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[Jaded Alyx]

Or playing Sonic Labyrinth.

Wtf is this shit

 

[GearDraxon]

Step 1: Create your DeviantArt account.

 

[Phoenixazure]

If going fast is just holding right. then whats the challenge. The appeal behind the game is discovering the best "route". For its best levels, Each Zone of Sonic is the equivalent of 3/5 different levels that interchange with eachother. For example lets say the first zone is split into 5 parts with a top middle and bottom, i can go 1, 2,1,3,2 or 1,2,1,1,3 or ,2,3,3,3,1, etc etc.

How you end up on those different routes could be through various means (falling/getting hit, using a spring to launch yourself up, back tracking to make your way to the other part, using special abilities like Sonic's Shields, Knuckles Climb, and Tails Fly.) So that adds a degree of exploration and replayability (oh man, whats in this part, its all loops or oh crap its a platforming puzzle but it has a sweet power up) One of the things its scores you on is time, so after you run the levels a few times, now the motivation is to do it as quickly as possible (hence time attack) or u know where all the rings and tvs are (score attack).

I hope that helps break down the appeal of these games. Not the biggest fan of Superbunnyhop but he put out a good critique on the first level of every sonic game (bar mania) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kE9BR24XIw

 

[oti]

Step 1: Create your DeviantArt account.

Go on...

 

[Peltz]

You use momentum to explore each level to collect as many rings as possible try and find all of the bonus areas.

Momentum (ie speed) is used as a means of traversal to get to new areas. In the 2D games like Mania, you're not supposed to finish them as fast as possible (unless you want to). The levels are designed around building speed and using ramps to propel the main character to higher pathways and secret areas. Always explore the highest path you can get to then replay to explore other paths above/below the one(s) you accessed last time.

 

[VLiberty]

Sonic was never good
Crash was never good
Spyro was never good
Onlynintendomakesgoodgames

that mostly applies to 3d platformer's discussions though(and yeah, it's unbearable)

Sonic threads feature a special, dedicated kind of shitposters

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Wtf is this shit

Some slow shit.

 

[Professor Beef]

Sounds like you've figured out what many of us have known for years... That Sonic games are terrible.

Sounds like you're confirming that all junior members are terrible.

 

[Gestault]

This series' entire identity revolves around speed. The focus of the game seems to be, at least judging by advertisements and such, to complete a level as fast as humanly possible. Sonic's all about that speed and Mario is slow and old, right?

For a game you know very little about according to the OP, you seem to "know" quite a bit about it, and have strong feelings about what it's "supposed" to be. I think that's why you might not enjoy it.

 

[Theslammer]

for most games a 'real ending' matters to me, for my first time with Sonic I'd be happy with just beating the final boss. Unless there's a secret boss that having the Chaos Emeralds unlocks... I'd probably just youtube it if that's the case then.

Yeah, for me, I like to beat the game, and then try to get all the emeralds on another playthrough. When I return home today and start Mania, I'll try to find the chaos emerald rings as I go, but I'm pretty sure I won't get them all the first time.

 

[Glass Shark]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn’t be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn’t have to play the level a few times to “get a feel for it.” This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won’t be able to avoid unless I know it’s there.

 

[Mesoian]

https://youtu.be/BHGJEdjCoeU

Apt

 

[hydrophilic attack]

Sounds like you've figured out what many of us have known for years... That Sonic games are terrible.

/thread

op describes many of my reasons for disliking these games

 

[Calcaneus]

It starts to feel more natural and smooth the more you play, I can see it feeling pretty weird the first time through. Unless you are specifically trying to finish the stage in as little time as possible or want to see literally everything in one play through, you don't have to choose between speed and exploration/platforming. Its usually a mix of both and you get better at it the more you play.

I get why people might not like that kind of trial and error, almost memorization style. Personally I thought the Genesis Sonics struck a good enough balance to make it fun on the first play through, but ymmv.

Between the shitposts about sonic never being good and leaving, the condescending tone from the hardcore fans this thread confuses me. Especially when the op seemed genuine enough

The shitposting will always there, Sonic is just that polarizing and always will be. I kinda get why fans are annoyed, Sonic has been gamings punching bag for at least ten years now, most of the time the condescension comes from the other side. But I don't think the OP was trying to shit on Sonic games, they actually had a real question.

 

[GodParticle]

This is funny. I hadn't played a sonic game in years and remembered thinking the same thing back in the day how it had a conflicting idea of going fast, but also slowing down to explore

 

[Peltz]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn't be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn't have to play the level a few times to "get a feel for it." This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won't be able to avoid unless I know it's there.

That's because you suck at Sonic. I beat Mania's first 2 zones without getting hit on my first try. All of the dangers are very easy to avoid if you play the game like any other platformer.

Don't just blindly run. There's plenty of time on the clock to explore each level. I don't understand how this is so difficult for people. You use speed to traverse ramps and loops. But go slower for other areas.

When you drive a fast car, do you always accelerate at max speed through busy intersections?

 

[RagnarokX]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn’t be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn’t have to play the level a few times to “get a feel for it.” This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won’t be able to avoid unless I know it’s there.

Bull. If you try to play Super Mario Bros the way you're trying to play Sonic you're going to game over from lakitus, hammer bros, and pits that require precision jumping.

 

[Metalmarc]

Either I'm getting old & don't understand kids these days or this is a joke thread

Play however you like thats how i have played sonic over the years

 

[Professor Beef]

OP why not do what other people do and research the game before buying it? You got nobody to blame but yourself.

 

[Mesoian]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn’t be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn’t have to play the level a few times to “get a feel for it.” This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won’t be able to avoid unless I know it’s there.

...But you have to get a feel for Mario in order to do it flawlessly as well. You learn the layout, the enemy positions, the shortcuts. It's the same thing for Sonic.

You generally don't start a game being so inherently good at it that you can do it flawlessly your first time through.

 

[The ๖ۜBronx]

For a game you know very little about according to the OP, you seem to "know" quite a bit about it, and have strong feelings about what it's "supposed" to be. I think that's why you might not enjoy it.

Yeh, fuck someone for thinking that Sonic games would be based around speed when it's literally been his one defining characteristic since conception and the single thing they've always focused on about him.

So many people taking this personally when this has been a common line of thought since the first games were released.

 

[dubq]

It's a platformer. You're putting too much thought into it. Play from start to finish, stage by stage, like Mario.

 

[The ๖ۜBronx]

OP why not do what other people do and research the game before buying it? You got nobody to blame but yourself.

Lol at you shitting on a Junior Member for shit posting and then posting something that ignores the very first sentence of the post (hint: he hasn't bought it).

 

[Aaron Strife]

...But you have to get a feel for Mario in order to do it flawlessly as well. You learn the layout, the enemy positions, the shortcuts. It's the same thing for Sonic.

You generally don't start a game being so inherently good at it that you can do it flawlessly your first time through.

Seriously, was anyone able to get through 1-1 without getting hurt the first time they played Mario?

 

[dubc35]

It's a platformer. You're putting too much thought into it. Play from start to finish, stage by stage, like Mario.

Yep, go fast or explore or collect rings or do any combination of those; whatever you enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, play something else. It's a video game, no need to over-complicate it.

 

[Professor Beef]

Lol at you shitting on a Junior Member for shit posting and then posting something that ignores the very first sentence of the post (hint: he hasn't bought it).

All the shitty hot takes regarding Sonic have bled together so they all seem the same to me.

 

[evilromero]

This has got to be a parody thread. I mean, you can ask this question of pretty much every game.

 

[oti]

It's almost like there are specific challenges that will cause you to have to change up your playstyle opposed to just holding right, on top of having 3 characters that all play differently and handle certain challenges differently. Fancy that.

Which is fine, if playing the slower segments didn't feel so bad.

 

[The ๖ۜBronx]

All the shitty hot takes regarding Sonic have bled together so they all seem the same to me.

Could say the same for all the fans getting upset over a simple question over something that's been said for Sonic games since the first ones released.

 

[Glass Shark]

Seriously, was anyone able to get through 1-1 without getting hurt the first time they played Mario?

The first time I played Mario I was like 5 years old. Of course I couldn’t do it then. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe someone skilled at games who had never touched SMB before could pick it up and do it.

All of that is ultimately beside the point, though. I don’t like classic Sonic and I can’t imagine I ever will. Something about the way it plays just doesn’t sit well for me. I am glad that a lot of people have come in this thread and said, essentially, they’ve always felt the same way as the OP. Obviously this is not some weird point of view that no one shares. It’s a common thread that I think is worth exploring. If this many people feel that way about the game, there’s something to it.

 

[Phediuk]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn’t be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn’t have to play the level a few times to “get a feel for it.” This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won’t be able to avoid unless I know it’s there.

This is complete horseshit. Mario requires just as much memorization as any Sonic, and frankly, probably more, since you only get like 2 hits before death there while in Sonic you can take infinite hits as long as you have rings (hence the challenge of reaching checkpoints with a lot of rings.)

 

[Yannick]

Hmmm.

Maybe millennials really do ruin everything.

 

[NotLiquid]

Here's a few examples of how speed "matters" as a mechanic when it comes to Sonic games.

In Green Hill Zone, the very first level of Sonic 1, there's that famous S-pipe which sends you propelling downward in incredibly rapid speed. Once you're at the end of that pipe, it ends up catapulting you straight upward because of your inherited momentum, and while you're at the apex of your jump, you're given control back to realign yourself, where you can bounce off of suspended enemies in order to collect rings and land on platforms that are higher up. If you miss, you'll instead fall down to a slower, safer path. You can't expect to get back up there again because to do that requires an incredible boost of speed that you'd only get from those pipes you went through earlier.

Sonic CD, arguably a little more of a divisive game because it's the one classic Sonic game that most emphasizes "exploration" over a linear difficulty curve, designs a lot of it's levels to be more of an obstacle course because going fast ends up being the way you time travel in that game. To time travel you have to pathfind and secure a proper route that allows you to go fast for a few seconds before you can actually time travel, so this is a more clear example of the game using speed as a tool conquer levels.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is probably the game that most treated it's level design as a way to use the idea of Sonic being fast to supplement it's level design. Hydrocity featured a lot of setpieces that would help Sonic dash across water, Marble Garden Zone contained platforms that Sonic could elevate be running on them, Ice Cap had platform swings that you had to dash onto in order to propel them upward, etc. You'll usually find something in these levels beyond the standard slope-based level design that is built simply around the idea of Sonic's speed rather than simply going as fast as you can, and because of that it makes revisits interesting once you realize you can optimize many of those obstacles. Being given those short setpiece moments of Sonic blazing through prolonged ramps end up being a short burst of exhilaration that feel better as a result. You end up treasuring those breakneck moments more because getting to that level where you can maintain optimal speed is a challenge in and of itself.

I'm sure plenty of people can go into this in more detail and find more examples than just me, but rather than thinking of Sonic as some kind of fast-paced platformer, think of it more as a platformer with a character that just happens to be fast, and has it's levels built in a way that has his speed be a tool and obstacle solver.

 

[MurkyZebra2417]

As a six year old I knew how to play Sonic games, should give you something to think about.
Anyways, play how you want. Go through the levels fast, or slow, or explore, or not, or kill all enemies, or don't. What is so hard to grasp? You can also go through every Mario level fast, or not, or explore, or not etc.

It's a Jump'n Run...

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

Sounds like you've figured out what many of us have known for years... That Sonic games are terrible.

Sonic Mania was supposed to fix these shit posts. Sonic Mania was supposed to put you people in your place. Sonic Mania HAS put you in your place. Why are you still here when you have clearly been put in your place. You lost. Why are these people still here? Somebody explain this to me.

 

[Stevey]

Get to the end, kill the bosses, save the day.
This has been known for 25+ years.

 

[Neiteio]

As a longtime 2D Sonic skeptic, I'm definitely warming up to its design with Mania.

The levels feel like a series of playgrounds that individually lend themselves to light exploration, and these playgrounds are linked by "pinball sequences" — bits where you're propelled along by bumpers and spinners and tubes and loops.

The playground areas feel like sandbox-style levels from a 3D platformer, translated to 2D — so a mix of tight and wide open spaces, upper and lower levels, and areas to backtrack with goodies hidden in nooks and crannies. (I know that 2D Sonic design obviously predated 3D games, but I'm just describing how it feels with the hindsight of history.)

Sometimes the way forward to a pinball sequence is not left to right, but right to left. And these sequences may launch you past (or over, or under) large swathes of the playground areas. But you can backtrack to try and find what you miss, or simply continue forward in the interest of speed, and simply resolve to explore those alternate paths on a subsequent playthrough.

It feels a bit disconcerting to a long-time 2D Mario player because I'm accustomed to being able to find everything in a single run (i.e. three star coins), and also because in Mario it's much easier to comprehend how the level fits together, whereas I'd be hard-pressed to map out Green Hill Zone even after playing it a dozen times. But that's OK. You just have to let yourself "go with the flow" and accept that you won't see everything in each level the first, or second, or third, or even fourth time. You just kind of follow your intuition and find what you can each playthrough.

 

[Professor Beef]

Could say the same for all the fans getting upset over a simple question over something that's been said for Sonic games since the first ones released.

If I thought the question was sincere then I would've given a sincere answer.

 

[Mesoian]

Which is fine, if playing the slower segments didn't feel so bad.

So you get it, you just don't like it. That's fine. It makes me wonder why you were so adamant that the formula was confusing and strange but, it's fine. Everyone doesn't have to like every game, but it's pretty confusing that you, and the op, would find the sonic formula to be confusing.

 

[Nottle]

So i've had a theory, Sonic isn't about speed, as much he is about momentum. The speed thing was an aspect of the game marketing could run with so thats what we were told to care about. If you play any of the older sonic games, he does go fast, but going fast is usually required to accomplish something , you cant break through this wall unless you are going fast, you can't go through this loop without going fast. Go to fast and you hit some spikes. I can think of other instances where you need to do some platforming, like the water stages, you need to wait for platforms to be in position, you need to manage air, I remember waiting on lava platforms, and needing to make sure i don't fall into bottomless pits.

 

[jennetics]

With all the hype and positive words said about Mario Odyssey I'm seriously considering picking it up. However, I have no idea how to play a 3D Mario game.

They've always been confusing to me. Are you trying to acquire and hang onto as many coins as possible, or do they not really matter outside of lives?

Are you trying to complete levels as fast as possible or are you supposed to regularly stop and explore? The focus on jumping in the game is a little confusing to me, as it seems like you could quickly skip through gigantic parts of the game in the name of speed. Are you expected to kind of backtrack and explore the area that you just zoomed through?

Should you be seeking out every box to smash? What rewards do these garner? What about enemies? Should you be trying to kill them all or is it okay to just run past them?

What do you need to do to acquire the star (no idea if that's what it's called)? What makes it invisible/unattainable and what unlocks the ability to acquire it? What's the benefit of acquiring the star?

I have other questions, but I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.

With all the hype and positive words said about the N. Sane Trilogy I'm seriously considering picking it up. However, I have no idea how to play a Crash game.

They've always been confusing to me. Are you trying to acquire and hang onto as many fruits as possible, or do they not really matter outside of lives?

Are you trying to complete levels as fast as possible or are you supposed to regularly stop and explore? The focus on jumping in the game is a little confusing to me, as it seems like you could quickly skip through gigantic parts of the game by sliding through. Are you expected to kind of backtrack and explore the area that you just zoomed through?

Should you be seeking out every box to smash? What rewards do these garner? What about enemies? Should you be trying to kill them all or is it okay to just run past them?

What do you need to do to acquire the colored emeralds (no idea if that's what it's called)? What makes it invisible/unattainable and what unlocks the ability to acquire it? What's the benefit of acquiring the emerald?

I have other questions, but I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.

With all the hype and positive words said about Final Fantasy VII Remake I'm seriously considering picking it up. However, I have no idea how to play a Final Fantasy game.

They've always been confusing to me. Are you trying to acquire and hang onto as much gil as possible, or do they not really matter outside of shops?

Are you trying to level up as fast as possible or are you supposed to regularly stop and explore? The focus on grinding in the game is a little confusing to me, as it seems like you could quickly skip through gigantic parts of the game by grinding enough. Are you expected to kind of backtrack and explore the area that you just zoomed through?

Should you be seeking out every treasure to open? What rewards do these garner? What about enemies? Should you be trying to kill them all or is it okay to just run past them?

What do you need to do to acquire the 4 crystals (no idea if that's what it's called)? What makes it so hard to get and what unlocks the ability to acquire it? What's the benefit of acquiring the crystal?

I have other questions, but I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.

I feel like I could do this for any game, really. Basically, if you play any of these games, you'd figure out the questions without needing to ask.

 

[Glass Shark]

If I thought the question was sincere then I would've given a sincere answer.

Can you explain why you don’t think the post is sincere?

 

[Phediuk]

I feel like I could do this for any game, really.

I'm pretty sure I saw that exact post about Crash somewhere, with "confusion" being again a thinly-veiled pretext for agenda pushing.

 

[TheOfficeMut]

I think the biggest problem with Sonic for me is that I never really felt comfortable in the levels. My philosophy is that if you are good enough, you should be able to beat any level in a platformer on the first try without taking damage. There shouldn’t be any dangers that are impossible to avoid. You shouldn’t have to play the level a few times to “get a feel for it.” This is true for Mario. If you start on 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. and fully take advantage of every learning opportunity and telegraphing the game gives you, nothing that comes your way should be a huge challenge. In classic Sonic I always feel like no matter what I do, there is something coming up on my screen that I won’t be able to avoid unless I know it’s there.

You think a game sucks if on your first try your character gets hurt? That's your barometer for a game's quality?

Wow, okay then.

 

[Dre3001]

Literally just get from Point A to Point B and defeat the boss without using all your lives. Rinse and repeat.

It's a simple platformer.

The only other emphasis is that stages have multiple ways to get to the end of the stage.

 

[Namegoes_Here]

You could say the same for Mario. What are coins for outside of lives? Should you focus on killing enemies? Does every block need to be smashed? I mean really it's just a simple reach the other side of the map platformer like the thousands of others. Some hiddden things in there for the more adventurous. What's not to get? Just hop in and play around.

 

[The ๖ۜBronx]

I'm pretty sure I saw that exact post about Crash somewhere, with "confusion" being again a thinly-veiled pretext for agenda pushing.

How are you this worked up over someone asking a simple question?

 

[Glass Shark]

I'm pretty sure I saw that exact post about Crash somewhere, with "confusion" being again a thinly-veiled pretext for agenda pushing.

“Shitting on a game” is not the same thing as leveling reasonable criticism at it. We’re not 10 years old on AOL message boards any more. This isn’t fucking Nintendo vs. Sega console wars anymore. There are more than enough great games in a variety of genres and styles to go around. We can have a discussion about an aspect of a game or series without people coming in and screaming “bad faith!”

EDIT: Oh, I guess you must have realized your hyperbole and edited your post before I replied.

 

[Nepenthe]

Yeh, fuck someone for thinking that Sonic games would be based around speed when it's literally been his one defining characteristic since conception and the single thing they've always focused on about him.

So many people taking this personally when this has been a common line of thought since the first games were released.

People are probably annoyed with this line of thought because it's demonstrably false and yet people keep insisting to those that actually give a damn about the franchise still to know what the fuck they're talking about that not only is it indeed correct, but it's the reason the best games in the franchise are shit. We have the right to roll our eyes at this shit.

 

[digitalrelic]

Like, honestly, I don't know what kind of response you're looking for when you're basing the "idea" of sonic on memes and marketing opposed to just playing the game. You said it yourself, the game is rife with areas to explore with secrets to find and hidden goals to achieve, and I guess if you're going to play the game once and only once, you'll miss that stuff. But they are platformers, fairly short ones, can generally be finished in about 2 hours. Clearly, there's more than one path for more than on experience.

It's not like the games don't teach you how to play them through themeing, they do. Which is why I think everyone is asking if you've actually played one, because all of these elements you seem confused about are made very obvious by the end of the first stage. Hell, Sonic 3 forces you into a bonus stage at the beginning of 1-2 to show you that the giant rings are hidden in each stage.

I don't know what response you're looking for other than, "yeah man, I don't get either, Sonic is, like, so weird! I heard he kisses girls at some point? Wierd, bad games."

I'm looking for responses like these:

At least with regards to the good Sonic games:
Rings give you a safety net for damage, grant extra lives and enable access to special stages. Its completely up to you if you want them or not.
If you like going fast, go fast. If you want to go less fast, then go less fast and explore. There is no right way.
If you want to build up speed then do so, but its up to you.
You can seek them all out for various powerups. You can kill enemies for points. You don't have to though.

Its down to preference. Giant rings are hidden in levels and grant access to special stages. They are optional and its up to you if you want to pursue them.

In short, the games (at least the good ones) are designed in a way that allows you to play them in the way to prefer to. I personally, for example, forego most of the speed stuff to explore. Its completely up to you though.

You need all the chaos emeralds (bonus stages) to get the "good ending" (whether that's an actual different ending or just that you can be Super/Hyper Sonic). You need 50/100 rings to access bonus stages. Enemies make you lose your coins if you get hit by them. TVs either give you coins or make it easier to avoid/kill enemies.

Do what you need to do to get through each level and bonus stage. Either avoid all the enemies or take the time to kill them so you don't risk losing coins to them. It's a really simple concept.

Speed makes no difference other than the meaningless score you get at the end of the zone.

Rings are your health, doesn't matter if you hold more than one, as long as your hold one you can survive a hit.
Level wise, it's all your play style, you can explore to your hearts content, or you could speed run levels for fun. The tvs give you rings and shield power ups with different abilities.
As for the big rings, I don't think you need to 'activate' them, they're always ready to jump into. Those lead to special stages that give emeralds, the game's story mcguffins. Collect them all to get the good ending.

Hope that helps dude!

You play however you want. If you want to try to speedrun the level because the speed is fun for you, do that.

If you want to take it slow, explore the level, kill every enemy you find, get all the secret item boxes and special stage entry points, do that.

If you want to mix exploring with going fast at times, do that. That's how I play. Sometimes part of the level is set up to have you go fast through loops and chutes and whatnot. Then you'll get to a part with perilous fire and spikes that you have to carefully jump past. There's variety.

Also, Sonic games are about replaying levels. Don't feel bad if you missed huge sections of a zone. You can always go back to a level and check out parts you didn't miss. That's a lot of fun, too.


[edit] BTW, collecting tons of rings is mostly about two things: Getting a higher score (for vanity purposes) and getting 100 rings to earn an extra life. Sure, you can try to hang onto as many of them as possible until the end of the level, but it's not necessary to "play Sonic the right way," so to speak.

Speed is beneficial for maintaining momentum often for the 'upper routes', as in staying as close to the top of the screen throughout the stage. That route most often features the greatest rewards and the quickest path to the goal(sometimes most laden with secrets along the way as well).

The reason you get frustrated with spikes and pits and other brickwall obstacles is that the lower routes usually act as a form of punishment. They are designed to often be a bit slower, force the player to pause and consider ways to reach higher ground again to get back to the loop-de-loops and ramps and coin staches, etc...

The games don't spell it out really, so I understand it can be alarming and confounding for players to think "push right, go fast, WTF not working!!??" but there is skill in trying to balance speed and keep on that chosen route. The satisfaction and thrills are seeped in doing so. Give it a try next play.

In standard terms you just want to beat the level. Rings are like a bunch of second chances but also contribute to your score which carries the tension of risk the more you get. The levels are multifaceted, with the high road usually being considered the harder/faster route, and exploring what the levels have to offer yields things like power ups, secret paths and bonus stages where you can collect Chaos Emeralds which are like this game's version of the super secret collectible. It's not really about getting to the end of the stage as quickly as possible, but because of the mechanics of the game, it heavily encourages you to go fast and employing the mechanics of speed in order to access additional areas, which is part of the reason why the best Sonic games are built to be just as good for platforming as they are for speedrunning, even if many games sometimes end up prioritizing one over the other. The Genesis games, and Mania, strike the best balance and are more crafty when it comes to this.

2D Sonic games are heavily contingent on rolling. This is going to be your main move throughout the game. When you're faced with slopes and inclines you want to roll in order to build up proper momentum and go even faster than you would if you were running. Rolling also protects you against enemies that may be in your way or destructible obstacles. If you can learn to pull that off well, you'll be able to go fast while also going safe.

The caveat of course with rolling is that you sacrifice control and that you also have to perform it on proper areas, as well as already having inherited momentum, to maintain your speed, or else you'll grind to a halt, so while there is some risk with it, there's more reward when done right and you can trust that rolling is your "safer" state so to speak most of the time.

Mania also helps finally give Sonic a unique incentive of playing by giving him the Drop Dash which is a fantastic ability that can maintain momentum whenever you feel like you need to regain momentum after a jump.

Basically, learn to use the level design as a tool and applying Sonic's pinball-esque physics for going fast.

You know, responses that are actually helpful and answer the question that I, and apparently many others, have about the best way to approach the game.

The fact that so many of you supposedly can't fathom the idea that there could ever be confusion about this is downright comical.


Anyway, thanks to the poster that provided insight! Actually some really helpful information. I'll be diving into Sonic Mania on my Switch tonight.