Got the game and am about an hour in.
It's NOT THAT BAD, or even bad at all. It's a charming, functional, platformer.
The Sonic 06 comparisons are ridiculous. I know I said I've only played an hour so far, but in that time, no bugs yet which I was definitely, not able to say about the first 15 minutes of Sonic 06.
Seriously, Sonic games are held to an impossible standard. If this was not a Sonic game, it would not be so easily dismissed as it is.
That being said it's not perfect. The cuts between cut-scenes are not smooth and there are framerate issues. Yet, even with those issues the open world exploration is better than Adventure/06, the battle play is far more bearable than unleashed and the 2D parts are better than Sonic 4.
I swear, if the new Sonic game isn't exactly the same as the one Sonic game people have played in the past, they call it crap. There is space in the Sonic universe for games like Sonic Boom.
Sega should have just changed the models in this and Lost World for Teddy from Persona, called it Persona 4 platformer and stuck an Atlus label on it. Breakthrough new Mario-Killer there.