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Rodney @The-Red-Jack

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Sonic & Knuckles

Posted by The-Red-Jack - December 21st, 2007


One of the best Sonic games I've ever played. What? you don't know anything about this game?! Maybe this article from wikipedia will help you.

Sonic & Knuckles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sonic & Knuckles

Sonic & Knuckles (%u30BD%u30CB%u30C3%u30AF%uFF06%u30CA%
u30C3%u30AF%u30EB%u30BA, Sonikku to Nakkuruzu?) is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sonic Team in collaboration with Sega Technical Institute, and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. It is the direct sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which was released earlier that year. The game features unique "lock-on technology" which enables another cartridge to be plugged in via the socket on top.

Gameplay
For a more detailed examination of gameplay, see Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
This time the game focuses on Sonic and Knuckles, who was not playable in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, when Knuckles was against Sonic and Tails. Instead however, Tails has now been removed from play. Essentially there are two separate games to tackle, depending on which character is selected at the start of the game. Although the appearance of the zones is the same for either character, their layout and some of the bosses' tricks differs noticeably at a number of points in the game (another noticeable difference is that Knuckles fights EggRobo who has different and particularly smarter strategies), increasing from the Lava Reef Zone onwards. However, the style of play does not differ significantly from one character to the next as it does, for example, in Sonic Adventure.

Despite no save file slots, gameplay is much more expanded, as Sonic and Knuckles do not play all of the same levels. And a significant differential between them is that they don't have all of the same moves. Sonic can jump higher and run a little faster than Knuckles, and he has the "insta-shield." Knuckles can climb walls and break through some of the blocked entry ways. And just as Sonic has the gift of speed, Knuckles can glide through the air with the greatest of ease.

As in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, there are two types of special stages: bonus stages and emerald stages. The bonus stages are entered by collecting at least 20 rings, and at least 50 to access the second bonus stage. and jumping through the bright ring of stars that appears above each lamppost in the zones. This time however, the gumball stage has been replaced by two new bonus stages. The first combines the slot machines of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Casino Night Zone and the 360° tumbling labyrinth special stage (to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds) of the first Sonic the Hedgehog. If three Robotniks appear on the slot machine, you lose 100 rings, or all your rings below 100. The second bonus stage is a large vertical course, with magnetic orbs that Sonic can use to propel himself upward. Along the way he can pick up shields, rings or lives. He is chased by a horizontal force field that slowly moves up and, when Sonic is caught in it, ends the stage, and reaching the top of the stage ends it as well.

Storyline
Sonic & Knuckles carries on from where Sonic the Hedgehog 3 left off. At the end of Sonic 3, after Dr. Robotnik's defeat at Launch Base, the rebuilt Death Egg fell back onto Angel Island and crashed on top of Lava Reef's volcano (retconning the ending of Sonic 3, in which the Death Egg is destroyed). Now the evil doctor attempts once again to repair the Death Egg, this time by trying to use the Master Emerald to fuel its engines. This all-powerful jewel, upon which the Chaos Emeralds base their powers, is guarded by Knuckles. In Sonic 3, Dr. Robotnik was able to fool the echidna into working for him and against Sonic. In Sonic & Knuckles he betrays Knuckles in order to obtain the Master Emerald. Knuckles then realizes that Dr. Robotnik has been playing him all along. Sonic and Knuckles then reluctantly work together in order to stop Robotnik and save Angel Island. In this way Sonic & Knuckles resolves the feud between the two characters, and ties up the plot of Sonic 3.

Lock-on Technology

Sonic & Knuckles utilizes "lock-on technology" that lets the cartridge plus the Mega Drive/Genesis access data from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 so that elements of both Sonic & Knuckles and the locked-on game are combined. To play these combined games, the hatch on top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge can be flipped open and the second game placed inside.

The lock-on technology was actually a way of making up for the fact that the developers could not meet the deadline for Sonic 3. Originally, Sonic 3 was to be released with Knuckles as a playable character, and with all the Sonic & Knuckles levels playable (the level select screen in Sonic 3 features inaccessible Sonic & Knuckles levels and music for said levels can be played in the sound test). Time constraints forced them to split the project in two, releasing Sonic 3 with the completed levels and continuing work on the uncompleted ones, plus adding the Super Emeralds, and the lock-on gimmick. Indeed Sonic 2 had once run into similar problems, resulting in the original Hidden Palace and several other levels being removed.

Notably, no other video game in history features a "lock-on" feature like Sonic & Knuckles. The Super Nintendo game Super 3D Noah's Ark features a cartridge port on the top to accept other SNES games, but this and the similar system used by some HES games for NES is purely to override the console's lockout chip, as these games were not licensed by Nintendo. Some video game peripherals require being joined with a cartridge in a similar manner (i.e. Game Genie; GameShark), or transfer data between games (the Transfer Pak) but don't allow the "lock on"-style merging of data from 2 different video games.

The player can play as Knuckles in the Sonic 3 levels.
After the levels of Sonic 3 are finished, the Death Egg was seen to fall intact instead of being destroyed, the play continues straight to the levels of Sonic & Knuckles. The final boss of Sonic 3 is also omitted for Sonic and Tails.
The player can play as Tails in the Sonic & Knuckles levels or have Tails follow Sonic throughout the entire game.
Players must collect each Chaos Emerald before the correspondingly colored Super Emerald can be collected.
Game progress can be saved in Sonic & Knuckles using Sonic 3's save feature (there are now 8 rather than 6 save slots).
Save slots now display information about the number of continues (used after a player has lost all lives in the game), number of lives, and the Chaos Emeralds surround the player's character as the player collects them (the Chaos Emeralds are replaced with the correspondingly colored Super Emeralds when the player collects them).
The game uses the Sonic & Knuckles sound bank exclusively, which means that the songs that were different between Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles (which include the title screen, 1-up, and invincibility sounds, as well as the mid-level boss music, Knuckles' theme and end credits theme) use only the Sonic & Knuckles version.

Once the player picks a character and starts playing, more differences become apparent. Passing a star post can now open up 3 bonus games, including the slot machine stage (20-34 rings required) and the magnetic orbs stage (35-49 rings required) from Sonic & Knuckles as well as the gumball machine (50-65 rings required) from Sonic 3. Knuckles' levels are different from Sonic's and Tails' in most cases, with new areas and bosses. There are slight differences in object placement in some of the Sonic 3 Zones as well (Launch Base in particular). Sonic and Tails skips the final boss of Launch Base, while Knuckles still has to do it (although he skips the first true boss of Launch Base). The Sonic & Knuckles levels are the same, except that Mushroom Hill now has an intro.

Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in the levels of Sonic 3 will turn Sonic or Knuckles into Super Sonic or Super Knuckles. However, once and if the player enters their first Special Stage in Mushroom Hill Zone, they teleport to Hidden Palace where the Emeralds are taken from them and transformed into gray Super Emeralds, thus beginning the Super Emerald quest. If the player does not have all of the Chaos Emeralds prior to reaching Mushroom Hill Zone, the acquired Chaos Emeralds will become Super Emeralds and the player is given the opportunity to acquire the first Super Emerald. However, the player will not be allowed to return to Hidden Palace via warp rings until they collect the remaining Chaos Emeralds. In addition, both Knuckles and Sonic can now go Hyper once they have obtained all of the Super Emeralds.

Tails cannot normally gain Emerald powers but does so when he collects all Super Emeralds, taking on the form of Super Tails. He has no Hyper form but simply remains Super, with four Super Flickies flying around him that attack nearby enemies. Taking care to avoid all the Special Stages, it is possible to finish the game with only the 7 Chaos Emeralds, retaining their Super powers until the very end of the game. In this case the game endings will resemble the good endings from Sonic & Knuckles. This allows for a total of nine different endings - each character (Sonic and Tails together have the same as Sonic alone) has one with 0-6 Chaos Emeralds, one with all 7 Chaos Emeralds and 0-6 Super Emeralds, and the third with all 14 Chaos and Super Emeralds.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Also known as Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (or Knuckles in Sonic 2 for short), this game is identical to Sonic 2 (aside from a few changes to make it more playable with Knuckles) but with Knuckles now playable instead of Sonic or Tails. The title screen features Knuckles and the only option is "start" (Options and the versus mode have been disabled). There are no new zones. The only differences in gameplay are that Knuckles can explore once inaccessible areas (where secrets such as 1-ups have been added for Knuckles), some areas are harder because Knuckles cannot jump very high and accelerates slowly (in particular, the final boss is regarded as being much more difficult to beat while playing as Knuckles), and Knuckles retains his rings after a Special Stage, making it much easier to obtain Chaos Emeralds. Getting the Emeralds is easier too, for the Special Stages have reduced Ring quotas for Knuckles to achieve, making it much easier to obtain Super Knuckles.

Unlike the Sonic 3 lock-on, where the Sonic & Knuckles ROM referenced the data in Sonic 3 to add its additional features, this game used the Sonic 2 data bank exclusively except for an otherwise hidden extra data bank on the Sonic & Knuckles cart. The lack of knowledge over the existence of this patch made it impossible to find a working dump of the Knuckles in Sonic 2 ROM for a long time.

Any other Mega Drive/Genesis game
See also: Blue Sphere

Opening of Blue Sphere.By placing the first Sonic game, or most other Mega Drive/Genesis games inside, a "No way? No way!" screen will pop up with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik making odd faces, telling you the cartridge is supposedly incompatible. But, by pressing the A, B, and C buttons together, a minigame based on the Chaos Emerald bonus levels is unlocked, called Blue Sphere. There are over 100 million of these levels, all made in their own unique way. The last level, "Special Stage", repeats itself once the level is beaten. Only by locking the original Sonic the Hedgehog or Sonic Compilation in the Sonic & Knuckles cart can one play through all the stages. The other Mega Drive/Genesis games will only play one level each, which will infinitely repeat. Despite being near randomly generated, the levels are playable for the most part, even if many bits and pieces of levels get recycled. On another note, some levels may be nearly impossible to complete while others are a breeze.

In Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection, the Blue Sphere game is playable as a separate game. Sonic Jam allows the player to access it by choosing to play Sonic & Knuckles and "lock it on" with Sonic 1. In Mega Collection, the game has to be unlocked separately.

Playing these levels via a game with a battery pack erases saved games. Additionally, games made after Sonic & Knuckles was released will not work with its lock-on feature. There are only a few games made before Sonic & Knuckles that do not work, such as Phantasy Star IV & the Mega Drive/Genesis port of Super Street Fighter II. The reason that these games are unable to work with Sonic & Knuckles is that the combined size of the two games' data exceeds 4 megabytes, which is the maximum amount of memory that the Mega Drive/Genesis allots for game data.

Credits
Executive Producer: Hayao Nakayama
Producer / Lead Programmer: Yuji Naka
Director / Lead Game Designer: Hirokazu Yasuhara
Senior Game Designers: Hisayoshi Yoshida, Takashi Iizuka
Senior Programmers: Takahiro Hamano, Masanobu Yamamoto
Character Designer: Takashi Thomas Yuda
Scene Artists: Kunitake Aoki, Chie Yoshida, Tsuneko Aoki, Shigeru Okada, Takashi Thomas Yuda, Satoshi Yokokawa
Music Composer: Howard Drossin
Sega Sound Team: Bo, Sachio Ogawa, Milpo, Masaru Setsumaru, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomonori Sawada, Masayuki Nagao, Jun Senoue

Sonic & Knuckles


Comments

Sonic & Knuckles was my favorite Sonic game, until I played Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Yeah, because of that save feature and Tails as a playable character.

the only way in which I ever achieved hyper sonic and super tails was through debug mode in mega collection, unfortunately, debug mode makes the game unstable and prevents certain areas from working properly

Me too, I'm a sucker when it comes to special stages, but my cousin managed to get hyper sonic, hyper knuckles and super tails.

I personally like Sonic 2 (sega). Cause I'm currently playing it on an emulator

Same, I lost my Sega Genesis long time ago so when I heard of emulators, I gave it a shot

Hyper Sonic/Knuckles and Super Tails is not a hard feat. It one of the most fun parts of the game.
If you can't do it, then practice with the blue spheres game in the mga collection, if you don't have that, the link Sonic & Knuckles with Sonic 1 and press a, b, c simultaneously.
Good pracyice and addictive as hell.

yes, practice makes perfect

What's the topic again?

Topic about what?

According to <a href="http://www.smashbros.com,Sonic">www.smashbros.com,Sonic</a> will be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a Playable Character! Yay! (But I think you already know.)

Yes, I already know

I LOVE that game. As well as Sonic 3 because they were so similar.

Yes, they are supposed to be one game but sega released Sonic 3 it earlier because of the release date (see above article)

Sonic 3 and Knuckles has to be the best megadrive/genesis game ever!!!

Agreed!

Copypasta? Sonic and knuckles was good in its time :'D
Also, don't lol but I couldn't ever even get past flying battery lol..

Yeah, I copied it. When I was young, I coudn't get past that zone too, just paractice.

Sonic 3 was better than sonic and knuckles, it all came in one game because I got sonic mega collection for gamecube. :)