Gamespot needs someone who can actually review to review this game, because it's actually plain awesome!
At the beginning of the game, you start off really fast. And if that wasn't enough, there are stats in the game that you use experience points to level up, Sonic has Speed & Ring energy (The Boost Guage), so you become even faster as you progress through the game so much that you can go back to the first level, start boosting & then barely be able to see where you're going - it's that fast.
The best parts of these stages are the straight forward areas where you can run as much as you like & kep a high speed, although most levels, sadly, have one or two tedious platforming sections that kill your speed, but after the first time you do then, they won't be as annoying the next time.
The game features Hubs, were you can roam around freely, if not slowly. In the Hub Worlds, there are people to talk to & shops to buy hidden items & souveniers from, these aren't the best hubs ever placed in a Sonic game, the Adventure Fields in Sonic Adventure & the town in Sonic 06 were better, but through the hub, you can access an area that contains the stages scattered around where you speed is un-capped & you can pull off every move you have.
Both of these places are worth looking at for items & medals.
The controlls aren't as good as they could be, for example, quickstep should be on the triggers instead of the shoulder buttons, & homing attacks should be on A instead of X (Remarkable annoying once you get the ability to boost in mid-air), but having an alternative drift button on the triggers is a stroke of genious as pressing B can slow you down.
Medals, of cours, are needed to access levels, it can be a pain when you don't have enough, but unless you're hopeless at this game, you should be able to maintain the right number of medals for most of the game.
When the sun goes down, Sonic turns into a "Werehog" who has beat 'em up-style stages. His stats are divided into Combat, which gives you a new combo everytime it goes up a level, Strength, Life, Unleashed, which is increases your Unleashed Guage, which allows you to go into unleashed mode, a move that increases your agility & atack power, and finally, sheild, which makes your blocking technique better.
The Werehog's levels become emarkably huge mid-game, but can be bared if you take breaks for a bit of a run whenever you're tired of these stages.
In the night-time stages, the Werehog goes around smashing enemies to bits - which rewards itself with a lot of experience points by the end of the stage - & doing quick & easy puzzles to open doors & find medals & hidden items.
It's a matter of oppinion on whether the Werehog is good or not, either way, you may get a bit tired of long stages.
Unlike in the wii version, you have decent control over the werehog, as in "You don't randomly fall off the edge when you press the jump button," making platforming sections less of chores & more of an obsticle that won't last long.
The bosses in this game are rather good & fun to play, althouigh Dark Moray, the second Werehog boss, isn't very well done, but all the other bosses are brilliant. The Daytime bosses aren't too hard, & if you're good, you'll notice that if you boost after you hit them, you can get in a few extra hits. The night-time bosses require concentration at points, for example, you need to pay attention on the first one when attacking as buttons will appear on the screen that you need to press, and the Werehog fights are never straight forward.
SEGA have nearly got it right, this time. Next time, if they don't put in any twists, Sonic will return.
While this game doesn't quite deserve an 8.5, it does beat the wii version.