Sonic Generations - S Ranks & No Skills - Part 001: Introduction & Green Hill Zone

I did mention that Sonic Generations was coming soon, and alongside Chrono Trigger. Makes sense to start uploading on Sonic's birthday.
This will be a playthrough with S Ranks in all the main stages, as well as the boss/rival fights on Normal and Hard difficulty.
I just pick randomly for the three side missions I need to do to unlock the Keys, but I think I S rank all of them. Also, as the title suggests, I don't equip any skills. I don't bother collecting Red rings as getting them all in one playthrough requires specific routing, which in some cases can add a fair bit of time on to the level.
I think this is a good game overall, but I do find the amount of praise it gets compared to stuff like Unleashed and even Forces unwarranted. The whole point of this game is Nostalgia, and none of the stages or bosses are as good as they were in their original source. At least when Forces revisits an area its in current day rather than trying to replicate the original and in my opinion, not living up to those.
The game boots into Green Hill Zone with Classic Sonic, you can Spin Dash your way through most of it for an S Rank. S ranks are pretty much achieved by not being a slouch and not dying. There is one point you need to bounce off a Buzz Bomber to get higher and you'll need enough momentum to do it (the lower route is just slower). It will help you well for subsequent levels to nail this now.
After GHZ Act 1 we're fittingly at Modern Sonic's birthday party, before a shadowy beast sucks all his friends into different time zones (representing 9 stages, and 9 of the games).
First up its back to Green Hill Zone for Act 2.
Modern Sonic boosts for his speed, and has responsive controls. More boost levels over Classic Sonic would have been great, but its 50/50. There's a lot of on screen prompts to help you on this stage, but you should be looking ahead, master when to use rail hopping/sliding/stomping/homing attacks on this stage to help you with upcoming levels. The rainbow Rings and Ramps allow you to perform tricks to refill your Boost Gauge, and defeating enemies will have the same (if lesser) effect Rings also have a small refilling effect too. The only shortcut that might take a few attempts to nail down is at 6:00 with the wall jumping.
After Act 2, Tails is rescued and Green Hill Zone is further restored in the hub world. Classic Sonic shows up and Tails somehow doesn't recognise Sonic looking different despite his apparent intelligence.
The next level is quite clearly Chemical Plant Zone.