LogFAQs > #883872865

The old Sonic games have odd pacing. I think something like Mario actually works better as a fast paced platformer because it basically has two speeds: walk and run. It's very easy to change between those at a moment's notice. Sonic has more like three speeds, but you can't really go from top speed directly to medium speed, making for a lot of momentum killing moments. It also has a lot of slopes and verticality to it, which limit your ability to really stop and explore the level or to backtrack.

The first two Sonic games had too many levels that you can just run through in a minute without anything interesting happening, but S3&K often took it to the opposite extreme. I remember a lot of levels with confusing layouts where I'd just get stuck for a while and actually run out the ten minute limit - not very fun. That being said, there are a few decent levels in all 4 Genesis games that hit the 3-5 minute sweet spot.