Boost
Just a person who's really bad with names
Magnemania said:The Spring Tail is not strictly platforming based, it allows Fang to bounce on enemies. It's Fang's only method of attacking that doesn't require him to completely kill his momentum (the act of bouncing puts him at a temporary stop but preserves his momentum). The existence of the two moves in the same moveset is fairly important; Fang is forced to choose between coming to a complete stop to safely kill an enemy, or maintain his spring bounce and either dodge or land on the enemy at a high speed.
If Fang had the spin dash instead of the popgun, his bouncing would be devalued because he could pick up speed and attack enemies without bouncing. Fang also loses most of his momentum when he starts his spring chain, so the spin dash wouldn't synergize with his it.
The fact that Spring Tail damages enemies is about as much of a thing as Tails' tails hitting enemies above him during flight - you can do it if you want but there are better options.
The momentum cut when he starts and ends his spring tail jumping is indeed weird and unnatural, but not entirely impractical (at least not the one in the end). It can serve as a momentum cancel to help landing on faraway platforms (particularly useful in getting that one emblem in that one stage).
Another note completely is that Fang is a Sonic character that isn't designed to fit the gameplay of Sonic games. At least officially. He simply isn't supposed to be able to use speed-based skills such as Spindash. All he has is gunslinger skills and his bouncy tail which was replicated here. He is someone completely different.
Before you try to post another argument against Fang's gun ask yourself, would you stop to hit that one badnik in your way if you could jump over it or go around it? Would you risk hitting the bosses with jumping if there's a safer and faster ranged alternative just because you don't want to stand still?
I'd love to discuss more but this thread isn't about Fang so maybe we should stop.