Okay, I have to call BS on this review.
Quote
Jumping is a different matter: holding down the jump button causes Sonic to grind, and only upon releasing does he jump, causing a delay. Even a quick tap of the jump button has a delayed reaction, and jumping overall slows Sonic down. Also, homing attacks can only be performed after jumping, and you must “lock on" to an enemy to perform them. There are two problems here: one, it takes too long to jump. Two, you must be in the air for a certain amount of time before you actually “lock on." If you are running at full speed towards a gap and see an enemy at the last minute, you are likely to jump, performing your homing attack without locking on, and fall to your death. This means that whenever something unexpected shows up in the levels, you will die. There's never enough time to dodge, jump, or attack.
First off, the game explicitly refers to charging a jump as sliding, because, well, that's what he does. Not grinding. Secondly, homing attacks acquire targets as soon as you begin to slide, far before you even go airborne. The only reason you'd homing attack into oblivion is because you're BELOW your target, meaning you didn't jump high enough or waited too long. Lastly, there's a brake button for a reason. Try using it before you run off the edge next time. Heck, you can even quickly tap the brake and go into an extremely slow slide for the jump.
Quote
These obstacles range from simple obstructions to groups of enemies that must be defeated or puzzles that must be solved. One area has you transporting dinosaur eggs to their appropriate nests, but since there are many branched paths, you have to loop around the level just finding the darn eggs before you can go on a hunt for the nests. The on-rails concept just doesn't fit the exploration necessary in this level.
One early level puts Sonic in front of a pack of raging Triceratops, and he must hit as many of the familiar “speed pads" as he can to avoid them. The problem is that Sonic Team has attempted to create a cinematic dinosaur chase that is shown from many different angles but, for simple gameplay purposes, I need to see where I'm going. The camera is often looking in the wrong direction, or at an awkward angle that confuses your left/right movement. It is also hard to actually hit the pads, and if you miss a few of them, the Triceratops will trample you. It also just so happens that in this level gaining rings is your top priority. It's a really sadistic level that you may have to play many times before completing.
In regards to Dino Jungle, I will concede that the two missions mentioned are quite obnoxious, though the Egg-collecting mission has a few shortcuts to get where you need to. It's only really brought down by the random egg/nest locations.
Quote
As you level up, Sonic will gain new “abilities" which range from useless to absolutely necessary: “Improve steering control," or “Accelerate faster." The game is nearly unplayable at first until you gain these key abilities, making the controls go from awful to adequate. Some of the skills become necessary, like the ability to slow time down or speed it up, but it's never clear when to use these until too late. The organization of these skills (which must be equipped prior to starting a level) in the menu is confusing and annoying… actually, so is every part of the menus. You'll be seeing the menus a lot because every time you complete a single level (some of them in less than 45 seconds) you'll be sent back to select a new one.
Okay, it can't be that hard to figure out that you should use Time Break when you see a tricky obstacle approaching, can it? Come on! "Hm, there's a rotating fan in front of me! Too bad I don't have any abilities that let me better maneuver through its blades!" Secondly, you can sort the skills FIVE different ways, many of which group them together based on similar usages. Being kicked out to the menu isn't that bad, due to the fact you can get back into a level within probably 20 seconds, including loading times.
Additionally, while it is slightly annoying to mix "essential" abilities such as Speed up and Charger into the more specialized abilities, in some missions, you'll be glad you're able to lower your maximum speed, or turn down your acceleration. Trust me. And when you beat the final boss, you gain the ability to turn off even your normal abilities, so you can ditch the homing attack if you should so desire (it's very useful to do this for some missions), or maybe eliminate the charge jump. Heck, you can turn off all his fancy 3D abilities and try playing through the game like a 2D Sonic if you want!
Quote
angst-rock most of the time
No.
Lastly, why no mention about the massive amount of unlockable content within the game? You get at least one thing unlocked for every gold medal you get, including concept art, songs, cutscenes, and other cool stuff.
To those reading this: yes, the game is hard. You'll fight with the controls. You'll swear. You'll curse the camera. But it gets exponentially better, and you'll be able to eliminate the issues almost completely. There's a ton of different stuff to do. Even when the missions are the same (ie Don't collect any pearls), the way the level is set up can generate a completely different experience other than "well, it's the same mission in a different level".