(I played this with mods just as a heads up. Mostly cosmetic ones to make it a little closer to the Dreamcast version, but still one or two gameplay tweaks I got for the sake of my own sanity.)
Feels pretty satisfying to finally have finished this. This was the big one in terms of all the Sonic games I always wanted to get to, but never did. It's not perfect, it's aged and janky, sometimes even frustrating, but it's still a whole lot of fun and its the origin of my favorite character in the series (and seemingly the basis of the next movie), so even if I didn't love it I owe a lot to Adventure 2. Both the Hero and Dark side stories have their strengths and weaknesses, like I prefer Eggman's mech stages to Tails', but I like Knuckles' treasure hunting more than Rouge's (Sonic and Shadow remain solid across the boards), so the two stories kinda even out in that way. Overall though I think I prefer Dark side since the story is a little more interesting there.
The story isn't great by any means and I won't be upset when the movie doesn't adapt it 1-to-1, but I think Sonic's approach to story in this area was something cool that made it stand out from others in its genre and I think the way these games and their extended media attatched us to these characters is one of the main reasons why the Sonic franchise has remained relevant even at its lowest. We love Sonic, we love these characters and we're always willing to give them another chance.
The gameplay really isn't perfect, but it wasn't nearly as intrusive as I expected it to be. Even the non-Sonic and Shadow stuff I didn't expect to enjoy I ended up having some actual fun with. I don't really have anything deep to say about any of it, I genuinely just think this is a fun and charming game elevated by a weird-ass story and I'm just happy to have finally experienced it all for myself. I'm even more excited for that new movie now than I already was.
Feels pretty satisfying to finally have finished this. This was the big one in terms of all the Sonic games I always wanted to get to, but never did. It's not perfect, it's aged and janky, sometimes even frustrating, but it's still a whole lot of fun and its the origin of my favorite character in the series (and seemingly the basis of the next movie), so even if I didn't love it I owe a lot to Adventure 2. Both the Hero and Dark side stories have their strengths and weaknesses, like I prefer Eggman's mech stages to Tails', but I like Knuckles' treasure hunting more than Rouge's (Sonic and Shadow remain solid across the boards), so the two stories kinda even out in that way. Overall though I think I prefer Dark side since the story is a little more interesting there.
The story isn't great by any means and I won't be upset when the movie doesn't adapt it 1-to-1, but I think Sonic's approach to story in this area was something cool that made it stand out from others in its genre and I think the way these games and their extended media attatched us to these characters is one of the main reasons why the Sonic franchise has remained relevant even at its lowest. We love Sonic, we love these characters and we're always willing to give them another chance.
The gameplay really isn't perfect, but it wasn't nearly as intrusive as I expected it to be. Even the non-Sonic and Shadow stuff I didn't expect to enjoy I ended up having some actual fun with. I don't really have anything deep to say about any of it, I genuinely just think this is a fun and charming game elevated by a weird-ass story and I'm just happy to have finally experienced it all for myself. I'm even more excited for that new movie now than I already was.