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Sonic 3 & Knuckles

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alt title(s): Sonic 3 And Knuckles; Sonic The Hedgehog3; Sonic And Knuckles; Sonic 3
It's not polite to point, Sonic.

Sega's third 16-bit entry in the Sonic The Hedgehog series, and the followup to the wildly popular Sonic The Hedgehog 2, was so epic that time and hardware constraints forced them to split it into two separate games:

Sonic The Hedgehog 3, released February 2, 1994, covered the first half of the game, with gameplay as Sonic, Tails, or both. Knuckles the Echidna, the final member of Sonic and Tails' Power Trio, made his debut in this game, but as an antagonist rather than a playable character.

Sonic & Knuckles, released October that same year, covered the second half of the game, including Knuckles' Heel Face Turn, and allowed gameplay as either title character (but not Tails).

The game also featured "Lock-on Technology"—a slot on top of the cartridge, in which another Mega Drive / Genesis cartridge could be inserted. By connecting the Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles cartridges this way, the two could be played as one complete story, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, with all three characters playable for the entirety, as was originally intended.

When playing as Sonic or Tails, the plot picks up right where the Genesis Sonic 2 left off. Dr. Robotnik's Death Egg, just recently destroyed by Sonic, crash-lands on the mysterious Angel Island (or Floating Island, as the American game manuals called it). Sonic and Tails follow, intending to stop Robotnik from rebuilding the Death Egg. Not one minute after landing, Sonic gets a face full of fist, courtesy of the island's native inhabitant: Knuckles, the last surviving Echidna and protector of the Master Emerald whose power keeps Angel Island aloft. Knuckles is convinced that Sonic is a thief who intends to steal said Emerald. Why? Because Robotnik told him.

So while Sonic and Tails thwart Robotnik, Knuckles waylays them with traps and all around acts as a thorn in their side. This finally comes to a head when everyone reaches the Hidden Palace: Robotnik steals the Master Emerald and electrocutes Knuckles for trying to stop him. Knuckles realizes he's been had, and immediately joins Team Sonic, showing them how to get out of the Hidden Palace and onto the Death Egg.

The plot of Knuckles' game covers most of the same levels as Sonic's, and features the Echidna fighting one of Robotnik's EggRobos—rather than the Doc himself—piloting souped-up versions of the level bosses. This culminates with a battle in the clouds against a Master Emerald-powered Mecha Sonic. It's a bit unclear when this all occurs in relation to the plot of Sonic's game. Official sources, such as the game manuals, imply that both plots occur simultaneously. However, in-game details appear to contradict this  *, and suggest that Knuckles' plot begins shortly after the end of Sonic's plot.

The gameplay represented further Sequel Escalation compared to Sonic 2: The top speeds were even faster, the levels were even larger, and for the first time every Act featured a boss fight.  * There was more focus on plot as well—Knuckles' antagonism towards Sonic and Tails was shown through a number of in-level, wordless cut scenes, and every level ends with a brief scene of the characters traveling to the next level.

A number of game mechanics made their Sonic debut here as well, such as a game save feature and specialized shields. The Special Stages from Sonic 2, where the Chaos Emeralds could be won, were revamped, and three different Bonus Stages were introduced, where extra rings and powerups could be collected. Cast Speciation (first introduced in the previous year's 8-bit title Sonic Chaos) was further developed: Sonic could make use of a brief, midair "Insta-Shield", and do a special attack while having one of the shields (a double-jump with the lightning shield, a bounce attack with the bubble shield, a fiery charge attack with the fire shield); Tails could fly; and Knuckles could glide and climb sheer walls, but couldn't run as fast or jump as high as Sonic.

Sonic & Knuckles' lock-on technology also worked with the Sonic The Hedgehog 2 cartridge, allowing you can play Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic The Hedgehog 2. The developers attempted to implement a similar feature with the original Sonic The Hedgehog, but found that Knuckles' color palette was incompatible with the game's (though a fan hack eventually proved that Knuckles could indeed be implemented in Sonic 1). Instead, combining the two cartridges gives you the Blue Sphere minigame with many, many, many, many, many, many variations on the Special Stage.

Provides examples of:

  • Advancing Boss Of Doom / Advancing Wall Of Doom / Descending Ceiling / Fixed Scrolling Level / Get Back Here Boss / Rise To The Challenge: There's a higher concentration of "keep moving or die!" scenes here than in any other Sonic game.
    • The fixed-scrolling scene with the bomber airship in Angel Island Zone Act 2.
    • The wall of doom in Hydrocity Zone Act 2.
    • The collapsing ceiling in Marble Garden Zone Act 2.
    • The rising water level in Knuckles' version of Launch Base Zone Act 2.
    • The fixed-scrolling boss fight in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2.
    • The crumbling airship in Flying Battery Zone Act 2.
    • The rising sand sequences in Sandopolis Zone Act 2. The boss of the level is an advancing mecha, which crushes you against a wall if you take too long to defeat it.
    • The pre-boss fight forced-scrolling scene in Lava Reef Zone Act 2.
    • Robotnik's screen-filling, inexorably advancing mecha in Death Egg Zone Act 2. After defeating it, you chase Robotnik's Eggmobile, carrying the Master Emerald, while the platform collapses behind you.
    • Pretty much the entirety of The Doomsday Zone.
    • Even one of the bonus levels feature this, with a glowing, upward-climbing double helix that ends the level if you touch it.
  • Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Flying Battery Zone; the Flying Battery also tries to bomb Sonic in Angel Island Zone.
  • Amusement Park Of Doom: Carnival Night Zone. Also, Balloon Park from the 2-player mode.
    • This is very literal in the minds of many when you consider THAT DAMN BARREL!
  • Another Side Another Story
  • Bag Of Spilling: The good ending of Sonic 2 is used as the canon one, with the opening cutscene showing Super Sonic briefly before Knuckles punches the emeralds out of him and takes them away.
  • Batman Can Breathe In Space: Death Egg Zone Act 2, and Doomsday Zone.
  • Because Destiny Says So: The mosaics in the background of Hidden Palace Zone are clearly a stylized depiction of Super Sonic's fight with the final boss.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: In Sandopolis Zone Act 2.
  • Blackout Basement: Carnival Night Zone Act 2 (for Sonic and Tails), and Sandopolis Zone Act 2.
  • Bonus Stage: Unique among Sonic games for having two types:
    • "Special Stages:" A 3D maze where you must "Get Blue Spheres". Finishing earns you a Chaos Emerald. Accessible via giant rings hidden in the levels.
    • "Bonus Stages:" Stages for collecting rings and powerups. Accessible via a circle of starts that appear if you pass a star post with 15 or more rings.
  • Boss Rush: Sky Sanctuary Zone.
  • Breather Level: Hidden Palace Zone.
  • Cast Speciation
  • Convection Shmonvection: Two-thirds of Angel Island Zone is in the middle of a massive forest fire, yet the characters don't seem to mind. And naturally, Lava Reef Zone's lava only hurts you if you actually touch it.
    • Of course, you can stand on the lava just fine if you have a fire shield.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: It's a Genesis Sonic game. So pretty much the entire soundtrack qualifies. What's really cool is that, rather than using the same music twice per Zone, each Act 2 features a remixed version of the Act 1 theme.
    • The Ice Cap Zone theme seems to be particularly popular, if its status on OverClocked Remix as one of the most-remixed tracks, ever, is any indication.
      • The soundtrack also got additional respect once word got out that Michael Jackson's sound crew partially composed it. Many parts of each song are either heavily sampled from or inspired by his Dangerous album and standalone tracks.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Tails played like a Palette Swapped Sonic in the last game. He begins to diverge here; his speed and jump height have been reduced compared to Sonic, but players can now control his ability to fly.
  • Down The Drain: Hydrocity Zone.
  • Dummied Out: Much of Knuckles' content is present in the Sonic 3 cartridge, but can't be accessed without attaching it to the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge. Also happens in reverse: In the combined game, when you play Launch Base Zone (the final level of Sonic 3) as Sonic or Tails, the game skips over the original final boss of the level. Though you do still fight it if you play as Knuckles.
  • Eleventh Hour Superpower: Sonic goes into Super Mode to fight the Perfect Run Final Boss. Though it's less of an Ass Pull, because the player could use the same super mode in any earlier level of the game.
  • Eternal Engine: Flying Battery Zone, Death Egg Zone. Also Chrome Gadget from the 2-player mode.
  • Game Breaker: If Super Sonic or Super Knuckles broke the game, then Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails took the pieces and ground them into a microscopic powder. This is most likely the reason that subsequent Sonic games tended to reserve the Super Modes solely for the final boss battle.
  • Get Back Here Boss: In Mushroom Hill Act 2.
  • Goddamned Bats: The scorpions in Sandopolis Zone.
  • Good Bad Bugs
  • Gotta Catch Em All: Both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles have 7 Chaos Emeralds to collect. So Sonic 3 & Knuckles features 14 Chaos Emeralds to collect. The second set of 7 emeralds are referred to as Super Emeralds—and subsequent Sonic games have ignored them.
  • Gravity Screw: Used extensively in Death Egg Zone.
    • And the antigravity platforms in Carnival Night.
  • Green Rocks / Mineral Mac Guffin: The Master Emerald and the various Chaos Emeralds.
  • Guide Dangit: There is one point in Carnival Night Zone, Act 2, where a red-and-white barrel (the Barrel Of Doom!) is blocking the path. The only way to proceed is by standing on the barrel and pressing up and down on the D-pad as the barrel wobbles. There's nothing in the game itself to suggest this. (Check out the fun illustration at Guide Dangit.)
    • Or you can rhythmically jump until there's just enough room to jump off and spin dash through. It's a horrible, sad, sinking feeling when you find out that there was an easier way to do that bit than the way you'd been doing so for five years.
      • It's possible to do that with that barrel? That's news to me; I tried bouncing it for years and never got past; nine years later, I finally read about the "up-down" command.
    • In fact, the official strategy guide to Sonic 3 does not even mention this obstacle.
  • Hailfire Peaks:
  • Hand Wave: What the instruction manual does in regards to certain glitches, where Mercy Invincibility could cause you to get stuck in certain places and be forced to reset the console, handwaving them as one of the "many diabolical traps" set up by Robotnik.
  • Harmless Freezing: Averted in Ice Cap Zone.
  • Hero Antagonist: Knuckles, initially.
  • High Altitude Battle: All the final bosses.
    • Also, the boss of Marble Garden Zone Act 2, which is fought by having Tails fly Sonic to chase after it.
  • Human Cannonball: A common level feature in Carnival Night Zone.
  • Inconveniently Placed Conveyor Belt: Hydrocity Zone, Death Egg Zone.
  • Invisible Wall: Appears in a cut scene in Carnival Night Act 2, and just before the first boss battle in Launch Base Act 2.
    • Note that in the latter case, if you can get enough height off of the cannonball-launching ramp, or if you're playing Super or Hyper Sonic, you can actually jump over the invisible wall, making the boss a trivial matter.
  • Kill It With Fire: In Angel Island Zone, Robotnik tries to kill Sonic by firebombing the jungle.
    • Then at the end of Lava Reef, he uses the Death Egg's eye lasers to reignite the volcano with Sonic in the middle.
  • Kobayashi Mario: The Special Stage game you get when locking Sonic & Knuckles with Sonic The Hedgehog.
  • Lets You And Him Fight: Knuckles vs. Sonic and Tails.
  • Lethal Lava Land: Lava Reef Zone, Act 1.
    • Act 2 still as well, there's still PLENTY of fire and firey obstacles.
  • Logo Joke: In Sonic 3, the Sega logo remains in place as a blue ball blazes towards the camera before revealing itself to be Sonic, followed by a white flash that leads into the title screen. In Sonic & Knuckles, the Sega logo remains as the background turns into Angel Island, splits apart as the Sonic and the Death Egg land on the ground below, and viola, title screen.
  • The Lost Woods: Mushroom Hill Zone.
  • Magikarp Power: While Sonic and Knuckles unlock their Super Mode after getting 7 emeralds, Tails doesn't unlock his until he collects all 14 emeralds. However, his Super Tails abilities—particularly the four birds who will attack any enemies or bosses in Tails' vicinity—are even more of a Game Breaker than Hyper Sonic or Hyper Knuckles.
    • To elaborate: you can literally kill bosses just by standing in one spot (since you're invincible) and letting the birds kill the boss for you.
  • Mutually Exclusive Powerups: The three shields.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Sandopolis Act 2's ghosts.
  • Nostalgia Level: Hidden Palace Zone is a treat for those who had been wondering about that level that only existed as a song in the options menu of Sonic 2. The giant ceiling laser from Flying Battery Zone is clearly a reference to That One Boss from Sonic 2's Wing Fortress Zone. In Sky Sanctuary Zone, you fight a rehash of the wrecking-ball boss from Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone, and the boss with the spinning things from Sonic 2's Metropolis Zone.  *
  • One Up Sampo: Those alarm lights that trigger flying enemies in Launch Base Zone. Hold down a spin dash in one of those alarms, and a constant stream of enemies will fly right into you and be destroyed.
  • One Game For The Price Of Two
  • Poison Mushroom: The powerup monitors with Robotnik's face on them.
  • Pop Star Composer: Michael Jackson was brought in to compose music for Sonic 3... just before the allegations of child molestation surfaced. Rumors abound, but it's unknown how much, if any, of Jacko's contributions made it into the final game.
    • I don't think anyone can deny he must have had something to do with the miniboss theme, at the very least.
  • Power Floats: Super Mecha Sonic.
  • Puzzle Boss: Hoo boy.
    • Carnival Night Act 1: You hit the boss to make it expose its weak point, but the actual damage is done when the bouncing spike platform collides with it.
    • Flying Battery Act 1: You trick the boss into hitting itself.
    • Flying Battery Act 2: The miniboss is a laser in the ceiling; you dodge it until it completely tears up the airship.
    • Sandopolis Act 1: You beat it by knocking it into a quicksand pit.
    • Lava Reef Act 2: You survive until Robotnik's own attacks destroy his machine.
    • Death Egg Act 2: You defeat the first boss by manipulating gravity to hit it with its own mini-bots.
    • Doomsday: You maneuver so the Robotnik-mecha's own missiles hit it in the face.
  • Quicksand Sucks: Sandopolis Zone, and Desert Palace Zone from the 2-player mode. Also, Marble Garden Zone featured tar-like stuff that behaved the same way as the other examples of quicksand.
  • Recurring Riff: The "Level Clear" music from this game has been reused by many other Sonic games, and even shows up as Sonic's victory music in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
  • Sand Worm: Wormlike badniks in Sandopolis.
  • Scenery Porn: Beautiful pixel art, and impressive parallax scrolling on the backgrounds.
  • Secret Level / True Final Boss: Doomsday Zone, which is only accessible if you beat Death Egg zone as Sonic, with 7 or more Chaos Emeralds, and is just an extended fight with Robotnik's final Egg-Mecha.
    • Also in the other levels, many nooks and crannies are only accessible if you're playing as the right character.
  • Segmented Serpent: Flying enemies in Angel Island, sand worms in Sandopolis, and flying enemies again in Lava Reef. Hitting them anywhere besides the head will injure you.
  • Sequence Breaking: It's possible for Tails to skip a few midbosses simply by flying past the area where you fight them.
  • Shifting Sand Land: Sandopolis Zone. And Desert Palace from the 2-player mode.
  • Slippy Slidey Ice World: Ice Cap Zone.
  • Spell My Name With An S: So, is the Special Stage game you get when locking on Sonic & Knuckles with Sonic 1 called Blue Sphere or Blue Spheres?
  • Stalked By The Bell: In any level, you die if the timer runs out. Also, there's the ghosts that attack in Sandopolis Act 2, if the lights are left off too long. And in Doomsday Zone, Super Sonic loses one ring every second; if his rings run out, so does the Super mode, and he falls out of the sky to his death.
  • Story Driven Invulnerability: Robotnik in Hidden Palace Zone.
  • Stop Helping Me: Tails, when he's tagging along with Sonic. If you get a friend to control Tails with the player 2 controller, he can be extremely helpful. But if the AI controls Tails, then he'll get in your way, collapse platforms that you want to use, attack enemies and bosses half a second before you do (so they'll have Mercy Invincibility by the time you hit them), and all-around make a nuisance of himself.
  • Super Drowning Skills: Tails can swim. Knuckles can glide in the water. Sonic sinks like a rock.
  • Super Not Drowning Skills: Bestowed by a Bubble Shield. Fridge Logic dictates that gas exchange between the water and the giant air bubble would not be able to keep up with Sonic's respiration, so Sonic would still run out of air, but who cares?
    • Also, while the Super forms can't breathe underwater, the Hyper forms can.
  • Super Mode: In addition to the usual Super Sonic, it's also possible to play as Super Knuckles. And if you collect the all 14 Emeralds you can become Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, or Super Tails.
  • Temple Of Doom: Marble Garden Zone, Hidden Palace Zone.
  • That One Boss: If you're playing as Tails solo, Marble Garden Act 2.
  • That One Level: Carnival Night Zone, Act 2. Aside from the Guide Dangit mentioned above, the level seems designed to waste your time, so that you'll invariably run out the timer while fighting Robotnik (unless you use Sonic's insta-shield against him).
    • You mention Carnival Night, which isn't even that bad barrel withstanding, and not Sandopolis? That level really wastes your time, and the ghosts in Act 2 really get on your nerves after a while.
  • This Is A Drill: All of the bosses from Marble Garden Zone.
    • And a drilling robot in Lava Reef Act 1.
  • Underground Level: Endless Mine from 2-player mode.
  • Underwater Boss Battle: The Hydrocity Zone
  • Underwater Ruins: Hydrocity Zone again.
  • Unwinnable By Mistake: When playing as Sonic with Tails tagging along, it's possible to glitch Tails off-screen so he doesn't return. Doing so in Marble Garden Zone makes it impossible to fight the boss.
  • Walk On Water: You can run across the surface in Hydrocity.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Fire shields let you run over molten magma and lightning shields make you a ring magnet, but both are immediately canceled if you touch water. Annoying in the Sonic 3 portion, with water in 5 of its 6 zones, but not once you reach the Sonic & Knuckles levels which has have no water sections at all.
  • Weaponized Exhaust: If the boss uses a rocket to fly, it can use that rocket to hurt you.
  • Weather Control Machine: Featured in Mushroom Hill Act 2.
  • X Ray Sparks: When Knuckles gets electrocuted.

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