#Cooler sonic 3 and knuckles full
Plug in Sonic 3 to experience the full game as it was intended and playing with Knuckles is once again the best choice, with Knuckles acting as the T-1000 to Sonic’s John Connor. Meanwhile, Knuckles’ superiority gets retconned into the rest of the franchise thanks to the Lock-On Technology feature that allows older Sonic cartridges to be plugged into the S&K cartridge for additional content. It feels like Sonic was grandfathered in to someone else’s set of levels. In a world where Knuckles the Echidna was invented before Sonic the Hedgehog there would be no Knuckles and Sonic simply because the speedy hedgehog doesn’t have anything to add. Aside from running, Sonic can activate special, semi-useful jumps, but only when engulfed in one of three elemental shields (one of which has no practical use). Those special abilities far outweigh what Sonic has to offer. Knuckles can also climb, glide, and smash through walls that Sonic can’t break. Even though Sonic is supposedly the fastest thing alive, Knuckles can match his rival’s speed throughout the game. The advantage is much the same in terms of gameplay. As such, the new character knows the shortcuts. The game is set on his home island, a sky-bound tropical rock that he is charged to protect. The player is given two options: you can race to the Death Egg and stop the mad scientist as Sonic the Hedgehog, or try your luck as the exciting and new Knuckles the Echidna. Robotnik, who is attempting to hijack a giant magical gem called the Master Emerald to put the station back into orbit. Sonic & Knuckles begins when a Death Star-esque space station falls from the sky and lands in a volcano. The introduction of the franchise’s third playable character, Knuckles the Echidna, made speed obsolete. It also marks the beginning of Sonic’s slow decline into irrelevance within his own franchise. In a way, it’s the final six-to-eight levels (depending on character and performance) of the final chapter in a Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy. Released in 1994 for the Sega Genesis, Sonic & Knuckles was originally designed as the second half of Sonic 3. And it began with Sonic & Knuckles.Īfter 20 years, Sonic & Knuckles still feels like what it is: a final act. Then the blue mammal started hanging around the wrong group of friends, and it wasn’t long before Sonic was sharing levels with cooler buddies that could stop time, shoot guns, use telekinesis, and turn invisible. Speed used to be the only thing that mattered to Sonic the Hedgehog.