Probably accurate. And based on the quip from the article where the original nickname for the game was "Sonic's Ass" the rest falls into place.

Basically, I remember the main character kind of just hovering in place, and performing slow levitating jumps, while the scenery flies by.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK-h4M4Aetg

Looks like my memory is halfway correct, since I forgot about the side-scrolling levels, which I thought were from one of the follow-up sequels, and not the original game.

Ugh, the music and sound effects. Still horrible.