Can we hope to see Sonic's moves expanded to include a drop dash, as introduced by sonic mania, and also a short range homing attack that doesn't need a shield to work? It could be that pressing roll when in the air would trigger the drop dash, pressing jump would do a homing attack and maybe pressing two buttons at once would trigger super sonic?
A drop dash would go a long way to make Sonic's gameplay more cinetic and would make the time challenge super fun, as the current spin dash is kind of a rarely used move in the current setup.
As far as a homing attack, it has proven to greatly improve 3d gameplay, especially for targeting springs, TVs and enemies. Making it short range would stop it from being unpredictable and from making the game too easy, while making it flow a lot better and make moving through levels a lot more fluid!
I hope you consider it!
In the meantime, the work you've done here is astounding and I can wait to try it out. You're an inspiration.
Yeah, all the elements are already here to make the drop dash which is why I think it'd be a great addition! The way you describe is finicky though, it would definitely benefit from being streamlined. As for staying true to the original, I don't really see a downside to adding it, and for purists they can just not use it!
Actually if you have the red shield you can already sort of do this. The red shield allows you to shoot to the floor instantly and if you press the button again immediately after you do the spin attack. It's pretty fast if you input the 2 button presses fast enough.
Adding more moves seems more interesting to me than content, because the base gameplay is a bit clumsy and dull. However maybe there are lots of s3d fans who like it as it is, and their opinion deserves more attention than mine, if I'm being honest with myself.