What I feel about Boosting in Sonic

[Jack Lovejoy]

Hey guys, I am Jack here and I am here to talk about a rather controversial matter in Sonic games called boosting. Personally in my opinion, I don't think it might be a really good concept for a sonic game.

Engaging movement in games involves with a lot of sharp turns, sudden stops, unexpected twists. But boosting in Sonic games are at the same speed, the same pace, with little to no variation in movement. What is more engaging? Watching Super Mario go forward at the same speed throughout the whole level? Or watching Super Mario Stop, go back, and explore? This same repetitive movement is linear, sure it has some depth to it like the new passages to the goal, but in terms of who has better depth in gameplay, almost all the other platformers are superior in that.

This is an ingenious way of numbing your brain without feeling bored, you may think the game is doing something right, but really, it is junk food for your brain. I am not saying it is awful by any means, I am saying it takes away the original concept of what made Sonic very fun.

In the original classic games, speed was rewarded if you are going fast. But ever since boosting came, that speed was given to you rather than reward you. Why remove something that made Sonic good in the first place? For now, if Sonic had another boosting game, I wouldn't mind that much, it would be ok. But if the next Sonic game had Speed is Reward concept, I will be truly satisfied

 

[Shane]

I'm anti-Boost, but I don't feel that's even the main issue in Sonic games. The main issues are: (insert long list)

 

[Mournblade]

TLDR Version; I'm not sure if Speed4Reward is the best way of putting it. I would chalk it up more to the game&level designs that accommodated different gameplay styles and sonic's speed.

Mourn's meaningless ramble Version:
Speed as a reward was a concept that was introduced a little bit after the advent of the 3d games. I think it was most prevalent in the Sonic Rush series, but I might be wrong. Speed wasn't the reward in the originals, the gameplay and level design was built around speed (and to accommodate the small screen size).
Classic Sonic & Classic Mario are two completely different beasts as Sonic had to approach 2d platforming much differently. The levels are massive and much larger that allow fast paced exploring. Some levels actually slow you down and punish you for going too fast. Super Sonic as a reward doesn't reward you with speed (it is actually a downside to Super Sonic as you sacrifice control for invincibility).
The gameplay for classic sonic needed to be tight to allow all forms of gameplay, Sonic 3&Knuckles was the perfect example of this with 3 different character choices. It's why Knuckles is one of the funnest characters to play with through S3&K.

The thing with the boosting mechanic is that it tries to accommodate to a 3d type of gameplay. You have to approach the level differentley and if you screw up, your punishment is being slowed down or forcing you to go through longer branching paths. In my opinion, it simplifies the speed as reward gameplay

 

[grahamf]

When done right, it's awesome in it's own way. Sure, Mario does require you to backtrack and all to solve a level, but Sonic at one time was all about speed and split-second decisions. To keep up your momentum you cannot make a mistake, but you need to hit the right springs, the right enemies, coins, boosters, etc at the right time and position otherwise you stall and slow down. But they have sort of made that confusing, with WereSonic becoming this lumbering stretchy giant and other games making it almost impossible to make a correct choice without stopping and surveying.