Sonic & Knuckles

The Good
As the sun set on Sonic's initial era of glory he got one final day in the sun with Sonic & Knuckles. The graphics in this game really pushed The Genesis to it's limits, the colour's were awesome, backgrounds were well done and the level of detail put into the levels was fantastic.

Sonic team really did a good job with the bosses this time around. Unlike the uneven balance of pathetically easy and extremely hard bosses in Sonic 2 this game started off easy and gradually got harder as the levels progressed. S&K featured the best Special Stages yet. Aside from the normal pseudo 3-D stages there are also a series of mini-games reminiscent of the Sonic 1 stages.

The lock-on technology was incredible for it's time and even today is pretty impressive. If you locked Sonic 3 onto S&K you got the "real" Sonic 3, If you locked it on to Sonic 2 you were able to play as Knuckles, and if you locked it onto any other cartridge you were able to play the Special Stages over, and over again.

The Bad
There is not much to complain about in Sonic & Knuckles but there are some things that have to be said. For one it totally sucks that you had to cough up another 50 bucks for the full Sonic 3 game. I was also disappointed with the exclusion of Tails. I mean if he was available in Sonic 3 then that means he must have been meant to be in S&K.

I never liked the new boss format in this one. Instead of two acts and a boss like Sonic 2, this one had a Mini-Boss at the end of the first act. It didn't really take away from the experience but it just didn't seem right.

Some glitches still were still there in Sonic 3. That one special stage still had that lag, and you could still get stuck in that wall in Casinopolis Zone. The multiplayer was crap. The screen was just so stretched it was almost unplayable.

The Bottom Line
The last good Sonic game until 1999. A must buy for any Sonic fan, hell it's on Xbox and PS2 now (along with 12+ others) for only 19 bucks so there is no excuse not to pick this one up.

The Good
This game also appeared in 1994 six months after Sonic 3 as a continuation to Sonic 3 because this game and 3 were supposed to be the same game but they could not fit them both on one genesis cartridge so this is the only sonic with a direct pickup of the previous one. After the Death Egg crashes Sonic ends up in Mushroom hill and must get the emeralds Knuckles still convinced that sonic is his enemy still gives sonic a hard time with tricks and traps.

This game adds multiple things new to the series like the lock-on cartridge which allowed you to play Sonic’s 2 and 3 with Knuckles and reach new areas Sonic could not access playing with Sonic 3 locked-on you could play through Sonic 3 and Knuckles the way it was meant to be and you can play through Sonic and Knuckles “campaign” with Knuckles who can climb and glide and this game is longer than Sonic 3 by itself. This game also has many memorable moments like the fisticuffs fight with Knuckles and his realization of how Robotnik is really an enemy and how angry he is that he’s been duped and is a dramatic scene.

The Graphics, music, and sound effects all shine with great track such as Mushroom Hill Zone, Flying Battery Zone, Lava Reef, and the Rebuilt Death Egg which is not completely finished yet, Ode to Star Wars?

The Bad
This game has nothing particularly wrong with it, honestly.

The Bottom Line
So this being the best Sonic game ever PLAY IT!!!!!! I don’t care how just do it and do it before anyone realizes you haven’t played this yet.

The Good
On its own, it's a good game, but when locked on to Sonic 3, this becomes the best Sonic game ever made. You get tons of levels to explore with each character and many other features. The levels are longer than ever and each character's route will differ a little. There are also some areas in the levels that only a certain character can reach that the others cannot. There are also some cool mini games too. Each character can now also become super or hyper. By locking on the game with Sonic 3, it will also fix bugs in Sonic 3. This game can also be locked on with Sonic 2 and you'll be playing as Knuckles in Sonic 2. When locked on to Sonic 1 you'll get to play millions of special stages, good for practice if you need practice on special stages. The game can be locked on to any other Genesis game as well, but no you don't get to play as Knuckles in other games other than Sonic. When you lock on the game to any other game other than a Sonic game you'll simply get to play just one special stage.

The Bad
Nothing really, this game is flawless when locked on to Sonic 3.

The Bottom Line
This is definitely a must-have for every Sonic fan out there!