In the words of a wise man "A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is bad forever." Sega insisted on the 15th anniversary deadline to release this abomination, despite the game not being ready for release. This dumb attitude cost Sonic's entire reputation as a gaming icon, and this game (which is bad forever) is to blame for that.
On the laundry list of problems, there's the hideous character animations and models, boring level design, infuriatingly long and tiresome levels, collision detection that only works when it feels like it (mostly to your disadvantage), embarassingly extensive load times, annoying voice acting, outright broken controls for every character, and a story that feels like a piece of fanfiction written by a 5 year old (the kind of stuff they would feel embarassed by looking back as an adult). Sure, most people don't play Sonic games for plot, but this one shoves the plot in your face so hard to the point where it's hard to ignore, especially when it's this bad.
The only salvageable thing is the soundtrack, but even it is nowhere near the best in the series. Good music can only do so much for this programming nightmare.
On the laundry list of problems, there's the hideous character animations and models, boring level design, infuriatingly long and tiresome levels, collision detection that only works when it feels like it (mostly to your disadvantage), embarassingly extensive load times, annoying voice acting, outright broken controls for every character, and a story that feels like a piece of fanfiction written by a 5 year old (the kind of stuff they would feel embarassed by looking back as an adult). Sure, most people don't play Sonic games for plot, but this one shoves the plot in your face so hard to the point where it's hard to ignore, especially when it's this bad.
The only salvageable thing is the soundtrack, but even it is nowhere near the best in the series. Good music can only do so much for this programming nightmare.