Sonic 3 & Knuckles - videogame classics

[Daniel Thomas]

My latest videogame classics review is up - Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

As always, free to share your comments about this game, or my crummy writing style if you wish.

Also, I added new screenshots for nearly all of my videogame classics reviews, so if you need to use pictures for your own use, then by all means, go ahead.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles Review (http://www.danielthomas.org/pop/classics/s3k.htm)

Here's a short excerpt from the 1,000-word piece:


"S3K is videogaming’s great double album. I say that because it is, in fact, two Genesis cartridges: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, each half released eight months apart. When Sonic 3 was released in February of 1994, we were thrilled, but a bit puzzled as to why it seemed cut short. Then when Sonic & Knuckles appeared, that sense of burnout began to set in. That cynicism set in, that sinking feeling that we were merely being worked over for a few more bucks, just as Capcom had pulled with Street Fighter 2.

"I remember being especially critical in my own fanzine at the time; the 16-bit market had become saturated with beat-em-ups, fighters, and mascot titles and we were, frankly, tired of it. Perhaps that resulted in a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater approach, which meant that we never gave late-era Genesis classics (like Gunstar Heroes, for instance) the attention they deserved."


Enjoy.

[GrayFox]

I won't lie, I enjoyed the article.

S3&K, truly is a classic. Such an amazing ride.

[Chooky]

Great article!

Mant people say that Sonic CD is their favorite, but for me S3&K was always far and away the best. Sonic 3 alone was fantastic, with huge areas, lots of secrets, and multipile pathways. Then Sonic & Knuckles came along and gave us a game as long as (and as good as) S3, and it 'added' more secrets and routes through S3! I think if the game would have been sold complete, it would have gotten more recognition as the true classic that it was.

I would play through that game over and over and over back in the day, getting all the Emeralds every time, and I never got tired of it. I think I'm going to have to hunt down a copy of the Sonic Collection and go for a trip down memory lane...

[MegaDrive20XX]

Excellent review, Sonic 3 & Knuckles was probably the most well thought out of the Sonic series, next to Sonic 2. A Hidden easter egg and that lock-on technology was brilliant to begin with, yet didn't quite catch on.

[goatdan]

I actually always thought that the lock-on cart of Sonic and Knuckles was super-smart. It was the only time that I ever really wanted a Genesis -- not just could S&K lock on to Sonic 3, but it could also lock on to Sonic 2. That meant to some of us that S&K was like buying 3 games in one -- Sonic 2 & Knuckles, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic & Knuckles.

I can understand why people didn't like having to pay for a game twice, but I felt that Sonic 3 was a solid enough game to stand on it's own definitely.

[Daniel Thomas]

The sticker shock was a real problem at the time, and I think that played a large part in my own burnout a decade ago. I don't have any of my old zines around anymore (save the first issue), but I panned Sonic & Knuckles pretty badly. But I was really venting a lot of anger at the time, which goes with the age.

Now, I can look at things with far greater clarity, and the benefit of playnig these games on an emulator means that cost is no longer an issue. I can appreciate S3K on its own merits. Also, I think my own artistic bent has influenced my thought a lot.

I also agree about Sonic CD and Sonic 2. Both are excellent games, and I'm supposed to be writing games for those reviews, too (I already have the pages and screenshots ready to go). But then again, I also have another three or four game reviews and half a dozen movie reviews to write. And, as you can tell, my writing can get a little long. How does the DP crew do it?

[SegaAges]

i enjoyed s3k. i thought it was cool. i actually thought that the s&k cart itself was awesome. not only could it be a standalone game, but it could be used to play 2 other games with knuckles, it was very cool.

[Duncan]

Great article -- especially the comparison to the music business.

[badinsults]

This may seem odd, but I don't like Sonic 3 due to the massive levels. I got the Sonic Mega Collection earlier this year, and I find that Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles pale in comparison to Sonic 1 and 2. I have tried many times to beat some levels in Sonic 3, only to be continuously frustrated by running out of time. Half the time that is due to having to repeat a section over and over because of falling down. I guess that problem is remedied by playing with knuckles in some respect, but really, it is downright frustrating to search for the end of levels sometimes if you keep being sent backwards.

[Push Upstairs]

S3+K was greatness packed in 34 megs.

Good to zip through, better to explore through.

[soniko_karuto]

This may seem odd, but I don't like Sonic 3 due to the massive levels. I got the Sonic Mega Collection earlier this year, and I find that Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles pale in comparison to Sonic 1 and 2. I have tried many times to beat some levels in Sonic 3, only to be continuously frustrated by running out of time. Half the time that is due to having to repeat a section over and over because of falling down. I guess that problem is remedied by playing with knuckles in some respect, but really, it is downright frustrating to search for the end of levels sometimes if you keep being sent backwards.

actually i haven had a hard enough time with s3 or s3k, but with sonic 1 on the labirynth zone. Actually, i've nevr had problms with sonic 3.

just one question, how old are you?

[badinsults]

This may seem odd, but I don't like Sonic 3 due to the massive levels. I got the Sonic Mega Collection earlier this year, and I find that Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles pale in comparison to Sonic 1 and 2. I have tried many times to beat some levels in Sonic 3, only to be continuously frustrated by running out of time. Half the time that is due to having to repeat a section over and over because of falling down. I guess that problem is remedied by playing with knuckles in some respect, but really, it is downright frustrating to search for the end of levels sometimes if you keep being sent backwards.

actually i haven had a hard enough time with s3 or s3k, but with sonic 1 on the labirynth zone. Actually, i've nevr had problms with sonic 3.

just one question, how old are you?

Huh? I am 22. I never had any problems with the Labirynth Zone in Sonic 1.

[soniko_karuto]

ah,i thought you were a *prince and the* new *power* generation.

i actually only seen people have problems with the 2d sonic games when they have only known from the 32 bits to now.

[Daniel Thomas]

ah,i thought you were a *prince and the* new *power* generation.

i actually only seen people have problems with the 2d sonic games when they have only known from the 32 bits to now.

There may be some truth to that. Mastering these platform games depended a lot on our experience with all the NES and 16-bit games we'd played for years. The reflexes just come easier to us. A newcomer may have to deal with learning those skills from scratch.

Still, isn't this the perfect argument for all gamers to be familiar with the classics? Imagine only watching movies or listening to music made after you were born. There's no excuse to be ignorant in the internet age.

Hey, that should be a slogan or something.

[Iron Draggon]

I thought that Sonic & Knuckles was sheer genius, and I always wanted alot more games to take advantage of Sega's lock-on technology too. I was very fortunate back in the day, so money for games was never a problem for me then, no matter how much they cost. I was first in line to buy S&K, just as I was first in line to buy Virtua Racing & Phantasy Star IV, so if Sega had come out with a game that retailed for $200, I would've just shrugged it all off as though it was nothing and plopped it right down on the counter to buy it. Those were the good old days. I can't afford to shrug that much off now.

But S&K was +1 +2 +3 for me, and I also wanted it to work with all the other Sonic games too. I was a total Sega fanboy. I had to have it all, and luckily I could afford to have it all too, so I passed up very few games and very few gadgets. If Sega made a game for Genesis, Sega CD, & 32X, which they did far more often than I really would've preferred, then I had to own that game for all 3 systems, even if it was identical on every single one of them. It didn't matter to me if it was really worth the price of admission or not, I had to have it, so I bought it all and never complained about it at all.

So don't ask me why I still don't own a Sega CDX yet, because I honestly don't know why I didn't end up with one of those too back then. I guess I just didn't consider it to be a priority at the time, because I still did have to budget some, just nowhere near as much as most people. So when S&K came out, I thought that Sega was totally showing off all their mad skillz, and fully owning Nintendon't. It wasn't until DKC came out that I finally had to abandon my Sega fanboyism and concede that the little grey box rocked too.

But the best thing for me about S&K was using Knuckles to easily climb up to reach all the goodies that I never could figure out how Sonic was supposed to get them. I still think that there's alot of stuff that must be meant only for Knuckles, because I still don't know how to get Sonic to get them too. Oh yeah, and another thing that I got a really big kick out of was doing this:

Play Sonic 3, plugged into S&K, plugged into Game Genie, plugged into 32X, plugged into Genesis 1, plugged into Sega CD 1, now what a monster that is to behold! My friends and I always joked about how the Genesis would never become obsolete, because they could always just keep on stacking it up! LOL

So yeah, Sega's lock-on technology still rocks hardcore! It's just a shame that they never used it with any other games after that, but in a way that makes it even more cool too, because it had never been done before and it hasn't been done since and it will probably never be done again. It's just awesome!

[badinsults]

ah,i thought you were a *prince and the* new *power* generation.

i actually only seen people have problems with the 2d sonic games when they have only known from the 32 bits to now.

Well, I never owned a genesis, so I never played the Sonic games until I bought the collection disc last year. And how could you assume that I never played 16 bit games when I run a huge Super Nintendo website?

[soniko_karuto]

ah,i thought you were a *prince and the* new *power* generation.

i actually only seen people have problems with the 2d sonic games when they have only known from the 32 bits to now.

Well, I never owned a genesis, so I never played the Sonic games until I bought the collection disc last year. And how could you assume that I never played 16 bit games when I run a huge Super Nintendo website?

because there are roms. and the snes isn't challeging.

*sits and waits for flames*

[Push Upstairs]

I likes me Genesis alot...but SNES has Turtles in Time.


Turtles in Time rocks hard.