As the first game to introduce us to Knuckles, this Sonic game has a very special place in my heart. For some reason I remember this game much more than either Sonic 1 or Sonic 2, and had completely forgotten how quickly you can get through the entire game if you just keep running through everything. Exploring the maps can easily double your play time, but I think I spend about 3 hours on it this play through?  I remember playing this with my sister playing Tails, we were a great team!

Also noteworthy of how I played it: my wife brought her gamecube with her when we got married; she owned a copy of the Sega Mega Collection, which I played on a wii that I bought just to play this game (also mario sunshine, but I didn’t realize how expensive that game is now!). It was weird to play a sega game on a wii with a gamecube controller, but at the end of the day all you need is the d-pad and a single button to make Sonic go vroom vroom every now and then. Playing the game in 480p reminded me that I actually own this in a Steam compilation, but that version is the lock-on with Sonic & Knuckles. Sure there’s a mod that makes it Sonic 3 again, but I’ll never really be sure if it’s the full game or if something was wrong about it. . .

Retro Gaming purity is a weird alter to visit, but it felt right to play. I tried playing Sonic Colors after this and I may get a Wii U just to play it in actual HD.