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Sonic & Knuckles

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Sonic & Knuckles
File:SNK.jpg
Developer(s)Sonic Team
Sega Technical Institute
Publisher(s)Sega
Designer(s)Takashi Thomas Yuda (character design), Hirokazu Yasuhara (lead designer), Yuji Naka (programming)
Composer(s)Howard Drossin
EngineSonic 3 Engine
Platform(s)Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega PC, Saturn, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Virtual Console, Xbox 360
ReleaseMega Drive/Genesis
Xbox Live Arcade
Virtual Console
Mode(s)Single player

Sonic & Knuckles is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It was developed in the United States at Sega Technical Institute by members of Sonic Team, and was published by Sega worldwide on October 18, 1994.

As well as working as a standalone game, through a system dubbed "lock-on technology," Sonic & Knuckles acts as an expansion pack to both Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3, with which it was developed in tandem.[1]

A port of Sonic & Knuckles was released on September 9, 2009 for Xbox Live Arcade with complete backwards compatibility with earlier XBLA Sonic games,[2] HD support, online leaderboards and network play.[3] It was later re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on October 27, 2009 and USA on February 15, 2010.

Sonic's Story

The story picks up from the ending of Sonic 3

- Dr. Robotnik's orbital weapon, the Death Egg, has been badly damaged in the climactic battle between himself and Sonic the Hedgehog. As the satellite falls back to Floating Island,[4] landing in a volcanic crater, Sonic jumps off, landing in a mushroom filled woodland.

Sonic knows there are many Chaos Emeralds hidden on the island, including the powerful Master Emerald, the secret to the island's levitation powers. Worried that Robotnik may try to harness this power to fuel a repaired Death Egg and also use it to build a big robot to kill Sonic, he sets off to try and destroy it once and for all, keeping an eye out for Knuckles the Echidna, still smarting from his Launch Base defeat.

Meanwhile, as Robotnik begins repairing the Death Egg, he decides that Knuckles has served his purpose, and dispatches an EggRobo, a highly autonomous robot built in his own image, to dispose of Knuckles. He assumes that if EggRobo cannot destroy Knuckles, his cover as the real mastermind will not be blown, leaving the possibility that Sonic and Knuckles may fight to the death. Sonic heads through the levels fighting Dr. Eggman at the end of each level.

In the Hidden Palace zone, Sonic finds Knuckles there waiting for him. They fight, and leave. Dr. Eggman tries to steal the Master Emerald, and gets away. Knuckles gets electrocuted by Eggman, and realizes that Sonic is on his side. They teleport to the Sky Sanctuary zone to pursue the scientist.

In the Sky Sanctuary zone, Knuckles follows them until he tires, and in the background, the player can see the Death Egg launching. Sonic moves through the level and gets on the Death Egg. At the end of the Death Egg Zone, Sonic fights Eggman's giant robot and defeats it. If the player has not gotten all 7 Chaos Emeralds, the game ends here.

In the Doomsday Zone, Super Sonic chases after Eggman who still has the Master Emerald. After defeating one of his ships, Eggman tries to make one last getaway attempt with the Emerald. Sonic gets the Emerald back and returns back to Angel Island. As Sonic and Tails put the Emerald back on the island, they meet Knuckles and the Island flies back into the air.

Knuckles' Story

Knuckles' story starts when Dr. Robotnik, dispatches his mystery assailant, an EggRobo, to try and kill him. He drops a bomb on a half asleep Knuckles, and it only manages to enrage the echinda. He then goes on to stop EggRobo, and Mecha Sonic from stealing the Master Emerald.

Throughout the story, Knuckles fights EggRobo instead of Dr. Eggman. In the Sky Sanctuary zone, EggRobo is destroyed when Mecha Sonic attacks Knuckles. After a short fight with Mecha Sonic, he uses the power of the Master Emerald to become Hyper Mecha Sonic. Knuckles eventually defeats the robot. In the ending, Knuckles is seen with Sonic and Tails flying on the Tornado heading back to Angel Island. They put the Master Emerald back.

If the player has all seven Chaos Emeralds, Angel Island is seen to fly up. If the player does not have all seven Chaos Emeralds, Angel Island is seen to fly down, back into the ocean.

Gameplay

For a more detailed examination of gameplay, see Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Playable characters are Sonic and Knuckles. Unlike in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Tails is not available. Note: Hyper Sonic is not available in this game. Only when Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are combined is he unlocked.

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' tactics differ noticeably at points (Knuckles fights EggRobo in his boss battles, who has different and particularly smarter strategies than Robotnik), With the one exception of flying battery zone's boss were Dr. Robotnik is the one piloting the boss. The majority of the zone differences are from the Lava Reef Zone onwards.

The two playable characters have different skills and abilities available. Sonic can jump higher and run faster than Knuckles, and he has the Insta-Shield ability. Also, he can use the special powers provided by any of the shields. Knuckles can climb walls, break through bricks (that are placed to prevent Sonic from taking his path) with his fists and glide through the air for a limited period.

As in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, there are two types of extra stages: Bonus Stages and Special Stages. The Bonus Stages are entered by collecting at least 20 rings (or at least 35 to access the second Bonus Stage), and jumping through the bright ring of stars that appears above each checkpoint in the Zones. The first Bonus Stage combines the slot machines of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Casino Night Zone and the 360° tumbling labyrinth Special Stage of the first Sonic the Hedgehog. The second Bonus Stage is a large vertical course, with magnetic orbs that Sonic or Knuckles can use to propel himself upward. Along the way he can pick up shields, rings or lives. He is chased by a horizontal forcefield that slowly moves up and, when the character is caught in it, the stage ends. Reaching the top of the stage ends it as well.

Unlike Sonic 3, there are no save game slots available.

Levels

Name Theme Acts
Mushroom Hill Zone Mushroom-filled meadow 2
Flying Battery Zone Military airship 2
Sandopolis Zone Desert, mystic pyramid 2
Lava Reef Zone Volcano, underground 2
Hidden Palace Zone Ancient underground palace 1
Sky Sanctuary Zone Floating ancient ruins 1
Death Egg Zone Space station 2
The Doomsday Zone Outer space, asteroid belt 1

Lock-on technology

File:Sega Genesis- Sonic & Knuckles locked on to Sonic3 flipped.jpg
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 locked-on to Sonic & Knuckles cartridge.

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; the Knuckles-only routes through the Sonic 3 levels can also be accessed via the debug mode). 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 feature. Indeed Sonic 2 had once run into similar problems, resulting in the original Hidden Palace and several other levels being removed.[5]

This kind of “lock-on” functionality is rarely seen elsewhere in video game history, and is the only officially licensed lock-on cartridge for any US home video game console. Some Konami games for the MSX can be combined with another in the computer’s secondary cartridge slot to unlock certain small visual changes and cheats [1], and combining Salamander with Nemesis 2 unlocks an entire level. Some NES games released by HES, as well as the Super Nintendo game Super 3D Noah's Ark, feature a cartridge port on the top to accept other games for the system, but this was purely to override the systems' respective lockout chips, 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 do not allow the "lock on"-style merging of data from 2 different video games.

This feature is also included in the Xbox Live Arcade release of the game, which connects to any of the relevant titles purchased on the XBLA service. Sega also added it to Nintendo's Virtual Console version of the game, which also connects to any of the relevant titles purchased through the Wii Shop Channel; the game can also be downloaded using the online game service Steam.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

This Lock-On creates the game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which features seven immediate differences:

List of differences

  • After the levels of Sonic 3 are completed, the Death Egg is seen to fall damaged towards the Floating Island, instead of being destroyed; the game then continues through the levels of Sonic & Knuckles.
  • Knuckles is playable in the Sonic 3 levels.
  • Tails is playable or he can follow Sonic in the Sonic & Knuckles levels.
  • After collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds, a new quest is made available to collect 7 Super Emeralds, which appear only in this game. See below.
  • Game progress can be saved in Sonic & Knuckles using Sonic 3's save feature (there are now 8 rather than 6 save slots). Any saved games from Sonic 3 are carried over to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
  • Save slots now display information about the number of continues, lives, and Chaos Emeralds collected therein; the Chaos Emeralds are replaced with Super Emeralds if any of these have been collected.
  • The game uses Sonic & Knuckles' sound bank exclusively, with the exception of the Sonic 3 levels' BGM; this means that the songs that differed 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) are present only as the Sonic & Knuckles versions.

Once the player picks a character and starts playing, more differences become apparent. Passing a star post can now open up all 3 Bonus Stages, including the slot machine stage (20-34 rings required), 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 takes different paths through levels than Sonic and Tails in many cases, which feature 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 (Tails airlifts Sonic in).

Super Emeralds

Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic 3 levels enables Sonic or Knuckles to transform into Super Sonic or Super Knuckles upon collecting 50+ rings and double-jumping. However, once 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, 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. Once all Super Emeralds are collected, both Knuckles and Sonic are able to access even more powerful Hyper forms that are faster still and possess additional special moves—and which, like the Super Emeralds, appear only in this game.

Tails cannot normally gain Super powers, in Sonic 3 or any other game, but does so when he collects all Super Emeralds; this enables him to assume the form of Super Tails (by the method detailed above). 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 in the latter half of the game, it is possible to finish the game with only the 7 Chaos Emeralds, retaining their Super powers (but not gaining Hyper 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 "Press Start" (Options and the versus mode have been disabled). There are no new Zones. The only differences in gameplay is 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 quite as high as Sonic and Tails and accelerates slowly (in particular, the final boss of Sonic 2, the giant robot in Death Egg Zone, is regarded as being much more difficult to beat while playing as Knuckles because of his weaker jumping ability), the title cards (ex. Emerald Hill Zone Act 1) are green and red, shields are now gray, 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 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.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Locking Sonic the Hedgehog into Sonic & Knuckles does not change anything. Reports state the developers did not enable Knuckles in Sonic 1 because Knuckles' color palette was incompatible with the color palettes of the levels. Instead, players are given the full version of the Blue Sphere special stage with all levels available.

Any other Mega Drive/Genesis game

Placing other Mega Drive/Genesis games, into the cartridge will display a screen depicting Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik underneath scrolling text that repeats "No Way? No Way!" supposedly meaning that the game is unplayable. 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 different possible levels. The last level, "Special Stage", repeats itself once the level is beaten. Only by locking Sonic Compilation or Sonic the Hedgehog in the Sonic & Knuckles cart can one play through all the stages. The other Mega Drive games, including Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, 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 not as difficult.

In Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection, Blue Sphere 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. Additionally, there was a PC CD-ROM released, entitled Sonic & Knuckles Collection, that contained Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3, as well as the pre-combined version of the two games. This CD-ROM contained a full version of Blue Sphere. Finally, Virtual Console users can play Blue Sphere if they own Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic 1. A special submenu of S&K lets the player choose to "lock it on" to Sonic 1.

Playing these levels via a game with a battery pack has been known to erase 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 and 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 Genesis/Mega Drive allots for game data.

Release and reception

Prior to the release of Sonic & Knuckles in North America, Blockbuster Video and MTV co-sponsored a tournament contest where kids were allowed to play a pre-release of the game, leading to a final tournament held at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, California. A special on the game showing the tournament final, "MTV's Rock the Rock Warning", was aired shortly before the game's release.[citation needed]

The game was well received upon release, with reviewers praising its presentation and gameplay, but its lack of originality was criticized.[citation needed]

Credits

References

  1. ^ GameSpy: Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!
  2. ^ Sonic & Knuckles out on XBLA on September 9th!
  3. ^ "SEGA Vintage Collection 2 to be Made Available This Summer!". Sega. 2009-05-11. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  4. ^ Angel Island was changed from a name of a region of the island to the name of the island itself, from Sonic Adventure onwards.
  5. ^ GameSpy: Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!