Tuesday 9 October 2012

Sonic & Knuckles - Progress Report V - Hidden Palace and Sky Sanctuary Zones


Hidden Palace Zone is just one Act, and it is by far the shortest level. There's some rings and then...






An elevator...to our destiny!

As long as our destiny is to kick Knuckles' ass!


Pictured here is why Knuckles hates us so much, he thinks we're after his master emerald. Robotnik tricked him into fighting us, and not for the last time. Knuckles being a gullible idiot is a rather common thread in Sonic games.


Knuckles is pathetically easy, he can spin dash (slowly), glide-punch you (slowly) and there are times he'll just stand there. One thing you cannot do to him is spin dash into him, as he'll just punch you away for no damage. Whatever attack he does, either jump over, or spin dash under him and then jump on his head. It shouldn't take too long to beat him.

Story AHOY!











Oh no Robotnik wanted to steal the master emerald all along what a shocking development. Though I can't be too harsh, it's not like they had the ability to do 20-minute long cutscenes back then. Some would argue that Sonic Team never should have the ability to do cutscenes full stop.





Knuckles asks us to follow him and we oblige because HEY! new friend. This portal will take us to...


(had to grab the title card from Google as it caught me by surprise...)


Sky Sanctuary was the level chosen to represent Sonic 3 & Knuckles for Sonic Generations. It's easy to see why, it's one of the most visually striking levels in any of the Mega Drive Sonic games. But first we get a little bit more cutsceney goodness.





The repowered Death Egg starts floating into space. Knuckles does one last favour by jumping off the screen and extending a bridge for us. He then collapses to the floor and starts panting again because he is weak AND WE ARE STRONG!


A few new gimmicks for the level, vine-covered handlebars will rise and fall, obviously you want to jump when it's high to get to the next platform.


More robots that look like Robotnik. Some platforms make it tricky to avoid his laser gun, but you jump on his head and he turns into an animal just like any other enemy.


This just spins you right round, baby, right round like a record, baby, right round, right round. 

It's okay.


SURPRISE SPRING! It pops out of the ground, and I'm usually caught out and end up accidentally breaking (as you see in the picture).

Now the next enemy is...wait...something is very familiar about this...



I think this calls for a flashback...

http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Hill_Zone
Ahh, the memories. Fights exactly the same, I still get caught by the ball more than I'd like but I did something quite impressive...


But who the hell is that piloting it? Oh well, let's just destroy him anyway. At one point I jumped on him and got four or five hits all at once. Now, like all my impressive moments in life, this was a complete accident. Still, for one brief moment in time, I felt pro.


After you beat him a portal will appear to take us further into the level.


This fountain does nothing I just thought it looked nice and I want one. Maybe instead of fighting I can convince Robotnik to just design a home for me?


These floating pillars will collapse when you jump on them. They don't give too much time to react, just jump on and jump off to the next one.



I have made no secret about how I love bouncy things and these clouds satisfy my bouncy needs.


These swinging platforms scoop up Sonic into a ball and take him away. Be careful not to mistime your jump and get hit by the spikes on the bottom, that'd just be silly!

Second boss time...


So, remember this?


This is a slightly easier version of that. As shown here:


The only real problem is when he gets a little too high to properly jump into. But, I promised double the explosions in the last update...


Enjoy your visually obscured explosion.


There's a part in the level where you see some of the animals escape captivity. It's a nice touch.



We go up this portal and our familiar foe destroys the portal while we're standing on it. Now, we shall jump to the future to get a closer look at it...


So yeah, say hello to Mecha Sonic.



He can spin dash, he can rocket skate across the screen he can roll into a ball in the sky and drop from above. After the last attack he will turn around and stand for a second, giving you a chance to spin dash into him. Patience is the key to this boss. Patience will get you victory.






The level starts to crumble away, taking Mecha Sonic away with it.




Sonic just catches his flight on the Death Egg in the nick of time.

Next time: The final level of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Music

Sky Sanctuary

No comments:

Post a Comment