Sonic & Knucles or Sonic CD?

[FamicomRetroGamer]

Sonic & Knucles - 240 MSP
Played the trial version, very challenging, fast, catchy repetitive music and plays just like any awesome Sonic game.

Sonic CD - 400 MSP
Played the trial version, it started with a pretty opening animation film, moved then to the game itself, the gameplay was really good too, not too challenging the trial was but it offers the original soundtrack (Japanese) and US replacement soundtrack. Plus two gamer pictures (Sonic + Metal Sonic).

I'd love to buy both but I can just pick one of the two.

So, question, does Sonic CD have a larger story mode and plenty more of animation film clips, or should I opt for Sonic & Knuckles?

Thanks!

[Drakon]

attach snk to sonic 3 for a longer story!

[FamicomRetroGamer]

attack snk to sonic 3 for a longer story!

Sonic 3 has the longest story? Awesome, I'll be sure to play it on my SMD when I have it with me.

But this is about Sonic & Knuckles or Sonic CD, the gamer pictures look badass, but which one, boys/girls?

[DerZocker]

Sonic CD!!

[tappybot]

attack snk to sonic 3 for a longer story!

Sonic 3 has the longest story? Awesome, I'll be sure to play it on my SMD when I have it with me.

But this is about Sonic & Knuckles or Sonic CD, the gamer pictures look badass, but which one, boys/girls?

He means that if you're playing these on cartridges (which you should! You're a retro gamer man!), you can physically plug the Sonic 3 cartridge INTO the Sonic and Knuckles cart.. When you do this, you can play straight through from the beginning of Sonic 3, all the way to the end of Sonic and Knuckles!

By doing this, you can access double the emeralds, play as Knuckles through Sonic 3, and play with both Sonic and Tails together, or just Tails, all throughout Sonic and Knuckles (if you're just playing Sonic and Knuckles, you can only play as either Sonic, or Knuckles)

.....  Funny I see this thread here now, because just this week, I started doing just that..  I've got Sonic 3 plugged into Sonic and Knuckles and my goal is to get all 7 emeralds in Sonic 3 as soon as I can.. Of course, I wanna play through the entirety of the game too..    I never actually got all 7 emeralds ever in any classic Sonic game as a kid, so it's my mission to do so now!  ...  I'll probably go for the Super Emeralds too.

[jpx72]

Definitely Sonic & Knuckles! Believe me, I know.....
I have played both mentioned games several times through and the difference is huge! Controls in S&K are the best among all Sonic games. You can't say that about SonicCD (yuck!). S&K is better in all ways, story, graphics, difficulty, music (screw the CD quality)...I can hear the Flying battery zone music now!  

BTW you can get all the normal emeralds in the first two zones of Sonic3+Knuckles (actually I usually get the final one in the first second act of the Hydrocity zone). Then you have the whole rest of the game to get the Super emeralds! It's helpful if you check the level maps of those first zones for the great rings.

[tappybot]

BTW you can get all the normal emeralds in the first two zones of Sonic3+Knuckles (actually I usually get the final one in the first act of the Hydrocity zone). Then you have the whole rest of the game to get the Super emeralds! It's helpful if you check the level maps of those first zones for the great rings.

I've been playing the game form the beginning probably about 2 dozen times now, trying to find the locations of all those emeralds, or trying to set myself up with a game where I have at least so many emeralds before the first few stages..

Yesterday I found the fourth big ring in the first level... But I've only found the location of 2 in Hydrocity, and only just recently found a second one in Marble Garden.


Still, I keep restarting so I can practice the later emerald stages...  They seem to be getting a little tricky, and I need more practice.  Nothing hurts more than messing up one of those stages and having to either skip it, or play through a whole new game, clearing all the previous emerald zones, just to get to that point and try again.  AAAhh!!


I don't really want to look at the internet or anything though, for hints.  Maybe I'll take word of mouth tips from other gamers though.  Got any tips for the last 2 emerald stages?
Actually, what you're suggesting says that there's a third Emerald stage in the first Hydrocity act..  Iiinterestiiinng....  So there are 4 or more in Angel Island alone and how many in Hydrocity??

[jpx72]

Actually, what you're suggesting says that there's a third Emerald stage in the first Hydrocity act..  Iiinterestiiinng....  

Oh sorry, no, my mistake (I already crossed it in the previous post), you can get all the normal emeralds by 2nd act of Hydrocity Zone. I should play it again, been a while since I played my MegaDrive. Damned Famicom!

There's really no big hint to the special stages, they can be beaten by a human so good luck!

[L___E___T]

Sonic 3 & Knuckles - Wii or PC!

[Algo Fonix]

Sonic CD is best Sonic.

[Drakon]

Truthfully I think I like snk + sonic 3 just as much as sonic cd.  But from watching tas videos snk + sonic 3 seems to be the longer game.  Although sonic cd can be lengthy I've never played through it so I can't say.  It's kind of like comparing mario USA to mario 3, each game is classic / great for its own reason I wouldn't try to put one above the other.

[son_ov_hades]

I don't like Sonic CD very much; it doesn't sound, feel, or play like a classic Sonic game.

[FamicomRetroGamer]

Okay, so Sonic & Knuckles is basically Sonic 3's Part Two story, oh, as a digital game, I won't have Sonic 3 with it so I think I'll opt for Sonic CD.

Sonic & Knuckles is kind of pricey, at least the PAL used copies.

[petik1]

They're two entirely different games. Sonic & Knuckles is classic Sonic, everything is refined and awesome. Sonic Cd was where they were experimenting. I play it more that Sonic & Knuckles.

[tappybot]

BTW you can get all the normal emeralds in the first two zones of Sonic3+Knuckles (actually I usually get the final one in the first second act of the Hydrocity zone). Then you have the whole rest of the game to get the Super emeralds! It's helpful if you check the level maps of those first zones for the great rings.

I got all the emeralds!  That final emerald stage took me a couple tries to figure out the best method to get all the blue spheres..

Anyway, you actually don't get the entire rest of the game for super emeralds :/   Any large ring you touch after that just vanishes and you continue playing the stage without doing a bonus round.

So, I got to the mushroom hill zone, *enter the super emeralds*, but these bonus stages really threw me for a loop!  I'm going to have to get some extra practice in for these.......



I had an idea though.. I think if you play Sonic and Knuckles attached to some other non-sonic genesis game, you can play the emerald stages... That's what I remember anyway.  Is that the case??
My idea is, I can practice all the stages that way until I'm prepared to pick the game back up and get the super emeralds..   What do you think??