@matana yeah that's a difference in preference for sure. maybe the marketing for the original games poisoned things a little bit for the rest of the series though, because i mean you get songs talking about how fast sonic is and even voice lines like "you're too slow" and "sonic's the name, speed's my game" and "it's all about speed" then he's the fastest character in smash bros, with the second place being captain falcon who is literally from a racing game xD the dude is supposed to be the fastest video game character period.

when i play a platformer i typically like to play as active a role as possible, waiting around for stuff or trudging through slow or slippery areas isn't usually very fun. it's why people hate auto scrollers so much, because you can only go as fast as the screen allows. when you run into this sort of stuff in sonic it has a similar feeling, and it isn't just parts where you have to literally sit and wait while nothing happens, it's also parts like not being able to see what is offscreen as you go thundering through a series of loops at mach 10 and then oops, there's an enemy or spike or wall just conveniently placed right there to stop you dead in your tracks. i think the 3D sonic games are generally better than the 2D ones for this reason alone, because you can actually see what's ahead of you and adjust accordingly. i'd rather play unleashed or 06 or even sonic boom over the 2d games.

it's an expected gameplay vs delivered gameplay issue, i suppose.