Sonic R is a game that gets a bad rap, and rarely for the right reasons. It's definitely a flawed game, it's not the smoothest play, but there's plenty of charm and fun to be had here, especially if you're a diehard fan of this era of Sonic's aesthetics. When you hear most people complain about this game, let's be honest, they probably haven't played it and are just repeating whatever Jontron said about it, which was largely just jokes at the game's expense. Humor over substance, basically. What is actually wrong with this game is more to do with its handling and polish. The game controls awkwardly, the graphics range anywhere between charmingly retro to just plain bad, the content is lacking and requires specific goals to be completed on top of winning first place. The game is far from perfect, but I don't think it's devoid of value, like many internet funnymen claim.

Let me start with a talking point I rarely start with, which is the sound. If you're a sonic fan, you're probably used to hearing this repeated over and over and over, ad nauseam, but the soundtrack is honestly the best part of this game. It's really strange to me, then, that the first time I heard anyone talk about this game was someone complaining that the soundtrack sucked. Many times when I hear that argument made, it's from people who see sonic and expect "super rad 90s cool guy rock/techno." You know, somewhere between sonic adventure 1&2 and the originals. The thing about this soundtrack, though, is that it's just plain amazing. It's got a more smooth pop sound to it, with some of the catchiest and most uplifting vocals I've heard in a game of that era, if not of all time. I do not understand how a person can hear Can You Feel The Sunshine and not actually feel the sunshine.

Okay, actually gameplay. It...works. It doesn't excel at anything, really, it just kinda works, and I wish it worked better because I love the concept of on-foot sonic racing gameplay. I also hear people complain about that concept in itself, which doesn't make sense because I think sonic on-foot is perfectly fit for competitive racing. Unfortunately, the game has handling that's just bordering on good, tracks with turns and hills that don't quite fit the characters' movement physics, and collectibles that are extremely too easy to just miss. But it really does just kinda work. If you put in the work and get used to the movement physics and handling, you'll find that the game is at least fun to control and move around with. It's just a shame that you might not win as often as you'd hope while having fun.

Graphically, I love this game. Is it graphically good? Well... maybe? I don't know how to reconcile my personal tastes for old low-poly graphics and actual objective quality, so let me just say that this game is charmingly rudimentary. This clearly looks like a first pass at true 3D sonic, and it makes me wish they did a whole mainline sonic game with this graphical style. It's jagged, angular, and choppy, and I love it.

Okay this review is full of a lot of biased and opinionated statements, but... here it is, I guess! I like this game, despite all the issues with its quality. If you've avoided it based off of a humorous youtuber, maybe give it a quick try and see how you feel about it personally. Nothing to lose, really.