Together Retro: Sonic & Knuckles

[dsheinem]

S&K is the what In Utero was to Nirvana records. Rushed and ugly.

It's a good thing I already have no respect for your views of music, or we'd have to stop being friends now.

[CFFJR]

Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles try to find a balance between the two and in my opinion at least it largely succeeds.

That's probably why those two are far and away my favorite.

I'll check out the video later, don't have time at the moment I'm afraid.

And the special stages? Do you even get chaos emeralds?

14 of them.

I have a feeling he's mixing up the bonus stages with the special stages.

Luke, if you're entering these stages by way of the checkpoint star posts a la Sonic 2, those are simply bonus stages for rings and power ups.

The special stages for collecting the Chaos Emeralds are entered by finding giant rings hidden in the levels.

[Gunstar Green]

I didn't even think of it that way. Yeah I can understand being confused about the Star Posts after Sonic 2.

[Luke]

It's a good thing I already have no respect for your views of music, or we'd have to stop being friends now.

Incesticide. Best studio Nirvana album ever.

Luke, if you're entering these stages by way of the checkpoint star posts a la Sonic 2, those are simply bonus stages for rings and power ups.

The special stages for collecting the Chaos Emeralds are entered by finding giant rings hidden in the levels.

Hidden bonus rings for special stages?

I now hate this game on a new level, even before I knew this installment has 14 emeralds.

This game is such a cash grab and so lazy that I doubt I'll ever get into it. I will play Sonic, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD every year, but after CD I don't find the games to be captivating or have that imagination and creativity that reeled me in. Call it a gimmick, call it originality, it's in your perception.

Even with Sonic 2 thought "Pull it back a bit", but kids love "Eggman".

That all in mind, I'll still play this one to the end.

[Gunstar Green]

Well, 7 if you're only playing the Sonic & Knuckles half. Combined with 3 it's 14.

The special stage rings aren't hidden very well, I prefer it to forcing you to horde rings though I can see an argument for that toning down the difficulty.

The difference here is the Chaos Emeralds didn't do a whole lot in the other games where in this one you need them to fight the true final boss.

[dogman91]

Lol, just because it's not your taste doesn't mean it's a "lazy cash grab". I have the complete opposite opinion of everything you said btw for the record, in regards to gameplay, graphics and sound... the best in the series.

[MrPopo]

S&K narrowly edges out Sonic 2 for best Robotnik music in my book.

[Luke]

The difference here is the Chaos Emeralds didn't do a whole lot in the other games ...

Hidden levels in a speed based game? Ugh.

Plus the chaos emeralds did do a whole lot. Like, the actual ending, actually beating the game, plus Super Sonic.

[emwearz]

Something interesting I found out today.

Sonic 3 (PAL) is PAL optimized, playing it in 60hz utterly breaks it because of the tweaks.

Sonic and Knuckles (PAL) is not PAL optimized, playing it in 60hz makes it run smooth, etc.

Sonic 3 (PAL) piggy backing on Sonic and Knuckles (PAL) is not PAL optimized and plays perfectly at 60hz.

I found this totally bizarre. It means to play Sonic 3 by itself I need to bust out my PAL Megadrive as I use a Genesis 2 for most of my MD/Genny gaming.

Would people suggest playing Sonic 3, then Sonic and Knuckles, then S3&K? Or am I getting the full experience of all of the above by just playing S3&K?

[Gunstar Green]

I recommend the full experience all at once. It's the way it was intended.

You're not missing anything by doing that except three pieces of music and one is the extremely annoying Sonic 3 invincibility theme. The others are the minor boss music and Sonic 3's end theme.