Released October 18th, 1994, this was the last true Sonic title to be released for Sega’s 16-bit console. This title is also seen by many to be the first “expansion pack” ever to be released for a console.

Sonic & Knuckles featured “Lock-on Technology. Sega claimed that this was going to change console gaming, they even had a patent on it. The odd-mushroom shaped Sonic & Knuckles cartridge had a port on the top of it to accept other Genesis games to “lock-on” to it.

When locked-on to the original Sonic platformer game which changed the genre for ever, by pressing A+B+C+START gamers gained access to over 100 Sonic 3-esque “collect the blue spheres” bonus stages. If Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was locked-on Knuckles would be a playable character throughout the entire game. If Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was locked on not only would Knuckles be a playable character in the game, but Knuckles could take different paths through the Sonic 3 levels. In addition to that Sonic & Knuckles added seven new levels to Sonic 3 for Knuckles and Tails, and eight new levels for Sonic, not to mention new power-ups for both Sonic and tails.

Of course, Sonic & Knuckles is also a stand-alone title. All seven additional Sonic 3 stages are available with just the Sonic & Knuckles cart inserted into the Genesis, but only Sonic and Knuckles are playable characters. It should also be noted that Sonic & Knuckles progress can not be saved unless it is locked-on to the Sonic 3 game.

Graphically Sonic & Knuckles demonstrates the best that the Genesis had to offer. With the Genesis Sega may not have been able to match the amount of colors that their nearest competitor, Super Nintendo, could display on screen, but the sheer speed of Sonic is something that no other 16-bit system could hope to match. The musical score of Sonic & Knuckles is something that is to be expected from any Sonic title.

An all around great game, no Genesis owner or Sonic fan should be with out this title. It’s too bad that the revolutionary lock-on technology never spread past this singular game. A lock-on cartridge was announced for another platformer, Dynamite Headdy, however, those plans never materialized, perhaps forgotten as the game industry made it’s transition from 16 to 32/64 bit.

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