I think Sonic 1 can feel like that without the spindash, and the level design isn’t great for like half the stages.

It’s all about being able to keep the momentum going, and they get better at designing levels around it with every game. If you’ve only played Sonic 1 but want to try again, skip it and hop into Sonic 2 and 3/Knuckles.

Sonic does play differently to Mario, but if you can give it the time to get that momentum going, you might enjoy it!