This is probably the best Sonic game to ever come out (that or Mania, I highly doubt it's anything else). I absolutely adore how the game tells the story through its little cutscenes and a lot of the set pieces. There wasn't a whole lot of this in other Sonic games (CD had some good stuff in it) but it's full force here, especially in the back half. Of course, Knuckles is a classic character, and he's really fun here. I haven't played a lot of him but I do know from past experience that he's fun to play with. The levels themselves are essentially perfect. They're challenging but not so much that you want to give up or rage quit. Same goes for the special stages, and finding them is lots of fun even when I'm consulting maps. New stuff like the insta-shield and the elemental shields are fucking awesome, and are always very useful. I don't know, I'm realy struggling to find a single thing I don't like about this game. It's perfect.