Hardest Special Stages in the Sonic Series

So I recently played Sonic and Knuckles on XBLA and i'm wondering what people think the hardest special stages were in the series?I got all 7 emeralds EASY in S+N.For me

1. Sonic Advance 2: Easily the hardest ever. To give you and idea, you had to find SEVEN secret rings in a stage and then complete the stage. Did I mention the level design is TERRIBLE with way too many bottomless pits and poorly placed enemies? The special stage itself is very annoying. You only get one shot. It's "3D" and very diffucult to control. The ammount of rings you have to get in the time limit is insane! Fail? GET THE 7 RINGS AGAIN!

And the worst part, so much is unlocked from these. You HAVE to do it with all four characters to get the special ending! That's 28 emeralds. I can't even get the first one!

2. Sonic Advance: Well there's no stage select, and the special stages themseves were broken. You had to be PERFECT to get the rings, and you have to get nearly all of them to get the emerald. Try it for yourself, its a nightmare.

3. Sonic Heroes: So time consuming So Frustrating. I sold the game years ago and I remember being so frustrated.

Well I didn't like the Special Stage from the first one because it ALWAYS turned the opposite way when I was close to getting the Emerald and it dropped me to those damn bumpers. :|

The Special Stage from Sonic 2 however was a lot of fun, and the music was awesome!

Doo-doo-doo-do-do-do-dooooo