Sonic Not as Fast as We Remember?

As I've been playing Sonic the Hedgehog this month for the SEGAmaniacal Summer Challenge, I've been thinking a lot about the franchise and how it's evolved over the years. Even moreso, I've been thinking about how pretty much every Sonic since the Dreamcast iteration has been criticized for the same thing--not being fast enough.

Go read reviews of any Sonic game over the past few years. Inevitably, you'll get to the part of the review where the writer laments how this new game doesn't stay true to the original concept of Sonic. The game isn't fast enough, Sonic doesn't run enough, there's too much stop-and-go gameplay, etc.

Many of the reviewers remember the original Sonic games as being one long footrace, where Sonic always runs at blinding speeds and the gameplay never slows down.

The thing is, that's not what the original Sonic games were at all. Sure, there are plenty of moments in the early Sonic games where you are racing through levels at insane speeds. But, there's also a great deal of times where you are at a dead stop, carefully planning your next move or jump, as you traverse lava pits, spiked bridges, and the like. I'd say it's probably a 6-40 split in terms of slow gameplay versus fast paced gameplay.

Thinking about this has made me want to play some of the more recent Sonic games that were panned critically, as I think a lot of reviewers were comparing them to the nostalgic view of Sonic they had, as opposed to what the actual games played like.

What do you think?