Its a bit unfair i think.
The game is aimed at kids and its beeing reviewed as its aimed at adults. Yeah the combo system is simplistic, but aside from that it wasnt a broken game.
Sonic 06 has the right premise but was utterly broken to a level of beeing almost unplayable. I dont think this is a bad Sonic game. Its just a type of Sonic game that has fallen into a generic pitfall with many of the genre.
The obvious conclusion is that Sonic needs speed. But its not like we didnt know this already and werent warned for what this game was gonna be. That is no doubt the reason why SEGA didnt ship review copies.
It most certainly isnt a 4/10 game.