Sonic CD is a massive improvement over the entry to the series two years prior. I appreciate the time travel mechanic a lot. It provides a fun amount of challenge in navigating the unique levels, which I must say have beautiful design, in order to get enough momentum and time to complete the warp, as well as burning off a time warp that you don't want to use yet. Searching for the robot generators is a nice incentive to stay in the levels in addition. Most of the levels offer a nice unique gimmick which makes them interesting and not too stale to navigate, and for the most part, isn't too challenging, but isn't a complete cakewalk either. The game is engaging on these fronts, which is a plus that Sonic 1 did not have. However, some negatives for CD include the god awful special stages, which due to hardware limitations, are much more tedious and painful than they should be, so much so that after getting one time stone, I just gave up on them entirely. The bosses, while more unique than Sonic 1, are way too easy at times. The opening and final bosses are pathetically piss easy, and honestly have no right to be in the game. Also, fuck Metallic Madness Act 2 royally. That might be the WORST level I have ever played in a Sonic game. In the end though, my overall opinion on the game isn't too dampened.

Sonic 2, the sequel to Sonic 1! It does some things better than its predecessor, such as actually having the spindash and improving the speedcap, so the game doesn't control so sluggishly. It also lowers the amount of acts per zone to two, which became the standard for a Sonic game, minus CD a year later. However, Sonic 2 is too linear a lot, too open. The game feels way too easy and when it isn't easy, its actively being a nuisance. Looking at you, Metropolis. The badnik placement in Metropolis is actually godawful. The bosses are still piss easy in this game, but they at least are somewhat unique compared to Sonic 1, which was just really generic. I bothered with only one special stage before giving up on them, as they seemed like they would just be a miserable chore to get through. Fuck Sky Chase btw. Autoscrollers in Sonic will always be horrendous. This game is just average at best.

This might be the worst game i have ever played. It is genuinely a 0 out of 10 to me. The controls are extremely sluggish, there are a ton of things you cannot see coming due to a limited screen, and the system just is not built for a Sonic game. As such, this feels nothing like a Sonic game at all. You hardly get to go fast, and in fact are more often than not punished for going fast! There is no invincibility cooldown, so more than likely, you will die if you take damage. The bosses are simple on paper, but with the shit physics and controls, along with these bosses giving you no rings to protect yourself with, they become painfully hard. Autoscrollers and upscrollers come into this game as well to make an already miserable experience EVEN WORSE. This is everything a Sonic game should not be. It is a disgrace to call this a Sonic game.

Sonic 2 on the Master System makes some improvements over the original, such as not capping your speed to that of a snail in water levels, as well as giving you a slightly more reasonable invincibility frame, even if it is still crazy short. This game has a massive problem with spike pits, you will fall into like 30 of these per play, at minimum, unless you have memorized everything perfectly to the point that you can avoid every single one. A lot are also just off camera entirely. Despite having worse level design than its predecessor, it at times feels like a Sonic game, which I cannot say about Sonic 1 SMS. Despite it being objectively worse EASILY, I found myself enjoying this game more, especially because of the funniness of it being so bad that it looped back around to being good. I would never play it again, though.... lol.

Sonic 3 is widely consistent and widely improved over its predecessors, and among the classic trilogy, is some of the best Sonic has to offer. You can play as Sonic and speed thru the levels at top speed, play as knuckles and glide thru the level and climb up walls that Sonic could only dream of traversing, or play as Tails and fly all around the level. Sonic 3 introduces the elemental shields to maximize abilities, such as bouncing and immunity to drowning, double jumping and attracting rings to you, and immunity to fire and electricity, with the ability to do a midair dash. The designs for the levels are breathtaking at times, and are the best aesthetics of the trilogy, with a wide range of scenery, from machinery created by Robotnik, to large mushroom forests undergoing seasonal manipulation. There feels to be an equal amount of speed and adventure in this game, compared to 1 and 2, which focused on one or the other, rather than both. There is a lot to do in this game besides just beat the main story, with the introduction of bonus stages, to help you earn a little bit of extra goodies. The wide range of things to do in this game is really cool, even if I don't end up going out of my way to utilize those. The game runs well and has no real major bugs, which is good. The level design for the most part is pretty great, sometimes a little confusing, but never too simple or headache-inducing. They go all out with the gimmicks in this one, and a lot of them are relatively fun to play with. There was really only a couple levels that I did not like. One, really... Carnival Night was just... meh. The bosses in this game are kinda easy for the most part, but they are pretty creative, which I like. What Sonic 3 does over its predecessors is have a story play out in front of your eyes aside from just the main story. Knuckles having a character arc in a 2D game from 1994 with zero dialogue is really cool. Going from helping Eggman by thwarting Sonic, to discovering he had been used by Eggman, who was taking the Master Emerald, Knuckles then helping Sonic the rest of the way to make it to the Death Egg and stop Eggman, its really cool to watch play out, and it is really what makes this game stand out as so great compared to its predecessors. It is a little too long with some weaker levels for me to confidently call it a personal fav or perfect game, but it is a very good one.

Mixed bag the Sonic game. For the most part its okay. Kinda easy like Sonic 2, but that is mostly because they ripped off Sonic 2 entirely in this short game. For what it is and what hardware its on, this game is somewhat impressive, but as a game itself, its kinda lame. Really just feels like they wanted to sell more Adventure titles and did so by putting a spinoff on a console I have never even heard of. Could have been better if it actually tried to do something original, aside from the bosses, which were okay, minus the second to final boss, but meh.