Sonic The Hedgehog died a long time ago. Sure they release a new one every couple of years and yes the handheld version usually tend to be passable but lets face the facts people! That lovable blue basted will never be the landmark in gaming he once was ever, ever, EVER again….however…
There is hope for his heavy punching side kick….
Knuckles was first introduced as a character in 1994’s “Sonic The Hedgehog” 3 for the Sega Megadrive (Genesis).
In the later release (aptly named) “Sonic and Knuckles”, Knuckles introduced an interesting new dynamic to the High speed and precision jump based Platformer.
His Ability to climb up flat surfaces using his sharpened knuckles allowed him to access certain areas that our spiky speed demon couldn’t possibly dream off, a simple mechanic with as much potential now as it did then…
The Sonic the hedgehog formula of the past clearly no longer works in 3D. It’s impossible to maintain the high octane, nosebleed inducing speed and present sufficient obstacles for a player to evade and/or destroy all while maintaining momentum.
The beauty of Knuckles is that as a character he is a more reliable avatar within the world of sonic. He’s fast but not sonic fast, his ability to glide as well as climb can create perfect a second style of challenge. Instead of simply telling the player to run from A to B asap, the player can also be asked to explore a level fully. His ability to climb gives access to vertical level design, so instead of creating a single linier track for sonic to charge down, you instead give knuckles a small sandbox for each stage, charging him to find something, get somewhere fast OR just kick a particular dudes ass.
Knuckles has also always been one of the more edgy (if you can call him that…) characters in the Sonic Universe and is a relatively recognisable (and more importantly marketable) character in his own right.
It’s not really hard to Imagine Knuckles in a Ratchet and Clank style environment…I mean his skills fit right in!
So this goes out to my main man Knuckles the coolest thing to come out of the sonic franchise since Sonic the Hedghog 2
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