I actually got Sonic & Knuckles for the genesis one year for my Christmas without ever having heard of, let alone played, Sonic 3. Having been an avid fan of the first two games in the series i feverishly ripped open the box and set about playing the adventure without so much of a thank you to parents or Santa. I guess this just highlighted the extent of my addiction to video games even from a young age. And unfortunately for those relatives trying to wean me off the consoles this game only assisted in solidifying my love of games.
Sonic & Knuckles was, at the time, the most graphically impressive game i had ever laid my eyes on. Sonic had been completely redrawn and animated better than ever. Knuckles was even more impressive offering a completely different game experience entirely. With the gliding and climbing abilities knuckles allowed players to reach previously unavailable locations which essentially meant the you could play through the same level as each character and have completely different experiences.
Level design in this game is inspired. Zones differ greatly from the Mushroom Hill's lush environments and high speed all the way to the gravity shifting, extremely difficultly of the Death Egg zone this game had it all. In addition to being varied the environments also kept true to their theme and had unique enemys and environmental traps - such as quicksand or lava waterfalls - for each area that never seem out of place.
The boss fights are definitely worthy of a mention on their own merit. At the end of every stage (or Act) you were given a completely new boss to fight . At the end of Act 1 f each Zone you were treated to a mini-boss and then Act 2 there was a harder (and usually much bigger) boss to contend with. This is where another difference character choice became apparent because whereas Sonic fights his arch rival - the egg-eating, robot building, madman Robotnick - Knuckles goes toe-to-toe with Egg Robo (A creation of Robotnicks) Who often employed different and sometimes considerably more difficult tactics in the boss fights.
This stands on its own merits as a great game but things get even better when you take into account the lock on feature. You are able to take previous games in the Sonic series and plug them into Sonic & Knuckles in order to unlock Knuckles as a playable character. With Sonic 2 connected it allows you to play through the entire game as Knuckles which is exciting enough in its own right but the real cherry on the cake comes from connecting Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles together.
This creates Sonic 3 & Knuckles and is a markedly bigger change than that of the Sonic 2 connection. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the game SEGA and Sonic Team set out to make before time constraints forced them to be released as separate cartridges. This allows you not only brings over the save feature from Sonic 3. But also allows you to play through the entire two games (both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles) as Sonic, Knuckles, Sonic & Tails or Tails. Furthermore the combination also allows you to collect 14 Emeralds. In each of the two games there are 7 hidden emeralds to collect but only when you have obtained all 14 do you gain access to Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles or Super Tails. For anyone who isn't aware this is puts your character into a powered up state where he is faster and invincible. That's all well and good for fun but when playing as Sonic this gives you access to the secret final Level - The Doomsday Zone. Only by collecting the emeralds ad completing this Zone do you get the best of the games multiple endings.
Now i may sound like a blind sonic fanatic, and maybe i am. But the fact of the matter is this. This is one of the best games ever made and it is only improved with the addition of Sonic 3 to the mix. If you never played this game (or even if you only played either Sonic 3 or Sonic and Knuckles independently) you owe it to yourself to check out this game. It still offers endless fun, loads of replayability and is reason in and of itself to go out and buy a genesis again. I did!
