Let's start with the most obvious one: he's random. We have tons of randomness, global timers once again (sort of), AND a 4:3 advantage. White Park Boss (1'30"23): Okay this boss is funny in that it's simultaneously the most fun boss in the game and also, by FAR, the worst one for speedrunning. The last tag roll can also be kinda annoying since I do it so close to the edge of the platform, the timing to be able to jump is pretty strict. You need to pull off a really good run with the best strats to make it under that platform before it goes all the way down. We've got another global timer here this time it's the moving platform about 20 seconds in. White Park 3 (0'58"16): Boo crappy underwater levels with bad music. Also I love the Twinkle Park musical throwback. That platform is another global timer, which means your timing when you get there needs to be perfect or else it won't be in the right position for you to jump off of it, on top of also needing the ramp jump beforehand to go perfectly so you land right on it. White Park 2 (0'56"67): The hardest part about this level is jumping off the ramp at around the 0'26 mark. Anyway, aside from that I can't think of anything here that doesn't speak for itself.
I have no idea what causes it, it seems random. I hate this part because half the time the game simply doesn't launch you up as high and you just land on the lower path. There is one part near the end, right after the last snow section you have to tag roll through, where I tag roll off a slope and get launched up to a higher ledge. White Park 1 (1'24"65): Probably the best level in the game. The spot is somewhat precise, but it's definitely the fastest strat, since this way it's possible to get the first 7 hits on the first frame possible. As for the actual boss, my strat is to hit him with Tails's propeller tails. The game waits for Tails to get in position before starting the cutscene with Eggman, and if you spindash into the cutscene then he'll go flying all over the place and cost you some time. Anyway, it's faster to tag roll at the beginning. Every boss in Episode 1 can be completely defeated, including hitting the capsule, faster than it takes for the stupid intro to finish and let me get the very first hit on this boss (with the exception of Mad Gear). Sylvania Castle Boss (1'34"65): I hate the bosses in this game. This is a pretty solid run, but apparently Talon's beaten it with some better strats. That means that they are moving from the second the level loads, which is frustrating because it means if you have to wait for something to be in a certain position, the you're only going to be able to improve in increments of that thing's movement cycle. There are tons of moving pieces and all of them run on global timers. Sylvania Castle 3 (0'57"68): This level is seriously awful to speedrun. Can't think of much else to comment on here. Sylvania Castle 2 (0'45"11): The beginning strat here is pretty tough, I'm pretty sure there's only one pixel where you can land on the spikes without getting hurt. Sylvania Castle 1 (0'38"67): I somewhat screwed up the ending on this one, so this can probably be done a bit faster, but this is a pretty good run.
Individual-levels run as Sonic in 0:27:51.53: