sonic r - 7/10
living in the city you knowww you got to surviiiiive
honest-to-god misunderstood gem. once you learn to use the accelerate and brake buttons as opposed to just using the joystick - which, don't get me wrong, is somewhat odd - it feels like a dream. i have had more fun executing shortcuts in this game, collecting all the sonic tokens and chaos emeralds, inside of a clean three hours, than i had in my entire time attempting to stomach frontiers.
it has this certain degree of slipperiness to it that isn't entirely uncontrollable, and yet isn't entirely pinpoint precise, and to me, that feels like the perfect sweet spot for sonic to be in; he feels like this mildly unwieldy, quick force that you can learn to control and master with time and practice, and it's frankly a fucking blast when you do manage to pull it off. it's so truly exhilarating to see what bullshit you can pull off in this game, and getting a perfect route where you collect everything you need in one fell swoop, perfectly partitioning your laps out properly to collect your rings, hit the gates, collect the tokens and then the emerald and finish in first feels so extremely satisfying.
i would genuinely be fine if they said tomorrow that crossworlds was cancelled and they were going to remaster this game. the only issue with it is that it's not on steam, and that people can't wrap their heads around the controls at first, which... admittedly, yes, is perfectly understandable and there was once a time where i felt the same way. if they remade this game and had a bubsy 3D refurbished type of control rearrangement available to where the game had more traditional control schemes available, as well as how it controls in this original game, it could genuinely stand to be a masterpiece.
oh, also, goes without saying: this soundtrack fucking clears any and all complaints. and, perhaps controversially; this is sonic's best design and i will die on that hill. fight me.
