A little classic which is hardly heard of due to the Mega Drive/Genesis version.
When people say "Classic Sonic was the greatest" they're normally referring to the Mega Drive/ Genesis titles. (Abbreviated as MD/G due to my laziness) Which are awesome. But what people either don't realise or seem to forget is that the Master System and Game Gear had some pretty good Sonic titles too. This is the best of them.
The gameplay in this game is a lot less focussed on speed and more focussed on platforming. This really helps the game stand out as to other Sonic games and just says "Sonic doesn't need to be super fast to be super fun" Indeed there are moments where you can roll down a hill and pick up speed, but there are no loops. Anyway it's your standard Sonic game, collect rings and lives, get the Chaos Emeralds if you can. There are 3 parts to a level, of which all are uniquely themed. (Green Hill Zone of course, a jungle, airship and more) Parts one and two are a sprint to the goal and part three is the boss battle. You have no rings for these fights... one hit and you're dead! You can't just randomly jump on Dr Robotnik and hope for the best, these bosses are all about deciding when to jump on him. Your timing doesn't have to be dead on, but it needs to be pretty good.
Back to the levels. You can find a Chaos Emerald in each world, though they don't affect the gameplay. If you finish a level with 50 rings or more you get to go to a special stage where you can earn a continue. Basically you're in a room filled with springs and other bouncy things. There are also plenty of rings to increase your life count. It's pretty fun actually.
Graphics are pretty good for 8-bit. And the music is very good. Fun fact: The credits theme was remixed in the ps3/360 version of Sonic Unleashed to create the Mazuri Savannah Citadel (I forget the exact name) day theme. And the Bridge zone theme slightly reminds some people of Tails' theme from Sonic Adventure 1/DX. Controls are tight, alot better than the other 8-bit Sonic games.
One gripe I have is that the hit detection seems a little off. Sometimes you will hit things where there is a few milimetres gap between Sonic's sprite and the object. However this was only really a problem for me in Labyrinth Zone in the section where spears pop out of the floor.
Yeah I recommend you try this. It is featured on Sonic Mega Collection + and is an unlockable mini game in Sonic Adventure DX (not in the DreamCast original though) I think it may be available for Wii downloads. This game is really un-noticed because of the MD/G version, I'll admit that version is supirior (though I may be being biassed as I grew up with that version and didn't know about this version until I breifly borrowed Sonic Adventure DX of a friend two years ago) this is still a good ride and no Sonic fan should die without playing it first.
EDIT - The versions featured on Sonic Mega collection + and Adventure DX are the Game Gear versions, but they're more or less the same thing. This version has slightly better graphics and a bigger screen size. In the Game Gear version there are minor boss changes and one stage (Labyrynth Act two) has been redesigned. The hit detection problem doesn't seem as bad in that version either. I can't decide on the definitive version because there isn't alot to chose from.
EDIT - people have copy pasted my reveiws. So here's the seal of Milesprower2k9 original reveiws