Sonic is about speed, when I play a Sonic game, I want it to be fast. Nothing in the Sonic world seems to fit with puzzle solving, or detective work, or anything Point-and-Click - even conversation.
IMO new Sonic games take that speed a little too far. On the original Sonic games they weren't so fast but had fantastic and memorable level design. Ever since Sonic Advance 2 and as the 3D ones jumped up a gen they got faster and lost the detail of the older titles. So again IMO Sonic isn't even much about speed. It was about good level design, just a premise for a story, brilliant bosses and catchy music.