More than meets the eye.
The game features familiar Sonic characters as well as characters, tracks, and tunes from other famous Sega games such as Jet Set Radio, House of the Dead, Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi, Super Monkey Ball, Shinobi, and Alex Kidd. Even Wreck-It-Ralph makes an appearance. I am annoyed that Sega, once again, missed a trick by not including anything from Lava Reef Zone from Sonic & Knuckles, as it is the best Sonic tune of all. And if they were cool enough to include Golden Axe (with an awesome new remix of the Wilderness theme) then why not include Streets of Rage also (a franchise they have all but disowned)? The tracks themselves are wonderful and exciting, with lots of blue skies and sunshine as we have come to expect from Sonic games. This limited edition even features Outrun Bay, but the music is a remix of Splash Wave, instead of the much more memorable Magical Sound Shower.
After the first tournament of career mode the game becomes incredibly difficult, and is probably one of the hardest Platinum trophies out there, so I just quit before it started to drive me mad. It requires hundreds of hours of gameplay, which I am not willing to give it. There are 51 trophies in total, and I managed 21 of them, which I am happy with. It's a great game, but the sharp difficulty curve might put you off too. Another minor gripe would be the lack of clear information within the game. The instruction manual contains virtually nothing, so you've got to figure out what everything means during gameplay, which is kind of hard as it doesn't make it obvious or make much of an effort to orientate you.
Graphics A
Sound B+
Gameplay B
Lasting Appeal C+