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What really irritates me is how people beg for a 3d sonic game that goes back to the roots. Each 3d sonic game has followed the basic 2d sonic formula (speed through linear levels, collect rings, etc).

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I'm sorry, and you'll not just hear this from me, as there's a whole thread well worth reading already here, but Sonic 1, CD, 2, 3 and Knuckles were not all about speed and did not feature linear levels. Mostly, there was a lot of platforming to be done, and a lot more as you go higher in the levels than there is lower, and the levels always featured multi-tiered paths, and various hidden ways, making them feel explorable and free. You could also run backwards and up hills.