Knuckles’ Chaotix (Sega Genesis 32x)
A strange, unexpected Sonic tie-in for the Sega 32x
I’ve already had a lot of fun covering the Sega Genesis 32x and the 5 games I had at the time (Metal Head, Doom, Star Wars Arcade, Cosmic Carnage and Knuckles’ Chaotix), but the simple truth is only one of those games is the reason I could justify my Sega Genesis 32x; the exclusive Knuckles’ Chaotix. Even though I managed to touch on the game in the 32x review, it’s a game that disappointed a lot of people at the time and I wanted to explore what a gamer could get out of it now.
For a game out of the Japanese Sonic Team, there’s very little Sonic the Hedgehog. If all the random animal characters in the newer Sonic titles ever had you a little confused, it was through Knuckles’ Chaotix that I realised outside the video games, there’s a whole established Sonic universe through the comic books and even the early arcade Sonic games (like SegaSonic The Hedgehog).
For a good handful of those characters, Knuckles’ Chaotix is where they got their first game play gig. Characters like Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee and Mighty the Armadillo all appeared in some format before Knuckles’ Chaotix, but this is their game.
I will quickly mention now, when reviewing the game play footage, I noticed there aren’t many enemies. You can nearly go a whole stage without encountering an enemy. I haven’t gone back and re-edited those thoughts into the review because while I was in the game, lost in the environments and stages, it didn’t affect the overall experience. Maybe it was a deliberate move from the development team? With players managing the ring-binding feature, too many enemies would be it would have been too much?
Knuckles’ Chaotix has its problems, the lack of enemies might be one for you, but for most people it’ll be the frustrating game play mechanics. I do mention that yes, I can totally sympathise with anyone who bought the 32x expecting a Sonic game. Sonic was everywhere (with Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles both released the year before), but his streak really started to dry up after Sonic & Knuckles (I covered various Sonic spin-offs tin my Sonic Adventure review).
For a long time, as far as a 2D Sonic-style platformer straight out of the Japanese Sonic Team, this is about as good as it got… And saying that, Knuckles’ Chaotix has some pretty serious problems. The stages are awkward, feel like they repeat themselves and the carnival theme certainly wasn’t as vibrant as the Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Mega Drive. The ring binding could have been more creatively implemented, and even after playing through the game, it stills feels rather restrictive.
It has been interesting seeing where else this ‘binding’ feature has shown up, especially in games like Sonic Advance 3 where it works more like a special ‘team move’. Going back earlier, before Knuckles’ Chaotix, you can see the ring-binding being explored in Sonic Crackers, a BETA ROM you can play in an emulator and see how this feature might have worked on a standard 16-bit Sega Genesis (Mega Drive). The links between Sonic Crackers and Knuckles’ Chaotix are pretty extensive, but my thoughts around Sonic Crackers didn’t make it into the review because it is quite an early prototype and there’s not too much to discuss, but if you’re a game concept & development buff or you really want some history behind Chaotix, Sonic Crackers is the first thing you’ll want to check out.
When it comes to the 32x, it can sometimes be hard to understand why that game couldn’t have just been done on the Sega Mega Drive instead, were those extra 16 bits really necessary? Sonic Crackers, even though it was only at BETA, certainly couldn’t match the in-game physics found in Knuckles’ Chaotix and I get the feeling this game wouldn’t have happened without the 32x and its extra processing grunt. Knuckles’ Chaotix did go on to impress me more with it’s rotating 3D special stages, integrated 3D elements within the sprites and even the final boss looked impressive (uh, belated spoiler alert for the video…).
As I mentioned in the video, the rotating 3D stages actually share a really close resemblance to the game play concepts explored in Sonic Lost World. Coincidence or a nod to what Sonic Team were experimenting with in the past?
If you want to collect for the Sega Genesis 32x, this is an easy recommendation. As one of the higher profile system exclusives (despite a quick stint on GameTap in 2007), Knuckles’ Chaotix continues to be one of the most defining games in the 32x library and thanks to its mutli-player aspect, it actually has some decent replay value providing you can tolerate the controls long enough.