Overall worse than Sonic 1, but not by much. Not bad but I really wasn't a fan of the level design changes. The game starts out incredibly basic, and you can pretty much hold right non stop for the first 3 zones. After that it actually gets decent, but it's a bumpy road. Mystic Cave was awesome but that's about it. Oil Ocean and Metropolis were mind numbing, especially the ladder.

And don't get me started on the final level. The airship is so disappointing. It goes for platforming but it fails at it and just feels frustrating. Sonic 1 had precise platforming, but there was always room for error. If you fall, you just hit some spikes or lava. Here, it's instant death, and its aggravating. The bosses thankfully are enjoyable and are actually well designed (mostly), incorporating Sonic's moves into combat in a fun way.

The presentation of this game is the main draw. The visuals are beautiful and much better than Sonic 1, giving so much life to each area. And the music, dear god. This might be one of the best sound tracks in gaming to this day, countless iconic tracks that all fit the style of Sonic incredibly well. With one outlier, the airship. God damn it.

I don't really have much else to say. It's a very "higher highs, lower lows" type of game, but overall, great art direction cannot save a game from a mixed bag of gameplay. At least it's short.