Sonic's 18th Birthday ^_^

[Rökkan]

One thing I loved about Sonic 2D games is that it wasn't all GO GO GO, there was some stopping, back tracking and some exploring too.

The thing I noticed in old Sonic games was that each zone had three or four paths to go through (usually)

-You had the middle level of the stage which was pretty basic and didn't have many secrets but was safer.
-Then you had the lower level of the stage, this area was hazardous/ was underwater/ etc.
-And then there was the higher level, which had all these rings and lives but it was hard to get up there.

And you didn't have to stay the course, you could jump from a high area and take a safer route below anytime.

The thing was you had a lot of freedom to go were you wanted. You don't have that in these new Sonic games.

This is what I meant with good level design.
New Sonic games just fucking obligate you to keep holding forward. Sonic 3 & Knuckles had the best level-design because it has just way too much exploring. People are finding new secret paths more than 10 years later that this game was first released.
However, one thing I liked on Secret Rings is that, even though the level-design is very straight-forward (well, it must, considering the gameplay), it did managed creative level-designs and fun stage-based gimmicks, and even a bit of backtracking on some stages. Plus the skill system should be brought to new Sonic games.
Black Knight on the other hand, threw all level-design through the window, and we recieved instead a gameplay based on masturbating your own Wii Remote while holding forward.