I’m gonna take a little skip from Sonic 1 over to Sonic and Knuckles. This game is basically the height of Sonic’s fame during the Genesis era. This game, especially when locked on to the Sonic the Hedgehog 3, had one of the best and most complex stories for a 2D platform game that wasn’t a role playing game. The story of this kind of develops throughout each level, and it’s best to play Sonic 3 first to be able to understand the story of this game a bit more. To give a short summary of the story as far as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 goes, you show up to this island (specifically named Angel Island due to its power to fly because of the Master Emerald) that has fallen from the sky, I assume to see what happened or you were brought here by the energy of the Chaos Emeralds? Anyways, once you show up here, you get surprise attacked by this new character known as Knuckles the Echidna. He claims to be the owner of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, and believes that Sonic is the bad guy who has taken the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds from him because Dr Robotnik tricked him into believing so (Kind of a pain, since you just put up with those annoyingly difficult Special Stages in Sonic 2, don’t you think?). Because of this, whenever he gets his chance, Knuckles tries to outwit Sonic and get him into deeper trouble. However, as you can guess by knowing he got fooled by Robotnik, this doesn’t work out very well for Knuckles, and Sonic never really has trouble getting past Knuckles’ blind eyed schemes. Now, after traveling all over the place, Sonic eventually gets to Robotnik’s new base for the Death Egg’s production, Launch Base Zone. After you defeat him in Act 2 here, you get over to the Death Egg, only to realize that you got there too late, and it just got released into the sky. However, Sonic will never give up at saving his friends, and manages to find a platform still connected to Death Egg which allows you to get aboard, due to its rushed launch (Things don’t always seem to go your way when you rush them out for launch. SEGA knows this fact first hand; cough Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 cough). Once you’re here, Robotnik prepares one of his best machines and tries to go out and stop you once and for all, with his bot named the Big Arm Boss. Unfortunately for Robotnik, he fails, and the Death Egg goes crashing somewhere down back to earth. Where it lands though, is a mystery to be forever a wonder. Or will it? Thanks to the inclusion of Sonic & Knuckles (Which was actually supposed to be one whole game with Sonic 3, instead of a lock on game), we will now be able to find out what happens next with that flying rip off sent into the sky. However, before I get to that part, I’m gonna start setting up the review for this game. It will include the Graphics, Music, Difficulty, Enjoyment (Stand Alone and Lock On), and then Level Summaries & Reviews. So, let’s start it off now!

DISCLAIMER:: I will be treating this games review as if it were always set as one whole game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and not two separate games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. The only parts that I will be treating towards Sonic & Knuckles specifically will be the level review and summary sections.

Graphics - This game took a tiny little edit to some features, ones that they haven’t tried with previous Sonic games in the series, at least not where it’s hugely noticeable. In this game, they went and edited Sonic’s sprite, along with the sprites of every other character, making them a bit more dimensional, I assume? If not that, they probably used an extra block or two in width and height while making the new sprites, making them look much different than the way the sprites used to look, without doing any huge changes at all, really. Other than this little change, the graphics are bout the same as the other Sonic games during this time period, which would now be at about an average graphics set, due to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System being out worldwide now and having 16 bit graphics as well. However, SEGA still managed to be able to keep their realistic type of background style, while Nintendo had the whole catrtoony style going on for them still, as you can see by looking over to Super Mario World, which was out everywhere by 1992, the same year that Sonic 2 was out worldwide. The background designs for the levels had a bit of changes, but they weren’t as drastic to the point where it could be really noticeable, but it was still a change. Overall, I’d give the graphics a 9, since they did change up the style a bit, but it wasn’t too huge, and this type of graphics style was pretty commonly used by now, unfortunately for SEGA.

Music – Throughout this game, the music style was perfectly rendered and amazingly styled. Between levels, the music style from Act 1 changed a tiny bit, making a small remix. Not only this, but the music was also inspired and had a great deal of help during production by Michael Jackson. One of the examples of his work was from the Ice Cap Zone, using Smooth Criminal as the base of this levels tune. Other works included the song Jam as the base of the tune for Carnival Night Zone, and much more. The music in this game was conducted very carefully, and also took a great deal of work making sure each song fit nicely. However, this didn’t slow down production at all, or even put in an inconvenience to production, since the whole team put in a very nicely share of work to each part of production. Overall, I give the music a rating of 10, due to the mix of originality in the music and the combination of help from other singers contributions, such as Michael Jackson, to the production. However, despite the contributions, there WERE some original tracks introuduced into this game, so it's not like it was all remixes no originality, so the Sonic Team and Sega does get a some bit of credit towards music production.

Difficulty – Grading the difficulty of this game seems a bit difficult for me, for some reason. And no, that was not a joke referring to what part I’m grading on here now. Anyways, there are quite a few things in this game that make it pretty difficult. First of all, if you want to get the REAL ending, you have to get all the Super Emeralds, which you have to collect after getting to Mushroom Hill. And once you enter the first Super Emerald special stage, you can’t use Super Sonic anymore. You either have to get lucky and not enter a single special stage ring, or just rush and get all the Emeralds in the first 7 special stages that show up, which can all be found in Mushroom Hill and Flying Battery, luckily, since Sandopolis Zone is a B****. Another difficulty in this game includes the fact that there are 14 levels in the game, making 26 (Sky Sanctuary Zone and Hidden Palace zone have one Act each) Acts all together, and then the 14 different special stages for the Chaos and Super Emeralds. So, if you have only one continue, and you’re really far into the game (Which I don’t really see possible), and you die, then you’d have to start all over again. However, that would be, if they SEGA didn’t end up including the awesome feature of being able to save! This helps you clear out a ton of frustration, and allows you to save the immense amount of electricity that you would previously have wasted by leaving the game system on all day and night. Overall, I give the difficulty in this game a rating of a 9, mainly because they made the difficulty set at where the game is long enough and difficult enough so it would be perfectly fine, and because they added features to it so it wouldn't be extremely hard and annoying to beat. In fact, if it weren't for the save feature, I'm pretty sure that these games wouldn't really have been sold much at all by anyone, except for those huge button mashing psycho game addicts who usually get like 10 seconds on any sonic level that you could show to them Now, onto the overall enjoyment section!

Overall Enjoyment – Simply put, this is one of the best Sonic games available. You get an epic amount of levels with beautifully orchestrated music, amazing looking backgrounds and character sprites added into the games, and even one of the best background stories ever created for a 16 bit old styled video game. To wrap this part up, I’ll give it a 10 because it's the best game in the Sonic Genesis era, kinda like how SA2 is the best in the Dream Cast era, and so on.

Now onto the level portions. However, to save time, Ill only be giving summary like reviews, instead of technical reviews. They WILL still be reviews, however, just not ones you would expect to always see from professional reviewers in places like news papers or on tv and stuff like that.

Mushroom Hill Zone – This is the zone you land in right after you accomplish in getting the Death Egg to crash down to the earth. Basically, you’re in a Mushroom covered forest. It’s kind of that little hello to the Mario fans, in my opinion. Other than mushrooms, there isn’t much else. However, the farther you go into the zone you will realize that the forest is actually dying out. Why is this? It’s because Robotnik is hiding in an Eggplant (Kid Icarus reference?) looking aircraft that’s sending a radio signal to find the Death Egg and get it back online. The dangers in this level consist of the enemies named Butterdroids, Mushmeanies, Dragonflies, Madmoles, and Cluckoids. Other than those, there are the obvious Spike pits (Which I won’t be mentioning anymore throughout these summary reviews). Overall, this level is probably an 8.

Flying Battery Zone – I love this level to be honest. Some pretty sweet tunes, a flying aircraft full of Badnik Containers, and more. The background inside the ship consists of generic flying blimp walls, and then you later you see the inside factory work, which contains empty badnik containers and such. Outside the blimp is obviously a blue sky filled with some clouds. There really isn’t too much in this zone that can foreshadow to anything. Anyways, the dangers in this level consist of the enemies named Blasters and Technosqueeks (Which is basically a robotic computer mouse). Overall, this level pretty much gets an 8 as well.

Sandopolis Zone – I basically hate this level to be honest. I wish they had never included it, or at least only included the first act and changed how the second act worked out. It’s really, really annoying to go through. After escaping the crashing Flying Battery blimp, you land over to the desert, which is here, Sandopolis Zone. First act consists of just a background of a sun setting sky, pyramids, and a load of sand. Once you beat the giant rock monster mini boss, you enter a pyramid (Which most of you would remember something like this happening in Sonic Adventure 2. Any coincidence, or did SEGA purposely recreate this level onto a 3D platform for one of their most successful games alive?) Where there are ghosts and confusing ramps everywhere. To make these ghosts go away, you have to pull a certain lever that is kind of common, so you don’t have to stare at them too long. So, the badniks here are Rock’n (Basically just a boulder robot), Sandworm, Skorp, and Hyudoro (Which is the real name for the Ghost). You can also get crushed by rising sand in some parts of Act 2 and by drowning in sand in parts of Act 1. Overall, this level gets a 7.

Lava Reef – Now here’s a pretty good level. Here, you’re basically running through a Volcanic Base that seems to have been set up by Robotnik. All around you, you get to see hardened magma (which creates the whole floor), the earths crust, and lava. However, the color of the magma in act 1 changes over in act 2. Specifically, it changes over from red to blue, probably because something was messing with the core of the volcano, causing it all to cool down, but what? As you continue through the level, you soon get to the end, where, guess what, you find out that the Death Egg crashed here! And it’s still working?! Right after its eyes start flashing, it starts sending out missiles at you. Luckily, you end up avoiding them all. So, now that you’ve escaped the wrath of this death machine once again, what’s in store for Sonic? We’ll find out right in the next zone! But first, the enemies in this level are the Fireworm, Toxomister, and Iwamodoki (Pseudo Rock in Japanese, apparently). Other than these, there are also the dangers of getting hit by spike balls, falling in lava, and getting hit by fire launchers. Overall, I give this level a rating of 9.

Hidden Palace Zone – Finally, after being promised for some time, SEGA has finally provided us our Hidden Palace Zone! Being teased since Sonic 2, this zone is basically a shrine for the Chaos Emeralds. Here, there are no Badnik enemies, there are no spike pits, all there are here are the Super Emeralds, Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald. But wait, aren’t we forgetting something? Right as we are about to unknowingly head into the room containing these powerful gems, Knuckles shows up out of nowhere and challenges you to a fight. Before we get into that part, it’s time to talk about the scenery. In this zone, you can still see the Death Egg in the roof of this underground base, a lot of fancy bricks placed to create a shrine for the emeralds, and a huge painting on the wall that shows Sonic’s fight in the Doomsday Zone. Now, back to the summary, after you defeat Knuckles, you continue t the next room, and, surprise! Dr Robotnik is in the next room attempting to steal the Master Emerald. Knuckles quickly runs into the room and tries to recover the Emerald, but fails as Robotnik electrocutes him in his head. As Knuckles is passed out and Robotnik gets away, the shrine is starting to crumble down to the ground, now that its power source is gone. There are no enemies in this level, as long as you don’t count your little boss battle with Knuckles. Overall, I give this level a 10 due to how beautiful they made it look.

Sky Sanctuary – Another one act level in a row that revolves around the Master Emerald. This time, with enemies! Here, you’re in the utopia in the sky that’s filled with advanced technology and peaceful lives. However, due to Robotnik’s dastardly takeover, this once peaceful place is now being ravaged, and if you think it couldn’t get any worse, think again. This Sanctuary is falling. The worst part about it is that the Death egg is also returning to space, where he will try to rule over the land again under his kingdom named Robotropolis. You only have a tiny bit of time to try and make it to the highest part of the Sky Sanctuary Zone to reach the closest part of the Death Egg and make it inside. If that isn’t bad enough, Dr Robotnik has also sent down Mecha Sonic! This era was probably the height of his evil deeds and genius. The background consists of the Death Egg floating into space, a blue, cloud filled sky, and EggRobo’s (The only enemies other than Mecha Sonic in this level) flying out of the flying base. Overall, I’d give this level a rating of 10.

Death Egg – We’re just about finished now! Here, we have finally managed to get inside the evil headquarters of Robotnik’s, where we shall finally stop him once and for all. Inside this base, you have to run as fast as you can while avoiding all set up hazards so you can quickly get to that Egghead and save your friends. The inside of the base looks pretty normal, to be honest, with high tech equipment everywhere, perfect Death Star background rip off, and the whole package! Outside, obviously, is a deep black space with the view of the deep blue and cool planet Earth. After you beat Robotnik here, he then blasts off in Metal Robotnik to try and escape with the Master Emerald. Now that we’ve gone and covered this, it’s time to discuss the enemies here! In this zone, the badniks consist of ChainSpike and SpikeBonker. Other hazards include electrocutions, spike balls, and bottomless pits. Overall, I give this level a rating of a 9.

Doomsday Zone – This is it. This is your final destination, where you must either be successful and save the world, or fail and watch as it crumbles under the evil power of Robotnik. In this Zone, you summon the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the Super Emeralds to go into Hyper Sonic mode and chase after Robotnik in Space, in one of the most climatic and suspenseful Sonic battles of all time. All around you, you can see blank Space, that blue home of yours known as space, and meteorites or asteroids flying past you everywhere. Here, you must act fast to win, since your Ring energy dies out quickly. Luckily, there are rings all over the place, so it’s not like you’ll end up dying fifty times in a row before ending up being able to defeat Robotnik. Once you defeat him, Metal Robotnik lets go of the Master Emerald and goes crashing down to earth, along with Dr Robotnik inside. After that, you and the Master Emerald start flying back down to the earth, showing that all peace is back to South Island and all your animal friends. Once you’re back in the atmosphere, Tails comes flying in on the Tornado and gets you with the Master Emerald and carries you back to Angel Island so you can return their power source to Knuckles.

Now, here’s the end of the game. You defeated Robotnik and caused the Death Egg to finally be destroyed once and for all, brought the Master Emerald back to Knuckles, causing the rivalry between you two to end, and managed to get Angel Island back to its rightful place in the sky.

Thanks for reading my review, and hope it was a lot of help to you guys. Have any questions or comments, feel free to just reply stating your mind, and don’t forget to read some of my other reviews! Leave a suggestion if you think If I should submit these for RGR staff, btw

Great job on the review! I always enjoy reading your reviews. Keep up the great work.

I enjoy Sonic and Knuckles. It's a great game. It's not my favorite Sonic game, but it's right up there.

Wow Mega, this is an impressive review! You've done a great job and it's well written! Bravo!

Personally, this is my favorite game of the entire series. It has a lot to do with its simplistic difficulty, the cool levels and the bonus stages....the "capture all blue balls" bonus stage in particular that I love!