Sonic's first game was the first game I ever played. I love the original game and I would consider it to be a classic, like pretty much everyone else. I thought I'd try this version to see if it really is that bad. Take a guess.... Let's examine this "game" shall we?

Graphics-
They look like the original which is all well and good but the game has slowdown absolutely everywhere. I swear, the only time this game runs at a decent speed is when sonic is standing still. I tried this out with the first boss, it was slow and extremely choppy until I put sonic in a corner and just watched Robotnik go back and forth at a good speed. Other than this extremely bad flaw, the graphics I would say are fine.

Sound-
Ahh, don't you just love the sounds of the first sonic game? Well how about hearing a terribly butchered version of every single track in the game? That's right, everything in the sound department sucks, not a single track or sound effect in this game sounds good, apart from star light zone which is decent. Everything just sounds pitiful compared to the original. Remember the crashing (ish) sort of sounds when you destroy the wall in green hill? Well they replaced them with pitiful popping sounds... Did they try at all with this?

Addictiveness-
Yes, I'm SURE anyone that has played this game will love to play this again. With it's awful sound, horrendous slowdown and incredibly bad screen size, this is surely as addictive as Tetris. No, I guarantee that you will not want to play this abomination again, unless you are masochistic.

Story-
What story is there? Robotnik is turning animals into robots to take over the world, sonic has to stop him. What else is there to say? Well at least they didn't make a stupid re-imagining of the plot.

Depth-
The game is the same as the original, 6 zones (not counting final zone), 6 chaos emeralds to get through special stages (which are also completely butchered, what a surprise.) and there is an original mode which is the original game accept with all the lovely features stated earlier in this review and an anniversary mode with the same torture accept you have the spin dash, completely pointless and unnecessary. Now wouldn't you rather play the original, or a port that's actually good?

Difficulty-
I would say the original can be quite hard, but this is even harder because of the games small screen, so you can see practically nothing in front of you, slowdown that could mess up your jumps, and the physics which I'm pretty sure are completely crazy and don't work how they should. Combine these elements and you get a hard to control sonic and a completely anti-fun mess.

Verdict- With all these great features, you would think this game deserves a 10 right? Oh no no no no no no no no. This game deserves a 2, and that me being a bit generous.
Let's recap the bad points and good points shall we?

Bad-
Butchered music, that would make you rather listen to the lovely sounds of nails on a chalkboard.
Messed up physics that would drive Newton to insanity.
Terrible slowdown that may make trying to walk through sonic labyrinth more fun.
Incredibly dumb screen size, I mean, come on, how did they think this was ok?
Pointless anniversary mode.
Just a terrible port of a great game.

Good-
Well star light zones music could be worse.
No incredibly stupid and pointless changes... oh wait, the spin dash, well I guess it has some purpose.

Overall, I would recommend this game if you want to feel annoyed and maybe a little bit sad that this was how they celebrated sonic's 15th. Happy anniversary sonic! Now, let's forget this ever existed.

Good review! Well written and laid out. Keep up the great work.

I love the original Sonic. I always will although I prefer the Genesis version for sure.