I could never get into the Sonic games at all, S&K included. I enjoyed them but compared to games like Super Metroid, Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Mario Bros. 3 there just wasn't as much substance to the game for me. That said, the cool thing about gaming is everybody has a different take on things.
I was stoked to see Sonic hit Smash Bros and wanted to see Knuckles in there as well, I hadn't played as Sonic in a game since Adventure was released on Dreamcast.