Sonic XG Classic is already one of my top favourite games, and it’s not even finished yet. There’s a lot of jankiness to be found, yes. Like how you can softlock yourself in some stupid unforeseen ways, or how accessing the true final boss (which is just the final boss again) requires you to replay Cosmic Chasm up to a certain point in the same saveslot. or how Chaos Central Act 2 is just Act 1 again but with a different boss fight. But it’s all excused by the excellent level design and game feel. Also, it’s not quite finished yet like i said.

Sonic XG Classic just gets things right. The way the levels just flow, fast without being mindless, challenging without being bullshit. The physics aren’t one to one with the classics but i’m used to old jank fangame physics at this point so I didn’t really mind. The flame shield is kinda nerfed by having a set dash speed but eh, who cares. The peel-out is also not super-useful, it has a long wind-down and isn’t much faster than a spindash which makes it kinda useless. But hey, Super Peel-out! Super cool!

The level themes are so cool too! An ancient island breaking down into gigantic falling pieces. A winter-y land of wonderously brief (yet fun) snowboarding. A dashing desert which kinda involves oil and a lame lights-out gimmick, yep. The palmtree-filled beach level which you’d expect to be the first but is not, what a twist! A chasm of cosmic proportions where your past self graciously frees up the path forward, after a bit of waiting. Hydro Haven, which stinks! A cybernetic city that looks as fucked as me trying to do basic math in a pinch. A resort of robots! The best level, no question! Finally, the central of chaos of which you are seeing double cuz the layout does repeat.

Seriously though, even at its weaker points, I found Sonic XG hard to put down. I did a full playthrough as all three characters back-to-back, and that was just today! I’ve been playing it again and again for ages now! The soundtrack is cool, too. A lot of it is borrowed from other games, but the original compositions are quite nice. Chaos Central having two of my favourites.

It wasn’t a total pain in the ass to get the Chaos Emeralds as well, which I appreciate. Not quite on the same level as Blue Sphere, in fact these are just a flatter rehash of the half-pipe with a gravity-switching gimmick. But the special stages are fun to play and master and the giant rings aren’t unreasonably hard to find.

The bonus stages could use some work though. The Nights-style gameplay is neat but when the reward is only points and whatever 1-up orbs you grab on the way, then there’s not much point to them. There are multiple per emerald too, and I guess you’re supposed to try and get a good score in them? Meh. They don’t really control well enough and the lack of a paraloop seals the fate of these bonus stages rather unfavourably.

Besides, there are tons of goodies to grab in the levels anyway. Exploration is rewarded and quite handsomely, too. It really does feel like a big momentum playground most of the time and that is a big compliment. The bosses aren’t anything to write home about, and that’s good. If anything, Sonic bosses should get in the way as least as possible. Though the more challenging ones are kinda fun in a way. I did a run with Knuckles without going super and they felt fair and fun enough.

Sonic’s walljump ability is utilized better than I expected, and some of the skips you can do with it are pretty crazy cool. It should be a series staple, honestly. Tails was fun as well, got a lot of use out of the flight cancelling to cheese certain bosses heheheh. Knuckles has a very interesting run, with some exclusive paths and bosses. Fang is in this game, yea. He doesn’t do much and his fights are also quite easy but hey, his appearance is very much welcome

I truly cannot express just how much fun I had with Sonic XG Classic, it’s such an old fan-game and yet it’s so wonderfully designed. It might not have the sheer scale and stakes of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, it might not have the production values and polish of Mania, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t a dang good Sonic game. Grab it on Sonic Retro. Now! You won’t regret it.