Sonic and Knuckles, the second half of Sonic 3. The first half of Sonic 3, Sonic 3 was pretty great so this should probably be more of that. Which half of Sonic 3 is better and why is Sonic 3 and Knuckles the best 2D Sonic platformer. Let’s talk about the game first again.
The gameplay is Sonic 3 and that is really great. If you read the Sonic 3 article, you don’t need the explanation again but for those who don’t, Sonic controls wonderfully. Sonic has a new attack by pressing jump in the air which gives him brief invincibility. The Fire, Lightning, and bubble shields are good innovations to the basic shield powerup as they give alternate moves that help with speed and platforming. There are a few negatives with Sonic and Knuckles. Tails is removed and replaced with Knuckles because it’s Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles the Echidna can glide which led to his levels being entirely unique in level design and even a few bosses. This game doesn’t have saves, you have to play through the whole game which kinda sucks. Sonic and Knuckles isn’t a long game but it would have been nice as an option.
Onto the Levels, Mushroom hill Zone is an interesting level. This level had to both be the Midpoint of Sonic 3 and Knuckles but also be the starting level for Sonic and Knuckles. The Zone feels more like the midpoint than a starting Zone because of the level design being just a little bit more difficult than Angel Island Zone. It has hills and bouncy mushrooms. The gimmicks are probably the most boring so far. The pulley mechanic thing is mostly okay because you can at least do it kinda fast. It has a gimmick that stops you in place and you have to do a spin dash in order to escape. This gimmick sucks. It breaks the pace of the gameplay which in a Sonic game kinda sucks. The Mushroom Parasol gimmick is alright. Sonic using a big mushroom to float around is pretty funny to see. The bosses for both acts are okay. The Lumberjack Badnik boss is pretty alright if very easy, especially by the midpoint of the game. The Act 2 boss is good to look at atleast because it uses 3D looking sprites and the perspective in general kinda looks 3D because this game was made in late 1994. Overall, a decent midpoint zone but it does its job better as a first zone level.
Flying Battery Zone is pretty good to look at. The transition animations for each act and zone are still here. Sonic is running in a big carrier ship which is pretty cool. The level is less stop and go than Mushroom Hill zone. It also has the bars like in Sonic 2 for Sonic to move around. It even has bars that lower Sonic down a platform which is neat. Act 2 is a bit worse because it has more stop and go gameplay. The bosses for both acts are very easy. Act 1 is the easiest boss so far because you just stand on top of a robot capsule and then it hits itself. It’s not fun standing for 1 and a half minutes. The act 2 boss at least has quick gameplay to lead up to an easy boss.
Sandopolis Zone is concerning and it’s a desert temple level. It is the closest to Marble Zone which is shocking considering that Both Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles usually have a good mix of speed and general platforming. Fortunately it’s not Marble Zone which means it doesn’t throw out the Basis of Sonic Level Design. The mix of Speed and General Platforming leans way more on General platforming and it slows down the pace quite a bit. There are still speedy sections but the amount of them is reduced. Act 2 is more of the same. The Act 1 boss is a joke. The boss looks cool but the fight is you lead the rock golem into the sand pit. The Act 2 boss at least has an actual challenge and that’s incredibly easy. Overall, a pretty mediocre level.
Lava Reef Zone is a neat cave with lava. It gets away from the level design of Sandopolis Zone but it still is a bit slow. It has buttons for these doors that you have to unlock which is slow but it doesn’t take too much time. It still has the stop and go type of level design but it’s taken down a notch. It has great visuals like the backgrounds and the level looks amazing for the time. The Death Egg which is in the background, showing the near completion of it looks awesome. Act 1 boss is not memorable so let’s talk about the Act 2 boss. The only good thing about this boss is that it builds up to it. There is a platforming section and the screen shakes a tiny bit, showcasing the start of the Death Egg. Eggman is in the background, following the player for a bit. Then at the end of the platforming, you are faced with the biggest letdown ever. The boss is one of the most uninteresting boss fights in the game. The boss just hits itself with the spike balls down on a slope. You just wait it out and survive. It’s awful. Overall, it’s still pretty alright.
Hidden Palace zone is a good 1 act zone. It’s short and not really that hard but that is just because it leads up to the fight with Knuckles who has been pulling tricks to slow down the player story-wise. The Knuckles fight is very easy. It then shows a cutscene where Knuckles realizes that Eggman is actually a bad guy and tries to stop him from taking the master emerald to power the Death Egg before taking an electric shock to the head. Knuckles then helps Sonic by taking him to Sky Sanctuary.
Sky Sanctuary is another 1 act Zone and it is really good. It looks good and it’s a bit longer than Hidden Palace Zone. It also has a bunch of speedy sections. There are two bosses in this one, both of them pretty easy. It leads up to the Mecha Sonic fight which ups the difficulty from the previous boss fights but not by much. Overall, a good Zone that doesn’t stay too long
Death Egg Zone is the final Zone and it is okay. Being in the Death Egg is a nice setting. The level design is okay, but the level is way slower than Sky Sanctuary. It has some neat visuals for traveling to different parts of the level but visuals could only do so much of the work. Act 2 has a gravity change gimmick which is neat I guess. The bosses are also just okay. The Act 1 boss is okay, nothing of note to say. The Act 2 boss is a change of pace because it uses the gravity switching gimmick as the main part of this boss fight but it doesn’t work out as well because it’s kinda slow to change the gravity by going into an elevator and timing for the robots that this boss spawns to hit the boss from below and it’s just time consuming.
Doomsday Zone is the Final boss zone because it takes place on an open area of the Death Egg. Eggman goes into a big robot and uses it to attack Sonic. This part of the boss fight is pretty easy, nothing much of note. The Second Part consists of the same robot chasing Sonic. The robot shoots fireballs from the nose because it’s an E for everyone game. If you hit the nose, it opens up a weak point at the center to hit as many times as you can. After that it shoots a laser with a deceptively smaller hitbox than the actual graphic size. This part of the fight is pretty fun if still a bit easy because it keeps you on your toes to get as many hits in. After that you chase Eggman and If you didn’t collect all the Emeralds, the fight will end here and you would get the bad ending. However, if you do, you get an extra part of the Boss fight where Sonic turns super and chases Eggman. This is pretty awesome because a fight in space is always great. Also the boss is a bit more difficult, therefore it makes winning feel awesome and with this setting combined. The good ending is Sonic returning to Angel Island with the Master Emerald to make the island float in the air again.
Let’s take a quick look at history again, the whole thing about this game is that it’s the 2nd Half of Sonic 3. However, let’s talk about the history after this game was released. In 1994, Sonic’s popularity was going down due to times changing because it was 1994, 3D was starting to become the new thing to use. After Sonic 3 and Knuckles, there wasn’t really anything to note of for the Sonic franchise, it was mostly spinoffs that didn’t review with critics as well and didn’t impress the general public. Didn’t help that the SEGA company made some bad decisions such as making the Sega 32X, a 32 bit cartridge based system add-on for the aging Sega Genesis and the Sega Saturn, the 32 bit CD based system which was actually going to compete with the PlayStation 1.
Let’s quickly talk about the whole package deal, Sonic 3 and Knuckles. Sonic and Knuckles has a neat thing called Lock-On Technology. You open up the cap of Sonic and Knuckles, insert Sonic 3 on top and now you get the True Sonic 3. Sonic 3 and Knuckles is one of the best Sonic games and it even has a few extras if you combine the two. Hyper Sonic is an extra transformation that is just Super Sonic but he flashes rainbow colors enough to be concerning. You get this form by doing the special stages in the Sonic and Knuckles part of the game. He also has an air dash which is awesome. You can save at any point, you have three playable characters in Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. It’s a very great game you should play because it’s on PC with Sonic Origins and the Original Sega Genesis
