I don't know what to think about this game. It's such a mixed bag; on one hand I enjoy the music, the visuals, and I don't mind the exploration-based level design in this game. The special stages are also pretty neat though the depth perception sucks. On the other hand, the level design at times can feel pretty random not cohesive, combined with the classic getting hit by things you couldn't see. Although sometimes time travelling can be a bit tricky since like I said the level design is more focused on exploration rather than speed. Even after all of what I mentioned, I still somehow find a way to have fun playing CD. To me it's a game I enjoy but I don't truly know why. Though what I can say that if you aren't a fan of exploration-based level design you won't really like this game.

Sonic 2 overall does a great job at defining the series and improves on its predecessor in pretty much every way. Most importantly, the level design is vastly improved to be more focused around speed and physics, combined with the newly added Spin Dash that makes the levels a lot more fun to play. However, the quality starts to drop off starting with Mystic Cave, with the levels feeling a bit more unfair in terms of getting hit or dying by things you couldn't see coming. Despite that, I'd still say that Sonic 2's lows are still higher than Sonic 1's lows. The bosses are alright though the second phase of the final boss can feel a bit janky and take a while. The special stages are solid enough minus Tails running into spikes from time to time. In conclusion, Sonic 2 does everything a sequel should do to the point that it's easily worth playing more over the original. (Played via the Sonic 2 Absolute version on PC)

A game I thought going into that I'd absolutely despise but surprisingly I didn't? Not to say that the game is good, far from it and you can't deny the amount of damage this game did to Sonic's reputation for understandable reasons, but I still managed to somewhat enjoy it because of the level design and the soundtrack. But as an overall package this game is a mess due to factors such as the story being a hot mess aside from Shadow’s, the unpolished boss fights, most of the characters are not fun to play as, long loading times on OG hardware and an excessive amount of load screens (played on Xenia so this wasn't an issue for me), boring town missions, the glitches, and all the other poor qualities everyone knows by now. For all of the reasons I mentioned above, I'd give the game a 5/10, there's aspects I like about it but for future playthroughs I'll stick to Project 06 and Legacy of Solaris, with it being rarely that I'll revisit the vanilla game due how messy the overall package is. Unless you are a curious Sonic fan, perhaps stay away unless you want some laughs.

It's certainly a Sonic game alright, this game is the definition of good blueprint but not really a good game aka the first game syndrome. Green Hill is a great introduction to the game, but then it really falls off afterwards. Marble being eh, Labyrinth being egregious, Spring Yard was okay, Star Light was amazing, and I guess I found Scrap Brain passable? The bosses were also just okay. Overall, the game is a 6/10 but it's still worth playing at least once because you can easily beat the game in a single sitting. (Played the Sonic Forever version with infinite lives)

This is mod is very impressive for a mod; it almost feels like an official DLC campaign. The level design, while being a massive step up from the vanilla game, is a blast to play through, even if there might be a stigma of the vanilla level design still lingering. This time around, you'll have to actually turn on your brain and play the game, combined with a challenging ranking system that does a great job at testing your skills. Sometimes, the levels can feel too busy on visuals that could make some things a bit harder from player-to-player. Episode Metal is a cool 1-stage prequel story that provides a bit of context for the events that happen throughout the story. The soundtrack throughout the mod is awesome and is great for pumping your adrenaline, although the vocals that play for the track in Stage 6 is... meh. The cutscenes are somewhat reminiscent of the Storybook games, with hand drawn visuals that feels like something out of the IDW comics. While it's cool to see that multiple artists worked on the cutscenes, the presentation can feel a bit inconsistent as a result. The voice acting can feel pretty hit or miss, but still solid overall. The weakest part of the whole mod to me is the writing. Ranging from issues such as the writing feeling too cliche, some stuff the world map dialogue going on a bit longer than it should at times, and some stuff feels out of character. e.g the way Sonic is written sometimes feels kind of like Spiderman where defeating Eggman is his job which feels weird for Sonic. Despite my issues, it's still worth checking out, as while it'll only take you about an hour, the overall package still makes up for it. But if you want to buy the game just to play this mod (ONLY ON PC), wait for a sale. Check out the official website here: https://duckdealer1.github.io/forces-overclocked/

Overall, it was a wonderful time with the great visuals, a catchy soundtrack, expressive animations, and the unique ideas such as the Piranha Plant wonder effect, the slime, and the Goomba. The badge system also adds a lot of replay value to the game with the additions it adds to your moveset. I also appreciate the large number of new enemies that were added to spice up the gameplay. The break time and the other mini-challenges were a nice breaks to take in between the main levels. There are some notable issues however, such as how the bosses prior to final Bowser were just Jr. over and over again, with Worlds 3 and 5 not having a boss at all. Some wonder effects and badges feel like filler, the game can feel too easy at times and World 3 was pretty mediocre. Despite that, I’d still give the game a 9/10, and even if you may not be a 2D Mario fan it’s still worth checking out.

Sonic Lost World on the Wii U really is the epitone of "I don't hate it but I also don't love it either." There's some interesting ideas here such as the parkour system, but it could have been integrated into the level design alot better. You can really tell how hard the devs were trying to copy Mario, from the Mario Galaxy-esque level design, the more cartoony artstyle, the same generic world themes for the most part and having a friggin run button for whatever reason. Wasn't one of the main appeals of Sonic to begin with is that he didn't have a run button and gained speed naturally? Yes, there's the boost but I feel like that's different in a way. Sometimes movement feels a bit awkward for the fact that when you turn, you lose some of your speed for whatever reason. Surely someone must have caught this during playtesting, right? Even more awkward is that doing the double jump kinda kills your momentum, which feels pretty awkward especially in 2D sections. In terms of the level design, I think it's just serviceable for the most part but easily the most offensive stages are the gimmickier ones, such as the snowball level in Frozen Factory, the rolling fruit that rips off Mario Sunshine in Tropical Coast, and the levitating Sonic autoscrolling level in Sky Road. Gimmicks like these either fall into the category of either having crappy controls, killing the pace of the game flow, or gets old really fast. Easily some of the worst levels in the game. The Wisps also make a return in this game from Colors but they're more shoehorned in than anything gameplay wise and narratively, compared to Colors where they actually felt like a natural part of the level design. Got nothing much to say as well for the boss fights as thanks to the charged homing attack, the bosses are literal jokes. As for the story to put it bluntly: it blows HARD. This is easily one of the worst narratives in the entire series, even worse than 06 I'd argue. Even though that story was a massive trainwreck at least it tried to do something interesting with its themes and whatnot, but Lost World has like absolutely nothing running for its money. The Deadly Six are up there as some of the worst villains in the series due to just how 1-dimensional the characters are from design to personality, and are just generally uninteresting as characters. The writing in general is just awful, with Sonic acting like an enormous prick towards Tails and how whenever the writing tries to be funny, I cringe due to how forced the humor is, and laugh at the serious moments because again it feels forced. There’s also Knuckles and Amy who are such nothingburgers, you could remove them from the story and nothing would really be lost. I’m went a bit harder on the story this time seeing as theres cutscenes before and after almost every level, which shows that the story is meant to have a bigger role, but alas there’s nothing. There’s a couple other aspects such as the Yoshi and Zelda themed DLC stages which are easily the best ones in the game, and the soundtrack is also great as per usual. Overall, I’d give the game about a 5, maybe a 6 out of 10 at best as that’s how I really feel after playing the game. I’d say maybe give it a shot but you wouldn’t lose much value giving this one a pass IMO.

It's pretty interested to see the team take a shot at doing a roguelike for the DLC. Overall I really enjoyed Side Order, from the awesome music, the visuals, and the overall atmosphere. The gameplay was also fairly solid and at my skill level was mildly challenging, though I wish there was just a bit more variety in objectives. The bossfights overall were also pretty good, and they do a good job at keeping you on your toes. The story was also a bit on the weaker side, but I found the dialogue between Off the Hook and Acht to be pretty enjoyable, and it's really cool to see Acht/Dedf1sh make a physical appearance for the first time ingame. The lore additions this time are also a really neat welcome to a series veteran such as myself. If you're into roguelikes, there's a good amount of fun to be had here, though if you aren't into roguelikes this is probably a pass for you. Really interested in doing more runs in the future.

A really good Sonic entry overall minus the bosses and a few Dimps™️ moments here and there in the level design. Even had enough fun with how special stages are implemented that I decided to go for all of the Chaos Emeralds. The main highlights for me being the awesome soundtrack, Blaze being a welcome addition to the cast, the fun level design (minus Mirage Road for it's pacing at times and Altitude Limit for the amount of instakill hazards), the story is pretty solid, and more that I can't be bothered to list off. Not sure if I would call it one of my favorite 2D Sonic's but it's still a really good time overall.

Definitely one of the best 2D Sonic games minus the forced replayabilty for grinding materials, and the sailing might not be what you'd want out of a Sonic game, but I didn't mind it too much. Rush Adventure basically improves on everything from the first game such as more fair level design with there being less bottomless pit spam, and the boss fights are some of the best in the series as it perfectly adapts the classic philosophy of the bosses being faster the more skilled you are and vice versa, unlike in Rush where you just have to wait around just dodging attacks before you get another chance to hit the boss. The only part that the first game really does better in aside from pacing, is the soundtrack, though that's debatable. I prefer the Rush 1 soundtrack but Rush Adventure still has some great stuff! Overall a fantastic game in general; would highly recommend this one if you haven't played it already.

Sonic Unleashed is definitely one of the more polarizing entries in the series, and it's easy to see why. The 2 gameplay styles clash so hard to the point that you're playing 2 games in 1, so it's easy to heavily prefer one style. But the despite that, I still really enjoyed this game for what it is, so here's why, with positive and negatives. Let's start of with the presentation. The presentation of this game is phenomenal, and it still holds up to this day for a game made in 2008. The Pixar-like art direction and the awesome global illumination effects does a great job at making the world feel alive and fits really well with the world adventure theme of this game. Same thing goes for the soundtrack, which is easily one of the best in the series due to how much variety there is and just how darn catchy and fitting it is. The story is also more on the lighthearted side, which is pretty fitting for the world adventure theme of this game. The opening CGI cutscene does an awesome job at setting up the story, and I think the theme of light vs. dark is a pretty neat idea. My main criticism with the story is that I kinda wished there was more that happened between the beginning and the end. At least it somewhat makes up for it with really good character writing, and the voice acting, primarily with Sonic as Jason started to get much better with his performance as the character. Now onto the gameplay! The daytime stages just might be some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay in the series. The sense of speed you have is exhilarating, and the levels are a blast to run through, with some solid enough platforming, and obstacles you have to quickly react to in order to stay alive. As a result these levels can feel incredibly rewarding to master, but they can also be kinda frustrating if you're playing these on your first time, cause some of the later levels can feel a bit trial-and-errorish. It's like the desginers were aware of this, since the levels hand out lives like candy just in case. The controls can also feel slippery but nothing you can't get used to after some time. Now onto the night gameplay! Yes, it is indeed strayed far away from what you'd expect from a Sonic game, but what's here is fairly competent. really enjoy the platforming sequences from swinging on poles to grabbing onto ledges, and it can feel good once you start to get a good flow. The combat is solid enough, though you'll need to level it up quite a bit to get a bigger moveset and power. The puzzles are pretty basic and not anything special, but they aren't offensive either. As a result, my favorite night stages are ones such as Cool Edge and Skyscraper Scamper Act 1, while my least favorites are Dragon Road and Arid Sands Act 1 due to how repetitive those stages are with combat. Some other criticisms I have are that the controls of the Werehog could be a bit tighter, and the lack of a proper drop shadow can make certain sections such as beam balancing ones much harder than they need to be. Overall, I think the Werehog is pretty solid for what it is, but I can't blame others for being fully against the idea. This was clearly something added for padding, as Sonic Team knew that game with just day stages would be extremly short otherwise. As for the boss fights, I think the day ones are pretty good with how you have to boost into the bosses in order to knock them over while dodging their attacks, though they can feel kinda samey. I'll have to give a slight edge to the night bosses, as they all have something to set them apart with how you have to expose their weak point, then attack. Last aspects I'll touch upon for now are the hub worlds and pacing. I think the hub worlds are pretty good and they do a solid job at adding worldbuilding, and it's not too hard to figure out where you have to go. The pacing on the other hand is a pretty major issue, primarily because of the forced medal collecting you have to do in order to finish the game. The medals aren't too much of a problem in the night stages as you're meant to take things slower, they're an issues in the day stages, because you are running by so fast that it is very easy to miss medals. Doesn't help the fact that some of these medals are hidden in REALLY obscure places. While it is something that does become less of a problem on repeat playthroughs, it can be pretty demoralizing to encounter the first time and can absolutely drive away new players from the game. Despite the major flaws, this just might be one of my favorite Sonic games. As for recommending this one, I would NOT recommend this game to anyone trying to get into 3D Sonic. I'd suggest playing Colors and Generations first to get used to the Boost formula, and then ask yourself how much can you tolerate alternate gameplay styles in Sonic. If you have a high tolerance for them, I'd say give this game a shot if you don't mind having to deal with medals. If you don't meet these recommendations, perhaps this isn't the game for you.