I found SRA to be the best recent Sonic game; and one of my favorites ever. Marine was annoying, but fun to watch at others' expense. Her relentless annoyance of the other characters was hilarious. :D
Sure, the Rush series doesn't play like the old 2D games, but I doubt that they were supposed to. The whole idea was to get to the finish with speed in mind and using the advantage of the boost and tricks. It's certainly not just "hold right to win" as most people say, as you're actually keeping things in check.
Adventure shook things up a bit with it's mostly referred to "unnecessary replayability gimmicks" but I wouldn't blame them as progression through the game can get tiring. I still think that the waterbike and submarine were fun to play, though.
also I didn't very much like the music in Rush either. there were like 3 tracks that were good, but the rest was getting on my nerves.
do do do do do
do do do do (ska cha cha)
do do do do-do do-do
do do do do (ska cha cha)>.>
<.<
*ChaoRC shot