 Strong criticism was directed at the game 's control scheme , especially the new parkour mechanic . Turi " never got a good feel for the rhythm of wall running and jumping , and felt lucky to pass sections where it was forced . " Hargreaves , Walton , and Official Nintendo Magazine 's Matthew Castle agreed . Ingenito found it problematic that Sonic tends to wall @-@ run on every nearby vertical surface . Schilling singled out the multi @-@ lock homing attack , writing that while " most of the time it works perfectly well " , it appeared to " inexplicably fail " on occasion . Ingenito , Turi , and Hargreaves agreed . Matthew Castle of Official Nintendo Magazine struggled with the homing attack " locking on too late or attacking enemies in awkward sequence . " However , GamesRadar 's Justin Towell defended the control scheme , explaining that while it had a learning curve , it also " modernize [ s ] environmental traversal " and " provide [ s ] a distinct safety net " . Towell argued that Sonic was mainly hard to control in the " more complex 2D sections " because there are " so many rules for how Sonic reacts contextually to his environment " . Reona Ebihara of Famitsu stated that the ability to slow down made the game easier to play for beginners . However , Turi criticized Sonic 's " odd sense of momentum " and imprecise jumps , stating that switching between two speeds is " jarring " and produces " touchy platforming " . Schilling excoriated the " profoundly frustrating " controls as the worst in the series , explaining that " Sonic 's too sluggish while walking , and too skittish to cope with the trickier platforming bits when running " . Ingenito agreed : " I 've played a lot of Sonic over the years , and the controls have never felt as alien and inconsistent as they do here . " 
