Sonic 2's still great and all of these games are close together in the upper echelon of Sonic games. That said, Oil Ocean and Metropolis are a bit of a drag and I don't think you interact with the level design in as many interesting ways like in 1, CD, or 3&K. It's too streamlined for its own good.

3&K > 1 > CD > 2

Not to say I didn't already grow to love the game before watching that, but that's maybe the best essay in video form that argues for video games as legitimate and significant pieces of art in their totality.

Not sure how much of this is my own feelings and how much is me being swayed by the 7+ hour Sonic CD video.

I'd definitely call these the best and most convenient way to play these games on modern hardware, I highly recommend them (and pick up some other Sega Ages titles while you're at it)!

Actually this gives me an excuse to recommend to everyone with a Switch to go and play the Sega Ages ports of Sonic 1 & 2. They're excellent ports of the originals with fun bells and whistles you can turn on or off at your discretion and come with different versions of each game all in one package.

I hope the differences and issues in 3&K, even with Ultrafix apparently fixing some of them, don't detract too much from the experience for me. I'd just really like to play 3&K without suddenly stopping dead in my tracks on the terrain like in the original.

I was expecting this, but I think I'll continue to just replay 1 & 2 with their original carts/emulation.

I have very little interest in playing these games without them (or with the Drop Dash in 2 & CD and that plus the Spin Dash in 1 tbh), so Story Mode is maybe something I'll only play once as a novelty which is a shame for what a fun concept it is.

The top 3 zones and especially top 3 songs could honestly be so many different things from the series' original 10 years. These are just what usually comes to mind first.

It's hardly the ideal way to play modern systems since it squashes the 16:9 image to 4:3, but it's a fun novelty!

Some of them at least. It works with DVDs on my Blu-ray player, but BDs don't fit the screen properly. Was looking forward to watching my Urusei Yatsura BDs this way 😔

It's weird seeing things like this in retrospect. They feel like they're from some strange alternate dimension haha

I was pretty into the online retro video game space since really getting on the internet in the 2000's and somehow never came across any anti-DKC/Rare talk. If anything I pretty much only ever saw them venerated, at least until Tropical Freeze was announced and people were mad it wasn't Metroid.

One thing I will say though if you decide to play it is not to worry about getting or seeing everything and reaching the ending. Playing to the end isn't the point, the best way to get the most out of the game is to just explore and exist in the world for its own sake.