Alfred Tries To Play: Tails' Skypatrol (Sega Game Gear)

I remember playing this game as one of the included titles on Sonic Gems Collection, which also contained various other Sonic Game Gear titles as well as Sonic CD, Sonic the Fighters and Sonic R (plus both Vectorman games as unlockables). This had originally been released as a Japan-only Game Gear title, but appearances on Gems Collection and as an unlockable in Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut brought this game to the west.
My favorite character in the Sonic franchise has always been Tails because he's just so adorable and very useful with his flight abilities, but even back as a kid trying the Gems Collection version of this I never really enjoyed this.
Perhaps it's because this game is immensely frustrating, with even the so-called 'Training Area' being a brutally difficult test of skill that few will get past. You control Tails who is always flying with a ring and you must avoid hitting enemies or obstacles. The ring can be fired to defeat enemies, or be used to attach to various objects including minecarts. Candies help restore your health bar (which curiously is labelled 'F' as in fuel, which leads to the question if Tails here really is a machine running on fuel).
The placement of objects and enemies is often rather cheap and so is the level design with lots of nasty trick dead ends that will catch you out. Also, the collision detection is some of the worst I've ever seen in a video game, I've lost count of the number of times Tails simply passes through something without touching it.
While it's not as bad as some other Sonic lowlights I've played like Sonic Labyrinth, this game lets down the reputation of my favorite Sonic character and should have just remained a forgotten Japan-only Game Gear game instead of being revived for the next generation like it was in the 2000s.