A refreshing game, taking us back to the days when Sonic ruled, with a few slight changes to make it modern.
To quickly sum it up, it's everything from the old games with a sprinkle of next gen to make it modern (after all, it is £10).
Difficulty:
The first thing you'll notice is the old school difficulty. They cranked it up a bit this time, since the addition of the Homing Attack makes things a LOT easier (not to mention the Spin Dash, which speeds you up much more). The first few bosses are easy, but they soon become harder, like a true Sonic game should be. Enemies are basically the same, you run at breakneck speeds and randomly hit them and lose rings and fall back. Same old stuff, not many changes.
Graphics:
The graphics are revamped entirely, think of it like the 2D parts of Sonic Unleashed but in the old zones. The lighting work is absolutely fantastic, especially in the Casino zone, (yes, they return and they're more head-ache giving than ever) where the background really pops out at you. Sadly, we can't keep everything old school and so Sonic is in his next-gen version (green eyes, slimmer body etc.) which may upset some people but you barely even notice it anyway, so it's not really worth crying about.
Gameplay:
Being a sequel, nothing much really changes as far as gameplay goes. Like I said in the Difficulty section, the Homing Attack is quite a large change, letting you cross a gap of enemies which would be almost impossible in the original game. It uses an auto-target system, hitting anything that comes within range of it when you press X (such as enemies, springs, and item boxes). The speed is much faster than the old games too (be that good or bad, I'll let you decide). Theres also the inclusion of special stages, just as you remember them from the original Sonic The Hedgehog, you spin the stage with the joystick and press X to make him jump, hard stuff indeed, as you need to collect rings to open doors, a new feature but most welcome in my book. There's also those red circles that end the level.
Music:
For once, we have ourselves a Sonic game that isn't full of rock and meaningless lyrics. We actually have the old music, the catchy and retro style that we've waited sixteen years to see. And it doesn't repeat, throughout the 4 zones we have and all the acts inbetween, every single one has a different song, which feels refreshing, instead of heavy metal every single level and every single time I die. Yup, the same tune doesn't repeat every time you die, it goes on as if you never did.
Overall:
It's a refreshing start to a promising series, with a second coming right round the corner. The old feels new and the new is great all the same. It also has a ton of extras, like the special stages, chaos emeralds, trophies, special ending and more. A great game and well worth the £10 (it's not like it's a fortune to pay, anyway). You should, if you haven't already, buy this game if you're an old-school Sonic fan.
And thats it, enjoy the game!