During the 16-bit generation, Sega was all about jamming things into other things to expand the functionality and power of their platform. We've all seen the proverbial "tower of power," a sandwich of questionable peripherals that begins with a Sega CD and ends with Sonic the Hedgehog 3, with the Genesis, 32X, and Sonic & Knuckles forming the meat in the middle. Of course, for the more daring soul the tower need not end, as Sonic & Knuckles carts stretch towards the heavens like a modern-day Tower of Babel.

Lock-On Technology feels like the logical end point of Sega's fixation on interlocking hardware. Why segment your market with console peripherals that have their own bespoke libraries when you could start selling two halves of a whole Genesis game to kids? This was of course born from necessity, the end result of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 being split in half due to a toy partnership with McDonalds of all things. I still have the spinning Knuckles toy from that promotion, it sits on my shelf next to the rubber Sonic shoelace ties I've had since I was five. They are among my most cherished possessions, and in the infinitesimal chance that I ever have a partner who will read this, know that I would save them from a house fire before I save you.

However, Lock-On not only began with Sonic & Knuckles, it ended with it as well. Its significant role in marketing material for Sonic & Knuckles was more to stoke interest in that game than it was a promise of what's to come, and even if that were not the case, CDs were the future and the tech's lifespan was extremely limited from the start. This only makes it all the more intriguing to me. I mean, they even made a cute little logo just for the tech itself without the intention of using it again. Now that's information control. The real S3 Plan was Sonic 3 all along!

A lot of preamble, but there's little to say about Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as a game. It's just Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - with all its highs and lows - except you can play as Knuckles. Everything you need to know about it is right there in the title. Yet, at the time, being able to press these two carts together and inject content from one game into another was insane. Having the ability to glide and wall-climb your way through Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin, and Hill Top Zone was novel enough to warrant a purchase even excluding the fact that you could lock-on with Sonic 3, or Sports Talk Baseball for UNLIMITED BLUE SPHERES.

Sure, there's a few spots where it's clear Sonic 2 was never intended to accommodate Knuckles or his unique style of gameplay. His short jump makes some routes infeasible without the use of wall-climbing or impossible altogether, while other sections are trivialized by simply being able to glide over large swaths of the level. Knuckles' sprite for the special stages also appears to be hobbled together from his Sonic & Knuckles special stage sprite and Sonic's, evidenced by his tan arms. Thinkin' about a tan-armed Knuckles... Makes me sick.

You can play Sonic the Hedgehog 2 & Knuckles in a ton of compilations, often by selecting it from a menu of available games or through a simple toggle, but there's something less magical about this. Perhaps that's because the premise of Lock-On Technology™ is more interesting than the mechanical changes it introduces, or maybe it's due to the very personal desire to punch a cart into a console (or in this case a cart into another cart.) I'm a pretty physical person in that sense, I prefer to interface with things directly, which is why I keep blowing hundreds of dollars on individual repro carts rather than getting an Everdrive that can sit in the cartridge slot indefinitely. You know who else likes to "interface directly" with his environment? That's right, Knuckles. All running through walls and whatnot. We're basically the same person.

It's Sonic 2 but with Knuckles. And they didn't even tweak his look or anything to try to make him fit in, it's just literally his Sonic 3 sprite running around in Sonic 2. It just constantly feels like "Knuckles, WHAT are you doing there." It's kinda amazing.

I don't revisit this one often because playing Sonic 2 any way but with Sonic and me together just feels wrong. Like. It goes from a game that feels truly special to just a pretty good game.

Oh, I have MAJOR beef with the fact that they gave my & Sonic's ending, even the little illustrated cutscene, to me & Knux. I like Knux. A lot. I even like the idea of being in a polycule with him. But he isn't Sonic.

(Part 4 of 5)

Now that we got all the main shit out of the way, you people left in the dark may be wondering “Wait, if you can get the complete version of Sonic 3 from placing it on top of S&K, what can you get from other Sega Genesis games?” Well… not much else, but there are several neat little features that you can access. For example, if you place Sonic 2 on top of the game, you can actually play through the entirety of Sonic 2 as Knuckles, which is a neat little feature. However, that’s… really all you get, just to play through the game as Knuckles. It is interesting, seeing how you can play through the game as a character that it clearly wasn’t designed around, but there is nothing else there that could make you wanna try it out.

Update #8