Sonic & Knuckles

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 Megadrive game to feature the "Lock-On Technology" which enabled another cartridge to be plugged in via the socket on top.

Contents

1 Overview of play 2 Plot 3 Lock-on Technology 3.1 Sonic 3 with Sonic & Knuckles 3.2 Sonic 2 with Sonic & Knuckles 3.3 Any Other Sega Game with Sonic & Knuckles 4 Trivia

Overview of play

Gameplay focuses on Sonic as well as Knuckles the Echidna, who also featured in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 although not as a playable character. Essentially there are two separate games to tackle depending on which of these two is selected at the start of the game. Although the appearance of the zones is the same for either character, their layout differs noticeably at a number of points in the game. These differences are most noticeable 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.

The levels differ in this way:

• Mushroom Hill Zone - Almost the same but diverges in Act 2
• Flying Battery Zone - Both Acts are identical as Sonic or Knuckles, but the boss has a different attack pattern
• Sandopolis Zone - The second Act is again divergent, and the boss will be faster for Knuckles
• Lava Reef Zone - different for both
• Hidden Palace Zone - different for both
• Sky Santuary Zone - the end of the game for Knuckles (actually just a boss level). The Sonic version is much longer, with three bosses to face
• Death Egg Zone - the end of the game for Sonic if you don't have all the Chaos Emeralds
• Doomsday Zone - only available if you're Sonic, and have all Chaos Emeralds. It gives you the "good" ending if you beat it

Plot

Also see the section on plot for Sonic the Hedgehog 3

In terms of storyline, Sonic & Knuckles carries on from where Sonic 3 left off. At the end of Sonic 3, after Dr. Robotnik is defeated at the end of Launch Base Zone, the rebuilt Death Egg falls back to Angel Island, coming to rest on top of the Lava Reef Zone volcano. Robotnik attempts once again to repair the Death Egg, this time by trying to use the Master Emerald, which he needs to power it and its destructive superlaser. This all-powerful jewel, upon which the Chaos Emeralds base their powers, is guarded by Knuckles. In the previous game, 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.

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 Sonic Team couldn't quite 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. 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. Sonic 2 had run into similar problems, resulting in the original Hidden Palace and several other levels being cut.

Sonic 3 with Sonic & Knuckles

Often known as Sonic 3 & Knuckles by Sonic fans. There are four immediate differences:

1. You can play as Knuckles in Sonic 3
2. You can play straight through Sonic 3 and then go on to the Sonic & Knuckles levels
3. You can play as Tails in the Sonic & Knuckles levels
4. You can save your progress in Sonic & Knuckles using Sonic 3's save feature

Once you pick a character and start playing, more differences become apparent. Knuckles' theme music is changed, and passing a star post can open up 2 new bonus games (the first of these games now requires only 20 rings when you cross the star post, instead of 50). 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.

Collecting all the emeralds in Sonic 3 will only make you Super Sonic (or Super Knuckles) until you reach Mushroom Hill Zone in Sonic & Knuckles. Once you enter the cutscene at the start of that zone, you begin your search for the Super Emeralds, whether you have all Chaos Emeralds yet or not (you can get those after you complete the Super Emerald set). In addition, both Knuckles and Sonic can now power-up and go "hyper" (their Super Emerald versions) once they have all the emeralds in each game. Tails needs all the Chaos and Super Emeralds to go "super", and has no "hyper" form (this is moderated by the fact that his "super" form alone is arguably more powerful than either of the others, and possibly their "hyper" forms as well). It should also be noted that, with 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 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 will 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

Also known as Sonic 2 & Knuckles. The title screen features Knuckles, and your only option is "start" (you can't go into options or choose versus mode). There are no new zones. The only differences in gameplay are that Knuckles can explore once inaccessible areas, some areas are harder because Knuckles can't jump very high and accelerates slowly, and Knuckles retains his rings after a bonus stage, making it much easier to obtain chaos emeralds. In particular, the final boss is regarded as being much more difficult to beat while playing as Knuckles.

Any Other Sega Game with Sonic & Knuckles

If you place the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, or most other Sega games inside, and press the A, B, and C buttons together, you will instead get a minigame based on the Chaos Emerald bonus levels, called Blue Spheres. There are 128,016,000 of these levels. If you place the first Sonic (the Sonic Compilation works as well) in the Sonic & Knuckles cart, you can play through all the stages (assuming you do nothing but play for the rest of your life). The other Genesis games will only play one level each, which will infinitely repeat. Despite being randomly generated, the levels are quite playable for the most part, even if many bits and pieces of levels get recycled.

Playing these levels via a game with battery back erases saved games. Also this won't work with games made after Sonic & Knuckles was released. There are also some instances of it not working with games made before Sonic & Knuckles, 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 a true Super Sonic level. With the exception of Perfect Chaos in Sonic Adventure, all the SS levels from then on all been in space (Doomsday, Finalhazard, Moon Zone, True Area 53, Nonaggression)