honestly...now that i'm 100% done with the story i think i can say i enjoyed sa1 just a sliiightly bit more because it was short simple and sweet. but that doesn't mean this game isn't nearly as good...for its time it was incredibly ambitious and while this game aged slightly worse than sa1 i think the story, the chao garden, and the battle dlc make it way more replayable than the first game. its definitely still worth playing today, and i can see why many people have this as one of their favorite if not their favorite sonic game. if they ever remaster this game i'll def play it again