Nintendo

I won't spoil it, but based on previous comments I think you have the requirements to get the Master Sword. DM me if you want me to point you in the direction in a not too spoilery way 😅

I'm so glad someone who grew up with Sega thinks similar about Sonic! It's a sanity check for me. I thought "maybe I'm too biased and expect this to be Mario when it's clearly not Mario". But I'm not, and I don't. I play many different kinds of games and I'm not expecting Sonic to be Mario. But it's a game that's all about "going fast". However, if you go fast, you're punished with awkwardly placed enemies or obstacles which completely ruin the flow of each level. And Sonic is agile only when doing the spin or running for a while. When you're trying to go slow and steady, he's extremely slow and clunky. I understand there's a "faster/better" path on the high levels and slower path on the lower levels, but it still doesn't work as one would expect.

I started Sonic 2 and it's not much better. And as I said, there's lots of potential. It seems like an issue with level design, where they didn't do much play testing and just put things randomly around the level. I'm still going to finish 2 and probably continue with 3 and Sonic CD. I hope there's a progression in level design in newer installments. I'm going to go back to Sonic Mania after this too, see how that one feels after playing the originals. Sonic Superstars looks pretty cool, I'm hoping it's fun and uses the potential I'm seeing in these 2D Sonic games!