I mean, it's fine?
I feel like giving 8-bit Sonic all of his modern abilities completely demolishes any challenges these levels once had, you're going to be completely demolishing these levels in less than a minute consistently with the exception of Labyrinth considering that it's, you know, Labyrinth. Having the entire Mania Plus crew playable is pretty charming, though.
While it is fun to blast through the new zones without a care in the world, the big complaint I have with this fan remake is that the method to obtain the Chaos Emeralds has been completely altered, and while it's novel to see Sonic 1's 8-bit bonus stages turned into full-on special stages at first, they're all so insanely easy that you'll have Super Sonic by pretty early into the game. It's also a shame if you preferred how Sonic 1's Master System counterpart handled emerald collecting, with one emerald being hidden away in every zone rewarding exploration by the player. It also makes an already easy game even easier that once you have all seven emeralds, every act now starts with a giant ring that grants you 50 rings upon collecting, giving you immediate access to your character's super form; that being said, it is worth noting that Sonic 2's remake would go on to partially remove this feature, which is nice.
This game ultimately feels like it applied a Sonic Advance 2 mindset to the 8-bit Sonic games, with any ideas of platforming being tossed out the window in favor of making you insanely batshit fast at any given moment--you just need to take one look at the incredibly buffed Drop Dash to see that. But hey, that doesn't make it bad, it can be fun to take these familiar zones and snap them in half just to see how hard they break when you introduce all these new movement options. It's not a bad remake, but it definitely doesn't overtake the original as a platformer in any definitive way outside of the increased 16:9 aspect ratio which is always appreciated in old Sonic games. Bridge Zone Act 2 is still an auto-scroller, though. That could've been fixed.
I feel like giving 8-bit Sonic all of his modern abilities completely demolishes any challenges these levels once had, you're going to be completely demolishing these levels in less than a minute consistently with the exception of Labyrinth considering that it's, you know, Labyrinth. Having the entire Mania Plus crew playable is pretty charming, though.
While it is fun to blast through the new zones without a care in the world, the big complaint I have with this fan remake is that the method to obtain the Chaos Emeralds has been completely altered, and while it's novel to see Sonic 1's 8-bit bonus stages turned into full-on special stages at first, they're all so insanely easy that you'll have Super Sonic by pretty early into the game. It's also a shame if you preferred how Sonic 1's Master System counterpart handled emerald collecting, with one emerald being hidden away in every zone rewarding exploration by the player. It also makes an already easy game even easier that once you have all seven emeralds, every act now starts with a giant ring that grants you 50 rings upon collecting, giving you immediate access to your character's super form; that being said, it is worth noting that Sonic 2's remake would go on to partially remove this feature, which is nice.
This game ultimately feels like it applied a Sonic Advance 2 mindset to the 8-bit Sonic games, with any ideas of platforming being tossed out the window in favor of making you insanely batshit fast at any given moment--you just need to take one look at the incredibly buffed Drop Dash to see that. But hey, that doesn't make it bad, it can be fun to take these familiar zones and snap them in half just to see how hard they break when you introduce all these new movement options. It's not a bad remake, but it definitely doesn't overtake the original as a platformer in any definitive way outside of the increased 16:9 aspect ratio which is always appreciated in old Sonic games. Bridge Zone Act 2 is still an auto-scroller, though. That could've been fixed.