I agree with lazermario, it does take almost a minute to really get into the swing of things, to the point where I almost like to skip to right around 1:00 exactly to get to the meat. My attention span is somewhat on the short side with music, heh, I can't handle pattern building.
But beyond my own faults, it's incredibly well constructed, I can absolutely imagine playing a Sonic game with this song. Hell, I get misty-eyed imagining an Sonic game where the entire soundtrack would match the quality of this this one song, no more of the current Sonic variety tried-and-typical-but-true synth rock that feels somewhat out of place compared to the old fashioned inventive synth of sonic 2 and 3. An entire soundtrack of this, Rayza's Lava Reef Zone, McVaffe's IceCapped and Bonus Retreat, and the last half of JAXX's Lightning Star...well, you get the idea. It's this sort of high quality tune-age still retaining the spirit of Sonic that impresses me the most about this mix, and what earns it 3/4 stars.