Sonic & Knuckles

Moby ID: 6614
Genesis Specs
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Description official descriptions

Sonic and Knuckles continues the story directly from where Sonic the Hedgehog 3 left off. The explosion from the Death Egg sends Sonic flying deep into Floating Island's Mushroom Hills. Sonic knows of the Master Emerald hidden somewhere on Floating Island, and is sure that Dr. Robotnik wants it to give his Death Egg limitless power. Knuckles probably knows where it is - but can Sonic stop Robotnik's plans and find the Master Emerald all while fighting off Knuckles? Meanwhile, Knuckles is guarding Floating Island when he's attacked by one of Robotnik's robots! He quickly begins a chase for revenge.

Sonic & Knuckles is the fourth game in the Sonic series. It retains the same basic features as in the previous Sonic games (speed, rings for protection, Special Stages with Chaos Emeralds) as well as the three different shield types introduced in Sonic 3 (Fire, Water and Electric). Players can select either of the two title characters for play - either Sonic, or the all-new Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles cannot jump as high as Sonic, but he can glide by holding the jump button while in the air. If you glide into a wall, Knuckles will also be able to climb it. He can also break through walls that Sonic can't. With these abilities, Knuckles can access different areas from Sonic, making for each level an entirely new experience.

Unlike Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles features three bonus stages - two are available by jumping into the lamppost checkpoint stars (as in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. These stages give you the chance to earn bonus rings, lives and power-ups. The first is a Casino-themed level where you can jump into a slot machine and earn (or lose!) rings. The second is a more skill-based level where you must time your jumps off orbs to launch higher and collect bonuses. If you hit the barrier at the bottom of the stage, it ends. The other type of bonus stage is the "Special Stage" seen in Sonic 3, which, as previously, can be accessed by jumping into giant rings hidden within the levels themselves. If the player collects all the blue spheres in these stages (while avoiding all the red ones) they will earn a Chaos Emerald.

A unique feature of the Sonic & Knuckles cart is the ability to "Lock-On" previous Sonic games into a cartridge slot at the top. Adding Sonic 3 will combine both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles into one long game, as well as adding the ability to save, and use Tails in the Sonic & Knuckles levels. Plugging in Sonic 2 lets players use Knuckles in Sonic 2, as well allowing the use of his glide and wall climb abilities. Finally, plugging in the original Sonic the Hedgehog cart lets the player access unlimited level variations of the Blue Sphere bonus stage. Subsequent re-releases of Sonic & Knuckles have also included most of these bonus features.

Spellings

  • ソニック&ナックルズ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Genesis version)

86 People (65 developers, 21 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Project Managers
Producer
Director
Lead Game Designer
Senior Game Designers
Lead Programmer
Senior Programmers
Character Designer
C. G. Artist
Enemy Artist
Scene Artists
Art Assistant
Music Composers
Sega Sound Team
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 36 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 134 ratings with 3 reviews)

The Best Sonic Game!

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.

Genesis · by Classic Nigel (108) · 2006

Quite possibly the best Sonic game ever!

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!

Genesis · by Neocube (140) · 2003

The end of an era...

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.

Genesis · by MegaMegaMan (2257) · 2005

Trivia

Milestone

This was the first game that was designed to be hooked up to other games. You could hook it up to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to expand the gameplay and add new characters to play with. You could also hook it up to Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Packaging

One of the few PAL games to be distributed in a cardbox. This was most likely done to speed up the rather large distribution of the game and to cut on costs, as the cartridge does not fit with other cases

Tails

Tails does not appear in this game, however his picture is on the spinning sign at the end of Act 1 of each level (if you pause the game at certain points).

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1994 (Issue 65) - Game of the Month

Information also contributed by Dark Lord and Luis Silva

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  • MobyGames ID: 6614
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Bahz.

Wii added by Charly2.0. Xbox 360 added by Ben K.

Additional contributors: Alaka, Tiago Jacques, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Starbuck the Third, Thomas Thompson.

Game added June 7, 2002. Last modified January 31, 2024.