So the Shattered Crystal demo on the 3DS isn't completely horrible much to my surprise. It's definitely not your standard Sonic title. Feels more generic platformer with some Sonic moves thrown in. Contains three stage types to play around on: An Adventure stage, Tunnel stage and Race stage (which aren't official names. Just callin' 'em as I see 'em.)

The Adventure stage has you take control of the entire group (though if you're just shooting for the goal it's centered around Sonic's skills) in a large 2D sidescrolling map you can explore. There's a fairly obvious path to take you to the goal, but exploration nets you hidden collectables as you'd expect from pretty much any 3D platformer. Usually making use of a character's unique skills. And when I say large I mean LARGE. My first run (though it was a lot of faffing about getting used to controls) took me about 15 minutes or so and I didn't even find everything. What makes finding everything that bit more difficult is the stages feature a bunch of points of no return. If you go down the correct path to get to the goal there's a good chance you won't be able to go back past certain platforms or boost pads. Kind of annoying while trying to track down everything, meaning you'll probably need at least two runs. Three if you want to get the time attack medal, too.

Control wise every character plays pratically the same with the exception of their unique special moves, which are usually mapped to X. Sonic can Spin Dash while on the ground (it isn't particularly useful based on first impressions) and perform an Air Dash in one of four directions while in mid-air (necessary for breaking Dash Blocks in that stage). Tails has bombs and can hover by tapping the jump button again, mostly used to ride air currents. He also has some mini-submarine thing he uses at certain points for a minigame deal where you fetch a collectable within a time limit. Knuckles can punch things (Though why bother when it's about as effective as everyone's Homing Attack) and can burrow at certain points. Think Yellow Drill from colours. He still looks really weird. Finally, Sticks can throw her boomerang to hit things from afar. In my playthrough it was just used to hit enemies and not much else. S'okay.

The Tunnel stage plays a bit like tubular Special Stages do in older games: Sonic runs automatically on a track and you guide him away from obstacles by switching lanes. He can sprint by holding Y, but for some reason you can't sprint and change lanes at the same time. Ultimately a minor annoyance that you get used to, but it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Probably the most fun stage in the demo in an arcade-y sort of way.

Lastly, the Race stage has you compete against another member of the team on a 2D stage much like the Adventure stage. It's not particularly hard and after a few runs you'll memorise the best paths to take to meet the medal requirements. Has some appeal in a time attack sense, but nothing special really.

There's potential for fun there and the stages do have some replayablity thanks to the goals. But it's nothing fantastic. I might pick it up when it's cheap.

While the cliffhanger is intriguing... I really hope they tighten up the story and graphics next game, assuming there is one.

I also hope they do a prequel instead of a sequel first. I'd really like to get some more background about this world; if they essentially have their SEGA canon backstories going for them, what was the point? They knew each other, Shadow, Eggman, Metal, etc... it may as well have been a main title story-wise.

Interested to see exactly what Eggman could get up to with Lyric's Iron-Queen-Ripoff button, either way.

...I just hope Shadow's in for a reason besides fanservice next time.