Sonic Runners stays conceptually true to the classic Sonic games but unlike other endless runners and all other Soinc games Sonic you can not only single jump, or double jump, but also triple jump. You will find Sonics ability to triple jump will make it easy to escape from any obstacle you encounter and also jump over wide gaps spike pits.
Other characters in the Sonic universe like Tails and Knuckles can be unlocked by playing through the various stages. At the moment not all the familiar characters you would expect to see are available but they will most likely be added soon by the developers of the game. Once you have unlocked a character you can level them up to increase their performance with various power ups and their score multipliers.
Gameplay in Sonic Runners is the same as the classic Sonic games where the name of the game is repitition as you are encouraged to repeat stages again and again to memorise them and collect rewards.