This game is so close to having old fashioned Sonic goodness. While I realize the old days of a game like the original Genesis Sonics has passed, the makers of this game seem to remember some of the things that made those great and then added a bunch of junk to fill space. Let me explain: the games play is divided into 2 different styles "day" and "night". Day is full of the things we loved about the originals: simple, fun and fast game play. The "night" part transforms Sonic into a "Were Hedge Hog" whose levels seem more like a game that would have been competing with Spiro the Dragon on the original PS. The night levels have nothing "Sonic-Y" about them and seem really dated and slow. I wouldn't have minded putting in some sort of fighting levels but at least make them fun and fast rather than an exercise in button mashing and making well timed jumps over bottomless pits (something I always hate). Not to mention the stupid story framework that does nothing for me but stretch the game out. So my score reflects an average of an 8 for the "day" and a 4 for the "night" levels. Oh and as a p.s. my wife (who still plays the original 3 games at least once a week)wanted to know what happened to the cute woodland creatures Sonic used to liberate!