Don't see why people do the hold right criticism for Sonic and ignore how Mario has just as much, if not more, "hold right to win" situations.
Must have strong biases.
I mean in Super Mario World, you can do that and Fly over every stage that's not Tubular or in a cave, and you win.
The "hold right to win" criticism isn't about how
easy it is; it's about player expectations combined with how meaningful the execution of the mechanics are.
In aSuper Mario World, the "hold right to win" sections involve using the cape to fly over everything,
but even then one actually has to have a spot that's long enough to take off
and the ability to keep the proper rhythm to stay in the air (which since we're all dumb nerds here might sound like something really easy, but consider that
that's not the case for everybody), and there are a large number of levels where flying over everything isn't actually possible (yes, Tubular and caves, but also underwater levels and any autoscrolling levels and any castles, i.e pretty much over half of the stages in the game)
and you're going to miss a large majority of the hidden exits and special stuff in the game if you try to just hold right through every stage.
In Sonic games, the "hold right to win" sections in stages are literally parts where you hold right and automatically run through the stages. During these sections there are no secrets or bonuses to be had by slowing down, there are no meaningful obstacles in your way until the game suddenly throws you into a wall or some spikes or some water at which point you just flat out
stop - the problem is that these sections are one input away from essentially being cutscenes.
In SMW, you can fly over levels, yes - but
you actually have to fly over the levels. Being able to do this still involves a measurable amount of player ability and decision making, where running through loops in a Sonic game does not.
I also fail to see how a majority of zones in Sonic 1,2, 3K, and SCD are hold right to win when there are dozens of ups and downs and platforming sections.
Most of the stages
aren't "hold right to win" in those games - and that's the problem. Every second you're spending waiting for some boxes to float over lava or trying to get that stupid carnival tube to go up and down runs contrary to player expectations (i.e this is a game where the character runs really fast). It puts the player in a weird abusive relationship with the game where they aren't
allowed to have fun doing the thing they expected until
after they play a mediocre platformer. And then when they
are allowed to finally Go Fast, it's in sections that basically play themselves and offer the player no meaningful satisfaction for execution.
And in Super Mario World, you can get hit indefinitely if you have the Yoshi, and unlike Rings, Yoshi doesnt disappear after being on the screen for so long. The restriction with yoshi is that you just cant take him inside castles and ghost houses.
So while it's not the rings mechanic, I dont necessarily get the "you can get hit infinite times" criticism as if it's something only Sonic did wrong, because most platformers have a method of regenerating health/HP almost indefinitely.
You're right - having Yoshi means that you can take damage infinitely, assuming that you take damage in a location where stopping and getting back on Yoshi is possible, and this
sort of removes the danger of enemies and other obstacles. This criticism is also why Yoshi
doesn't work that way in later Mario games, whereas Sonic's infinite rings health system has been a noted criticism of the series for
over two decades now that Sonic game creators staunchly refuse to acknowledge or change in any meaningful way.
Every other platformer I can think of uses 'taking damage' as a way to halt and//or slow down progress -
most of the time, you can only take a finite number of hits from things before being forced to restart from an earlier point in the game. There are often mechanics that involve recovering health, but they usually involve getting to a certain point in the stage and/or defeating enemies, i.e actually playing the game successfully.
The only platformers I can think of that repeatedly choose to have health function in such a way where you basically recover it instantly for free without losing any meaningful progress or having to change your approach to the game are Sonic games.
