This was super fun to play! At first, when I tried it with a keyboard, the camera felt inverted and too sensitive to me, but I'm glad there are plenty of options in the menu to adjust it to my liking. However, when I switched to a gamepad, the experience improved a lot. Playing with a gamepad makes everything feel much smoother and more responsive, including the camera.
I'm a fan of the SA games, and I love that this game tries to expand on Knuckles' levels and mechanics. The hints you can get in exchange for some rings are actually useful, and of course, I like the fact that the positions are randomizedit adds a lot of replayability.
Visually, the best aspect by far is the character animations. The squash and stretch effect is on point. The environment doesn't look bad, but I think it could use a bit more polish. At the end of the map, there's a tree texture that looks fine from far away, but up close, it looks off.
Overall, this was incredibly fun to play. The map feels like a big playground, and just running and jumping around is enjoyable. I hope you continue this project with more maps or even adding a time attack mode, that would be really cool.