- Original release: 21st April 1995
- Developer: Sega CD
- Publisher: Sega
- Original Platform: Mega Drive 32X
The only Sonic game on the 32X add-on for the Mega Drive, and also the only Mega Drive Sonic game that has never received a re-release. While the Chaotix characters have been used again, Sega have let the game itself remain locked away.
The main gimmick in Knuckles’ Chaotix is an interesting idea, but also its biggest weakness. You play as Knuckles, who is tethered to another character. In the main game, this is decided by a crane game, although if you get Heavy in this (a very slow robot), you may as well restart the game. This character is controlled by the computer with mixed resutls.
There are some nice mechanics as part of this setup. You can hold a button to pause the computer player in place, building up tension to shoot off at high speed, you can also throw them to reach higher platforms – although most of the time they’ll bounce back at you. Unfortunately, a lot of the time this setup can be frustrating, the other character can get caught on platforms you don’t want and cause you to fail jumps.
It’s a shame as the running and jumping feels smooth, and the sense of speed is phenomenal – the game is extremely impressive when you get to go at full pelt for a bit. But it’s not just the tethering mechanic that gets in the way: it’s the level design.
It rarely feels like you’re progressing in a level. There are five different level themes (each with five acts), but every part of a level looks identical. This is fine for more linear levels, but the levels in Chaotix are more maze-like. Every now and then you’ll be going back on yourself and won’t notice straight away. Finding the end point just feels like stumbling in the dark.
It’s a shame as when it works well, Knuckles Chaotix is a ton of fun. Unfortunately, these moments are surrounded by a lot of frustration.
Where to get
- ROM Status: Available
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Knuckles Chaotix is a real shame. The concept definitely has potential (so much so that it’s no surprise that SEGA revisited the concept not once, but twice! With Sonic Heroes and Sonic Advance 3). The level design is just so utterly, stonkingly shite though; you’d think it was designed by Virgin Interactive.