i was 2 zones in before i so desperately wanted to alt-tab out and just play sonic mania instead.

seeing naoto oshima, the creator of sonic himself and being integral parts of many of my favorite sonic games such as cd and adventure gave me some type of optimism for this game, i wasnt expecting anything amazing but DAMN did they miss the mark so hard. the sonic staple of incredibly inconsistent presentation continues, its embarrassing down to its fucking launch.

- denuvo AND epic games launcher included despite being nowhere on the page
- dlc that was for the deluxe edition made temporarily free by accident (yes, really.)
- modern amy costume was said to be newsletter only is now dlc

in every aspect this game is extremely lazy, the physics are a lot better than sonic teams past attempts but they are still ever so slightly off. the level design is extremely fine, though the ring locations are barely even hidden most of the time. the quality of bosses tanked since frontiers and now take FOREVER between phases, usually ranging between 2-3 minutes. the new emerald powers are so annoying too, they're nothing more than gimmicks. theres not a single time they are ever utilized in a fun or unique way. they couldn't even get the damn sound mixing right, some sounds are too quiet and others blast your eardrums.

the music in this game just sucks too, why are there like 50 people working on it? and why do most of the tracks suck? jun sunoue is more than fully capable of making amazing genesis compositions (just check out his work on 3d blast!), and yet he still goes for that horrible synthy garbage that was also present in sonic 4.
instead of composing faster versions of tracks when you get the speed shoes like in gens, it sounds like they went in audacity and sped up the songs.

the art direction was one aspect i was so desperately wanting to be good, a return to form for sonic aesthetically was my biggest hope and frankly, it like shit. every zone is so generic or just worse versions of other zones, generic forest, ugly sand level, carnival night rip off, it doesnt help the game is on the same level graphically as a xbox live budget title. super low res textures, horrible rim lighting and dark shadows plague every part of this game.

even after beating this game im baffled by how boring and dull it is. $60 for this game is a scam, i shouldve seen it coming as that this is the same studio that made other middling, bland games such as yoshis new island and balan wonderworld. it sucks, everything sucks. if you want a good game, play mania..you can buy three copies for the same price as this. i want nothing more than sonic to succeed, its my favorite franchise of all time, but we are in this forever cycle of inconsistent, amateurish messes that never strive to be anything more than games to fill up spaces on store shelves. try next time, please.

Was not expecting an indie 3D metroidvania starring a caked up goat girl to end up as one of my favorite games of last year, yet here we are.

This game does start off a bit slow, but once you unlock more movement abilities, you can really fly across the world. The amount of freedom this game gives you is pretty insane, and there are multiple points where you can very easily sequence break if you know what you're doing. It can be a bit clunky at times, especially the way this game's equivalent to a wall jump is, but it never gets too obnoxious. The game is very forgiving with checkpoints and never feels unfair.

I wish the game had an in-game map, as it's pretty easy to get lost. The game has a very clearly N64/PS1 inspired art style, so the environments are simple looking and can look a bit samey. With that being said, moving around in this game is so fun, that it doesn't even really matter. I'd put this in the same category of something like Mario 64 where just the sheer act of moving around and experimenting with your various abilities is fun on its own.

I can also appreciate the lack of any real story to the game. It's very vague and mysterious and doesn't really bother to explain anything. You're just thrown into this weird world and expected to learn things as you go.

There's a bit of combat in the game, which is simple but never focused on enough to take away from the platforming. There are only 2 bosses, one at the beginning and one at the end, with a small variety of very easily dispatched enemies in-between.

Honestly, I'm incredibly surprised by this game. This may be one of the best attempts at a retro 3D platformer I've seen. It captures the look and feel of the 5th gen era of video games extremely well, doesn't overstay its welcome, and it's only $6 too. Definitely gonna keep an eye on this developer's games from now on. Please keep making great games with thick thighed protagonists.

A shallow RPG with quirkiness as its sole draw. There isn't a single time in the main story where strategy is required or even allowed, the mechanics seem to be trying to encourage switching out your party but only succeed at randomly locking you out of random party members for no reason, and the game is so repetitive that I haven't felt a hint of desire to play the postgame since fighting the final boss. Every mechanic introduced feels like the devs are saying "we know the game is easy, but it's not easy enough yet". The game's quirky nature isn't even particularly funny, and it's all the game has going for it besides the novelty of letting you choose the face of every character.