As in, I'd accidentally find myself being led into bottomless pits, and not to mention some inconveniently placed enemies that aren't predictable. In terms of level design itself, maybe this was just me being bad, but at times they felt directionless.

While writing this I forgot the seesaws, which don't feel natural whatsoever. Lost Labyrinth's torch wasn't the worst addition, but there isn't really a point to having dynamite that blows up rocks except to block the way and force the player to wait. You'd think you could spindash to instantly speed it up, but no. The gear Sonic runs on has him slowly walk before it gains momentum - this is mandatory, by the way. Splash Hill's vines feel weird to use in terms of their momentum, there's no penalty to the card gimmick in Act 2 of Casino Street, or even actual gameplay purpose (simply run into the cards and gain loads of lives for it).

Almost all new gimmicks feel forced or sluggish.

GAMEPLAY & LEVEL DESIGN Most of the fun in this game comes from re-used gimmicks seen in past titles.

Sonic the hedgehog 4 game for free