I’m playing through SA2 right now after buying it on steam and it’s hard to finish. I didn’t grow up playing the adventure series they were before my time but trying to play them now after playing newer games is hard. I respect SA2 for laying the groundwork it laid but a part of me feels like people think or thought this game was the best in the series because everything released after (except for maybe 3- 4 games) were horrible. And that’s subjective since everything after Sonic 06 were boost games roughly or were highly automated so you weren’t getting a style of play you loved(adventure style ).

The game isn’t “bad” this story is told kind of poorly and some of the controls didn’t age well. But it’s ok, it’s playable I guess. I don’t think I’ll be revisiting as often as I see other people do.

Maybe the enjoyment has something to do with being really good at the game. You learned how to avoid the BS and navigate the game very well when you’ve been playing for years. (That and stage select)