The aesthetics and music (from both regions) in this game are (nearly) unmatched. I absolutely adore the way this game looks and sounds, from the beautifully animated intro and ending done by Toei to the stunning pixel environments and the groovy JPop that keeps the game going. The level design isn't all that amazing, however, at least if you're looking at it from the perspective of other Sonic games. It is very vertically oriented, and this is only ever an annoyance, at least in my opinion, in stages like Wacky Workbench and Stardust Speedway, especially when you're looking for all the robot generators. This game asks you to explore rather than blaze to the end in order to get a good ending, which in itself can be fairly fun if you know where to look but there's a certain level of tolerance that you need to have for what the game dishes out at you. Definitely not the worst to play but if you're looking for level design as tight as Sonic 3 & Knuckles or Sonic Mania then you are just better off playing them.