it's a cute novelty and it does serve its purpose as being a fun world map, but it's so weirdly laid out that it feels counterproductive. a lot of the stage gates, while i do appreciate giving them a light pillar to show where they are from a distance, seem to be placed in very odd and seemingly out of the way places.
this applies to pretty much every single boss gate, which are super hidden for some reason? the greenflower one is fine enough, but the techno hill one is on a split path in a tunnel to deep sea (which is extremely possible to miss, i almost did), the deep sea one is a very small and unassuming gap in a wall that i ran into by accident, the castle eggman one is hidden behind the castle (which is honestly extremely funny but still not great map design) and the arid canyon gate is hidden behind TNT inside a wall.
these feel like they should be secrets that the player finds by themselves, not the actual main stage gates. again, it's a fine map, it just needs some retooling to actually be an effective world map. i'd recommend taking a look at SRB2 The Past's hub worlds and how it treats stage gates.
