediocre or tedious around the end. Unforeseen bottomless pits along with spikes makes the final two levels a chore to beat and with the fact that every Chaos Emerald being zone exclusive with act exclusivity added on top made looking for them suck. The Chaos Emerald challenges are kinda similar to the half-pipe from Sonic 2 but instead of running, it's a freefall and you have to nab a certain amount of rings. The depth perceptions became wonky for my liking and with the added chore of finding these levels in the first made me not go for them at all.
Sonic Advance is a pretty average Sonic game which has an amazing start and makes it a good game to pick up whenever you're bored with the added effect that you can beat the game in under an hour on average makes it all the more better. I wouldn't recommend completing it unless you're really bored.