As much as it was only made for the sake of having a safe shelf product to pair up with the maelstrom of Classic Sonic merch that popped up after Mania, this is... good. It might not be as instantly appealing and polished as Mania, but it also doesn't feel as derivative as that game did and I also appreciate that it doesn't hinge so heavily on epic Cybershell references (non-derogatory) and somewhat carves an identity for itself. But most of all, it's just some fun Sonic levels and a really cute new character that'll either be insanely overused in future media or never show up again.
There's a couple of glaring flaws, which is pretty much a given. In particular, FUCK Press Factory All My Homies Hate Press Factory, the bosses are mostly dogshit and range from stupidly easy and boring to stupidly bullshit and frustrating and the Emerald powers are disappointing; I almost never go for the Special Stages in any Sonic game because A) I don't like nor care to get good at them B) getting Super Sonic and trivialising some of the difficulty for the rest of the game never felt worth the time. So when the Special Stages are actually pretty easy AND there's an actual gameplay incentive for each Emerald you get, that's exciting but I never even used most of them over the course of the game (and the ones I did almost felt like a necessity).
I'm sure I'd be way more critical had I actually paid MSRP. The whole debate on game pricing and how much a 2 hour 2D platformer is actually worth compared to a RPG you can easily squeeze 100+ hours out of is not something I feel like bringing up, but I feel anyone can take a look at this game and feel it's not up to a sufficient level of polish compared to like, Mario Wonder, which came out a week or so later. And honestly, Sonic just deserved better, in that sense! Maybe one day we'll get there. Probably not.
There's a couple of glaring flaws, which is pretty much a given. In particular, FUCK Press Factory All My Homies Hate Press Factory, the bosses are mostly dogshit and range from stupidly easy and boring to stupidly bullshit and frustrating and the Emerald powers are disappointing; I almost never go for the Special Stages in any Sonic game because A) I don't like nor care to get good at them B) getting Super Sonic and trivialising some of the difficulty for the rest of the game never felt worth the time. So when the Special Stages are actually pretty easy AND there's an actual gameplay incentive for each Emerald you get, that's exciting but I never even used most of them over the course of the game (and the ones I did almost felt like a necessity).
I'm sure I'd be way more critical had I actually paid MSRP. The whole debate on game pricing and how much a 2 hour 2D platformer is actually worth compared to a RPG you can easily squeeze 100+ hours out of is not something I feel like bringing up, but I feel anyone can take a look at this game and feel it's not up to a sufficient level of polish compared to like, Mario Wonder, which came out a week or so later. And honestly, Sonic just deserved better, in that sense! Maybe one day we'll get there. Probably not.