Hey, come on now...
You gotta give Sega some credit for mixing Metroid, GTA, and Sonic together. In what other game out there can you:
a. steal a motorcycle and shoot at an alien hovercraft down I-49
b. kill an alien, pick up it's weapon, and operate it without ANY training
c. get so pissed off at people/aliens that you either blast through the level super-fast or blow up in place to deal damage or
d. collect the Chaos Emeralds for a chance to kill SONIC!!
...and for their first try, I think they did a very good job.
...after all, every one of us has wanted to plug Sonic full of holes at some point or another. Not me, though. Sonic rocks.
Yes, there are some things that make the game a little funny at times (like the Black Bull and Blue Falcon references, or the tendency to fall into voids), but this is what a Sega game should be. It just needs a little work.