People can spout off about old school Sonic game's platforming and what not, but there was always one fundamental thing about old school Sonic that did indeed make it a racing game at its core...and what was it? Time.
What's this? I only have 10 minutes of game time to get through a level, before I see "TIME OVER"? Oh snap, I can't dawdle around, or I'll lose a life by default!
If the devs really wanted you to fool around in the levels as long as you pleased, they probably wouldn't have forced such a constraint like the ten minute time limit on you. That "legendary part" (you all should know what I'm talking about!
) in Carnival Night Act 2 in Sonic 3 (and Knux) wouldn't have had as much clout as it did if there wasn't a ten minute limit that was breathing down your neck, forcing you to think fast and figure out a solution to get out of there. But instead, they did, because the focus was STILL to get through the act as fast as you could. Hell, you got a decent time bonus for how fast you were able to complete the act, not how much of the act you explored! When the devs reward you for such things like a time bonus and ring bonus, I would think that would be enough of a point to show that that was what the devs had in mind for how the game was meant to be played.
So really...I don't see what the big fuss is all about. Even at the beginning, Sonic games always had an incentive on making you move your spiny, blue ass. And I think that's the fundamental thing which makes it so I can't side with FFF and his physics equations, or those who draw up maps of levels entirely, because they seemingly forget this rather important facet of the old games, while they freely talk about other details like "physics" and "platforming aspects can be supported, based on maps"...