Retro Review – Sonic 3 & Knuckles

<p><em>Sonic 3 <&sol;em><em>&amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> is an epic end to a stellar trilogy&period; Everything about this game is epic&comma; big&comma; and in your face&period; <em>Sonic <&sol;em>and <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> are incredible games in their own right but <em>this<&sol;em> is Sega displaying absolute mastery of Sonic and his world&period; If I ever find Doc Brown&comma; one of the things I would have him help with is bringing <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> back to Sonic Team in 1990&period; Again&comma; these are all amazing games but the confidence of Sonic Team is just overwhelming and so apparent as you play through <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em>&period;  The formula was crafted with the original <em>Sonic<&sol;em> and then perfected with <em>Sonic 2&period; <&sol;em>Now it was time to go all out and have as much polish as humanly and technically possible and damn it&comma; that&&num;8217&semi;s exactly was Sega did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111415" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111415" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111415 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;12160158&sol;Sonic--1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111415" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> begins right where <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> ended and it wastes no time in establishing key characters and the intro to the story&period; Knuckles shows up and steals the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic and Tails&period; You need to&comma; of course&comma; get them back&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s it for now and that&&num;8217&semi;s all you need&period; Now you are treated with some beautiful visuals and incredible graphical effects as you traverse across <em>Angel Island<&sol;em> to get back those Chaos Emeralds&excl; I love a great story but it&&num;8217&semi;s also impressive when a gameplay-focused game is able to manage minimal story in the background and with such ease&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now&comma; story may not be the main focus here but what you have is a story of epic proportions that takes place in between expertly crafted levels that are woven beautifully into the fabric of this masterpiece&period; The key takeaway here is the presentation of this entire package&semi; the story and gameplay work side by side and are lifted by a flawless and polished presentation&period; There are very few games that were designed as deliberately and wonderfully as this game&period; The story can be explained and told within a few sentences but the journey as you experience it all is impossible to communicate&period; <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> is a game that needs to be played to be fully understood&period; In essence&comma; Sonic is&comma; of course&comma; trying to get the Chaos Emeralds back from Dr&period; Robotnik but Knuckles has been tricked into believing Sonic just wants the Emeralds for himself&period; Knuckles spends a great deal of time fighting against Sonic and delaying him with traps&comma; but in the end they realize they&&num;8217&semi;re both fighting against the same thing&colon; Robotnik and his evil schemes&period; They are able to come together and stop evil once and for all&&num;8230&semi; well for now&semi; I mean&comma; if Robotnik stays defeated how will we ever get to play future entries in the series&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111417" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111417" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111417 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;12160644&sol;Sonic-21-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111417" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The Genesis&&num;8217&semi; hardware gets to shine so much here&period; This is more than a beautiful Sonic game &&num;8211&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a beautiful game&period; The graphics shine and pop with such vibrant colors and just impressive graphical effects&period; There are times I died playing this game as a kid because I was distracted by just how great it looked&excl; It&&num;8217&semi;s aged very well and&comma; while most 16-bit games have&comma; this is a prime example of those that did&period; <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> features fire&comma; explosions&comma; and so many other awesome effects that will impress and immerse the player in Sonic&&num;8217&semi;s battle against evil&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> also features catchy music that will get stuck in your head&period; My personal favorite in terms of music will always be <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> but there is a lot of great music here and it really helps add to the immersion&period; Sega did a great job in making sure the sound effects were great too&period; The sounds of <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> do a great job of feeling as big and complete as the graphics and presentation do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles <&sol;em> is a must play experience that all gamers need to familiarize themselves with&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a gem from an extremely important part of gaming history&period; There are plenty of other great games on the Genesis&comma; and from the 16-Bit era for that matter&comma; but this is the explosion at the end of a long and winding road that Sonic ran through on one of most incredible journeys in gaming&period; This game needs to be played for its importance to be fully known&period; After you finish it&comma; you can experience more within the worlds of <em>Sonic 2 <&sol;em>and <em>Sonic 3<&sol;em> with the &&num;8216&semi;Lock-On&&num;8217&semi; technology Sega created to add even more oomph to their Blue Blur&&num;8217&semi;s series&period; With this technology&comma; extra levels and features could be added to <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> and <em>Sonic 3<&sol;em>&comma; including being able to play the last two games as they were intended&period; If you opt to play these games digitally these features are included&comma; as long as you own the appropriate games within your library&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111418" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111418" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111418 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;12161140&sol;Sonic-31-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111418" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic the Hedgehog<&sol;em> changed gaming when it was released and <em>Sonic 3 &amp&semi; Knuckles<&sol;em> ensured that his Genesis legacy was fully realized&comma; while also showing the Genesis&&num;8217&semi; full potential and giving gamers one of the greatest gaming experiences of their childhood&period; If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played this series or just haven&&num;8217&semi;t finished it with this entry&comma; get to it&excl; They are available across many different platforms&comma; including PSN&comma; XBLA&comma; and Steam&comma; for a very low price&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><em>Author&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;I&&num;8217&semi;d like to address why I&&num;8217&semi;ve combined <&sol;em>Sonic the Hedgehog 3<em> and <&sol;em>Sonic &amp&semi; Knuckles<em> into one review&period; Most recently&comma; Sega combined them for the release of the games on Steam and secondly&comma; this is how it was always intended to be played&period; The only reason <&sol;em>Sonic 3<em> and <&sol;em>Sonic &amp&semi; Knuckles<em> were ever split up to begin with was due to time constraints and due to the cost of higher memory cartridges&period; This is how it was always intended to be played though and how it is sold on Steam&period; If you play on XBLA&comma; PSN&comma; or another platform then just make sure to keep playing as soon as you finish <&sol;em>Sonic 3<em> and connect the two games in your mind&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;