Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - With Lock On ( Knuckles Game )
****NOTE**** From here on only the part of the storyline dealing with Knuckles will be covered. To see the part of the storyline dealing with Sonic And Tails click on this link to the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 game page.
Angel Island Zone
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This is the first zone and the easiest. This zone is basically the tutorial level. Use it to learn Knux's moves. Try spin-dashing into rocks and dead ends -- occasionally you'll find a secret area. Note that when you get a shield, its special effects that are available to Sonic do not work for you - only its immediate effects will work! The main dangers are water, robo rhinos, and monkeys in the trees. Look all around because the special stage rings are easy to find. Be on the lookout for spikes too. At act 1's end Robotnik sends a robot that shoots fire. Its the same as with Sonic, BUT when it lowers, it unleashes the flame and three bombs as well. They land in three different sections of the screen. Don't rush. Avoid the fire and bombs and jump on top. 6 hits will kill it. At act 2's end The Eggbot shows up in a machine that shoots fireballs just like Robotnik with Sonic. HOWEVER - this time he moves a little faster and he throws 4 fireballs instead of 3! Hit it once then jump off the bridge QUICK! One fireball will destroy the bridge. Dodge the fireballs and hit him 8 times. When defeated hit the button and land in the Hydrocity Zone...
Hydrocity Zone
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This stage is another water stage except bigger - MUCH bigger. Better be on the lookout for air bubbles. Try to stay above water. Bubble shields are very handy here and just may save your life. At the end of act 1 you have to fight a robot that spins around the sides just like a washing machine. Knux can't jump over the bot, so you're going to have to spindash up the opposite wall the bot's coming from and land back in the water. Spin dash, Jump it then and hit it when it lands on the pole. Enjoy the ride when you go for a spin but don't stay in too long or you may drown. Watch out for the walls in act 2. At the end of this act The Eggbot comes to stir up trouble. Be careful, he'll stir up the water in a whirlpool BUT unlike robotnik he will NEVER lewer himself into the water. Stay away and jump on the bombs he releases right before they go off. They'll blast you up so try to land on The Eggbot for a hit.
Marble Garden Zone
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This zone is NOT easy and is still VEEERRRRRRYYYYYYY long - with Knux! Possibly being one of the longest stages. In the beginning stay to the left of the screen!!! Thats Knux's pathway as you wont get very far going anywhere else...Your worst enemy however will be the stage itself - Be careful, sometimes the walls will close in and spikes are not what they seem. Prepare for some fast-flying action! New objects are the blue spinwheels embedded into hillsides and blue tops! Use a spin dash right next to a wheel to change the landscape! On a blue top, push left or right to direct it and to move upward! Also, certain walls can be destroyed only by ramming them with a top. At the end of act 1 you'll fight a double drill bot. As it drills in the roof, a rotating spike stump pops up on one end of the screen. You need to be on top of the stump and jump off the stump and hit the Twin Drill, but don't touch the actual drills. Hit him when his drills are up. Dodge the staclitites and rocks and stay away when he comes down. Act 2's end is COMPLETELY different from Act One - The Eggbot comes inside of the Rocket Drill Egg-O-Matic BUT this time he pops out of the ground sending long chained spikes out after you in a triangular form! It helps if you stay on one side of the screen. Wait for the two sets of spiked chain drills to appear from the top of the room to the floor. The Rocket Drill will appear then follow the paths of the chains. Don't touch the chain but hit the Rocket Drill.
Carnival Night Zone
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This zone is reminiscent to Casino Night in Sonic 2 but with a twist. Be glad and rejoice as knux doesn't have to face ANY bosses PERIOD !!!!! There are a LOT more hidden places than in other zones, and a few more toys. Try looking for special rings in this zone! If you've been keeping up with the special stages you should be able to get enough Chaos Emeralds to catch Super Sonic early on in the game !!!!! Obstacles here include the cannon which will launch you in the direction of your choice. Of course, we must not forget the anti-gravity pads and balloons to bounce off of. Large, black wheels to get dizzy on, and the unforgettable rotating barrels! Basically this board is kind of a "have fun" board.
Ice Cap Zone
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If you're playing as Sonic, you'll get to see him snowboard. COLLECT AS MUCH RINGS AS POSSIBLE !!! If you're playing as Tails, well, too bad. Same as usual, plus a few sleds and lift cups. When you find and impassable wall, either you came from the wrong side, or you need to ram it through. Remember the Marble Garden? Find a block of ice and slide away! Also, there are some little cups with safety rails. Spin-dash into the cup to send it flying upward. Plus, ever want to know what it feels like to be fresh frozen? Just watch out for gas clouds from the celings. Note: Flaming and lightning shields will be useful here -- they destroy the Star Pointer's stars and they seem to prevent you from being frozen, HOWEVER Lightning shields CAN BE LOST though you may not lose any coins in the process. Be VERY careful when underground. If your going through an endless loop there's a big rock to get on somewhere that will break through the necessary wall. Spin dash into a platform to make it move up. At act 1's end you won't have to face a boss but at act 2's end The Eggbot will return with Robotnik's freezing machine BUT this time the platform moves up and down. Hit it by getting on the stand and jumping. Dodge it's freezers. It's freezers go off in this pattern: left, up, right, up.
Launch Base Zone
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Watch out for the Orbinauts ESPECIALLY on this board as they are VERY annoying. At act 1's end you fight the same machine Sonic fought with the rotating spiked balls. BUT this time where there was ONE there are two!!!! You'll have to be VERY quick on your feet as you dodge the spiked balls and hit him whenever you can as much as you can. Luckily at At act 2's end you you won't have to face a boss....
Mushroom Hill Zone
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Deep in the Heart of Floating Island, you zip through a hilly area. Much of the plant life here is useful (Use the mushrooms to reach higher areas), but most of it is just plain aggravating. There are many routes to take here, so don't worry about having to go over half of the level to find the right way out. There are lots of walls you can walk through, so do some testing. When you have to go down a "pit", be careful. Many of those "pits" have spikes at the bottom and there are 1 or 2 REAL ones as well !!! This zone is pretty easy to navigate through and takes place DIRECTLY after the Launch Base Zone. Right at the beginning of the zone is a golden ring leading to the Chaos emerald special stage. If you've been playing with Knuckles it is here that Sonic and Knux split to go thier seperate ways ( FOR KNUX's storyline see the Sonic And Knuckles gamepage), but the terrain from there after that they cover are pretty much the same up to a point unlike earlier levels, with not many badniks to worry about - until later. If you play your game wisely, you can get up to 3 Chaos Emeralds in this first zone. Note also that you LOSE your Super Knuckles powers at this point!!!!! Your newest goal will be a newer "Super Knuckles" ala "Hyper Knuckles" !!! At the end of Act 1, one of Robotnik's minions will attack. He will cut down the trees with an ax, sending the logs flying at you. Jump them and hit him when he's low down the tree. After 8 hits, he'll explode and you've finished the act. At the end of Act 2, Robotnik will be underground in a satellite. Hit the satellite and hit him as many times as you can before he flies off. He will be floating away from you as you run and jump and duck spiked hurdles attached to the trees. Jump and duck the hurdles, if you've played past Sonic games then they should be pretty easy to avoid. Hit Robotnik when ever you get the chance. After 8 hits, he'll fly away and you can free your friends. After freeing them, Robotnik passes by in the Flying Battery Zone and you grab hold to the ship before it takes off.
Flying Battery Zone
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Longer than The Marble Garden Zone if that tells you anything - In Robotnik's flying fortress, more powerful than Wing Fortress in Sonic 2, you must go through the area avoiding the electrical and magnetic badniks lurking around. Be careful in the areas under the ship in open sky. You must navigate across the bars at the top to get to the other platform. In this zone, Sonic and Knuckles run the exact same road through this zone, so of course it would be easier to go through this zone with Knuckles. But you don't have that choice, you must start the game with one character and go through the entire game with that character! And it DOES NOT make things easier....At the end of Act 1, there is a prisoner egg holding animals. But the egg is alive!! It will try to hit you with its spiked hands. Stand on the plunger on top and spin dash away when he tries to attack. He'll hit himself. After 6 such hits, he'll explode, the animals inside him will be freed, and you will have finished Act 1. At the end of Act 2, Robotnik attacks in a boss just like Wing Fortress Zone, except without those spinning platforms. Just avoid the laser beam and jump up and hit the laser shooter hovering at the top. Every time it shoots, the walls get closer. After a certain number of shots, the whole thing will explode and you must chase Robotnik to the top of the ship before the ground comes up and crushes you. If using Tails DO NOT FLY TO GO QUICKER !!!!!!!! You may get crushed! Once up there, Robotnik will go from side to side shooting a flame from the top of the ship. After he shoots 3 times he will bounce up and down the platform. Hit him when he's above the platform. After 8 hits he'll fly away. Be careful, when his ship explodes however as, the exploding spiked hands can still hit you!
Sandopolis Zone
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Mind numbingly long and mind numbingly HARDER - This IS one of the longest stages. Your worst enemy yet again will be the stage itself - This time being quicksand as well as rising sand!!! After freeing the animals in the prison egg, Sonic or Knuckles runs out of the Flying Battery and plunges to the sandy ground of Sandopolis Zone. When you fall in the sand, jump to get out. The first act is pretty easy, and so is the end boss. It's a giant stone statue that jumps at you. Just go over to the left and stand in the quicksand. When he jumps in, you jump out of the way! The monster will sink in the quicksand and the act will be finished. Now comes the hard part, the inside of the Sandopolis ruins of Act 2. Whenever the lights are out in the ruins, ghosts will come and try to attack you. Make sure you pull all the handles you can hang onto along the way, they turn the lights back on and get rid of the ghosts for the time being. Other than the annoying ghosts, as well as the annoying sandslides and sandtraps that follow the act isn't so hard. Push the switches on the floor to open up doors ahead, but remember, after you push these switches COMPLETELY over, run 'till you're sure you've passed the doors up, 'cause if you don't you have to go all the way back when you get to the door's switch, & repeat the process. Knock out the plugs in the ceiling, & run to the next place you're due at, or you'll find yourself starring into Sonic's eyes when he is flattened like a "Hedgehog Pancake"! Not only that but this level is so long that it litterally guzzles time. So dont stay TOO long! Oh yeah, watch out for the skorp badniks, their tails can hit you from a long distance.At the end of the act, Robotnik will attack in a BIG statue. When his left arm is in front of him, jump on it and hit the head of the statue. It will break away, revealing Robotnik. Hit him a couple more times before the statue head comes back on. Watch out, because he will fire at you right before the head comes back. Repeat this pattern and score 8 hits to get rid of him. HOWEVER - you must do this in a set amount of time - Let him get too far and you get crushed!
Lava Reef Zone
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Be careful when walking around, some of the floors give out due to your weight. There are many dead-ends that you can pass through, using the spin dash so be on the look out. THIS LEVEL IS THE LAST AREA TO OBTAIN HYPER KNUCKLES !!!!!!! Watch out for flame throwers in the 2nd act. After defeating the statue in The Sandopolis Zone, Sonic will run to the right, through the wall, and will take a long fall into the Lava Reef zone. Knux's version of the zone isn't so different than Knuckles, BUT he does go over different ground and unlike Sonic, Knux does not have an end boss for this zone. Watch out for the lava all over the place, and get out of there FAST when there's a spiked platform coming down. At the end of the act, you'll have to deal with two long arms. They'll go to the top of the screen and shoot 3 balls each at you. Avoid them and hit them on the way down. Six hits kills them, but killing the arms aren't necessary to beating this boss. After those arms go down, a giant hand will come up. It will float around for a bit, then it will smash the ground. Be out of the way and hit it on top where the red gem is. After 6 hits it will blow up.
Hidden Palace Zone
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Get ready - You're almost at the end...Knuckles will just run through, no badniks, no real dangers, until he comes up to an orb on the ground. Jump on it to go to the Sky Sanctuary zone - and the final battle....
Sky Sanctuary Zone - Knuckles Finale
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This zone is the final zone if you are playing as Knuckles. You must fight Mecha Sonic the same way as Sonic fought him his final time. First you'll find that darn Eggbot coming after you again. Let him catch you (He will, anyway, so why try to stop him?). When Robotnik faces Mecha-Sonic, Mecha-Sonic will attack Robotnik (naughty robot!) Right before Mecha Sonic hits Robotnik, Robotnik lets you go. Glide out of there unless you want to end up like Robotnik. Mecha-Sonic is easy to attack. Just don't try the gliding attack on him, unless you can time it perfectly. After you defeat him, It looks like he's down. But, he's not as he uses the power of the Floating Island's Master Emerald to turn himself - SUPER METAL SONIC!!!!! And this guy is ****HARD!**** Watch out when he dive bombs at you. Jump over him. When he stands still and powers up to shoot fireballs, watch out! Jump the first one. The second one will fly over your head. Jump the third one. He'll try to shoot again, but his power has been drained. He'll come down to power up again. Jump over him because he spin dashes to the emerald. Jump at him when he's jumping onto the emerald. He'll float around in the air and shoot off small balls 8 ways. Avoid them and watch out when he dive bombs. He'll lose his energy, but he'll get it right back. He'll do it again, but lose his energy and have to go to the Master Emerald again. He'll repeat this pattern. Eight hits defeats him for good. Sit back and watch the ending.
The Bonus And Special Stages
The Special Zone - Get Blue Spheres !!!
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One of the BEST Special Stages created IMO - A 3-D Fast paced and fun but each one changes and gets harder and harder. What can look simple on the outside can end up being a pain otherwise....There are three basic objects located here - red globes, blue globes, and power rings. The object is to collect ALL blue globes but if you touch the red ones youre booted out of the stage. Collect all blue spheres and youre rewarded with a chaos emerald !!!! Collect all chaos emerals and your rewarded with Super Sonic !!!!!!!!! Collect all Super Emeralds after the game has been locked on and you get not on access to "the Doomsday Zone" but the better ending of the game! Sounds easy right? BZZZZZTTT !!! WRONG ! As the stages progress it gets harder and harder, PLUS Sonic over time gets faster and faster - not only making him harder to control but harder to get turns off as well......
The Bonus Rooms - The Gumball Machine
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This is the only bonus room accessible WITHOUT the lock on device. Basically its premise is simple as you bounce around the bumpers twisting the turner which in effect will release "gumballs" and marbles. Collect the gumballs to earn a prize such as an energy, flame, water shield or 10 rings. Black marbles do nothing but bounce you while clear marbles give you nothing.
The Bonus Rooms - The Slot Machine
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This is one of the weirder ones. Easy when getting power rings but it definetely gets repetetive. Its a mixture of the rotating special stage from Sonic 1 and the Casino Night slot machines from Sonic 2. Dont stay on the sides too long as you'll activate the goal buttons and its just random luck otherwise.
The Bonus Rooms - The Glowing Spheres Stage
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One of the hardest bonus rooms on the whole game - the object is to keep moving up and collect the gumballs and rings along the way! HOWEVER as you move up so does an electromagnetic field. Touch it and your booted out of the stage!