As a fan of the original Genesis games I can't believe how many claim this game is like the good old days
Within minutes of starting the game I could already tell this was not going to live up to the original Sonic games. I haven't played any Sonic games since Sonic and Knuckles having never owned a Dreamcast or Gamecube so I have no idea just how low the Sonic franchise got, but it must have been pretty low if this game is considered to be so good.
You fly through levels blazingly fast never really doing much of anything except occasionally jumping. You frequently run into enemies that are inconveniently placed right it your way, but which you cannot see until you're right on top of them. Similarly, if you miss a jump or are moving too slowly you end up missing a platform you need to get to and fall into the many large bottomless pits in the game.
This is not what Sonics 1-3 and Sonic and Knuckles were like at all. First off, unless there was a good reason for large bottomless pits they weren't there. Frequently if you missed a jump it was okay and you just had to go a different route or retrace your steps a bit. I can't really recall that ever being the case in Sonic Rush.
Sonic never moved this fast for this long in those games either... sure there were segments where you moved fast, but various obstacles slowed you down and the game actually rewarded you for slowing down a bit and looking around. Sonic 3 for instance hid the entrances to the special stages and frequently allowed you to find alternate routes that actually rewarded you with shields, rings, 1-ups not to mention ways to bypass certain other obstacles.
And what about Blaze? Her moves are virtually identical to Sonic's and so playing through the game with her yields little more than different interstitial segments. Does no one remember playing through Sonic 3 and Knuckles with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles? Did each character not have different ways to progress through the stages, not to mention significantly different moves? Was playing through the Sonic 3 stages as Knuckles once you got your copy of Sonic and Knuckles not fun as you discovered new areas and had to find your way passed new obstacles?
Stage variety is sorely lacking too. Besides a few unique elements here and there (the moving platforms in the desert stages and the hang-gliders in one of the later stages) you don't do much other than run and jump. The original games never felt like every stage was the same with different settings. There were always unique segments to every level, even if it was just relatively simplistic jumping to various platforms to get to the top of a room.
Overall gameplay in Sonic Rush is far less engrossing than any of those original titles. They had substance. They were fun. Sonic Rush is boring, far too fast-paced, and annoying.
I will admit that I enjoyed the retro Sonic 2-style bonus levels, though I've yet to be able to pass the last one... they just shot the difficulty through the roof with it. Something else I don't particularly appreciate.
For me, sound and graphics are always secondary to the gameplay. As long as they're not distractingly bad I'm okay with them so long as the game is engrossing. My biggest audio complaint is the annoying cheers from Tails and Cream during boss battles.
I truly feel sorry for anyone who has played some of the more recent Sonic games. They must have been truly awful if people feel it's fair to compare this game with the originals.