To sum this game up, Sega's pushed in every playstyle they can think of to try to revive Sonic. There's even some text based gaming. And I'd go as far as to say it's worked, except that the werehog levels (Sonic now transforms into a monster when the sun goes down) ruin the experience for me.

The normal Sonic levels are perfect. Avoiding obstacles and charging at enemies to keep yourself moving quickly and on the fastest track doesn't sound like much fun but when you play it it's great. If you can't manage to avoid the obstacles you'll slow down, and if you don't react quickly in a certain situation you'll have to go a slightly slower path. Trust me, I know it doesn't sound too good, but it's simply incredible. It's like playing an instrument, at first you won't be very good and you might get annoyed but when you get it figured out it's a great feeling to go through a level and do it perfectly.

But the earlier mentioned werehog levels are a bit of a downer for the game, I think. The controls are almost impossible, and to fight all you can possibly do is randomly mash buttons or, in my case with the Wii, shake the wii remote and nunchuk round like my hands are covered in acid. You try to put the combos together or do the special attacks like the tutorial teaches you to but you soon realise that whatever game the tutorial was talking about that it wasn't this one.
However, they're still mildly entertaining, even if I don't like them as much as the real Sonic levels.

Earlier I mentioned text based gaming, which is pretty much what some of the stages are. There are some levels where you see a village or city from above and you have to click on the names of places that pop up, and someone will talk to you about something. Surprisingly, these stages are quite fun. They develop the story in a way half an hour of cutscenes can't. You acknowledge that you're not really playing, and there's only one possible way of doing anything, but you're still getting the story in a new and interesting way, and you're not completely detached from it. Speaking of the story though, it does get confusing. The world's been split up into pieces, and the story could quite simply be putting the world back together since eggman's broken it up, but as well as this there are tablets (not entirely sure what they're for...) to use, the chhaos emeralds need their power restoring and a monster called dark gaia is soon to be released from the planet.

Overall, I'd say this is a good game. The plot may be slightly confusing at times and the werehog levels aren't as good as the rest of the game, but it's not enough to ruin the game or the enjoyment of it. If nothing else, borrowing it or renting it can't go wrong.

7.5/10