EU release played on a Xbox 360 and via Steam on a Lenovo Y50-70.
Ooh boy, this is a rough one. As a Sonic game it's not quite the worst the franchise has to offer, but as a continuation of Yuji Naka's programming within the original numbered titles, this is not way past cool.
Honestly the conversation for this game should begin and end with how movement works - the physics feel like a far cry from those of the Mega Drive/Genesis era, with running feeling sluggish and moving up ramps and loops being a gravity-defying experience. The presence of the homing attack is actually a great inclusion here as it was wholy respoinsible for me maintaining any sense of momentum in most stages.
The stages themselves are a mixed bag - I had a great time in the casino and cave levels with the great gameplay gimmicks of running along a deck of cards and timed mine cart jumps but I'm honestly struggling to remember most of the rest of the game. Both levels and bosses are all rehashes of those original games' with very little deviation outside basic design.
Music also manages to disappoint with Senoue trying to emulate those old games' musical genre and pattern and not quite pulling it off. Again, a couple tracks are pretty good, but the majority lounge in the forgettable.
Overall this is just a disappointing entry. It doesn't please new or old fans and generally feels like an insult to the original numbered titles. It's certainly playable and it's not an entire waste of your time, but there were better 2D platforming efforts on the horizon from indie devs at the time so it's just not recommendable.
Ooh boy, this is a rough one. As a Sonic game it's not quite the worst the franchise has to offer, but as a continuation of Yuji Naka's programming within the original numbered titles, this is not way past cool.
Honestly the conversation for this game should begin and end with how movement works - the physics feel like a far cry from those of the Mega Drive/Genesis era, with running feeling sluggish and moving up ramps and loops being a gravity-defying experience. The presence of the homing attack is actually a great inclusion here as it was wholy respoinsible for me maintaining any sense of momentum in most stages.
The stages themselves are a mixed bag - I had a great time in the casino and cave levels with the great gameplay gimmicks of running along a deck of cards and timed mine cart jumps but I'm honestly struggling to remember most of the rest of the game. Both levels and bosses are all rehashes of those original games' with very little deviation outside basic design.
Music also manages to disappoint with Senoue trying to emulate those old games' musical genre and pattern and not quite pulling it off. Again, a couple tracks are pretty good, but the majority lounge in the forgettable.
Overall this is just a disappointing entry. It doesn't please new or old fans and generally feels like an insult to the original numbered titles. It's certainly playable and it's not an entire waste of your time, but there were better 2D platforming efforts on the horizon from indie devs at the time so it's just not recommendable.