Sonic goes from high speed to full drag in his first run on a next generation system.
As technology advances, game developers naturally make attempts to cater to a game in order to utilize the new development of hardware capabilities. Graphic performance, technical and visual, is normally the most noticeable upgrade in next generation games. Sonic the Hedgehog does the visual graphics thing well enough to pass as next generation, but makes almost no attempt to utilize the benefit of technical performance - namely data access from the DVDROM. Loading times are everywhere in Sonic the Hedgehog. You will spend as much time waiting to get past loading screens as you do actually playing the game. Loading takes up a large portion of the game's navigation from level to level. Just starting some sections of the game will cost you 2-3 different loading screens that each take upwards of 15 - 20 seconds, only to play a portion of the game that lasts less than a minute. What makes Sonic the Hedgehog hard to play is the fact that it is difficult to keep Sonic on his linear path as he often fails to make a jump or runs in odd directions as the game's self-centered camera gives a less than playable point of view.
What is a surprise is how well the voice acting is done when watching the cut scenes (this does not translate to good gameplay).
What developers could have been done better;
Give Sonic multiple paths to use when falling off the main path.
Load times brought down to minimum.
Play Sonic and the Secret Rings (Wii)