For anyone wondering, no we did not beat this shit as kids. The game was so difficult that one of the game designers job for a few months was to beat the game on master difficulty to see if it was actually possible
and i thought i was a good sonic mania player because i got all the emeralds in mania + encore mode as well as starting to get gold medals.. 32:30 aaannd that's why i hate going super in mirage act 1. It hasn't gotten me killed only once, and that's on my Sonic+Tails file.
This reminds me of the time I accidentally softlocked myself in Sonic The Dark Brotherhood's final boss because he would one shot every one of my characters, giving me no time to even last the temporary wait. And that section doesn't allow you to go back to other areas.