Along with being able to play as both Sonic and Tails, together or alone, you can also play as the new character Knuckles, who is slower than sonic and can't fly like tails, but can glide long distances and can break special blocks, allowing him to access unique level paths.
Here is the story of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. After the Death Egg was destroyed by Sonic and Tails, Dr. Robotnik prepared to upgrade and rebuild the Death Egg at his new base at Lava Reef Zone. To power his superweapon, he steals the chaos energy of the floating Angel Island, causing it to fall into the ocean. Angel Island's guardian, the echidna Knuckles, blames the freedom fighter Sonic Hedgehog.
Knuckles then leaves to find and defeat Sonic while Sonic rushes to stop the revival of the Death Egg. Sonic and Knuckles eventually team up after it is learned that Eggman was the one behind it as he steals the Master Emerald which Knuckles is the guardian of.
Sonic then trains with Knuckles until Sonic masters a new, more powerful Hyper Form, while Tails and Knuckles go super for the first time. They then break into Eggman's base and together they destroy a massive robot on the Death Egg II. (a parody of the second Death Star from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.)
However, Eggman was getting away with the Master Emerald though the Speed Zone, (Called the Final Zone in-game) and sends his creation Metal Sonic to impede their progress. (Metal Sonic first appeared in Sonic CD, in which Sonic destroyed him. This is a new model) Knuckles goes super to fight Metal Sonic, while the real Sonic goes hyper to enter the Speed Zone and get back the Master Emerald.
Sonic defeats Robotnik and with the Master Emerald and chaos energy restored, Angel Island heads back into the sky, and Sonic and Knuckles say their farewells as friends and friendly rivals.
Sonic 3 and Knuckles was too big of a game to fit on a SEGA Genesis cartridge, so the game had to be split between two cartridges. The game Sonic 3 was a normal cartridge which only contained up to flying battery zone and ended abruptly.
The "sequel" Sonic & Knuckles was much shorter than Sonic 3 and the cartridge was in a weird shape that seemed to allow other cartridges to be inserted into the S&K cartridge. Sonic & Knuckles contained Mushroom Hill to Death Egg II, and playing just S&K made it impossible to get the good ending as Sonic.
Instead, you had to place the Sonic 3 cartridge inside the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge to get the full game: Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Another thing to note is that you can put Sonic 2 in Sonic & Knuckles to allow you to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2.
The special stages are a lot better then the luck-based stages of sonic 1 and the memorization based stages of sonic 2. Even though I'm not very good at it, I can admit that it relies on pure skill and reflexes, which is a welcome change. The levels are also some of the best stages in Sonic, with memorable stages such as Ice Cap, Flying Battery, Lava Reef, Sandopolis, and more.
The bosses are also harder than usual fare, and the endgame isn't a total butt. The new character Knuckles' gameplay encourages exploration much more than Sonic or Tails, which is especially useful when trying to conquer the special stages. Overall, I believe Sonic 3 & Knuckles deserves the title of best Sonic game, a it certainly holds up even to this day.
9.4/10
Pros
- Great levels
- Simple but effective story
- Best graphics yet
Cons
- You have to buy two games to experience the entire adventure.
