[quote name='utopianmachine']Yesterday, I downloaded the demo to see if I wanted to take part of the sale, and I remembered why I don't like Sonic. I love exploring environments and appreciating every detail, collecting all the little things along the way. Sonic discourages this, or at least, begs you to accomplish this goal at a flighty speed.
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You CAN do this in the Genesis titles and there's absolutely nothing discouraging you from doing so. You get a ten minute time limit. There's branching paths. You can explore. You can collect. There's people who who try to collect every single ring in a level. There's also people who try to do the speediest runs they can.
Accomplishing a speed run of Marble zone is fantastic, not because you're blazing and going fast and SONICOMGOMGOMG GOTTA RUN NOW but because it's a level that's almost entirely built for pure, traditional platforming. When you master the game, you can play that level like you're playing on Green Hill Zone act 1. This is why the classic Sonic games are indeed genuine classics. You can choose to play the game like a platformer, or you can go balls to the wall as fast as possible. And when you do the latter, and you get the to the point of never taking a hit throughout the whole zone, it's a nice feeling of accomplishment.
Sorry, but it's so tiring to hear reviewers or gamers still hold the misconception that Sonic games from the 90s were Hold-Right affairs. Sonic games didn't used to play like Sonic Rush.