Rev Up Those Sonic Cycles

[Rökkan]

you know, i dont really see much "skill" going on there but rather someone replaying the same level over and over until he could memorize each level's timming and path.

If you want to strive for the absolute best time, speedruns will always be about replaying a level and finding the fastest paths, there is no way around it. The difference is whether the player is rewarded with speed for being skillful and exploring the different abilities well (like the classics) or by just spamming a button over and over again.

It's the difference between a balanced fighting game and one that's not. You can fiddle around with your different moves and create and "memorize how to do" effective combos and strategies against specific kinds of situation, until someone finds a more effective way to do it or a counter strategy to that, or, in a bad fighting game, you can just spam "hadoukens" or kicks that are so broken that they will be effective in any kind of situation, not letting the enemy touch you.