The "J Reviews" - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles

Hey guys!

Here´s my Sonic 3 & Knuckles review. Enjoy!

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the final chapter in the classic era of Sonic. Locking the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cartridge into the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, reveals the greatest Sonic game in the classic era of the hedgehog. An epic game with outstanding music, beautiful graphics, unmatched level design and new gameplay mechanics for it´s time.

Sonic 3 was released in february of 1994 while Sonic and knukles came in October of 1994. The game follows both Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna in their respective quests to save Angel Island. Sonic's side of the story picks up immediately after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Dr. Robotnik's orbital weapon, the Death Egg, is damaged in a battle with Sonic and crash-lands back onto Angel Island. Sonic travels through each zone looking to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to defeat Robotnik, and once again comes into conflict with Knuckles, who believes Sonic is trying to steal the Emeralds for himself. Sonic boards the relaunching Death Egg. Robotnik uses the power of the Master Emerald to fuel a giant mech, but Sonic uses the power of the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic. Super Sonic stops Robotnik, destroys the Death Egg, and returns the Master Emerald to its rightful place. 

Since Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 were developed initially as a single title, their gameplay is similar: both are 2D, side-scrolling platformers with similar level design, graphics, and game mechanics. However, in Sonic & Knuckles, unlike in Sonic 3, the player chooses either Sonic or Knuckles at the title screen. The game differs from Sonic 3 in that Miles "Tails" Prower is not available to select, and the player cannot control two characters together or use any multiplayer modes. There is also no save feature.

The game received considerable praise upon initial release; critics were impressed with the lock-on technology and hailed it as "an exceptional game" despite its similarity to its predecessor.It has since been re-released through various Sega themed compilations over the years.

The player character moves through eight levels, each divided into two acts. The first act of each level is punctuated by a miniboss fight with one of Dr. Robotnik's robots while the second ends with a regular boss fight with Robotnik himself.

Special Stages are entered by finding giant rings hidden in secret passageways: the player is placed in a 3D environment and tasked to turn all of a number of blue spheres red by running through them, but must avoid all red spheres, including formerly blue ones. Completing this task earns the player a Chaos Emerald, and collecting all seven Emeralds allows the player to turn into Super Sonic or Super Knuckles, more powerful versions of the characters. These special stages feature yellow spheres that bounce the player long distances. If you get all emerelds and super emeralds you will have acess to the real last level of the game and the real ending.

Sonic & Knuckles features "lock-on technology" that lets the game access data from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 so that elements of both Sonic & Knuckles and the locked-on game are combined. To play these combined games, the hatch on top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge can be flipped open and the second game placed inside.

When Sonic 3 is used in this manner, it enables the player to play through both games as one, titled in-game as Sonic 3 & Knuckles. This features several additions to the games not otherwise available, such as slight changes to the level design, being able to play through Sonic 3 levels as Knuckles or Sonic & Knuckles levels as Tails, and the ability to save progress in all of the game's levels. Additionally, locking-on is the only way to collect "Super Emeralds", which are earned by accessing Special Stages in the Sonic & Knuckles levels after collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds from Sonic 3. When all Super Emeralds have been collected, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails can transform into Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails respectively.

To finish, i highly sugest this game, probably the best one in the classical era of the blue hedgehog and everyone that is starting to play videogames or want to start to know the legacy of sonic this is the perfect game to start with (this and Sonic 1 in my opinion).

For next sonic games, i´m thinking of reviewing "Shadow the Hedgehog", "Sonic heroes" and "Sonic 06" and i´m skipping because i have played these games more recently and because i believe that this games are still hot topics until the days of today. I will do the two Sonic adventures games after that because i have to play them again to revive my memory of those games.

Stay cool!