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Sonic & Knuckles (ソニック＆ナックルズ,Sonikku to Nakkuruzu?) is a platforming video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that was developed by the Sega Technical Institute (STI) and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive in October 1994. It serves as the direct continuation to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, as well as the finale of the Death Egg saga. As indicated by the name, the game features two playable characters: Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna, each with their own story. Sonic's story centers on stopping Dr. Eggman from relaunching the Death Egg following the events of Sonic 3, while Knuckles' story, set after Sonic's, focuses on him hunting down an Eggrobo.
The STI developed Sonic & Knuckles alongside Sonic 3; they were originally intended to be a single title, but time constraints forced the developers to split it. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge features an adapter with "lock-on technology" which enables another cartridge to be plugged in via a socket on top. Combining its cartridge with Sonic 3's own results in the originally intended full story, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Additionally, plugging Sonic the Hedgehog 2 into the cartridge allows access to Knuckles in Sonic 2, and connecting it to the original Sonic the Hedgehog unlocks the Blue Sphere minigame.
Despite its similarities to its predecessor, Sonic & Knuckles received positive reviews. Praise was directed towards its lock-on technology, as well as the increased difficulty compared to Sonic 3. The game sold 1.24 million copies in the United States and, combined with Sonic 3, achieved total sales of 4 million copies worldwide.
Following immediately after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic the Hedgehog has caused the Death Egg to plummet to Lava Reef on Angel Island. Sonic lands in Mushroom Hill and resolves to destroy the Death Egg before Doctor Eggman repairs and re-launches it. He soon notices Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of Angel Island who has been tricked into helping Eggman, emerge from a hidden door. Once Knuckles is gone, Sonic enters the secret room, where he finds a Super Ring. He touches the ring and is transported to the Hidden Palace, a giant hall with a pristine altar with the Master Emerald, which keeps Angel Island afloat, in the center.[3]
Sonic returns to Mushroom Hill and navigates Angel Island, ultimately having a showdown with Knuckles in the Hidden Palace. However, the two see Eggman stealing the Master Emerald. After failing to stop the theft, Knuckles makes amends with Sonic, whom he guides to the Sky Sanctuary. There, the hedgehog encounters Mecha Sonic Mark II, a powerful robot resembling himself, but manages to board the Death Egg.
Sonic battles through Eggman's contraptions aboard the Death Egg, culminating in a fight against Eggman in the Master Emerald-powered Giant Eggman Robo. The hedgehog destroys the mech, triggering a chain reaction that destroys the Death Egg. The game's ending depends on whether or not the player has collected all seven Chaos Emeralds:
Super Sonic battling Eggman in The Doomsday Zone, the secret final Zone of the game.
If the player has not collected the Emeralds by this point, Sonic returns to Earth and is rescued by Tails in the Tornado. However, the Master Emerald remains stranded in space and later returns to Eggman's possession.
If all Emeralds have been collected, Sonic transforms into Super Sonic and pursues the doctor's Final Weapon in space. He emerges triumphant and returns the Master Emerald to Angel Island, which floats back in the sky. A post-credits scene of an Eggrobo emerging from some robot scrap is played, foreshadowing Knuckles' storyline.
Knuckles eventually arrives at the Sky Sanctuary, where he discovers that Mecha Sonic has stolen the Master Emerald, causing Angel Island to slowly fall from the sky again. Knuckles and Mecha Sonic engage in a fight, with the former emerging victorious. However, the area soon collapses. The ending of the game will then depend on whether or not the player has collected all seven Chaos Emeralds:
The bad ending of Knuckles's story.
If the player has not collected the seven Emeralds, Sonic will appear in the Tornado and catch an exhausted Knuckles, whom he will fly back to Angel Island. The island falls back into the sea, as the Master Emerald is lost. The player is then treated to a scene showing the damaged Mecha Sonic reactivating in front of the Master Emerald, which he stands atop.
If the player has found the Emeralds, Sonic will appear in the Tornado and catch Knuckles, now holding the Master Emerald. The echidna is returned to Angel Island, which begins to rise into the sky once more.
Sonic & Knuckles is a 2D side-scrolling platforming video game, which plays almost identical to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (as it is the second half of said game). Players can control either Sonic the Hedgehog or Knuckles the Echidna by selecting either of them in the title screen. Both characters can perform basic actions such as running and jumping. However, both have unique abilities that differ them from each other: Sonic retains his Insta-Shield from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, while Knuckles runs slower and jumps less, though he is able to glide and climb walls. Each character has their own story.
The main goal of Sonic & Knuckles is to pass a series of Acts in less than ten minutes. In these Acts, the player can find Rings, which basically work as the playable character's life source from enemy attacks and other dangerous hazards. Whenever the playable characters take damage while having at least one Ring, they'll stay alive at the cost of losing all of their Rings. However, if the player gets hit without having any Rings, they will lose a life and will have to try the current Act again from the beginning or at the last Star Post. Players can also lose a life if they fail to finish the current Act within the time limit, get crushed or fall into a bottomless pit. If Sonic or Knuckles run out of lives, the game is over, but the player can use Continues if they have any.
The secondary goal is to find the Chaos Emeralds by completing the Special Stages within the Zones. Collecting all seven of them will unlock the final Zone for Sonic, as well as the good ending. Plus, if Sonic and Knuckles have obtained all of the Emeralds, they can transform into Super Sonic and Super Knuckles, respectively.
Like with many other Sonic games for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Sonic & Knuckles features eight Zones, with most of them having two Acts. Also, as in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, each Act has a boss fight at the end, with the player battling a mini boss in the first Act and later on, the main boss fight against either Eggman, if controlling Sonic, or the Eggrobo, if controlling Knuckles in the second Act. In order to access the extra Zone of the game, along with the good ending, the player must gather all of the Chaos Emeralds and then defeat Eggman in Death Egg Zone with Sonic.
Mushroom Hill Zone: A lush forest, with pump elevators, sticky vines, and filled with mushrooms that also serve as trampolines or parachutes. The sub-boss is a woodcutter robot, and for the fight with Eggman, the player must avoid the spiked bars and cannon shots while hitting the satellite-enhanced Egg Mobile.
Flying Battery Zone: The player is propelled to this flying fortress with electrified robots. The sub-boss looks like the Flicky-capsule and must be tricked into hitting itself. Eggman is fought twice: first, he traps the player in an arena with a moving laser blaster on the ceiling, very similar to the Wing Fortress Zone boss. Then, it goes to an exterior platform which Eggman latches onto from below and crawls along, spouting flame from the top of the pod every time the character attempts to jump over, and swinging upwards to be hit. This Zone is the only Zone where Knuckles faces Eggman instead of Eggrobo, due to his access to the blimp being a last-minute decision.
Sandopolis Zone: The heroes fall in this desert Zone, which houses a haunted pyramid which the character enters after beating the Guardian sub-boss. The boss, Egg Golem, must be hit in the face so Eggman is exposed.
Lava Reef Zone: The interior of a volcano, on which the Death Egg had crash-landed. The sub-boss consists of mechanical hands that hit the player and orbs that shoot fireballs. Knuckles doesn't face a boss, but Sonic faces Eggman in an invincible machine, which is only harmed by the landmines it drops.
Hidden Palace Zone: The old echidna temple. Knuckles just traverses the Zone. Sonic and/or Tails however, has to fight Knuckles. After he is defeated, Eggman steals the Master Emerald to deceive the echidna; Knuckles decides to help the heroes instead.
Sky Sanctuary Zone: A secret passage leads to these crumbly aerial ruins. Knuckles just faces his final boss, Mecha Sonic Mk. II, which uses the Master Emerald to go Super. Sonic and/or Tails has to climb the Zone facing Mecha Sonic three times - one in the Egg Wrecker, another in the Egg Bouncer, and finally on foot.
Death Egg Zone: Eggman's space station, with electric traps, a vacuum chamber and sections with altered gravity. Two sub-bosses - Red Eye, a vulnerable laser shooting eye surrounded by spiked orbs, and Death Ball, which is only hit when the rotating shield bumpers are away - before facing a Eggman-shaped mech, Giant Eggman Robo.
The Doomsday Zone: Only accessible as Super Sonic, this Zone has Sonic chasing Eggman through space, avoiding meteors and missiles, and trying not to have his rings depleted.
Similar to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles features two Bonus Stages: Slot Machine Stages[9] and Glowing Sphere Stages.[10] These can be entered by collecting a certain number of Rings and passing a Star Post, which will generate a Star Circle above the Star Post. The player must touch this Star Circle to enter a Bonus Stage. The Bonus Stage that is played depends on the number of rings the player had when they passed the Star Post. Unlike Special Stages, Bonus Stages serve only to get items, such as rings or shields, and do not affect the story of the game.
The Slot Machine Bonus Stage.
The Glowing Sphere Bonus Stage.
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Slot Machine Stages have the player in a field that is constantly spinning, similar to the Special Stages from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Like those Special Stages, the Slot Machine Stages have various Bumpers, Jump Stands and Goals. At the center of the Slot Machine Stage is a gigantic slot machine. To activate it, the playable character has to enter some parallel bars on top of it. This will trigger a random combination of symbols which will cause the player to either earn or lose rings, or simply not get anything at all. Slot Machine Stages do not have an end or a time limit, and the player has to touch a Goal to leave them.
Glowing Sphere Stages have the player traveling to the top of the stage using floating glowing spheres while having to escape from a field of energy that slowly rises upwards. When touching a glowing sphere, the playable character will spin around it. To progress, the player must tap // at the right time to launch themselves upward from the glowing sphere. Throughout the Glowing Sphere Stages are also smaller spheres that, when touched, will generate a random Gumball that will go upward. In addition, objects such as rings, Bumpers and Flippers are found here as well. Glowing Sphere Stages end by either getting to the very top of their stage or touching the rising field of energy.
The Special Stages in this game are essentially the same as in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. There are a few differences though; mainly they are considerably harder than their Sonic the Hedgehog 3 counterparts. As well as having the blue, red and gray-and-red bumper spheres, a new kind has been introduced: yellow spheres act as springs and propel the character a set distance across the stage, this being about five spheres. Most yellow spheres are helpful, however there are a few that will catapult the player into red spheres, spelling failure for the player.
The Chaos Emerald appears at the end of the Special Stage just like in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, although when playing the complete game Sonic 3 & Knuckles this will be a Super Emerald. The same rules apply throughout; enclosing a patch of blue spheres by touching the ones on the outside will turn all those spheres into rings, and collecting all rings in a stage awards a Perfect bonus of 50,000 points (an extra life). 50 rings awards a Continue.
The Special Stages in the Sonic & Knuckles Zones are not quite as straightforward as in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The player will often have to perform clever tricks to complete them, such as making several jumps and turns in succession. As well as being harder in difficulty themselves, there are fewer opportunities to even attempt to get Emeralds. They all have to be collected before the end of Lava Reef Zone and the Giant Rings can be hard to find.
The cartridge of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 can be placed on the Sonic & Knuckles slot adapter (on the Sega Mega Drive Model 2) to add new features and extend the gameplay experience, to become the originally planned game.
The cartridge of Sonic & Knuckles has a unique additional slot on the top, where the player can insert the already purchased Sonic the Hedgehog cartridges or most other Sega Mega Drive game cartridges into it. This trademark feature is called "lock-on technology", making multiple changes to the gameplay while adding new features not seen in the original game. When inserting Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cartridge into the Sonic & Knuckles one, the player gets to play the lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the original, complete version of both games featuring all fourteen Zones from the two games with Knuckles playable in the Sonic 3 Zones and Tails in the Sonic & Knuckles Zones. The lock-on game also retains all the features from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, including the save system and Competition mode, as well alterations to the level layouts and object placements. In addition, one of the new features included are the Super Emeralds, which the player can collect by clearing Special Stages that have layouts identical to those in Sonic & Knuckles. Getting all seven Super Emeralds rewards the player with the lock-on exclusive Hyper Sonic, Super Tails and Hyper Knuckles transformations, and the game's true ending.
When the player inserts the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 cartridge into the Sonic & Knuckles slot, the lock-on game Knuckles in Sonic 2 becomes available, with Knuckles playable in the Sonic 2 Zones. If the player inserts any other Sega Mega Drive game released prior to Sonic & Knuckles into said game's slot, the player gains access to the lock-on game called Blue Sphere, which features the gameplay of the Special Stages from this game and Sonic 3. Each Mega Drive cartridge determines a single and different Special Stage layout based on its serial number,[11] while inserting the original Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge into the slot unlocks all 134,217,728 unique layout formats for the player to play.
In the Sonic the Comic comic series and its spin-offs published by Fleetway Editions, the main storyline from issues #47 to #53 is loosely based on the plot of Sonic & Knuckles, although there are several changes.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, there was a tie-in of the game in Sonic & Knuckles, which was the second issue of Sonic Special comic books, loosely based on the plot of the game. It has also been confirmed that the events of Sonic & Knuckles have taken place in the Post-Super Genesis Wave timeline. The game's plot would have been adapted in Sonic the Hedgehog #291 as the fourth and final part of the "Genesis of a Hero" storyline, but was ultimately cancelled before its release.
According to the English manual and the Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I website, both Sonic and Knuckles' stories occur at the same time. However, it is strongly implied in-game that Sonic's story happens first, causing confusion. In spite of this, if one uses Debug Mode as Knuckles in Lava Reef Act 1 to enter Sonic's path in the level, the Death Egg can still be seen in the background, suggesting that the latter happens only shortly after the former or originally intended as an alternative storyline.
As of 2019, every Zone in Sonic & Knuckles except The Doomsday Zone has returned in some form.
Despite Sonic & Knuckles being considered a direct sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Tails is absent the entire game until the cutscene after Eggman is defeated for the final time.
However, Tails is playable in the lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the true form of both games, with the full story and content.
The achievement icon for collecting a Chaos Emerald for the Xbox Live Arcade version of Sonic & Knuckles, is the same as the one for completing IceCap Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Xbox Live Arcade.
For some reason, Knuckles' look up sprite is one pixel in front of the others.
In the US manual for Sonic & Knuckles, the sprites for the Lightning Shield and Flame Shield are erroneously swapped.
Takashi Iizuka considers Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles one single game, which was the original plan.[13]
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Knuckles
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