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4.5 stars - Sonic 3, Part 2: Special lock on-cart edition!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: October 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Sonic & Knuckles(1994). The fourth Sonic game on the Genesis (or 2nd half of the third, if you prefer to call it that).

Once upon a time, Sega became a worthy 16-bit contender in the early 90s thanks to the release of a fast-paced adventure starring everyone's favorite blue hedgehog, Sonic. Then the series really took off in 1992 with the release and success of its sequel. The Sega CD harbored Sonic CD, a worthy cult classic, though for some reason it became forgotten over time. This brings us to "Hedgehog Day" of 1994, when Sonic 3 was unleashed on the public. Originally, the game was slated to be one massive adventure, but in order to meet deadlines, Sega decided to cut it in half, give the fans the first part of the game early on, and save the rest of it for a later date in the year. In the meantime, Sega also thought about incorporating a special "lock-on" feature to this second half of the 3rd Sonic game which allowed one to stick Sonic 2 and 3 on top of it, and it would change the game to a certain degree. Of course, lock on technology was nothing new (*cough* Game Genie *cough*), but this was the first time that it was incorporated for a specific purpose, more of which I'll get into soon.

So this time, Sonic must traverse the rest of Angel Island after bringing down the Death Egg (again) onto a volcano and stop Dr. Robotnik once and for all. However, Tails is gone for this round in place of being able to play as Knuckles the Echidna for the first time. He taunted and tricked you all throughout Sonic 3, but now you can rip through the stages as him, or get your revenge on him at last with Sonic. Either way, S&K holds up as its own giant adventure, with the same size of levels, graphics engine, powerups, and other features as the previous game. I've covered the basics of the game in my Sonic 3 review, so I'll just go into the new stuff here:

PROS
-LOCKING ONTO THE OLDER GAMES GIVES THEM A NEW FRESH REPLAYABILITY. Stick it onto Sonic 2, and now you're traversing the Casino Nights, Hill Tops, and Wing Fortresses of old as Knuckles given the advantage of his new abilities. However, stick it onto Sonic 3 and you'll get the massive adventure that Sega wanted to release all along - in other words THE BIGGEST AND BEST SONIC GAME EVER CONCEIVED. Play as all three of the furballs going through both games and collecting 14(!) chaos emeralds to become... HYPER SONIC! On top of that, stick it onto Sonic 1 or any other Genesis game and you'll now have access to unlimited random Special Stages styled from Sonic 3.
-KNUCKLES IS A NICE ALTERNATIVE TO PLAY AS FROM THE OTHERS. He doesn't fly like Tails or jump as high as Sonic, but his glide, climbing, and smashy fists enable him to reach places that the others can't get to. Plus, a lot of the areas of certain zones that you traverse are completely different from Sonic's.
-COOL NEW BONUS STAGES. There are two of them now, and are far easier to access as well. One is an energy sphere magnetic place where you have to reach the top, and the other is a combination of Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2 and the Special Stages of Sonic 1.
-EXCELLENT MUSIC HERE! I'd forgotten how awesome S&K's music actually is, and is overall a step up from Sonic 3's. None are bad here and they seem closer to Sonic 2's soundtrack, especially the Flying Battery, Sky Sanctuary, and Death Egg themes.
-THE ZONES ARE VARIED FROM PREVIOUS GAMES. Yes, there is another volcano zone, but now you can explore new areas like the massive tombs of Sandopolis, the flying ruins of Sky Sanctuary, and the inner sanctums of the giant Death Egg ship. Plus now you get to take out the giant Flying Battery ship which attacked you near the beginning of Sonic 3. Strangely, this seems to be the only Sonic game without a water zone, which renders the Bubble shield useless, but oh well. In contrast, you will find more use out of the fire shield though.
-PERHAPS THE BEST FINAL BOSSES OF ANY SONIC GAME. There are a bunch of them to take out near the end, and when you collect all the chaos emeralds, you can go through a special Doomsday Zone as Super Sonic. Plus, Knuckles has more difficult versions and some original bosses of his own to fight, so it never gets boring.

CONS
-Since this is technically the other half of Sonic 3, THERE ISN'T A WHOLE LOT OF NEW STUFF FOR SONIC'S ADVENTURE. Pretty much Sonic has all the same attacks, animations, and powerups as in Sonic 3, and now with Tails gone, his reaching abilities are hindered. His absence is fixed, however, by locking it onto Sonic 3.
-THE SAVE FEATURE FROM SONIC 3 IS SORELY MISSED. With as massive as the levels are, being able to save after Sandopolis Zone Act 2 would be nice, but again, this problem is remedied after locking it onto Sonic 3.
-NO CHANGE OF SPECIAL STAGES HERE. Basically, these new ones are simply styled after the Sonic 3 SS's.

Don't let the 4 stars deter you at all. S&K is certainly one of the most memorable Sonic games of all, and if you liked Sonic 3, then I see no reason for you NOT to like this one. As a whole, Sonic 3 & Knuckles deserves its full 5 stars, so whether you want to find their original carts, or just play them on PC or the new Sonic Mega Collection, find them any way you can because these are some of the best 2D games that defined an age of gaming. GOTTA JUICE!

Sonic and Knuckles is great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game has tons of neat things. Hook on most games, and get a special stage. Hooking on Sonic one lets you play a whole bunch. Hook on sonic 2 and play as knuckles in sonic 2. Sonic 3 is neat too. Find out about the super emeralds. Or play regularly with lots of levels. The Game Genie is good on this game. (Very rare but fun. I have one)

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is joint 2nd in the best Sonic games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: December 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a review for Sonic 3 & Knuckles, not Sonic & Knuckles single. Well this is a great game. My Sonic charts are-
5. Sonic 1: Master system.
4. Sonic adventure: Dreamcast.
3. Sonic advance: Game boy advance.
Joint 2. S3&k and Sonic 1: Mega-Drive or Genesis in the states.
1. Sonic adventure 2: Dreamcast, Gamecube and PS2.
This game carries on straight from Sonic 2. The Death egg crash lands on Angel island, and Eggman meats the owner; Knuckles. Knuckles makes friends with Eggman, and gets convinced that Sonic & Tails are bad guys! So when Eggman hears that there is a master emerald on the island making it float, Eggman tells Knuckles that Sonic is after it. Sonic is having a break, flying in the Tornado Bi-plane with Tails, when he notices the island. Sonic is keen to explore, but Knuckles steals all of south islands chaos emeralds from Sonic! Plus he sees badniks roaming the place. So Sonic sets off to stop Robotnik and get the emeralds back. The plot twists and turns, and in the end it turns into Sonic, Tails and Knuckles fighting Eggman in space. Here's a list of the awsome levels!
1-Angel Island 80%
2-Hidrocity 86%
3-Marble Gardens 75%
4-Carnival Nights 82%
5-Ice cap 90%
6-Launch base city 92%
7-Mushroom hills 88%
8-Flying battery 89%
9-Sandopolis desert 77%
10-Lava Reef 86%
11-Knuckles Hidden palace 82%
12-Sky sanctury 88%
13-The Death Egg Zone 89%
14-Domesday 91%
15-Nuclear secret zone(I'm not sure how you unlock this)95%
Verdict: A great game that involves action, adventure and sharp platforming skills. Should be in every Genisis collection. 93%

The best Sonic video game, in my opinion

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 18, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As said above, I think this is the best Sonic title of the Genesis four (1, 2, 3 & S&K). In this game we see Sonic going up against Robotnick and a hoard of new mechanical enemies. After Sonic knocked Robotnicks evil Death Egg machine out of the sky in Sonic 3, it landed on the Floating Island. Now stuck in the biggest volcano on the island, Robotnick needs the master Chaos Emerald to get it out. But guess who lives on Floating Island? Knuckles the Echidna, the guardian of the Chaos emerald, who has a problem of his own...an evil robot who is terrorizing the island. In this game we get to play either Sonic or Knuckles, the latter having cooler moves like flying and climbing. However, Sonic's main advantage is that he has four or five more levels to his game. The two have the same levels, they're altered sometimes to suit the story of each. Although Sonic 2 was the longer game, Sonic & Knuckles is cooler because of the richer graphics and more detailed levels. You're character gets to swing from ropes, tests his arm strength on lifting machines, climb rungs over nothingness, bungee down steep cliffs, and ride a dizzying laser transport. The levels display their own little characteristics. Walk through the Mushroom Hill Zone and watch pollen fly up behind you. See the heat your character must be feeling as heatwaves rise from golden sands in the Sandopolis Zone. Fight an evil boss at the end of almost every level. Enjoy the electrifying excitement as the final showdown with Sonic and the evil Dr. Robotnic ensues. Gather all the chaos emeralds and enter a secret end level where you chase Robotnick through space as... buy the game and find out. Plus with the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge you can hook Sonic 2 to the top to play Knuckles in the that game. Put Sonic 3 on top and play all of the levels in that game combined with the ones in S & K. Put another game on top and play endless special levels. If you're looking for a good game on the Genesis console, this is it. It is hard to find, but its worth it if you're into Sonic games or adventure games. Whew!

Sonic 3 Part II

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The Last major Sonic action game for the Genesis, Sonic and Knuckles is actually a second part of STH3, it continus the story, it is not a whole new story. It connects with sonic2 and 3 to make all new games, you can play it by itself and be sonic or knuckles, with sonic 2 you can play as knuckles in his own story, with sonic3 this is the ultimate adventure, play as sonic, tails or knuckles in thier own story and discover the emeralds, a must have if you want to see how great this game is.

Part 2 Of Sonic 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This Game is So fun if you want the scoop on Sonic and Knuckles Read my Sonic 3 Review since this is Part 2 of Sonic 3. The Levles are Mushroom Hill Flying Battry Sandpolis Lava Reef Hidden Palice Sky Santury death Egg and the Super Sonic/Hyper Sonic Zone Doomsday Zone!

Sonic and Knuckles is wonderful.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This by itself is a great game.Play as either Sonic or Knuckles and blast through stages.The graphics and levels are great and its simply the best in the series at least the Genesis era series.When you put Sonic 3 onto this game you get a true masterpiece on your hands especially if you play as Knuckles.I say get this game you wont regret it.

A must buy for any Sonic fan..

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Not only is this the second part of Sonic 3, you also get to play as Knuckles! Knuckles has differnt abitlies than Sonic. For starts, he can climb things and glide for long distances. Very fun and challenging Sonic platformer. Get board with the levels but still wish you could play as Knuckles? That's fine! Becaus it also attaches to Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 so you can play as Knuckles. A nice added bonus which takes this game far!

Sonic & Knuckles-it rocks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Released only a few months after Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles has this lock-on feature. You can "lock-on" Sonic 3 and Sonic 2 and play as Knuckles in both of those games! Sounds complicated you say? Nope! The top of the S&K cartridge has a top you can flip, revealing a place to stick another cartridge in it! It will only work on 3 and 2 though. Simple!

As for the game, it rocks! Review time!

Graphics:10/10: Wow! Pretty impressive for a 1994 game. The backgrounds and sprites are simply colorful and beautiful!

Sounds:8/10: Pretty much the same.

Music:10/10: Great music! Very catchy and stylish!

Gameplay:10/10: Sonic's back, bigger, faster, and tougher than ever!!...but why play as Sonic when you got Knuckles? Knuckles can climb walls and glide, something Sonic can't do. There are many worlds with 2 HUGE levels each!

Pros:
-Great graphics

- Catchy soundtrack

- Good level of challange

- Play as Sonic or Knuckles

- Bosses and mini-bosses are fun and interesting!

- Chaos Emeralds are well hidden

- Fun 50-ring mini-games

-Levels are HUGE!

Cons:

-Levels are maybe a little TOO huge

- Where's Tails?

- No 2-player games [like anybody cares?]

-Maybe too hard for the little ones

- Can't save, unlike Sonic 3



In conclusion- Got a Genesis? Then you HAVE TO GET THIS!!!

Sonic and Knuckles

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the best Sonic games ever made. No kidding. Especially since the new ones suck.
Erm...ahem. Anyways.
Gameplay in this is wonderful--as smooth and sweet as the other Genesis Sonic games. The new powerups took some getting used to--I didn't realize that you could do things with them until a while after I began playing. The graphics are lovely--although the sprites of Knuckles, while thorough, leave a little to be desired. Sonic's story is very well put together, but Knuckles' is a bit short. Overall, however, this is a wonderful game.
Also, this is (I believe) the only Genesis cartridge that can link to others--it can hook up to Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 so that you can play those games as Knux.
If you have a Genesis, I would recommend that you buy this game as soon as possible.

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