Knuckles' Chaotix

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System: SEGA Genesis 32x

Publisher: SEGA

Developer: SEGA CS3

Genre: Platform

Release Date: 1995-04-21

 

Knuckles’ Chaotix (or simply Chaotix depending on the region) is the only Sonic-related title for the SEGA 32x, and it was released on April 21st, 1995.

Recently, I beat it for the first time after facing it until the end. I did play this game a little when I was a kid, but I never finished it.

I expected more, though I'm not surprised, as the game isn't taken in the same regard as the main SEGA Genesis trio and Sonic CD. Likewise, I think the best way to describe it is a (mostly) bad idea executed greatly.

The idea of the connected rings felt terrible on the first level, and soon I realized that dealing with that would be painful, and oh boy… it was. Not only did it not incorporate anything interesting gameplaywise, but the CPU loves getting stuck in places that took me several minutes to unstuck, if not soft-locked me (I believe I could unstuck them, but then restarting the level was a faster/better solution as these took up to 3 minutes). Not to mention when it kept taking hits for you or throwing you around without your consent. Sometimes I just began smashing the d-pad and the jump button because it seemed it worked better than trying to do something logical.

Speaking of the characters, I think it's worth mentioning how emblematic the Chaotix became after this game, with Espio, Charmy, and Vector (and to an extent Mighty) becoming recurrent characters. Even though the game offers a vast selection of characters, in the end, I mostly chose Mighty and Espio (and sometimes Knuckles himself) because their gameplay was closer to the Sonic and Tails gameplay I'm used to. Although part of me also believes this game could have been a game on its own with original characters.

I do believe that there were some concepts the game introduced that were intriguing, some that would take ages before we saw something similar again, and some that I didn't even know were first introduced here. On top of my head, I think about the hub world, the blue spring, the blue ring, the character swap monitor, as well as interacting with the scenarios and not being obligated to follow a predefined sequence of levels.

I must praise the art direction, though. What a beautiful game! The color palette, the sprites designs, and oh, the music: It feels extremely weird saying this, but I believe this game has a soundtrack better than the OG trilogy, shame there are only a few tracks: Door Into Summer and Evening Star, in special, were my favorites.

My only complaint in that sense is that I felt the levels were completely bland except, perhaps, for Marina Madness. Some repetitive and confusing level layouts. I couldn't see them being reused for Generations or Mania, for example.

Another good addition was the save mechanism, although introduced in Sonic 3, made cruising through the game much easier, even though I finished it in just under 1 hour and a half:

Lastly, I think this game would have made more sense if it was a Saturn title, pretty much the way it already is. Maybe including Sonic and Tails as it's speculated it was intended, as well as doing a few expansions and fixes. In the end, I'm always favorable to having all games ported and readily available, and I believe Knuckles’ Chaotix should be one of them. But unless they heavily reworked it, I can see how many people would be disappointed if they played it on Sonic Origins, for example. However, I don't think that's an excuse to not include it, as Sonic Labyrinth and Sonic Blast are worse games that are always re-released countless times.

Final Score: 5,5/10

Opinions and review by Solister.