Sonic & Knuckles (Sega Genesis)

Clearly the best Sonic game for genesis? I think we can safely say so. That's not to say that this game is the best game I've ever played. But we have here some incredible quality of which the likes I had never seen from Sonic Team. First a word of explanation for Sonic newbees:

Sonic the Hedgehog isn't much on story. The evil Doctor Robotnic is a psychotic madman and technical genius, bent on taking over the Sonic's land for his own corporational desires, but Sonic is a superhero hedgehog creature who possesses a pair of super speedy shoes that his Uncle gave him in the pre-story of Sonic 1. With these shoes, he can run at sonic speed and use this speed along with his special sonic spin to defeat the robots of Robotnic and defeat Robotnic himself.

Sonic games play like a typical side-scroller. Just moving around zones, collecting rings and powerups, jumping on bots and eventually making it to the end of the zone. Unlike conventional side-scrollers like Mario, however, these levels are very huge. Sonic can climb up to very high points of levels, or go far below. The end of the zone can be difficult to find because it's not always directly to the right.


GRAPHICS?: Why is it always graphics right away with you people? Heehee. Well, Sonic the Hedgehog has been faster than ever since the release of Sonic 2 in 1992. The genesis had begun to boast impressive and incredible speed without slow down called "blast processing" and the same beautiful technology exists in Sonic and Knuckles. Considering the limited amount of colors that can be displayed at once with the genesis, the levels of Sonic and Knuckles are very rich and colorful. And the shading and texture of backgrounds and foregrounds are realistic and beautiful. And even Sonic's head seems to have a little spit shine! You'll notice it all.

In Sonic and Knuckles, the same style of 3-D bonus levels also return and look just as incredible as ever.


YA KNOW WHAT? GET ALL YOUR NEGATIVES OUT FIRST.: Hmmm, good idea. Alright. If we go through the Sonic games one by one, we saw some great improvements through the years. Sonic 1 had only about 6 zones with three acts in each one. In sonic 2, we saw 7 zones, 2 special mini-zones, and one final boss zone. A bigger game means bigger fun. There were only 2 acts in each zone, though, instead of 3 so....I guess it WASN'T longer. In Sonic 3 we saw a step backwards in terms of value. A worse 2-player mode, only 6 zones, which weren't all that fun, and a crummy final boss.

Now we have Sonic and Knuckles and, just like part 3, is also kind of short. Only 7 zones, and 2 acts each. And there's no save feature! Wow, the only thing I loved about Sonic 3 is taken away.

Plus, if I'm anything like most kids were, I found the bonus stages to be just....a tad hard, where the term "a tad" means "outrageously".


WELL, IF IT SAYS "LOCK-ON" CARTRIDGE ON THE BOX, THAT'S GOTTA BRING YOUR SPIRITS UP: Well, first let me say that the negatives are not huge problems really. The truth is I can't get enough of the Sonic games. They're all great, and Sonic and Knuckles was a great game. The zones were great. The action was great. The enemy bosses were so fun, and the adventure was just a pure enjoyment. But, yes, the lock-on feature brought my joy level to uncontrollable.

The Sonic and Knuckles cartridge is a plastic piece of magic that has it's own seperate cartridge port on the top of it allowing you to connect any additional genesis cartridge in it (with a cool little flip-over dust cover). For those of us who own the Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 cartridge, we could now stick those suckers on this cartridge and play as Knuckles throughout the entire content of each game, something that was just not possible before. I have to say that although this is incredible, the experience is not all that mind-blowing. Especially for Sonic 2.

SONIC 2: In Sonic 2, you get an all new introduction sequence which shows Knuckles face and a new title screen. It was cool. One thing I immediately noticed is that the 2-player mode and options menu were now gone. You can't play as Knuckles in 2-player split screen?!!??!? Cheap! And without the sound test menu, how am I going to access the level select?

Anyways, you play through the exact same game content of the original except now you can play as Knuckles, complete with your ability to climb walls and glide across the air like a bird. The climbing feature makes getting around a bit easier, and crucially beneficial when you fall down into unescapable spike pits. I always imagined that there would be an all new level, or perhaps a new boss somewhere. But nothing is different. It's just the same old game. And the same old ending!!! ?? Double cheap!
The only difference to the game's last zone is that now since Knuckles jumps lower than Sonic can, defeating the final boss is now incredible hard! Thanks a lot, Knuckles!


SONIC 3: Anyways, they totally made this game with the Sonic 3 cartridge in mind. Pop your Sonic 3 cartridge into the slot and you now get to play through Sonic 3 as Knuckles too. You can especially tell that Sega planned the release of Sonic and Knuckles when they created Sonic 3 because the mysterious unbreakable walls we remember blocking some strange pathway are now Knuckles own custom made entrance to a whole other part of the level we never saw, and a new location for the enemy boss (but same background and stuff. Cheap!).

Playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles also now gives you the possibility to save your game progress when playing the Sonic and Knuckles content, thanks to Sonic 3's save feature. And the joy of playing these two games locked together is that Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles are now seamlessly blended together to play as if they are one entirely long game. That was actually kinda cool. Just where Sonic 3 ends, it goes on! This also brings you to some more cool things.

As you play through Sonic 3, you work hard to obtain the chaos emeralds to become Super Sonic. Always great. But as you get to the content of Sonic and Knuckles, the mission is no longer to obtain the chaos emeralds. Knuckles held dominion to 7 "super" emeralds, which are incredibly huge and filled with worlds more power. You then get a special never-before-seen bonus world "lobby" (so to speak) and a special animated sequence that demonstrates what you need to do to obtain the power of these 7 new stones. But basically, you play the same old bonus stages of Sonic and Knuckles, which are incredibly challenging, I must mention again. Seriously, SEGA, what was your problem!?

Once you obtain every super emerald, you get to become, get this: ...HYPER SONIC! A step up from your previous super package, as Hyper Sonic, your body can move even faster than before, an incredible Sonic Boom double jump can be performed that actually destorys every creature on screen when you perform it, and your body is positively glowing and exploding with stars and glitter. Plus when you move at hyper speed, you leave a blur of Sonics behind you. Pretty sweet!

When playing as Knuckles, the same special power is his once he obtains all the emeralds. And in a pleasant suprise indeed, Tails can now become "Super Tails" with the emeralds. He never was allowed to change to anything super in Sonic 2 or 3 so this is definitely a nice new benefit for our dearly forgotten fox. I sure love his little "super birds" that fly around him and destroy bots for you!


The Hyper Sonic character even affects the final Doomsday level as well. I'm telling you right now, you get the most value out of playing this game with Sonic 3.


SONIC AND KNUCKLES: Sonic and Knuckles brings Sonic back to us alone. Unlike Sonic 2 and 3 where you could play with Tails by your side, Sonic returns and can only be played as alone. Knuckles, who was featured as just an irritating character cameo in Sonic 3 (that you couldn't even fight!), is also a choice of character in this game with his own adventure and story. The game gives you a great 2 reasons to play so that you can see the bosses for each character and where each character's game ends. Knuckles' adventure is a bit shorter than Sonic's, so I usually love playing Sonic's more. But frankly (and I know I say "frankly" a lot), since you play the exact same games when locked on with Sonic 3, but get so much more out of it with the other, playing the Sonic and Knuckles cartridge alone often feels like a less-good version of the lock-on version.

WHAT'LL HAPPEN IF I PLUG OTHER GENESIS CARTRIDGES IN IT BESIDES SONIC 2 AND 3?: No Way! No Way! No Way! ......No Way? Heehee. Well, for those who don't know, it's more fun if I leave it to you to figure out. It's not hard. But you do definitely get something. You'll see. :)

SO OKAY. YOU GET QUITE A BIT OF REPLAY VALUE OUT OF THIS ONE. BUT IS THE SAME OLD SONIC?: Sadly, it pretty much is. Sonic games have never really evolved into much at all on the Sega Genesis system. It's always the same old side-scrolling dealeo. Just collect rings, don't die. You know. That old chestnut. I won't argue that you do get a lot for your money (even though it couldn't be a big price nowadays. In my day, about $54.99 at the least!). But those who don't enjoy Sonic games, think they're too hard, too easy, or too boring, you're not going to see anything new here. Just more of the Sonic kinda gaming I love.