This game took me so long to beat I don't even know when I started it. Not because the game is too terribly long, but because this game is just so boring and flawed. For one, there are 5 acts in each of the 5 ZONES. Playing that many acts of one theme is uninteresting, and the way the game tries to avoid this is by randomizing the order of the levels. Before each level, you spin a roulette and that picks what level you want, this can lead to getting two boss acts twice in a row which is annoying. Another strange element of the game is selecting your partner character, you have to play a claw game and if you miss any of the actual partner characters, you will be left with Bomb or Heavy, who are actually power downs. On the topic of that partner mechanic, said mechanic will lead you to be flung around the stages at high speeds and it is very annoying. Even just gaining speed is a problem, you can't just spindash for a quick boost of speed like other classic Sonic games, instead you must let your partner stand still and pull back slowly to gain speed. Even the special stages are disorienting and bad, perhaps one of the worst special stages in the series.