Hot Heart

Isn't that what they were always like? I never understood sonic games I just ran along at out of control speed until I hit something and vomitted rings.

No way. The old Sonic games had variations in pace. You could speed-run them if you wanted but it was by no means a constant rush to the finish. Here, you have a boost, lock onto enemies and just press a button to attack them, and press another for crouching under things. It's more like a race.

I'd never played a 3D Sonic game (tried that new demo of Adventure and even that wasn't one big rush) so maybe they are like that now.