Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic hasn’t had an easy time when it comes to video game releases lately. There was once a period where the blue blur could do no wrong as he warmed our hearts with his “gotta go fast” attitude and intense platforming gameplay. During a period when Sonic was a very real contender on the platforming scene, one of the games on the Sega Genesis actually received an expansion.
Now you may be wondering just how did one of those blocky cartridges get an expansion? The answer to that is Sonic & Knuckles, and it led to one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog video games ever. Thanks to the “Lock-on” technology of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, players could dock Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on top to mix the features of both games in order to create one large experience.
This combination allowed players to enjoy the entirety of both games as Knuckles, which came with some altered level design to put his gliding and climbing to use. You could also play as Tails through Sonic & Knuckles this way (finally). But the real reason to lock these to happy cartridges together was to gain access to Hyper Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Super Tails. Yeah, there was just a load of awesome here that really expanded on something great.
