This review contains spoilers
Still has some of the annoyances from the first game, like how the boost and trick mechanics often lead to messing up jumps or accidently pressing the jump button to trick right as Sonic grabs on to something, thereby detaching from it and falling. The middle section of the screen still being a huge blind spot doesn't help.
Luckily the levels in this game seem to have a lot of these things in mind, and messing up doesn't always result in death, just a lower, less optimal path. The reward for not messing up is no longer just not dying, it's getting a higher rank, which itself now matters compared to the first game as your rank decides how many materials you get. This also leads in to why this game isn't as well received as it could have been...it's got a massive grind system. You need materials to make better ships to access more levels (and if you're going for the true ending you'll need even more to upgrade the ships). Even if you somehow managed to S rank every level first try, which seems nearly impossible, you'd probably still have to replay a couple of levels just to finish the game, much less 100% it.
So it's weird... The game solves the problem of levels not being designed around tricking and boosting, while still adding a big reward factor for memorising and playing levels perfectly...but this very solution also becomes the games weak point. It's hard to say exactly how this could be fixed - the most obvious solution would probably be to make gathering materials an optional thing purely for bonus content rather than needing to replay levels multiple times just to get to the last boss.
Actual level themes are an improvement. The first game used mostly a template of Sonic/platformer level ideas, while this game goes for more interesting stuff like ghost ships or a coral cave. Even the snow level, the most basic theme, lets you use a snowboard for large parts of it, and not just in a cutscene like in Sonic 3.
Other than that, the ship sections themselves are pretty divertive. I don't mind the speed versions, but the battle ones, especially the 2nd ship, are pretty bad imo.
Bosses have way less down time and you're on the offensive much more. They compensate for this by giving bosses way more health, so the battles take about as long as they did in the first game, but you're not waiting around nearly as much. Bosses in general are also cooler in this one - The first boss is a robot T-Rex!
The secret final boss is also more fun in this game, although a lot easier (in fact I found Sonic to be pretty useless in that battle as Blaze's projectile was just much better and faster at dealing damage).
So generally I think this game is a lot better than the first in many ways. Levels are more fun, less punishing and have more unique ideas, bosses are better, there's more overall content with things like hidden islands and missions. But it's also just such a huge slog to get materials that it kind of ruins it, especially for a pick-up and play handheld game. There's also way more, and longer, cutscenes, so it can take ages just to get to play a new level.
Luckily the levels in this game seem to have a lot of these things in mind, and messing up doesn't always result in death, just a lower, less optimal path. The reward for not messing up is no longer just not dying, it's getting a higher rank, which itself now matters compared to the first game as your rank decides how many materials you get. This also leads in to why this game isn't as well received as it could have been...it's got a massive grind system. You need materials to make better ships to access more levels (and if you're going for the true ending you'll need even more to upgrade the ships). Even if you somehow managed to S rank every level first try, which seems nearly impossible, you'd probably still have to replay a couple of levels just to finish the game, much less 100% it.
So it's weird... The game solves the problem of levels not being designed around tricking and boosting, while still adding a big reward factor for memorising and playing levels perfectly...but this very solution also becomes the games weak point. It's hard to say exactly how this could be fixed - the most obvious solution would probably be to make gathering materials an optional thing purely for bonus content rather than needing to replay levels multiple times just to get to the last boss.
Actual level themes are an improvement. The first game used mostly a template of Sonic/platformer level ideas, while this game goes for more interesting stuff like ghost ships or a coral cave. Even the snow level, the most basic theme, lets you use a snowboard for large parts of it, and not just in a cutscene like in Sonic 3.
Other than that, the ship sections themselves are pretty divertive. I don't mind the speed versions, but the battle ones, especially the 2nd ship, are pretty bad imo.
Bosses have way less down time and you're on the offensive much more. They compensate for this by giving bosses way more health, so the battles take about as long as they did in the first game, but you're not waiting around nearly as much. Bosses in general are also cooler in this one - The first boss is a robot T-Rex!
The secret final boss is also more fun in this game, although a lot easier (in fact I found Sonic to be pretty useless in that battle as Blaze's projectile was just much better and faster at dealing damage).
So generally I think this game is a lot better than the first in many ways. Levels are more fun, less punishing and have more unique ideas, bosses are better, there's more overall content with things like hidden islands and missions. But it's also just such a huge slog to get materials that it kind of ruins it, especially for a pick-up and play handheld game. There's also way more, and longer, cutscenes, so it can take ages just to get to play a new level.