It breaks my heart to know that director and lead designer Takashi Iizuka crunched so hard to make this game that he couldn't sleep and lost 22 pounds. A game that was so formative to me was hell for the people that made those memories possible. I know that lots of games I love were made with the same callous disregard for workers that happens all the time in this capitalist hellscape, but it stings just a bit more with this one. A game regarded by many as the beginning of the decline, marking the start of Sonic's “dark age” (a time where the series had lots of good games, but that's besides the point).

But this game is way too cool and made with too much passion for that to be its legacy. Firstly, this game's aesthetic is aggressively vibrant. Sonic and co. are such bold primary colours that at times they look almost cel shaded. The level themes and set pieces are all really inspired too; Ocean Palace and Egg Fleet are both all-timers. While the title track is a bit too “cartoon theme song” for me, there's still plenty of great music here, Mystic Mansion and What I'm Made Of are personal favourites. Being able to switch between different characters on the fly and having them all work together is such a great premise. It makes the game feel dynamic in a way that having all those same mechanics used by just 1 character wouldn't be.

And the cast of characters here is, as far as I'm concerned, iconic. Not only do we have the classics from the Mega Drive and Dreamcast, but also obscure characters from the 32X are brought back, along with 2 brand new mainstays (Cream did appear first in Advance 2, but she was made for this game). This was around the time that the “Sonic’s annoying friends” narrative started to develop, but I'm officially here to say, fuck that shit. Wanting these games to only have Sonic, Tails and Eggman is boring. From the very beginning every Sonic game introduced new characters, each one with a unique personality and great character design. There is a reason that Sonic OCs are some of the most prevalent OCs of any fandom (like, who wants to make a Mario OC?).

You can really tell that Sonic Team wanted to take advantage of this being the first multi-platform Sonic game. A game that would introduce newcomers to a large feeling world full of colourful characters, while blowing them away with blistering speed and non-stop pacing. A game that says “Hey! This is what you guys have been missing!” and for all its problems (and there are many), it certainly succeeds in leaving an impression. It’s definitely not the best Sonic game, but in some ways, it is the MOST Sonic game.

Also fun fact, the 60hz option in the PAL release of this game is a goddamn turbo mode, seriously. For some inexplicable reason, in order to make the PAL version run at 60hz, they actually SPEED UP the game by about 17%! This also includes all in-engine cutscenes, which means they gradually go out of sync with the audio. Now tell me, how can you not love that?