The 4th and final Mega Drive
Sonic game is quite a special one. For a start the packing is
nothing like all the other Japanese Mega Drive games. This comes
in a card box quite similar to those used for Sega 32X games. The
cartridge that you can see below is also completely different as well.
This is the only Mega Drive cartridge to feature a "lock on" option.
What this does is allow you to add other cartridges to Sonic & Knuckles
in order to enhance the game play and unlock extras or at least that's
how Sega put it. The lock on feature only works with Sonic 2 and 3
however. What this does is allow you to play as Knuckles in Sonic
2 or 3 even though he wasn't originally available in those games.
This time the game focuses on
Sonic as well as Knuckles, who was not yet playable in Sonic 3. Instead
however, Tails has now been removed from play. Essentially there are two
separate games to tackle, depending on which character is selected at
the start of the game. Although the appearance of the zones is the same
for either character, their layout and some of the bosses' tricks
differs noticeably at a number of points in the game, increasing from
the Lava Reef Zone onwards. However, the style of play does not differ
significantly from one character to the next as it does, for example, in
Sonic Adventure.
Sonic 3 with Sonic & Knuckles
In Sonic 3 & Knuckles also known as Sonic 3 & Knuckles (often referred
to as the "complete" version of Sonic 3 by Sonic fans). There are four
immediate differences:
The player can play as Knuckles in the Sonic 3 levels. After the
levels of Sonic 3 are finished, play continues straight to the levels of
Sonic & Knuckles. The player can play as Tails in the Sonic &
Knuckles levels. Game progress can be saved in Sonic & Knuckles
using Sonic 3's save feature (there are now 8 rather than 6 save slots).
Once the player picks a character and starts playing, more differences
become apparent. Passing a star post can now open up 3 bonus games,
including the slot machine stage (20 rings required) and the magnetic
orbs stage (35–49 rings required) from Sonic & Knuckles as well as the
gumball machine (50–65 rings required) from Sonic 3. Knuckles' levels
are divergent from Sonic's and Tails' in most cases, with new areas and
bosses. Sonic and Tails skip the final boss of Launch Base while
Knuckles still has to do it although he skips the first true boss of
Launch Base. The Sonic & Knuckles levels are the same, except that
Mushroom Hill now has an intro. Sonic 3 & Knuckles save files conserve
lives and continues, as well. In addition, Knuckles' theme music has
also changed as well as that of the mid-level bosses. Other tunes such
as the 1-Up fanfare and title screen have also been changed to the S&K
version. Monitor (power up) placement and type change when the games are
combined. Also, an extra Chaos Emerald bonus stage has been added to the
linked game—it is not present in either of the two separately. This
stage and it's Super Emerald counterpart give a Golden (Seriously)
Emerald that acts as an emerald of that kind, but is not recorded in the
save data nor does it appear with the Chaos or Super Emeralds.
Super Tails in Mushroom Hill Zone. Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in
the levels of Sonic 3 will turn Sonic or Knuckles into Super Sonic or
Super Knuckles. However, once the player enters their first Special
level in Mushroom Hill Zone (which is almost impossible to miss with
Knuckles since it's in his way), they teleport to Hidden Palace where
the emeralds are transformed into gray "Super Emeralds", thus beginning
the Super Emerald quest. Super Emeralds can only be collected if the
player has collected all of the Chaos Emeralds prior to reaching
Mushroom Hill Zone. (Nothing happens in Hidden Palace otherwise.) In
addition, both Knuckles and Sonic can now power-up and go "hyper" once
they have obtained both the Chaos Emeralds and the Super Emeralds.
Tails cannot normally gain emerald powers but does so when he collects
all Super Emeralds, taking on the form of Super Tails. He has no "hyper"
form but simply remains "super" with some extra powers. Taking care to
avoid all the Special levels (the one after the cut-scene in
particular), it is possible to finish the game with only the 7 Chaos
Emeralds, retaining their "super" powers until the very end of the game.
In this case the game endings will resemble the "good" endings from
Sonic & Knuckles. This allows for a total of nine different endings—each
character (Sonic and Tails together have the same as Sonic alone) has
one with 0–6 Chaos Emeralds, one with all 7 Chaos emeralds, and the
third with all 14 Chaos and Super Emeralds. If the Super Emeralds have
been attempted, but not found, the game will revert to the "bad" (0–6
Chaos) ending.
Sonic 2 with Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic 2 & Knuckles also known as Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the
Hedgehog 2, this game is identical to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (aside from a
few changes to make it more playable with Knuckles) but with Knuckles
now playable instead of Sonic or Tails. The title screen features
Knuckles and the only option is "start" (Options or versus mode have
been disabled). There are no new zones. The only differences in gameplay
are that Knuckles can explore once inaccessible areas (where secrets
such as 1-ups have been added for Knuckles), some areas are harder
because Knuckles can't jump very high and accelerates slowly (in
particular, the final boss is regarded as being much more difficult to
beat while playing as Knuckles), and Knuckles retains his rings after a
Special Stage, making it much easier to obtain Chaos Emeralds. Getting
the Emeralds is easier too, for the Special Stages have reduced Ring
quotas for Knuckles to achieve.
Any other Sega game with Sonic & Knuckles
Opening of the Blue Sphere mini-game. By placing the first Sonic game,
or most other Sega games inside, a "No way? No way!" screen will pop up
with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik making odd faces; telling you
the cartridge is supposedly incompatible. But, by pressing the A, B, and
C buttons together, a mini game based on the Chaos Emerald bonus levels
is unlocked, called Blue Sphere. There are 134,217,728 of these levels.
Only by locking the original Sonic the Hedgehog game (the Sonic
Compilation works as well) in the Sonic & Knuckles cart, one can play
through *all* the stages. The other Genesis games will only play one
level each, which will infinitely repeat. Despite being near randomly
generated, the levels are playable for the most part, even if many bits
and pieces of levels get recycled.
In Sonic Jam and Sonic Mega Collection, Blue Sphere is playable as a
separate game. Sonic Jam allows you to play it by choosing to play Sonic
& Knuckles and then choosing to "lock it on" with Sonic 1. In Mega
Collection, the game has to be unlocked separately.
In September 11, 2005, a Sonic game modifier named Stealth created a
hack that allowed you to play Knuckles in Sonic 1 called Knuckles the
Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog, with all of Knuckles' unique abilities
intact.
Playing these levels via a game with battery back erases saved games.
Additionally, games made after Sonic & Knuckles was released will not
work with its lock-on feature. There are only a few games made before
Sonic & Knuckles that do not work, such as Phantasy Star IV.
Information
taken from Wikipedia
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