I didn't buy the game because my cousin did. I play it and sure enought the gameplay was at par with the original.

But damn I still can't stand the music!

Wow! I bought the game yesterday and played until 2-2. At first, I thought they exactly recycled a couple of the first stages since the layouts and placements were eerily similar, but as I went on, I enjoyed the baby usage and the relative familiarity. The music wasn't too bad, fortunately not overly cheery, although nothing catchy yet. Very fun so far!

I just beat World 3 yesterday. The bosses are a bit trickier to solve this time around, and World 3's midboss was actually kinda hard.

I don't deal with the crappy music--I instead jam to Sonic Next's soundtrack while using this game, using a few other Yoshi tunes to capture the original's feel. Both are suprisingly fitting for this game.

It's like taking a good game with a crappy soundtrack and a bad game with a great soundtrack and IT'S THE BEST OF BOTH FUCKING WORLDS