+I can't think of many other games where you get to play as a character moving this fast through a 3d environment. quickly moving objects tend to wreck havoc in 3d engines, and having such an object be player-controlled is just asking for trouble
+sonic's campaign here is probably the best ~2 hours you'll get out of any of the 3d sonic games (barring the unskippable cutscenes lol). so many different setpieces and hazards throughout the stages, reflecting the philosophy of the genesis era games
+one of the best looking '98 games, and I honestly still like looking at it quite a bit. it has not aged as well as much of the dreamcast's early 00s catalog for sure, but it's fascinating seeing a late 90s example of (at the time) high resolution 3d graphics, long draw distances, and high quality textures all moving quickly with a solid framerate
+so much content in this game. six campaigns, a rail shooter minigame, chao garden, optional missions for each level, hub worlds, two full pinball tables, npcs with their own storylines, it's a surprising amount of cotent for a game of this era
+the gamma level hot shelter is another high point. his levels are shooter stages on a time limit, and this stage in particular leans into putting a ton of shootables on screen at once, with a great train setpiece in the middle where you jump between cars in two trains moving at separate speeds
+I think the knuckles levels are ok, maybe not the best but emerald hunting is an easy enough formula to get right
+it's hard to ignore how forward-thinking this game was on many levels, and how it reflects sega's AAA strategy from this point on. where sega excels is making games with many different engines and flavors rather than honing in on a single gameplay style, and this game shows both the best and the worst of that technique
-basically every other campaign other than sonic's just rehashes his levels, sometimes with the same level layout. some go as far as repeating boss fights as well
-the tails campaign is the laziest of them all, since his levels are snippets of sonics with the added ability to fly. said ability makes traversing trivally easy, and makes his whole campaign feel pretty lackluster. having to replay the Tornado rail shooter levels from sonic's campaign is also a bummer
-amy feels terrible to play as due to her low top speed and poor acceleration. while there are some interesting bits spread throughout her levels, and the constantly-being-chased concept is interesting, it just doesn't hit the mark here
-most of gamma's campaign feels unfinished. apart from hot shelter, most of his levels are under a minute long, making the whole "gain extra time by shooting more things" moot
-big the cat... I don't need to say much here, because yea the fishing mechanic is rough. a little shocking that it wasn't better given sega's excellent fishing game pedigree. may have been better serviced as an optional minigame
-super sonic controls so poorly during the final boss segment. he's constantly snagging on things, which is rough considering he needs to be going a certain speed in order to deal damage to perfect chaos
-in general the game is extremely buggy. unpolished physics would become a hallmark of sonic team's platforming output, and I can excuse it a little considering this was the first game, but it doesn't make playing the game any easier. you will spend most of your time learning how to not break a given level versus learning its mechanics and obstacles, sadly
-the cutscenes are extremely rough in this game, though this would get fixed in sonic adventure 2. animations are poor, framing is shoddy, the story is laughably bad, and cutscenes are completely unskippable on dreamcast
I have a huge soft spot for this game since I grew up playing it on pc/gamecube, but it's hard to ignore the flaws present here. thankfully, this feels like the best game for me to just jump in to a sonic level when I'm in the mood thanks to the variety and depth of sonic's campaign. actually wading through the rest of the game is a different story, however. at the very least, it was fun for me to play through this one on dreamcast thanks to the sterling VGA output and retro feel, and if you're into the old sega consoles it's worth sitting down and playing around with.
+sonic's campaign here is probably the best ~2 hours you'll get out of any of the 3d sonic games (barring the unskippable cutscenes lol). so many different setpieces and hazards throughout the stages, reflecting the philosophy of the genesis era games
+one of the best looking '98 games, and I honestly still like looking at it quite a bit. it has not aged as well as much of the dreamcast's early 00s catalog for sure, but it's fascinating seeing a late 90s example of (at the time) high resolution 3d graphics, long draw distances, and high quality textures all moving quickly with a solid framerate
+so much content in this game. six campaigns, a rail shooter minigame, chao garden, optional missions for each level, hub worlds, two full pinball tables, npcs with their own storylines, it's a surprising amount of cotent for a game of this era
+the gamma level hot shelter is another high point. his levels are shooter stages on a time limit, and this stage in particular leans into putting a ton of shootables on screen at once, with a great train setpiece in the middle where you jump between cars in two trains moving at separate speeds
+I think the knuckles levels are ok, maybe not the best but emerald hunting is an easy enough formula to get right
+it's hard to ignore how forward-thinking this game was on many levels, and how it reflects sega's AAA strategy from this point on. where sega excels is making games with many different engines and flavors rather than honing in on a single gameplay style, and this game shows both the best and the worst of that technique
-basically every other campaign other than sonic's just rehashes his levels, sometimes with the same level layout. some go as far as repeating boss fights as well
-the tails campaign is the laziest of them all, since his levels are snippets of sonics with the added ability to fly. said ability makes traversing trivally easy, and makes his whole campaign feel pretty lackluster. having to replay the Tornado rail shooter levels from sonic's campaign is also a bummer
-amy feels terrible to play as due to her low top speed and poor acceleration. while there are some interesting bits spread throughout her levels, and the constantly-being-chased concept is interesting, it just doesn't hit the mark here
-most of gamma's campaign feels unfinished. apart from hot shelter, most of his levels are under a minute long, making the whole "gain extra time by shooting more things" moot
-big the cat... I don't need to say much here, because yea the fishing mechanic is rough. a little shocking that it wasn't better given sega's excellent fishing game pedigree. may have been better serviced as an optional minigame
-super sonic controls so poorly during the final boss segment. he's constantly snagging on things, which is rough considering he needs to be going a certain speed in order to deal damage to perfect chaos
-in general the game is extremely buggy. unpolished physics would become a hallmark of sonic team's platforming output, and I can excuse it a little considering this was the first game, but it doesn't make playing the game any easier. you will spend most of your time learning how to not break a given level versus learning its mechanics and obstacles, sadly
-the cutscenes are extremely rough in this game, though this would get fixed in sonic adventure 2. animations are poor, framing is shoddy, the story is laughably bad, and cutscenes are completely unskippable on dreamcast
I have a huge soft spot for this game since I grew up playing it on pc/gamecube, but it's hard to ignore the flaws present here. thankfully, this feels like the best game for me to just jump in to a sonic level when I'm in the mood thanks to the variety and depth of sonic's campaign. actually wading through the rest of the game is a different story, however. at the very least, it was fun for me to play through this one on dreamcast thanks to the sterling VGA output and retro feel, and if you're into the old sega consoles it's worth sitting down and playing around with.