I was comparing the speed in Kirby Superstar and Kirby 3, and I noticed a thing: Kirby 3 has half-sized sprites compared to superstar, so you see double of the level on screen compared to Superstar. That's why it "feels" slower than Superstar (it never felt slow to me) but it really isn't. I was comparing it by hiding half of the screen. They are about the same, maybe KDL3 is a tiny bit slower but it's really a small difference. KDL 3 has bigger and more linear levels, so you run most of the time, while Superstar has levels made of small rooms that feel shorter, so this may be another reason.
Anyway, KDL3's slide is the fastest in all Kirby games I think.
It felt faster to me because there are several things allowing you to run in the levels without stopping, like the fast slide (allowed you to run across enemies without taking damage) and stunning enemies with jump, hitting them from below, or when you're riding a big animal (except Coo), bouncing on their heads. I really enjoyed doing speedruns of that level in Cloudy park where you need to transport Rick until the end of the level... bouncing on enemies is not like Mario, it preserves your momentum better and it's harder to do, it almost feels like bouncing on enemies in a classic Sonic game.
The game is not perfect anyway, redoing a level because of a minigame is a bit annoying, but I never had much problem with minigames, I thought that they were fun. That ice level though, was very annoying to redo.
But nothing is as annoying as redoing Classic Mode and Trophy Rush again and again for a couple of weeks only to get an hat, so I won't say that Sakurai is better on this aspect.
The only real issue of the game is the fact that some side quests were very unintuitive and there were little to no hints, but they were just a few... I solved most of them by myself, without any walkthrough (only the green monster with blue spring that required Chuchu and the other one with the parasol on his/her head were a problem to me, and they were similar to solve... I don't really remember if there was something else but I don't think).
The fact that Simomura's games feel more like platformers is probably one of the reasons why I like them more, because I like platformers a lot, and I don't like beat-em-up so much (Superstar-esque games rely more on fighting lots of enemies than on level design, and they feel more like beat-em-up).
Flying in Shimomura's games is slower, but I don't consider it an issue, I think that it's a good way to balance the game: sometimes you can fly to cheat: if you fly, you're very slow and you can be hit easily, also it's boring flying so it's better to face the enemies and not try to cheat. Also, it makes using a flying animal special.
Ironically, the animal friend who I enjoy less riding is Pitch: because he can't stun enemies from below, because he can't jump on enemies and because he can fly but it's slow (and you can't even slide using him). The best thing of that animal is the RC tansformation with electric Kirby.
) and sometimes is too simple (not in difficulty, in realization) gameplay/level design wise. The abilities cancel your momentum all the times (except a small amount of them, like the fireworks that's one of my favorites), and they have a single move that sometimes is also scripted and you can't even play with it.
