Thread by @armormodechang

thinking about how one of the biggest mistakes that platformers trying to ape Sonic in the 90's, including Bubsy, made is that they made their character way too fast

more specifically, they always accelerate too fast and have too high top speed from moving forward on flat ground with no assistance, which makes the games frustrating because you always hit shit

you don't actually go all that fast if you just hold forward on the ground in Sonic; you only reach high speeds either through interacting with level elements or with special moves like the spin dash

and being able to go slow is key to making the platforming work

there's other things that make "going fast" work in Sonic when it doesn't in imitators, such as rolling letting you defend yourself at speed without having to react to things, or levels with areas that slow you down naturally, but the movement is a big part

if you want a game that has the issues I mention that isn't an easy whipping boy like Bubsy, look at Jazz Jackrabbit

I wouldn't call it a bad game but whoof, if you don't wanna die then there's a lot of stop-and-start because of how the guy moves (plus his weapon being a gun)

hell, even folks at SEGA Technical Institute didn't seem to quite get it, and they worked on Sonic 2
just look at the Astropede demo (or even Sonic X-Treme beta footage) and you'll see lots of finicky speed adjustment thanks to how fast you go

as a side note I think the Sonic Adventure games did a good job of translating that sort of lower speed control to 3D; both of them won't push you to super-crazy speeds on flat ground

(which, of course, begs the question of what the fuck happened with Sonic Heroes)