Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble

Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble (ソニック&テイルス2) is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game is a sequel to Sonic Chaos, but was released only for the Game Gear. It was developed by Aspect and published by Sega for the Sega Game Gear. It was originally released in 1994. It marks the first appearance of the semi-recurring character Nack the Weasel, AKA Fang the Sniper. It was re-released on the Nintendo 3DS on March 15, 2012.

Sonic Triple Trouble was re-released in 2005 as part of the Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2. It has also featured as a hidden game inside Sonic Adventure DX for the GameCube and PC.

Plot
Dr. Robotnik finally managed to get his mitts on six of the Chaos Emeralds without Sonic knowing. Unfortunately for him, an accident in the testing phase of one of his new weapons scatters the Emeralds. He managed to recover the Yellow Emerald, but could not track down the other five. As he anticipated, Sonic and his buddy Tails are out to retrieve them, so he once again tricked newcomer Knuckles into working for him.

Meanwhile, a treasure hunter named Nack the Weasel eavesdropped on the exchange between hedgehog and echidna. Unknown to them, he already discovered the Chaos Emeralds in his home. He does not know of the true power of the Emeralds, but he does know the large, pretty gems would likely fetch a high price on the market. Our heroes must fend off Robotnik and Knuckles while retrieving the Emeralds back from Nack.

Gameplay
While the first few Sonic games for the Game Gear were simply ports of the Sega Master System versions, and lacked some of the elements found in the Sega Genesis series, this exclusive Game Gear game was a lot larger in size than its predecessors. Gameplay gave an experience very much in keeping with the Sonic games of the Genesis.

This is the first Sonic game in which the player does not lose all of his rings after getting hurt. In this specific case, during any act of Zone 1, 2, or 6, or the first act of any other Zone, each hit will take away 30 rings. In the second act of Zone 3, 4, or 5, 50 rings will be lost.

The choice is given of playing as either Sonic or Tails, who has the ability to fly in this game. The enemies are Dr. Robotnik, Knuckles, and the ambitious treasure-hunter Nack the Weasel, newly introduced in the series, who only appears in the Special Stages to keep the heroes away from the Chaos Emeralds.

Zones
There are six zones, each with three Acts. The third Act is merely a short course (with a small cache of rings to pick up) followed by a boss, one of Robotnik's powerful robot creations. The Doctor himself doesn't show up until the final stage.

In order, the stages are:
 * Great Turquoise Zone
 * Sunset Park Zone
 * Meta Junglira Zone
 * Robotnik Winter Zone
 * Tidal Plant Zone
 * Atomic Destroyer Zone

Precisely where in Sonic's world the Zones of Sonic Triple Trouble are located is never stated in-game&mdash;in contrast to the previous 8-bit titles, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic Chaos, which were all categorically stated to take place on South Island. It may be that Sonic Triple Trouble takes place there as well; alternatively, due to the presence of Knuckles the Echidna, the game may be set on the Floating Island, although it remains altogether possible that Triple Trouble is simply set in an unspecified region not previously visited by earlier Sonic games.

Additionally, and in keeping with 8-bit tradition, there are five individual special stages to access in the game. Sonic Triple Trouble, however, sees these stages accessed in a unique way: by collecting 50 rings and breaking open the "Chaos Emerald" item box, a portal appears which leads to the Special Stage.

The first, third and fifth stages are giant mazes with a countdown timer. The timer can be boosted with "Stopwatch" item boxes scattered throughout, but it never exceeds one and a half minutes. The second and fourth Special Stages involve flying the Tornado to collect rings and avoid bombs. At the end of every Special Stage, Nack shows up and attacks to protect the Chaos Emerald. Clearing all five Special Stages unlocks the "good" ending.

Comic Adaptation
The Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by Archie Comics had made a loose adaption based off of Sonic Triple Trouble, which can be seen here.

Bosses

 * Marvelous Queen (Nack the Weasel) - Fought at the end of each Special Stage except the first. It has a different configuration each time it appears.
 * Tart Turtle - Great Turquoise Zone boss
 * Marveshupopolous-gou - Sunset Park Zone boss
 * Wood Buttarundorf - Meta Junglira Zone boss
 * Giga Thomas "Pen" - Robotnik Winter Zone boss
 * Knuckles the Echidna - Tidal Plant Zone boss
 * Metal Sonic - Atomic Destroyer Zone sub-boss
 * Atomic Destroyer bosses (Dr. Robotnik) - Atomic Destroyer Zone final boss﻿es

Trivia

 * When the game was first relieved in an article, a new character was announced by the name of Jet, which was later found out to later be Nack. This means that Jet the Hawk's name came from Nack's prototype name.
 * This game is featured on Nintendo 3DS's eShop Virtual Console.
 * In August 1995, a 48-page comic titled and loosely based on Sonic Triple Trouble was released.
 * The English manual and 3DS description mention that Sonic Triple Trouble takes place on Planet Mobius. This was an early Sega of America name for Sonic's world, made popular in other media.
 * The game bears some similarities to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, particularly how Knuckles appears at several points to hinder the player character. Interestingly, several game elements (strike dash, glass balls in Meta Junglira, Metal Sonic race) look like they were taken from Sonic CD. Some of the Zones themselves also look similar to ones seen in Sonic CD.
 * The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog image of Dr. Robotnik is seen on the front box cover.
 * The theme of Sunset Park Act 3 is actually an unused track from Sonic Chaos except with a lower pitch.
 * In the "special thanks" of the credits, an "H. Kojima" is credited. It is unknown if this refers to Hideo Kojima, the famed creator of the Metal Gear series (Although this is rather likely to be false).
 * Sonic Triple Trouble along with 19 other Game Gear and Master System games were released on the Coleco Sonic.
 * When playing as Tails in Tidal Planet, you can use a submarine (Sea Fox) that would later appear in Tails Adventure.
 * This is the first time in which Sonic fights Metal Sonic rather than racing him in Sonic CD.
 * Nearly all of the badniks in this game has eyes similar to Metal Sonic's.