Hooray. We finish the Death Egg conspiracy with Sonic and Knuckles. Not much has changed since Sonic 3, apart from the fact that unfortunately, you can't play as Tails. Boo! There's also no Save File. And the game seems just a tiny bit shorter.
None of this should worry us though, as when locked on with Sonic 3 (See seperate info page for more), the two combine to create a massive game. You start from the collapse of Launch Base Zone as you continue your adventure on good, solid floating ground.
Yeah, Robotnik's still here (You wouldn't think he...wasn't would you?) and now he's really angry. Facing off with him in every two acts, with a loyal robot slave at the end of act 1 of each Zone, his anger shows with his new set of artillery. Spikes, Fire, lava, you name it, Eggman's got it at his disposal! Chase him to the Death Egg for a Final (?) Showdown! Knuckles has to contend with Eggman's Robot version of himself and onto defeat the second metal clone of Sonic throughout the series, Metallix.
With Knuckles just a liiitle bit peeved at the fact that some guy (i.e. Sonic) has almost killed him with a bomb, its no surprise that he'll do whatever he can to stop you from passing Angel Island the easy way. He's still there at points, making Sonic's life just a tiny bit less tolerable. For instance, '...here we see the hedgehog Sonic creature being taunted by a raving echidna. Now what is amazing to me is that they can stand up, which must be a huge step in the evolution chain...' in David Attenborough's words (to those U.S folks, he's a nature documentarist, if that's a word.)
As you guessed, since Sonic and Knuckles was supposed to be with Sonic 3 in the first place, it's no wonder that SEGA have kept the special stage intact from Sonic 3. If you haven't read the Sonic 3 info page yet (You...YOU HAVE, HAVEN'T YOU!!!???? ^_^), then to collect the Chaos Emeralds you must find a giant ring located anywhere in a particular zone. When you find it, jump into it and you get taken to a 3D-type world where you have to collect the blue spheres while avoiding the red. Collect all the blue spheres in a stage and you collect the Chaos Emerald. Easy, no?
Of course, only playing as Sonic throughout the whole game and not as Tails is a bit boring now, seeings as Sonic Team have moved on from the classics of Sonic 1. No, instead, they present a new playable character to play through the game and his name is... Knuckles!!! Yes, at last, you can see how the Echidna story unravels as you play through the levels. Although they are the same levels as Sonic (except for the last few ones), Knuckles can access certain areas of levels that Sonic usually cannot, because of his strength. He also has the ability to climb up walls when you double-jump against a wall, and better still is his gliding capabilities when you double-jump in an open space.
Only one qualm with this game - this is supposed to be the concluding part of Sonic 3, hence why the game in general looks so similar - the graphics, the Special Stages, etc. Therefore, you're only going to get the most out of this game if you have Sonic 3 to lock-on with it. If you do, then this game is worth getting more than anything else in the world, however if you don't, knock off about three marks from this overall score below.
Sonic Score: 10 out of 10!
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'SSNG' © Dread & Andrew. 'Dreadknux' and 'The Sonic Stadium' © Svend VJ. 'Sonic News' is © Andrew P. Content © SVJ/AP. Sonic the Hedgehog © Sega.
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