Sonic & Knuckles
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| Sonic & Knuckles {{#if:{{{image|}}}|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image|}}} | |
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| Developer(s) | Sega Technical Institute {{#if:{{{publisher|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher|}}} |
| Release date(s) | October 18 1994 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player {{#if:{{{ratings|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings|}}} |
| Platform(s) | Mega Drive/Genesis/PC {{#if:{{{media|}}}|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media|}}} |
Sonic & Knuckles is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. It is the direct sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which was released earlier in the same year. It was also the first and only Genesis game to feature the "Lock-On Technology" which enabled another cartridge to be plugged in via the socket on top.
Contents |
Storyline
Image:Sonic and knuckles.png Sonic & Knuckles carries on from where Sonic 3 left off. At the end of Sonic 3, after Dr. Robotnik's defeat at Launch Base Zone, the rebuilt Death Egg fell back to Angel Island and crashed on top of Lava Reef Zone's volcano. 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. Sonic and Knuckles then 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. Playing as Sonic is the first part of Sonic & Knuckles, and playing as Knuckles is the second half.
Gameplay
- For a more detailed examination of gameplay, see Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
This time the game focuses on Sonic as well as Knuckles, who was not yet playable in Sonic 3. 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, 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.
Zones
Levels
Image:S&K Mushroom Hill.jpeg Sonic & Knuckles features 8 zones in total, but depending on the selected character and whether or not the quest for the Chaos Emeralds was completed, the game may be finished in 6 or 7 Zones instead.
- Mushroom Hill Zone: Fantastic mushrooms cover the lush hills deep in Floating Island's interior. Many useful kinds of plants grow here. Sonic is dropped right in the midst of this huge forest after falling from Death Egg's launch pad. The season gradually changes throughout Act 2. Mushroom Hill is almost the same for Sonic as for Knuckles, with some slight alterations in Act 2, and a more difficult boss for Knuckles.
- Flying Battery Zone: This flying fortress is a high voltage engine littered with loose screws and force fields, reminiscent of Wing Fortress. A variety of pods are scattered throughout Flying Battery, some holding rings, some holding enemies. Flying Battery is almost identical for Sonic and Knuckles, with a more difficult boss for Knuckles.
- Sandopolis Zone: A desert temple with shifting sands. Badniks are lurking beneath every stone and every pool. Act 1 takes place outside in the scorching sun, amidst the ruins of an old empire. Act 2 takes Sonic deeper through the sand, into the tomb of a long forgotten pharaoh. In Act Two, the lighting will last only for a limited time, and must be reactivated periodically. Compounding the lighting problem are the presence of ghosts. For Sonic, the ghosts are freed a short way into the level, while Knuckles has to contend with ghosts from the start, as Sonic has already released them. Only by hitting the light switch can these enemies be warded off. The first act has a minor change for Knuckles, while the second act in Sandopolis is divergent for both characters.
- Lava Reef Zone: Lava Reef is the biggest and hottest volcano in Floating Island, filled with exploding rocks and Toxomisters that poison the air. Dr. Robotnik's Death Egg machine is located somewhere in this crater, and Knuckles has set up a trap before Sonic can reach him. The zone cools down by act 2, featuring gigantic crystals in the walls instead of hardened rock. Lava Reef has big differences for both characters. In addition, Knuckles finishes the stage without a boss battle and moves straight to Hidden Palace.
- Hidden Palace Zone: This ancient cave is where the mysterious Chaos Emeralds are hidden. Knuckles stands ready to face his arch-nemesis at last but ultimately learns the truth about Robotnik the hard way. For Knuckles, Hidden Palace is merely a passage to Sky Sanctuary. For Sonic, however, this is where the crucial plot points take place. After a showdown with Knuckles the truth behind Robotnik's schemes are at last revealed to him when he steals the Master Emerald. Afterwards an exhausted Knuckles helps Sonic teleport to the Sky Sanctuary Zone. In the background during the fight with Knuckles is an ancient mural depicting a demonic form resembling Dr. Robotnik plucking the Master Emerald, with a figure resembling Sonic enveloped in a yellow aura racing to prevent the theft, foretelling of the final zone for Sonic.
- Sky Sanctuary Zone: The battle takes to the clouds as Sonic fights Dr. Robotnik's badniks across the crumbling ruins of this ancient civilization. Dr. Robotnik's badnik Mecha Sonic is on guard here. Sky Sanctuary is the end of the game for Knuckles. The Sonic version is much longer, with two bosses to face from Sonic 1 and 2, only with an unnamed robot, referred to as a mecha Sonic in Japan, in place of Robotnik. The first boss is the same as the one in Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1, the second is identical to the Metropolis Zone boss in Sonic 2, as well as Sonic CD.
- Death Egg Zone: Sonic has now breached deep into enemy territory, and finds himself in the heart of Dr. Robotnik's giant space station. Death Egg proves by far to be the most difficult challenge yet, filled with deadly traps, electrical floors and a periodically shifting gravity field. Death Egg Zone is only playable with Sonic (or Tails when locked on with Sonic 3). If the player accesses the zone with Knuckles by using the level select, the game will end with the boss battle of the first act as it is impossible for Knuckles to hit the boss. Unless all the Chaos Emeralds were collected, this is where the game ends with Sonic.
- Doomsday Zone: In this final zone, Sonic unleashes incredible Emerald forces in his ultimate showdown with Dr. Robotnik. Doomsday Zone is only playable with Super Sonic, and only if you have collected all the Chaos Emeralds (and Super Emeralds, if locked on with Sonic 3). Completing it rewards you with the "good" ending. Here, you are Super Sonic. Or if you have the lock-on and have collected the Super Emeralds as well as the Chaos Emeralds, you are Hyper Sonic.
Special stages
As in Sonic 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 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 2's Casino Night Zone and the 360° tumbling labyrinth of Sonic the Hedgehog. If Sonic hits a "goal" block the stage is over.
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.
The emerald stages have remained nearly unchanged from Sonic 3, the only differences being the layout of the individual stages and the addition of a yellow sphere that acts like a spring.
Lock-on Technology
Sonic & Knuckles utilizes "lock-on technology" that can patch Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 so that new areas, characters (Knuckles), and title screens are placed in the games. To play the Sonic & Knuckles patched version of those games, a 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 of the Sega Technical Institute 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 S&K 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" extra bonus games, 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.
Sonic 3 with Sonic & Knuckles
Image:S3K Title Screen.gif Also known as Sonic 3 & Knuckles (often referred to as the "complete" version of Sonic 3 by Sonic fans). There are four immediate differences:
- The player can play as Knuckles in the Sonic 3 levels.
- After the levels of Sonic 3 are finished, play continues straight to the levels of Sonic & Knuckles
- The player can play as Tails in the Sonic & Knuckles levels.
- Game progress can be saved in Sonic & Knuckles using Sonic 3's save feature (there are now 8 rather than 6 save slots).
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 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 divergent from Sonic's and Tails' in most cases, with new areas and bosses. The Sonic & Knuckles levels are the same, except that Mushroom Hill now has an intro. Sonic 3 & Knuckles save files conserve lives and continues, as well. In addition, Knuckles' theme music has also changed as well as that of the mid-level bosses. Other tunes such as the 1-Up fanfare and title screen have also been changed to the S&K version. Monitor (power up) placement and type change when the games are combined. Also, an extra Chaos Emerald bonus stage has been added to the linked game not present in either of the two seperately.
Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in the levels of Sonic 3 will turn Sonic or Knuckles into Super Sonic or Super Knuckles. However, once the player enters their first Special level in Mushroom Hill Zone (which is almost impossible to miss), they teleport to Hidden Palace where the emeralds are transformed into gray "Super Emeralds", thus beginning the Super Emerald quest. Super Emeralds can only be collected if the player has collected all of the Chaos Emeralds prior to reaching Mushroom Hill Zone. (nothing happens in Hidden Palace otherwise). In addition, both Knuckles and Sonic can now power-up and go "hyper" once they have obtained both the Chaos Emeralds and the Super Emeralds.
Image:SuperTails.jpg 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 some extra powers. Taking care to avoid all the Special levels (the one after the cut-scene in particular), 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 the third with all 14 Chaos and Super Emeralds. If the Super Emeralds have been attempted, but not found, the game will revert to the "bad" (0-6 Chaos) ending.
Sonic 2 with Sonic & Knuckles
Image:S2K Title Screen.gif Also known as Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, this game is identical to Sonic the Hedgehog 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 or 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 can't 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.
Any Other Sega Game with Sonic & Knuckles
Image:Sonic 1 & Knuckles 000.gif By placing the first Sonic game, or most other Sega 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 134,217,728 of these levels. Only by locking the original Sonic the Hedgehog game (the Sonic Compilation works as well) in the Sonic & Knuckles cart, one can play through *all* the stages. The other 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.
In Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection, Blue Sphere is playable as a separate game. Sonic Jam allows you to play it by choosing to play Sonic & Knuckles and then choosing to "lock it on" with Sonic 1. In Mega Collection, the game has to be unlocked separately.
On September 11, 2005, a Sonic game modifier named Stealth created a hack that allowed you to play Knuckles in Sonic 1 called Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog, with all of Knuckles' unique abilities intact.
Playing these levels via a game with battery back 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.
Trivia
- Sonic & Knuckles was one of the first Sega Genesis games to be packaged in cardboard when it was initially released. Most Genesis games were released in plastic cases, but later in the console's life, cheaper cardboard boxes began to replace them.
- Sonic & Knuckles was the first Sonic game to offer an all Super Sonic level. With the exception of Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure, the Last Story (Metal Overlord) in Sonic Heroes and Devil Doom in Shadow the Hedgehog, all the Super Sonic levels/bosses have been in space. These include Doomsday Zone, Finalhazard (Sonic Adventure 2), Moon Zone (Sonic Advance), True Area 53 (Sonic Advance 2), Nonaggression (Sonic Advance 3) and Exception (Sonic Rush).
- Although the bubble shield is present in Sonic & Knuckles there are no levels that actually take place under water. By contrast almost every level of Sonic 3 involved swimming at one point.
- Sonic & Knuckles was the first and only Sonic game (or any video game) with lock-on technology.
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles has a total of 112 levels, when played through separetely with each character. When broken down by character, this is 25 Sonic stages, 24 "Tails" stages, 24 Sonic and "Tails" stages, 22 Knuckles stages, 7 Emerald stages, 7 Super Emerald stages, and 3 Starpost bonus stages. Each character travels through the exact same stages, with the exception of Knuckles, who fights somewhat different bosses. His quest ends at Sky Sanctuary Zone, with a climactic fight with an energized robotic Sonic. With this in mind, this is perhaps the largest 2D Sonic The Hedgehog game we might see in a very long while.
- The background during the fight between Sonic and Knuckles in Hidden Palace Zone is actually a reference to the last level (Doomsday). It is a picture of Super Sonic fighting Robotnik, made to look like an ancient artwork. This idea is reused in Sonic Adventure.
- The Game Over song comes from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and then used again in Sonic 3D Blast. Sonic Pocket Adventure has a version of this song transposed up a few notes.
- Playing as Knuckles is supposedly part of a separate storyline that takes place after the Death Egg is destroyed in Sonic's storyline. This is somewhat evidenced by the image of the Death Egg being removed from some of the stage backgrounds, such as Launch Base Zone and Hidden Palace Zone. Also, Sonic's ending concludes with one of Eggman's "Egg-Robo" badniks rising from a scrap pile. It's implied that this is the same Egg-Robo as the one that pilots the boss vehicles in Knuckles' game.
- Speaking of the aforementioned Egg-Robo, there is a "glitch" of sorts while fighting these bosses. If you lose a life while fighting the bosses, the Egg-Robo's head will first switch from the Egg-Robo to Robotnik and back again at a frequent pace. A second loss of life will cause the Egg-Robo to permanently change to Robotnik until the level is completed or a life is lost again. Also, the boss vehicle fought in Flying Battery Zone is always piloted by Robotnik, instead of Egg-Robo replacing him when playing as Knuckles.
- Go to Mushroom Hill Zone (without anything locked-on), go to the first pulley machine you see, jump on, and press left, left, left, right, right, right, up, up, up. Then, press Start then A. On the title screen, pick either Sonic or Knuckles, and hold A while pressing Start. A level select screen should appear. If you notice, all of the Sonic 3 stages will be shown, but choosing any of them will take you to Mushroom Hill. There is also a sound select. But, the following sounds will not play: 00-08, 0B-0E, 1E, 20-26, 2D, and 31. These sounds were found ONLY in Sonic 3.
- In June 1995, Archie released a 48-page comic titled and loosely based on Sonic & Knuckles was released as a supplement to their ongoing Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series.
- The PC version of Sonic & Knuckles (called Sonic & Knuckles Collection) does run properly in Windows XP, unlike the PC port of Sonic CD. The only thing needed is to run the game in fullscreen mode as opposed to window mode on modern systems, as the game speed is ridiculously fast otherwise.
External links
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