I jumped around to keep Tails from landing lol

Don't get used to this kind of quality Sonic fans, its all downhill from here. This isn't just the best Sonic game, this is the game that made me realize why so many people enjoyed these games, it actually uses its mechanics in good ways unlike the original and unlike almost none of the sequels.

It's fine if you get used to it I guess. I was never into Sonic and I find these games almost unplayably confusing. I can accept it's likely a me problem.

This is an ok game. You can become Super Sonic now if you get all 7 emeralds. While better than the 1st game, this game poses the same problems Sonic 1 had. No save files, Bonus levels were hard to do for the later ones. You had limited tries to retry them and you still had to get 50 coins to access them. Last Level in this game Tails doesn't help you, You can't be Super Sonic and you have 0 rings to fight 2 bosses in a row. Time doesn't reset here when you beat the 1st boss. No save point.

Better than the original.

It's not bad exactly, but there's a lot of parts where you have to stop and wait, be it for a platform to move or a drawbridge or whatever to open. And there are so many parts where an enemy comes out of nowhere (the second last level is probably the worst for this) and there's no way you could've reacted to it. The levels are also very repetitive and go in a confusing back-and-forth direction so often the only way you know you're going the right way is if you pass a checkpoint.

The best of the three. I tend to only play the beginning half then quit.

Ok.

Not as good as Sonic and Knuckles

Everyone fought with their siblings over Tails, as if it mattered. Improves over whatever slight deficiencies there were in the first Sonic take, increasing the speed and fine-tuning the controls. It still works, and is possibly the apex of this type of side scroller.

Raises things to a new level above and beyond the first game, with better level design and bonus stages and Tails.

A sequel better than the original. Adding Tails made for a decent 2-player experience, while the rest of the game was more or less the same formula as the first game in the series. So a definite improvement. The series went downhill from here.

Nostalgia glasses on: it was a fun game that I remember beating very quickly once, even with all the chaos emeralds, though it could be catastrophically buggy at times. Nostalgia glasses off: it's a good platformer even to this day, and people who say it's overrated now tend to forget that at the time, Sonic 2 did things way differently than other Genesis platformers in terms of visuals and sound. It's still enjoyable to play even though it's a lot slower than you remember.

The game improves upon the first by actually having level design that doesn't force you to constantly wait, encouraging you to actually go fast. While the game does toss bullshit unreactable enemies at you, the game gives you plenty of options to avoid this once you actually learn level layouts, which are often varied with neat gimmicks. On the other hand, bosses in this game are weak and the game could have benefitted from allowing you to have better control of your momentum.

Building on the solid platform (see what I did there?) of the original Sonic, the addition of Tails allowed for split screen 2 player chaos and the gameplay was even faster. Aside from that my memory is quite faded as I haven't played it for years, but it used to be a favourite of mine back in the day.

Building on the more of the same it's still fun to speed through levels. There is almost no appeal to go back and play it though. It was repetitive. Interesting though Tails may be one of the most beloved add in sidekicks ever.

I wonder if this would hold up today because when I think about it there were some design choices made that I would be more critical of today. But I didn't play it today! So as a kid I really liked this.

Big fan of tails.

I was never much of a Sonic fan, but this one is a lot of fun.