This is a dumb idea I had for a year now though please bare with me,
After taking place of Sega Sonic, Mighty and Ray have decided to stay with Sonic for some time. So, they build a home near Tails’ house. Little did they know Eggman used Metal Sonic to get the emeralds, what can he do with it? Use it to build the empire and make it so strong that Sonic won’t stand a chance? Nah that’s actually smart! Instead Eggman made mini micro chip bombs, and when it was night time he quickly and quietly drops them in their separate homes (Knuckles’ home being Angle Island). Sonic woke up early in the morning and heard a ticking sound, he knew something would blow up and dashed out of the house. Everyone else was inside the explosion, they are in a serious comma meaning they cannot help you defeat Eggman. You start out as Sonic and him only, in order to get the emeralds you find a time stones and enter a checkpoint, getting hit will make you drop it, make sure you pick it up before it disappears. Anyways after you wrap in you go back in time at that night and now must rush into Sonic’s and the other’s house. You speed up by getting the required amount of blue spheres, due to sonic warping in the past the bomb explodes a little early so failing to speed up will cause the home to explode. The only reason why I wanted blue spheres instead of rings is because if you collect the good amount of rings you get to keep the time stone and can warp into another special stage but needing a different checkpoint. After getting the first emerald if you get 2-7th you unlock the others (Tails, Knuckles, Mighty, Ray, and Amy, and Espio). Getting a specific amount of emeralds you have a technique when you have 50 rings
Emerald 1: Drops 1 bomb
Emerald 2: Drops 2
Emerald 3: Drops 3
Emerald 4: Kills all the enemies on screen (Emerald 4+ will instantly kill eggman
Emerald 5: Kills enimies on screen + some on the left
Emerald 6: Kills enimies on screen + some on the left and right
Getting all the emeralds you get Booming form, you can drop small but effective bombs and your abilities change to be more easier to use, everyone goes super.
Well this is really it. I hope you like this idea I had.