>>531790057
Honestly what they should've done in SA1 was to get rid of the Master Emerald and allow Knuckles to become a treasure hunter as hinted in the OVA

The Master Emerald is a cool concept but it limits Knuckles. I think they only kept it because they wanted to maintain Knuckles' gameplay in Sonic Adventure for the sequel and couldn't think of anything else that he could collect in place of the Master Emerald shards