Frustrating, has aged horribly, and just in general insanely unintuitive. But there is an undeniable Donkey Kong-esque charm to the world and it is satisfying to conquer its clunkiness.

A smoke and mirrors insult to fans and average consumer alike. There are brief moments here of juvenile glee and even a bit of wonder, but under all those small moments is a game that refuses to build upon *any* of its foundations.

Converting 2D strengths to the very muddy and new waters of 3D done pretty well. There are minor graphical and gameplay kinks. But despite all the new polish and story applied, this is still traditional Sonic speed and action. That gameplay loop is still satisfying and they add plenty of new things to enjoy.

A cautionary tale on form over function. This sequel to 1998's very good 3D update sees the series take the worrying trajectory of unloading a nonsensical story onto an unsuspecting audience and letting that affect the gameplay. I like the new characters in theory, and Sonic's stages are pretty all right, but this is, for all its excess experimentalism, across the board less satisfying than the previous entry.

Sonic Team delivers, well, a Sonic game. Baby steps! Thankfully, this game is absolutely an improvement on many fronts to Unleashed. Even the level design itself is built more around the zippiness of the boost mechanic, and the team is clearly hedging their bets by making this one a Wii exclusive instead of targeting every console. In spite of that it's about as visually pretty as Unleashed was, and at least two times more fun.

A short but sweet celebration of the entire Sonic franchise. Just with minor 'new Sonic' caveats that I have. That dreaded boost formula solidifies itself as a permanent addition here, the 2D sections don't feel quite right, it's also very short. But the heart is there, and the levels are just different and visually pretty enough for this to be an engaging, worthy little play.

The gameplay is as unrefined and messy as ever. But everything has just a bit more style, a bit more color and life. It still feels like a bandage on a wound compared to the much preferable robust style of SA1, though I had a bit more fun with this than with SA2.

Look, is it broken? Absolutely. It has much in common with my friend Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. The loading times are abhorrent and the game itself falling apart at the seams. Yet, I found myself having fun despite itself. Even with all that, this has some of the series' best level design yet in 3D and playing around the jank ultimately becomes its own kind of reward. Call that a recommendation if you want. Sonic faithful, you know who you are, and I predict you will like it.

Fans of the series that were desperate for a reprieve from the dark Sonic 06 days prop this up, I call it soulless. The level design of the regular stages is so incredibly basic, with a new boost mechanic that basically forces every stage to be a boring vanilla straight line. The werehog levels are even worse, allowing you to engage in 10 frame per second monotonous combat. The biggest problem is that Sonic Team seems so desperate to make a un-Sonic Sonic game, with pie-in-the-sky ambitions to appeal to what seems like everyone in the whole wide world, that there is truly nothing here to enjoy for anyone. Fan or otherwise. Discarding the abysmal Shadow spin-off and Forces, this is my least favorite game in the series.