My opinions on Sonic games are VERY iterative over time so my exact thoughts and score will likely change as I experience the game more. Replay value is incredibly important to me when it comes to Sonic so we'll see how it holds up on repeat playthroughs. But given the somewhat mixed reception I figured I'd jump in and say I really liked it.
As someone who loathed Frontiers, and found Mania/Forces both to be incredibly shallow...This is the first Sonic game in just about a decade I've really felt a spark of love for. I'm not usually a hater, I'm an adamant defender of a majority of this franchise - even the universally panned ones. But this here may end up ranking pretty high.
It hasn't felt excessively automated, there's ample room to use momentum to achieve big skips. I've heard some people say the music is more of that weird sonic 4/classic sonic in forces style where they try to make it sound like a genesis and it doesn't work great. No clue what they're talking about. As a whole it's my favorite sonic ost in a LONG time. Lagoon City act 2 is a new favorite. Sand Sanctuary act 1 is hot, bridge island makes me want to boot up the game and play it more. Tee Lopes' tracks are definitely the highlight but most of Jun's aren't remotely close to sounding like Sonic 4 either and the compositions are great so idk what the problem is.
Bosses have animations that could have been sped up for better pacing BUT they're also some of the better bosses in the series. I'll take some minor pacing issues in favor of having bosses that actually try to kill you with some varied and creative gameplay attached. As opposed to Sonic 3 or Mania's where almost every boss is just mindlessly jumping into it to shred it with I-frames. Robotnik's creations here give off a vibe that he's absolutely sick of Sonic at this point and is trying to cover all his bases. Huge step up from his goofy ineffective little vehicles he used in Sonic 2. Feels narratively fitting in that way. A big chunk of my playtime will be in time trial mode anyway so as one time bosses for the campaign I'm happy with them. Without a good time trial mode I could see them hurting pacing on repeat playthroughs though.
Haven't gotten around to Tails yet but Knuckles now climbs ledges and gets off the ground after flight much faster than he usually does. Immediately making this my favorite 2D knuckles appearance. Really happy Amy's playable in 2D again, tons of fun. Also Some zones have character specific bonus acts so that's cool.
I was worried they'd gimp the level design hard to compensate for 4 players but thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case. And speaking of, maybe don't play in multiplayer. 2 Players is borderline unplayable, would love to see the chaos of 4. The game struggles to figure out who to focus and you despawn the exact frame you inch off screen lol.
Feels good to have some positive Sonic opinions again. Of course it's when the fans decide suddenly they have an ounce of standards after a year of Simping for unity asset flip Frontiers but hey. This'll probably spark me putting up a lot more Sonic reviews up, most of which are positive 'cuz I think this series is way more consistently good than people are ready to admit.
Subject to change like I mentioned at the start but so far, better than Mania by a long shot <3
Edit 1: Played tails, he's tons of fun. He keeps all the momentum you currently have when you enter flight, making him way more fun to use than he usually is in 2D. Having fun with time trial mode~ Knuckles doesn't seem to build up speed when you glide for a long time so that unfortunately guts him a bit, otherwise all 4 characters are fun to play. The fire-dash chaos emerald power is shockingly powerful.
As someone who loathed Frontiers, and found Mania/Forces both to be incredibly shallow...This is the first Sonic game in just about a decade I've really felt a spark of love for. I'm not usually a hater, I'm an adamant defender of a majority of this franchise - even the universally panned ones. But this here may end up ranking pretty high.
It hasn't felt excessively automated, there's ample room to use momentum to achieve big skips. I've heard some people say the music is more of that weird sonic 4/classic sonic in forces style where they try to make it sound like a genesis and it doesn't work great. No clue what they're talking about. As a whole it's my favorite sonic ost in a LONG time. Lagoon City act 2 is a new favorite. Sand Sanctuary act 1 is hot, bridge island makes me want to boot up the game and play it more. Tee Lopes' tracks are definitely the highlight but most of Jun's aren't remotely close to sounding like Sonic 4 either and the compositions are great so idk what the problem is.
Bosses have animations that could have been sped up for better pacing BUT they're also some of the better bosses in the series. I'll take some minor pacing issues in favor of having bosses that actually try to kill you with some varied and creative gameplay attached. As opposed to Sonic 3 or Mania's where almost every boss is just mindlessly jumping into it to shred it with I-frames. Robotnik's creations here give off a vibe that he's absolutely sick of Sonic at this point and is trying to cover all his bases. Huge step up from his goofy ineffective little vehicles he used in Sonic 2. Feels narratively fitting in that way. A big chunk of my playtime will be in time trial mode anyway so as one time bosses for the campaign I'm happy with them. Without a good time trial mode I could see them hurting pacing on repeat playthroughs though.
Haven't gotten around to Tails yet but Knuckles now climbs ledges and gets off the ground after flight much faster than he usually does. Immediately making this my favorite 2D knuckles appearance. Really happy Amy's playable in 2D again, tons of fun. Also Some zones have character specific bonus acts so that's cool.
I was worried they'd gimp the level design hard to compensate for 4 players but thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case. And speaking of, maybe don't play in multiplayer. 2 Players is borderline unplayable, would love to see the chaos of 4. The game struggles to figure out who to focus and you despawn the exact frame you inch off screen lol.
Feels good to have some positive Sonic opinions again. Of course it's when the fans decide suddenly they have an ounce of standards after a year of Simping for unity asset flip Frontiers but hey. This'll probably spark me putting up a lot more Sonic reviews up, most of which are positive 'cuz I think this series is way more consistently good than people are ready to admit.
Subject to change like I mentioned at the start but so far, better than Mania by a long shot <3
Edit 1: Played tails, he's tons of fun. He keeps all the momentum you currently have when you enter flight, making him way more fun to use than he usually is in 2D. Having fun with time trial mode~ Knuckles doesn't seem to build up speed when you glide for a long time so that unfortunately guts him a bit, otherwise all 4 characters are fun to play. The fire-dash chaos emerald power is shockingly powerful.