I've always found the music in Episode 2 considerably better, for what that's worth, although the instrumentation is still about as lacking. The Sonic rock sessions album that came out last year juxtaposes Senuoe and Lopes' Splash Hill medley next to Lopes' remix of Under Ground Zone from Sonic 2 GG, and it just struck me as odd that the latter was complex enough of a song that it could sustain itself for a full track, while the Splash Hill medley essentially had to combine three different songs to add up to a decent length. Some of them (like Splash Hill 3) loop after only two movements. There's something to be said for the underlying compositions being decent enough, but even then… at least the Episode 1 songs feel incredibly bare-bones. Think about how right after Casino Night's trumpet-heavy jazz music, you get Hill Top's legendary banjo and harmonica intro. The old school Sonic tracks all have incredibly varied instrumentation and are trying their best to mimic real instruments within the confines of the Genesis sound font. I took the intro from Sonic Mania and muted the music, adding in my own sound effects as if you were hearing.
Click to shrink.What's annoying about the fake Genesis crap is that Genesis music never sounded like that, and if it did, it wasn't ever deliberate. Got bored and decided to try out something fun.