Welcome to the comments section! Please like & subscribe yada yada etc etc. Anyway, here's the full tracklist for the music used throughout the episode! I remember hearing Project Chaos, an Overclocked Remix album, when it first came out back in 2006, and I don't know how I could've made this episode without it! 0:00 - Project Chaos - Beneath the Ashes 1:00 - Dr Reverbnik - Endless Mine 1:58 - Power Rangers (Sega Genesis) - Goldar Stage 2:12 - Sonic Championship - North Wind (Sonic vs. Knuckles) 3:27 - Virtual Sonic - Sonic & Knuckles Theme 4:42 - Sonic 1 - Star Light Zone 6:07 - Sonic 3 - Data Select 6:36 - Sonic Championship - South Island 7:28 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Evening Star 8:25 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Tatchy Touch 9:08 - Smash Bros - Super Mario World Medley 9:25 - Streets of Rage 2 - Go Straight 10:37 - Sonic 3 - Blue Spheres 12:01 - Project Chaos - The Wait is Over! 12:26 - Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 13:36 - Project Chaos - iMushroom 14:27 - Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2 16:27 - Knuckles' Chaotix - This Horizon 17:15 - Knuckles Theme (S&K version) 17:30 - Project Chaos - Divided from Grace 19:04 - Duane & Brando - Sonic (Instrumental of Devastation) 20:17 - Flying Battery Zone Act 1 21:25 - Flying Battery Zone Act 2 22:02 - Project Chaos - Elevator Music 22:42 - Project Chaos - Dead Batteries 25:05 - Dr Reverbnik - Spring Yard Zone Act 2 27:05 - Sandopolis Zone Act 2 27:55 - Knuckles Theme (S3 version) 28:34 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Midnight Greenhouse 29:21 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Moonrise 30:12 - Act 1 Boss (S&K version) 30:59 - Project Chaos - Live at the Sandopolis 31:40 - Gumball Bonus 32:09 - Lava Reef Zone Act 1 33:24 - Dr Reverbnik - Lava Reef Zone 34:40 - Sonic Mania - Lava Reef Zone Act 1 35:34 - Lava Reef Zone Act 2 36:57 - Act 2 Boss (S&K version) 38:15 - Project Chaos - Scrambled Eggman 39:01 - Project Chaos - Knuckleduster 40:10 - Sonic 2 - Unused Track 41:30 - Hidden Palace Zone 42:00 - Sonic Mania - Lava Reef Zone Act 2 42:29 - Sonic the Fighters - North Wind (Sonic vs. Knuckles) 42:54 - Project Chaos - Caution! Echidnas May Eat Your Brain 43:26 - Sonic Championship - Death Egg's Hangar (Hurry Up!) 44:28 - Sky Sancutary Zone 46:16 - Sonic 1 - Boss 46:35 - Sonic 2 - Boss 46:45 - Sonic Championship - Death Egg 47:11 - Project Chaos - That Freezing Feeling 48:19 - Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed - Sanctuary Falls 50:17 - Virtual Sonic - Metal Sonic 50:52 - Fastest Thing Alive (Instrumental) 51:45 - Robotnik's Revenge 52:45 - Sonic Generations - Death Egg Robot 53:55 - Sonic Forces - Mega Death Egg Robot (Phase 3) 54:59 - Death Egg Zone Act 1 56:05 - Sonic 1 Master System Title Screen (PAL version) 56:24 - Sonic 1 - Scrap Brain Zone 57:42 - Dr Reverbnik - Death Egg Zone 59:35 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Child's Song 1:00:18 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Mechanical Dance 1:01:04 - Death Egg Zone Act 2 1:01:28 - Act 2 Boss 1:02:10 - Sonic Generations - Big Arm 1:04:56 - Sonic Championship - Super Sonic 1:05:27 - Project Chaos - The Secluded Stronghold 1:07:33 - Project Chaos - Beneath the Ashes 1:09:13 - Virtual Sonic - Chaos Jam 1:10:32 - Project Chaos - So Long, and Thanks for All the...
You gotta do a retrospective on Unleashed man I’m a classic and Dreamcast era guy but Unleashed Sonic was the best and most accurate Sonic portrayal by far! Unleashed is Top tier when it comes to Sonic storytelling!
Have you tried indie games like celeste,pizza tower,and the spark games they're fast paced platformers that rely on twitch reflexes which seems like it would appeal to you
My favorite part of your channel is that you acknowledge the context of when the games you review is as opposed to other reviews that talk about the games from a modern standpoint
I don't know how you do it but the way you described everything about your first day of having S&K, I could just perfectly feel and understand that exact feeling of having your child mind blown by both extremely innocent and mundane stuff like the alternate Knuckles paths in Sonic 3 and genuinely wild and out there stuff like the figuring out the Lock On Cart.
Ooh, yeah, I was hoping I could convey that! 'cause like, everybody thinks of S3&K as one and the same nowadays, and fairly so, that's what we as Sonic fans always wanted! But as someone who was there to experience them separately...
I saw an ad for YT Premium. I don't use Spotify, but i assume this would be the same as hearing "want a break from the ads?" Just as the chorus is about to appear
@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious “Don’t you HATE ADS! Pay us $10 a month and forget about it till your credit card expires. Also don’t mind the fact that the small creators you watch get even less from your views than the pittance they get from each Ad you skip the second the skip button appears. They’re all rich anyway…right? Don’t think about that, think about how much you Hate those rascally Ads.”
@@GeekCritique It’s certainly the kind of video that has more clear breaks that an ad break would make more sense than the random places RUclips tosses them. I get it that’s extra work though, and don’t personally fault you for not jumping through whatever hoops RUclips requires to place them in particular spots that make more sense. This particular example I just found funny because the transition into the ad in a place I was expecting a cut to a different scene made my brain do a double take.😆
While there would be solid titles released after, Sonic & Knuckles in many ways feels like the culmination of what the Genesis was. Software pushing the limits of 16-bit hardware, feeling a full-fledged adventure while still staying true to Sega's arcade mentality, and being part of a game so big, it took two cartridges to fully do it justice. The company had utilized sports titles and price cuts to effectively get the market share of sales in the US and maintained it for a few years, but Sonic spearheaded that success, with the strongest years of the system being dominated by a game from it on the console every single year. While it wasn't the best-selling entry in the series, there's even more of retroactive finality to Sonic & Knuckles because (speaking a kid that had a Genesis and SNES) it was the last time that early to mid 90s conception of Sonic was at the top of the mountain. Within two months after the game's release, the gaming space irrevocably shifted. Donkey Kong Country comes out for the SNES, not only doing great business as the graphical killer app for that console but being the release that really pushes Nintendo to regain market share in North America. The Saturn arrives in Japan, officially marking the end of Genesis/Megadrive's reign as the sole mainline Sega console (with Sonic never ending up as the same kind of major figure in it). And the Playstation arrives there shortly after, soon emerging as the first major player to be actual competition to the big two worldwide. In a lot of ways what Sonic had been in that 1991-1994 period; the contemporary series doing unthinkable graphical feats, the focus of Sega's software efforts, and franchise that was actively challenging Nintendo in places like the US? It would not be that in the immediate years after 1994 (and some would say never would be again). In the respect, beyond the brilliance of its platforming/speed/exploration fused level design, the on-point aesthetics, and eternally masterful music, Sonic & Knuckles is further special because it is the peak of what Classic Sonic meant in its time before the world forever changed.
Well-said, as always! And yeah, this was the final moment where the video game industry would be defined as "Sega versus Nintendo," as well as the FIRST time since the release of Sonic 1 that Nintendo had the edge in that battle.
46:55 This design has always been so damn good. I think there's a reason the creator of Super Mario Bros Z decided to use this specific Metal Sonic design as its big imposing villain!
Probably a hot take but I think Mecha’s design is even better than the normal Metal Sonic. It’s so imposing. He just looks built to mess shit up. I’m glad the comics finally gave him the comeback he deserved. I hope he shows up in them again.
@@villageronps5317I sort of agree Mecha definitely is 100% way more imposing than metal but I still prefer metal because imposing wasn’t it’s designs main objective it was to reflect sonic mecha isn’t a reflection and is cooler for it but to make a comparison I think Mecha is cooler and metal is frieza Mecha by far has a cooler look and design but he doesn’t got the same level of character like frieza.
I don't know if you'll see this but I've followed you for quite a while now, and I gotta say, I kinda love your approach to critique. They feel like a story about your experience with a game that you're excited to share with the world, especially with how you weave personal stories into them. It makes me wanna just sit down and have a chat with you. I've come to realize that I'm really turned off by serious, analytical critique that seem like an "objective" diatribe even though it's all based on one's perspective, especially if it's multiple hours long. All this to say, you're an inspiration. Here's to 10 more years.
I mean, I don't fault how anyone else does it, but I could never do this WITHOUT putting a whole lot of *me* into it, y'know? Glad you dig it, and thanks for the kind words!
I agree, Geek Critique and Noah-Caldwell Gervais do critical analysis better than anyone else on the platform, and I think that’s due to placing their games reviewed in proper context of their time, their intention, and feels like a history lesson as much as a game review.
@@GeekCritique Thanks for your reply! I've just taken a more conscious effort to think about the content I watch instead of just having some background noise. You may find someone to be excellent and well said, I might not, and vice versa.
I absolutely love TGC videos. They've gotten me through some rough times and the dedication and love that goes into each video is so amazing! Thanks, man...
This guy went out of his way to send me the file of the DK video so I could watch it in the airplane while flying to my dad’s funerals. Helping me through a rough time is an understatement. Literally saved me from breaking down crying like an idiot in the middle of an airplane. It was already one of my favorite channels before, but this dude from the other side of the world helped me remember that not everyone sucks.
@@GeekCritiqueYou've become a genuine inspiration to me to do better, and you’ve helped cement a much healthier approach to new experiences and facing disappointment, not just in games but in life. You're fantastic, keep on keeping on.
I’m not even the biggest Sonic fan, but watching you go this in depth into the level design, worldbuilding, and personal attachment of these games is truly mesmerizing.
15:30 I have, since the 90's, always assumed mushroom hill is actually having the life sucked out of it or being killed by pollution from flying battery zone and that's why it goes dead and more grey in the second half of act 2.
That was also my assumption, like the closer you get to where Eggman is hiding out, the more sickly the forest becomes, like his contraption is slowly reaching over it and strangling the life out of it
This is why I support you on Patreon. To view all those wonderful home movies made of you as a preschool age kid in a Barney Tee. More of that, please. Oh, and the Sonic stuff is alright too. But personally I'd swap Flying Battery and Sandopolis as fave and least faves. A little snowstorm has sadly foiled my plans to go see Sonic 3 tonight, so this video is more than adequate compensation. So thanks. :)
ALRIGHT -- This video was a long one to watch, because there are few games I have such an emotional connection for--I want to start this comment out by saying, I loved this video! Buuut, the ending stuck with me: The conversation about being born at the unique time to accept the multiple versions of Sonic--And, that is an opinion I've held personally, however for different reasons: I was only about five, I'd already played the Genesis Sonic games, watched the Cartoons, loved the OVA more than any Disney Film--When Sonic Adventure released, I had just been old enough to play through the Classic games--I was too young to see any two different versions of Sonic as separate entities. I could tell that the design had changed, but my brain couldn't quite pick out exactly WHAT was changed--When Sonic was resting in Station Square at the pool, it was a direct link to the Sonic in the OVA--Scratch and Grounder may not be around anymore, Sarah was replaced with Amy--But, this new Sonic Adventure, was to me, just a continuation, not a change. I'd say the first time I really noticed that the series had shifted, was in Heroes--Metal Sonic, was a noticeably different character than he was in the OVA--It didn't help that I'd never owned a Sega CD, so my assumption was that Metal came FROM the OVA. My eight year old brain was far better at noticing the major differences in the series after Heroes than it was before. It was then that I learned to appreciate WHAT I loved about the Classic games, and why I preferred them. I went back to play them, beat the original 3 again, but stopped at Sonic & Knuckles. Something about it didn't click with me, I went into it, just thinking it was another Sonic Game like I had as a kid, I didn't know it was meant to be played with Sonic 3. I kinda just assumed plugging it into Sonic 3 let you play Knuckles in that game like Sonic 2, so I never investigated it further. Sonic & Knuckles, was the only Genesis Sonic game I didn't complete in my youngest years of gaming, other than CD--But, that wasn't by choice, if I HAD a Sega CD, I'd have played i! But no, to me, Sonic & Knuckles, was the lesser game from Sonic 3--No introduction cutscenes, Tails can't follow you, and WHY would I want to play as Knuckles? He's not Sonic, AND he's a jerk. No saves files? Really!? I beat Mushroom Hill, got stuck on Flying Battery because I couldn't figure out the missile part, and just kinda ignored the game from there, Sonic Adventure had just released, why should I think about that last game? For years thereafter, I played Sonic 1, 2 and 3--Even CD dozens of times,--No, HUNDREDS of times. Sonic & Knuckles hadn't been something I even thought about anymore, it was that gimmick that let us play Knuckles in Sonic 2 or 3. I'd say I was probably nearly twelve, chronically on the Internet of the late 2000s, had dropped the Sonic series after the Shadow '05 and seeing the reaction to Sonic 06 online that I even learned that Knuckles was an add-on to Sonic 3, not just another Sonic game. So, I put the two together, played through Sonic 3 AGAIN, and then--Something clicked. The story I thought I'd been done with, the game I thought I knew, was only about half the Adventure. I somehow had never seen any of the Zones after Flying Battery, each was new, was fun, and I quickly realized: This was my favorite Sonic game. We got our Genesis games second-hand, no manuals or anything, the fact that we learned we could play Knuckles in Sonic 2 is something I still don't know how we discovered. We probably just assumed if you could connect a game to it, it would work with anything and through trial and error, tried Sonic 2. But, upon reaching the Death Egg, and conquering that final boss, going back to play Doomsday Zone--This story was somehow greater than the ones that Adventure told. It built up a threat over two full games, and offered a climax--All within the limitations of the 16-Bit, wordless storytelling. After the Death Egg, the Egg Carrier really wasn't that grand of a threat. Eggman, wasn't building fantastical machines, he was trying and failing to control Gods, or creations of the past. Even his own creation, turned on him as he cowered in a corner. He dies in '06 due to some mechanical failure after kidnapping the Princess twenty times in a row and losing her just as many, tries to steal the Master Emerald and just gives up after Knuckles smashes it--His most menacing appearance in the Modern games was in Tail's story of Adventure, where he was just throwing a temper tantrum after losing Chaos and failing to blow up Station Square. Eggman, was no longer the always antagonistic force he was in the Classic games, he lost that menacing tone, that rivalry with the Blue Hedgehog he hated so much, he was no longer allowed to build planet size world destroyers. Playing Sonic and Knuckles to its end made me realize, Eggman was no longer _Sonic's_ villain, he was just the guy who popped up, caused trouble, and then helped out to stop what he created in the end. I think this is why many Classic fans loved Colors and Generations, while Adventure fans didn't. Complain about the writing of these games all you want, but they brought back the classic rivalry between Sonic and Eggman. There was no greater threat, this was Eggman messing around, and Sonic thwarting him, and _that's_ what I want from a modern Sonic game. _Eggman, being as big of a threat, as he was in Sonic 3 & Knuckles._ This wasn't just the end of the mainline Classic Sonic era, in many ways, this was Eggman's final moment to be the main antagonist, at least until later. This was the game that made me not just truly LOVE the Classic games, but also, made me appreciate Sonic and Eggman the most. This was the greatest conflict between the two, the greatest struggle. Stepping into Sandopolis Zone for the first time, is a gaming moment I'll never forget.
BRO!!!! its amazing how you can not ever meet someone and share the same experiences!!! this is me to a T! i was around 9 years old when I played sonic and knuckles and it just seemed like a downgrade from 3 at the time and I neglected it, but now that I understand the arc its AMAZING! thank you for this detailed testimony and thank you @greekcritique for the amazing review!
That's kinda the point of Sonic and Tails having their own unique stories. Sonic, especially in the localized version, treats Robotnik like a joke multiple times within the story. Doesn't help that Eggman sounds like a cartoon villain. When you play Tails story, however, Eggman sounds much more menacing. The final fight with Tails sounds like he was given a completely different voice direction because he definitely was. Sonic Adventure up until Sonic 06 (counting sonic advance-rush adventure) stops being about the player and starts being about characters as individuals. That's why the same events play differently for other characters. Sonic and Knuckles is arguably a proto version of this multi character storytelling.
This was absolutely brilliant. Your storytelling is fantastic, you really managed to put me in your shoes at the start of the video. On a side note I must be around the same age as you since I had that same experience of being just the right age for sonic and knuckles and then adventure.
this might be one of the best geek critique episodes, it gives me such a different perspective from the one i had, and im incredibly thankful ive gotten to hear it. Video is nothing short of phenomenal, thank you so much josh :D ♥️
It’s finally out! I’ve been thinking about this lately: I wonder what would’ve happened if Sonic 3 & Knuckles was a Saturn launch title, it’s something not many think about! Locking the highly anticipated second half of the story to a new console probably would’ve helped the Saturn A LOT, but it could also be seen as really scummy on Sega’s part. It’s an interesting dilemma, since Sonic & Knuckles came out one month before the Japanese launch of the Saturn. Another great video, I'm really glad you brought up Yasuhara's underrated influence!
Hmm, that would've been a REAL tough fit given how the dev team went directly from Sonic 3 to Sonic & Knuckles. I think the expectations would've always been so much higher on Saturn that if Sonic was "just" another 2D game, it would've been a bad look at the time no matter how brilliant it was. If we were gonna change the timeline, I think I'd adapt Chaotix to Saturn, instead.
sadly, contrary to what many people says now. People by the Saturn/PSX/N64 era were pretty stored of 2D & were clamoring for any crumb of precious 3D Sonic Mania would have been lambasted for having that "outdated look," and the big claim would have been, "Why didn't the full game look like the 3D Special stages?"
I've been watching your content since 2018 or so, and I've always been intrigued by your history within the Sonic community. While I haven't been part of this journey since the beginning, I'm still glad I've been able to watch so much of your content, Josh. While this video may only cover the latter half of the game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles will always be my favorite Sonic game, and I'll always be happy to revisit it, be it through playing the game myself or seeing others talk about it. Here's to another ten years of geekin' and critiquin'!
Good to have you back, mon. I've seen very few people on the net talk about one of my childhood games in such a way that speaks to me. As a 90s kid, I started gaming in the mid 00s and I had already played a handful of DOS and NES games (mostly Super Mario Bros.) but nothing got me quite as obsessed as S&K, even the other Mega Drive / Genesis Sonic games. I had some fun with the Adventure games, but, for me personally, they could never reach the heights of what had come before. After falling out of love with the series during the 2010s, the way everyone talking about how "Sonic was never good" went as far as to get me to question what made me love those 2D classics for such a long time. Sonic Mania was such a ray of hope. It told the Internet "Sonic WAS good (at least during the 90s)". But more importantly, it got be to replay the classics again and reexamine their unique qualities as video games, instead of nostalgic pieces of my formative years. If I could make the ideal video of this caliber about S&K, it would be like this.
It's always such a joy whenever you release something new, the videos are always the best. Thank you for this deep dive on game. Your talk about how the industry had changed when Sonic returned for the Dreamcast really hit me in particular because it's been a topic I've been finding myself landing on a lot when I try to explain to people just how stable things have become vs the old days. I always knew it had, but it didn't hit me how extreme the shift has been until I sat down to come up with an example. For example, Metroid Prime on the Gamecube came out in 2002. That makes it roughly about 22 years old. (Yay, Metroid Prime is old enough to drink! :D) Now if I show you Metroid Prime right now, you can tell it's not the newest thing out there, but it still looks good. What mainly gives it away is it's 4:3 aspect ratio. If I gave the game to someone who somehow had never heard of it and told them it was a new game from a smaller studio, they'd probably think it was fine, and it has most of the standard gaming conventions we're used to. You're moving around a 3d space made of polygonal shapes that are textured and have lighting effects and bub mapping on a system with an Ati 3d graphics accelerator. It's fundamentally built the same way 3d games are built today. It uses design principles and conventions that are still standard today. The most non-standard thing about it is it's control scheme. Now imagine if in 2002 you were to look back to a game 22 years old then. You'd be going back to 1980. The top selling console of 1980 was Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. The difference between Space Invaders on the 2600 and Metroid Prime on the Gamecube is staggering. The game looks ancient to the 2002 gamer. The hardware is so bare bones you have to write your games in Assembly instead of using a higher order programming language. The sprites are barely recognizable, you're limited by the Atari 2600's sound chip, and your controller is a stick with one button because we still haven't quite figured out how to to design a controller yet. It's just so mind boggling how from the 1st through 5th generation of consoles (Up until N64, PS1, Saturn) video games leapt forward. Compared to the 6th generation and after which largely have smaller incremental increases in ability. Whenever people talk about what is retro I make this my dividing line, as the 6th generation and after really is a different age for the medium, kind of like how comics had their golden, silver, and bronze ages.
I do agree that 6th gen and beyond is a different age, but I think SO much of that is contingent on my experience with it. The Dreamcast always felt to me like the last "old-school" video game console, but it was also the last one released when I was still *entirely* a child, y'know? I do think that between the PS2 and the Wii, gaming was exposed to a much wider, more mainstream audience than it ever had been before, and it's no coincidence that was around the point where certain standards started getting more locked in. At the same time though... I found this article from around 1996 where they interviewed a long-time gamer, and he said the then-new 3D stuff really wasn't blowing him away the way that 80s arcade games had. The quote was something like, "To go from Virtua Racing to Daytona is amazing, but it can never match how it felt to go from NOTHING to Pole Position!" I think it's true that graphical fidelity has plateaued and game design standards have stagnated, at least in the AAA space. But I think there's also something to the idea that each generational leap was ALWAYS a little less impressive than the last, and it's hard for anything modern to match how we REMEMBER a game that pushed the envelope the way Super Mario 64 or Metroid Prime did.
This is one of your best. I put it right up there with the Dreamcast video. You always do a phenomenal job of not only diving deep into the heart of a game, but bringing your own unique experience into it.
Happy 10th, Josh! As a fellow lifelong Sonic fan, your passion for S&K is inspiring; I gotta admit I was worried I'd missed three full reviews when I saw this uploaded, but as a celebratory piece for a decade on RUclips, this was fantastic. Love your work, PLEASE don't ever stop, and lookin' forward to the next way past cool video you got headed our way! Keep on juicin' and jammin', pal!
@@GeekCritique that's what i'm talkin' bout! Hey, I wanted to reach out for a while; i'd love to have you as a guest on our podcast sometime! How can we make that happen?
I loved it! Sonic Team always amazed me with their boldness & creativity, from lock-on technology, to creating the first full analog controller, complete with sensitive triggers. Sonic & Knuckles is easily my favorite in the franchise. Thank you for sharing!
This game is special to me, I was not around in the decade it was made however one of the first games I ever played was a rerelease of it and I remember playing Mushroom hill zone over and over before getting a game over at flying battery. This game is probably the reason why I am a Sonic fan considering I did play it a lot more than the other classic games for some reason and nowadays it is the second half of one of my favourite games of all time and favourite Sonic game.
I always love how you insert your experience when the game you're talking about was contemporary when you were exposed to it, the context adds so much to how these games were made and percieved in their hayday. And i especially loved the inclusion of explaining Hirokazu Yasuhara's influence in the classic games, i hadnt heard anything about this guy until now and its facinating to peel back and see the intent behind sonic level design
I played Sonic & Knuckles way before Sonic 3. Back in middle school, I had one of those terrible AtGames portable Genesis systems (the ones with very noticeable input lag and horrible sound quality), and it had Sonic 1, 2 and Knuckles, but no Sonic 3. I wasn’t very good at Sonic then so I never got past Flying Battery Act 2. It wasn’t until high school when I finally played Sonic 3 and realized it and Sonic & Knuckles were two halves of one game. It’s my less preferred half because Sandopolis Act 2 exists, but it still makes for a great second half to me. Death Egg Zone’s theme is one of the biggest bangers on the Genesis btw.
Y'know, in an earlier version of the script, I had a bit related to that: --- For whatever reason, Sonic & Knuckles always seemed a little more common to me than Sonic 3. Maybe because it was the last major Sonic game on the Genesis? Maybe because it didn’t have a save battery and was cheaper to make? Whatever the case, I knew quite a few kids growing up who had this and this, but not THIS. And that’s just MY age group. Sonic 3 was persona non grata for over a decade, unable to be re-released on compilations and mini-consoles… but Sonic & Knuckles WAS. I think it’s reasonable to assume at this point that a not-insignificant number of people have played Sonic & Knuckles, but not Sonic 3. Some of them, like a be-hair-gelled kid I knew in 8th grade, might have grown up loving S&K, without even knowing there WAS a Sonic 3.
@GeekCritique A popular theory is that it had something to do with the legality of the Michael Jackson stuff. Noting that a lot of the stuff changed musically between the two halves. We'll never know for sure, of course. Atgames just kinda did what they wanted anyway.
@@spacepilgrim3023I think it's because Sonic 3 has a save file system, but the AtGames Sega doesn't save your progress, so they left Sonic 3 out because they were afraid of all the letters they'd get about "my game doesn't save!"
Josh has this insane ability to make me nostalgic and hyped over a game I never played before. He did it with the Storybook games, and he's doing it now. Never change Josh.
Your love for this series is absolutely palpable. Even for me, whose biggest experience with Sonic was in Smash, someone who picked up Sonic Mania once when I was younger and didn't quite get it, I can't help but find a little love for it myself. Every time I watch one of these videos, I can't help but think to myself... maybe I should give it another chance.
The segment about Yasuhara's level design philosophy made me tear up. It's what i've been trying to communicate to other level designers for fan games for a while, but I don't think i've ever had the verbal ability to convey that so accurately.
Happy Anniversary! This game is rather special to me, as I played it under similar circumstances, albeit about 4-5 years later; I had Sonic 3 alone for what felt like forever as a kid (only about a year, I think lol), and was able to finally experience Sonic&Knuckles via trading some other game with a neighborhood friend. (I thought you could play as Knuckles in every Genesis game via lock-on, but I was clearly very mistaken haha) There's a special sense of resolution and catharsis that came with Knuckles being able to break open that path in Angel Island. I've never liked Sandopolis, but watching this gave me a slightly renewed appreciation for it, especially since I hadn't realized until now that you can just climb up as Knuckles in Act 2. Also, the second phase of The Doomsday definitely confused me. I had no idea how to actually damage the thing, so I just flew tight counterclockwise circles around the ship until it worked lol
Sonic 1 was one of the first video games I ever played. Later on we got Sonic 3 and S&K too. The admiration I have for this series of games matches yours man. Such great memories. Also I remember how crazy it was to attach S&K to random sega games and end up playing random special stages. My mind was blown. It made no sense to me but it was really cool. I only wish I got to spend more time with S2 tho. I believe we rented it once or twice but never owned it.
31:09 THANK YOU regarding that comment about the haters and Sonic Origins. People really treat that compilation like as if it's the equivalent to Sonic 1 on the GBA and I find that incredibly unfair. Yes Sega definitely did screw up with it at launch regarding the DLC situation and the multitude of problems it had, I won't defend them on that, but Origins is far from a broken mess of a collection, especially after patch updates properly fixed most of the issues it had. And even then, the issues it had weren't game-breaking by any means. Hell I had gotten the game at launch and I only encounter two bugs that didn't even affect gameplay. Whether it's definitive is a matter of opinion (Especially regarding the music situation with Sonic 3.) but I still think it's a great collection worth picking up.
Right? Especially with the UltraFix mod that has done wonders to it. IDK if people may still take issue with stuff like S3&K's physics being a bit different allegedly because of crunch, guest star Dave even mentioned it on Twitter one time alongside podcast cohost Shoogles, but if there's one franchise with entries fans are kinder to in retrospect, it's the one with Sonic 06 in it.
Part of the reason for this treatment was because of Sega delisting most versions of the classic sonic games (aside from the better mobile versions, 3D versions on 3ds & the sega ages ports on switch)
@@TomTheyy let’s see, the price is way cheaper for sonic 1, 2 & CD. Being about 8 times cheaper than origins. Sonic 1 and 2 has a better save file system in the mobile versions compared to their origins counterparts, Sonic 2 mobile has Proto Palace zone but for some reason was removed in origins, Sonic CD has a better designed menu. For the case of Sonic CD and sonic 1 on mobile it actually added “new” characters and for the case of sonic 1 specifically they added routes for both tails and knuckles to explore through with even a new exit in spring yard. Only thing I can give to origins is that debug mode is technically easier to use. (While you can connect a controller to play the mobile ports, most people apparently don’t know that.) I personally can’t recommend origins especially after they delisted both sonic CD & Sonic 3&K on steam.
@@bingobo2551 I will agree that the delisting situation was definitely bullshit on Sega's end, especially considering it's odd that they even decided to do that considering they never had an issue with having multiple versions of the same game being sold at the same time on different platforms. But I'm not gonna rank Origins low just because of that. The delisting has nothing to do with Origins and its quality, that's just Sega making some boneheaded decision.
I thought “Egg Robo” was just Eggman with a mask on. He had a mask to trick Knuckles so he wouldn’t know he was a bad guy. But it makes more sense that he is completely a robot.
My older bro at some point came up with a Sonic story idea that involved Sonic coming across Metal Sonic for the first time in Sonic CD and assuming that Metal Sonic was himself robotisized in the future. So it was really cool to see you got a taste of that when you first encountered Mecha Sonic as a kid! That's actually really cool! :O
I love hearing about these misconceptions as a kid. I remember thinking Knuckles looked like a cow (ie: not an elongated snout) when he teetered at the end Launch Base Zone. 😂 I always thought that about a possible S&K tattoo, too! (Outside something family-related.)
after seeing the sonic 3 movie ive been flooded with nostalgia and videos like yours are exactly what i need, this was very good, it brought me apprection i didnt have before and i love the passion you have for the blue blur, i mean dude i can listen to you talk about sonic all day, i look forward to checking out your other videos
You are seriously one of the more relatable people to listen to when talking about Sonic. I am very happy with watching your videos, because you very much tell how genuine the feelings were involving your experience. Rotating your D-Pad during Sky Sanctuary? Aw yeah, that was exactly how it was! Actually, when Knuckles was being electrocuted and the ground broke, I would go and duck by Knuckles, imagining it as me helping the poor guy up because I realized that the Rad Red had gotten himself duped by the maniacal manipulator. So, yeah, it's a blast to watch your critiques since we're roughly around the same age generation, so I can absolutely agree with you: It was a strange time to become a sonic fan at such a young age where one's formative years were spent seeing such different Sonics. Once I was closer to a teen and was given full internet access, I found places like Concept: Mobius and even was part of creating a fan forum for Sonic (and other fandoms eventually). There, I learned that Sonic was so much more then just the games I grew up on with the Mega Drive. Fleetway, Sonic X, Sonic Heroes - and hearing your genuine experiences, which might come off as nostalgic at first, but what it does is set the tone and understanding - it's introspective, as much as it's retrospective. Keep up the good work. Here's to another anniversary set of Geek Critiques!
@@GeekCritique Ah, it was an old forum back in the 2000s. It specialized in the 'Science of Sonic' as well as trying to gather the so called 'real character profiles'. It was created by Nuclear Envoy, and was like, a small-time forum, though its dedication to discussing Sonic theory was very large. And its profile page was phenomenal of its time (they gathered information like voice actors, appearances - essentially a Wikipedia page of character information, and they would explicitly tell you if any information was an educated guess or where they got the information from). Nowadays it's easy for people to find this information, but back in the 2000s, finding information like that was very difficult since there wasn't a focused database for that kind of information like we have nowadays. You know, going to 'Shadow of a Hedgehog' to download the game music since there wasn't much of a youtube to use for music finding xD
Yep! While the rest of Sonic Team worked on NiGHTS, Yasuhara stuck with Sonic. He actually lived in the UK for a while, helping Traveler's Tales with 3D Blast and Sonic R!
I have no others words but "Thank you" for the passion you carry across all theses videos. It was a very fun ride since I first saw that Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze video for the first time, and I hope it will continue for a very long time ^^.
I appreciate that you explained “mon” but not “no probalo.” It conveys an implicit assumption that all TGC fans are also Homestar nerds, which sounds good to me.
I would never expect less from my audience! So, originally I was planning to wear a red muscle shirt and appear on-screen *as* Knuckles next to my "real" self, and I'd speak as white and generic as possible. But I needed to get the episode done before 2025 and doing all that would be a headache, so I decided to do it like this instead. But THEN the problem was Knuckles just sounded like me, but monotone, and that didn't really land either. The solution, of course, was Senor Cardgage.
I spent a moment trying to find a humorous parallel between the scrapped story of Tails' admiration of Knuckles and Strong Bad's of Senor Cardgage, but I couldn't think of much. Having Tails say it's cool that Knuckles gives Sonic nightmares seems a bit out of character.
I always figured the white part of Mushroom Hill was just even more dead, escalating and communicating to you how dire Robotnik's effect on the land was.
One thing I love about your videos is comparing/contrasting your experience of this franchise with mine. I was born in late 1987 and I can't be more than a few months older than you, but I still had a bit of a different experience with the games. I fell in love with all the lore and storytelling, vague as it was, but honestly always sucked at the gameplay until I was older and a friend taught me the cheat codes. I had Sonic 1, then later 2, and then eventually 3, but I wouldn't get S&K until some time after it had been released, and even then it was a used copy (actually so was my copy of 3; it had bite marks on the box. T_T ) But by that point I already knew that both 3 & Knuckles were two halves of one game, so I basically never played S&K on its own. I'm pretty sure my childhood copies still have their saves on them. I also loved reading the manuals, learning as much as I could about these games. If I'd had that strategy guide, I would have read it over and over. I love this franchise. Thanks so much for your videos, they are such a treat every time.
I've been hoping you'd return to this game! Lava Reef is my favorite zone in it too. I'm sure it must've taken some restraint not to talk about Sonic 3, but if you DID ever feel like revisiting that game, I'd happily watch it. I really like your modern, long-form approach to these
Amazing video as always, man. I love how you being from the US and me from Argentina, living completely different childhoods still had the same feelings for this game (and this franchise) it's like I'm listening to the same ideas and thoughts I had playing this when I was a kid, a teen and an adult. Happy new year Josh, with you the best!
I'm glad you came back to talk about this one again, another great video (and you've made me want to replay this game yet again. Awesome that you used Project Chaos music throughout, I always loved that album!
Dude, this was amazing. It really took me back to those years of discovering these games, and was just an absolute genuine pleasure to watch. I could honestly feel your passion oozing out of this video. Seriously, thank you for making this.
You found a kindred sonic and knuckles fan... and despite being as old as I am, this game was so developmentally important to me growing up. And the fact I never knew the final level in sonic & knuckles blows my mind. Thank you for your video, the time and effort you put into this, and your love of the game. Cheers mate ❤
Your title is incomplete- this video is also about how involved your parents were in your interests. I am so tremendously envious. No one's ever cared so much about how much I've cared about something. ...I'm gonna be talking about this one in therapy.
Happy holidays to my favorite RUclipsr of all time. Josh you are a legend thank you for every video you create having such sincerity! Amazing work as always good sir.
I really appreciate all the personal things you add to the videos in terms of home videos, things you did in the past and such. It's one thing to talk about something nostalgic, but adding those elements gives it an extra... credibility(?) you don't see often. Makes it truly feel like even when you fall into the general consensus that they're your words rather than just parroting the consensus if that makes any sense. Here's to 10 more years and then some.
Man this video is like soul food for me.. such awesome memories of S&K. I went straight from Sonic 1 to this game without seeing 2&3, so this game was pretty mind blowing. The “shown, not explained” story telling and extra lore you talked about has always been amazing, and a big reason that Mania and Superstars just didn’t measure up for me - they play well but stories seem trivial. Years later I did get Sonic 3 and then the combined game became one of my favorites even to this day. the first time you go to the Super Emerald chamber was so so cool.
This video was truly a nostalgic experience for me. It honestly amazes me how similar our experiences were haha. Thank you so much for posting this. Easiest sub of my life.
Have to say I love your videos on the sonic series. Hearing your passion for this game is amazing, as I've always loved it. Most retrospectives rarely give it the attention it deserves in my opinion.
18:07 i can tell here that josh and I had very similar childhoods. First video game I ever played was a Christmas gift, the port of super mario bros 3 for the GBA, along with the strategy guide for the game. I loved that book so much i had all the enemy names and secrets memorized; read that book till the cover came off. Most of the favorite games from my childhood are accompanied in my brain by memories of the manuals and strategy guides i read over and over and over. Hope one day we’ll hear your thoughts on bowser’s inside story, that’s one of those games. Happy 10 years to one of the most underrated channels on this site!
Haha, yeah, there are quite a few spots in this video where I directly reference things I remember from the strategy guide without directly calling it out, just in case anybody else read it as much as I did. I love how incredibly worn my Sonic 2 manual looks too, and I've got a bunch of 'em with the covers falling off myself!
The ghosts scared the shit out of me as a kid. They just kept getting bigger and bigger, causing panic not knowing what's gonna happen when they're at their max. Dark stage, massive ghost chasing you as you're stuck on a loop slide. Absolutely brilliant.
I've been in a bit of a depressive funk the last month and a half, so seeing this did bring a smile to my face when I needed it the most. Thanks for the upload, always glad to get more TGC content when it happens 😁
Thank you for this. Great memories. I was in 3rd grade when this came out. I was so hyped. The way you described the feeling of its release and the cover art and just exciting vibe of this game is spot on. Thanks again for helping me remember that whole experience.
I rarely comment on videos but this one in particular helped me relive so many core memories from my childhood. This is one of the best videos I’ve ever watched on RUclips. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Oh my God that bit about "learning time" hits so hard. Honestly that whole bit about childhood and the way you approach games in that specific "inexperienced with life itself" manner just made my day because there were too many times in my life where I was just used to "the games are just there" and then suddenly you found out about "coming soon" and nothing was the same ever again. Couple of thoughts: - It's funny that you saw the Mushroom Hill transitions that way. I don't know what it was but I think because I had experience with Ghibli movies at the time, I saw the changes in scene in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 and all of 2 less as a change in season and more of a "the forest is dying" way thinking about like the mold forests from Mononoke. The closer you get to Eggman who's just trying to get back in the game after Death Egg's crash landing, the more his rampant technological inclinations start becoming apparent and through some fun with stretching you could almost see it as the device he's using is causing the immediate area around him to be drained of life. - You have an almost uncannily similar background with reading and games to my own with the way strategy guides were a part of your diet and your mother being such a strong influence in your early reading life. Though its funny, I learned to read early "out of spite" because I thought my parents were hiding information or something cool from me when they'd read print newspapers and wouldn't share any of the text with me. PBS and GED learn to read programs came in super clutch haha. - Oh damn I never really thought to verbalize that bit about the different shapes before now either. Yazuhara is a treasure and to this day I think he's someone who needed to get flowers from the greater gaming development culture especially as a lot of the design and appeal of the series continued to be credited to someone who really shouldn't have been... - The transition to Lava Reef from Sandopolis on every humanly appreciable level is a fucking masterpiece. The music, the visual aesthetic (including the way you really don't see any "lava" until a bit early I personally think the run from there to the end of the game is an all timer up there with the greats. Then you mention your experience with the Mania version and I legit see another way we mirror in experiences. I also didn't spoil myself on stage listings and played through a solid chunk of that game in one sitting only to be so overwhelmed by the first notes of Lava Reef Zone that I legit cut my stream right there because I had to go sit down and process what had just happened (fun fact: a friend *still* makes me laugh from time to time vividly recalling how he had just got in to watch me play saw this play out and cracked up laughing because he didn't realize I didn't know), especially with Tee Lopes' doing me specifically a solid with the additional bombastic flairs added to the Lava Reef Zone Act 1 theme and the years overdue increase in the number of times That One Part™ of the song looped. You know the one. Additionally, Lava Reef is really where you start to appreciate the silent story telling going on through the entirety of the complete Sonic 3. That sequence from Knuckles' interruption all the way to beginning Sky Sanctuary is really what sticks out to me when people ask me what's "cool" about the Sonic series. That and the Sonic CD animated intros just formed this canon in my head of an ensemble of endearing pastiches of cartoons and stand in "attitudes" of the era running through surrealist worlds doing things much larger than what their designs would ever suggest. - To this day, I think if Mecha(?) Sonic had a Sonic 3 remix of the Sonic 1 and then Sonic 2 boss battle themes for two encounters before the last one, that would have been an insane set of moments on our way to the Death Egg. A quick reminder that Death Egg was something built up over two (edit: three; just got to your part on it and haha love the pomp and circumstance given to this here) games -- literally a decade in kid time! -- and had a whole arc of us trying to stop it, "succeeding" once but now it was right there and we enter it in the most Sonic cool way. The way that all of the energy of Sky Sanctuary's "breath of fresh air leaves us", the way you have that endearing to this day cutscene of Sonic (and Tails in the full experience) rushing up that brittle final column, the leap of faith into the cut to black and then *the first few notes of Death Egg Zone synced to the beginning jogging animations of your two player heroes as the screen fades back in*. Absolute Cinema™ as the kids say. - Straight up only learned that trick with the Spike Tops in Death Egg Act 2 last year seeing a random person's stream of the game and I was LOSING it. I thought it was legit just modded content. - The entire sequence from the "megazord" to the end is such a thrill ride. Grit for grit, Sonic and Eggman just becoming increasingly more desperate to beat each other with the highest stakes possible and then the way Doomsday Zone would just feel like you've got this even though the tension of the music and setting just sells you a different tone. - That bit about growing up with both Sonic 3 and Adventure hit hard too when I think about how I was always that specific brand of enthusiast who wanted to play all the things but realities of living in a family well under a specific income threshold meant we locked in with one system per generation and I could only use those gaming magazines and word of mouth to fill in my curiosities. Then a funny thing called the Scholastic Book Fair/Club had the funniest things in one of their circulars including "Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC" (alongside Sonic R, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and... A broken version of Sonic CD that never ran on anything it was installed on ever leaving me to dream about what could be as the .avi files for the intros and endings were accessible if you were that kind of kid leafing through file systems ravenous for "secrets" and I got my first ever hit of Toei Sonic with Sonic Boom blasting through the then best PC setup we had) and almost two years later, Sonic Adventure DX for the Gamecube hit and I *had* to see where the series went next after the former. What a lovely episode especially for it being your 10th Anniversary video!
The rush of nostalgia watching this! lol I haven’t seen that sonic and knuckles intro in idk how long and the white ranger debut?!? it was the best time being a kid lol
Man. I was born in '86 so I get that nostalgiac feeling for this era myself. Always loved watching your stuff since I've found you, and despite the disconnect of "Some youtuber that some random fan watches" it always seems to hit me a bit different than most channels. Especially when the VERY first music note of your video plays, and I know EXACTLY what song it was. the OCRemix stuff and wonderful music and great editing, and the way you explain stuff is great. Sorry for gushing or whatnot, but I see this and think of the ol' Sonic 2, and Adventure, and random nostalgia for it all. Thanks for always making this stuff, it's great, and means a lot!
14:50 I'm probably wrong, but ive always seen the second and third part of Mushroom Hill not as fall and winter, but just as the forest dying. First, everything is alive and well. Then it is freshly dead. Then everything is so dead that the forest has lost its color
I absolutely loved this video, as always!! I don't play Sonic, but hearing Josh talk about his history and memories with the game and culture surrounding it... It's always so engaging!
Great video as always! It's not talked about enough how S3&K's final boss basically set the precedent for the entire rest of the mainline series and a lot of the spinoffs. Ending a Sonic game with a final super sonic (or a close derivative) is the overwhelming norm and has been since this game.
Also I have watched that 8 hour Sonic CD critique a while ago (which I know your aware of due to your comment on it) and have reflected on it a lot (alongside this video), so a lot of this level design talk at this point comes pretty smoothly for me, but I do like how you put a spotlight on how the level designer made the levels look unique, that's the kind of thing I really only thought about when I was younger, until I stopped thinking about it at some point, but that is a really cool idea to consider... More importantly though, I was surprised to hear that you don't like Flying Battery and Death Egg as much as the other zones, when they are arguably my favorite zones in the latter half of S3K! (Sonic 3 as a whole right now is either my fav or second fav game right now btw!) I heard your reasons, and I think they make sense, but it got me to realize something... I think there's a bit of personalization that goes on with this stuff. Like...what effects these subjective differences in the first place. We've both played this game a lot for a long time, we both like all of these levels, or at least most of them. But I don't think I'm alone in feeling Sandopolis is the more annoying zone to go through, in fact I actually like Lava Reef Act 1 better in this game as opposed to Mania because its place feels more meaningful in this game whereas in Mania its my least favorite level in the game! I think there's little things that both of us are more tolerant of/like more compared to each other. Little things we might have picked up on when we first played these levels as kids and reinforced throughout our lives for whatever reason. What may seem gimmicky to me might be what makes a level engaging and vice versa. I also really like Death Egg in this game due to the fact that the level is _just_ hard enough that it still feels a bit intimidating even when I know what I'm doing. That too me offsets most of the nitpicks you have about how its presented and whatnot. (all the countdown loops except one can be skipped anyways but I'm sure you know that already!) I don't however particularly feel that way about most of the other levels which is why Sandopolis feels off...doesn't help that it feels like it should be one of the "last levels of the game" given how long Act 2 is yet it technically isn't, hence its the level that drags the most for me... But yeah, this game is great! I'm at the point where I'm learning a few speedrun glitches just to give the game a bit more variety. The day I master skipping the Lava Reef Act 2 boss will be a very good day indeed! (For you specifically I'd recommend looking into how to defeat the Hydrocity Act 2 boss quickly, its very fun to do and isn't really glitchy so much as just very effective, using the edge of the water geyser to cheese the boss and all!) Sky Sanctuary skip is cool, but that's mainly because of how easy it is, its probably more fun to play through the level normally tho! Haha! :D Anyways this video is long so I can't really comment on ALL of it in good faith! But I can definetely see that this was, indeed, a labor of love! Great work as always Josh! Keep on geekin' alright! :D
![ALL Sonic 3 & Knuckles Unused Content | LOST BITS [TetraBitGaming]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ufQlBnmNFYM/mqdefault.jpg)
Welcome to the comments section! Please like & subscribe yada yada etc etc. Anyway, here's the full tracklist for the music used throughout the episode! I remember hearing Project Chaos, an Overclocked Remix album, when it first came out back in 2006, and I don't know how I could've made this episode without it!
0:00 - Project Chaos - Beneath the Ashes
1:00 - Dr Reverbnik - Endless Mine
1:58 - Power Rangers (Sega Genesis) - Goldar Stage
2:12 - Sonic Championship - North Wind (Sonic vs. Knuckles)
3:27 - Virtual Sonic - Sonic & Knuckles Theme
4:42 - Sonic 1 - Star Light Zone
6:07 - Sonic 3 - Data Select
6:36 - Sonic Championship - South Island
7:28 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Evening Star
8:25 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Tatchy Touch
9:08 - Smash Bros - Super Mario World Medley
9:25 - Streets of Rage 2 - Go Straight
10:37 - Sonic 3 - Blue Spheres
12:01 - Project Chaos - The Wait is Over!
12:26 - Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1
13:36 - Project Chaos - iMushroom
14:27 - Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2
16:27 - Knuckles' Chaotix - This Horizon
17:15 - Knuckles Theme (S&K version)
17:30 - Project Chaos - Divided from Grace
19:04 - Duane & Brando - Sonic (Instrumental of Devastation)
20:17 - Flying Battery Zone Act 1
21:25 - Flying Battery Zone Act 2
22:02 - Project Chaos - Elevator Music
22:42 - Project Chaos - Dead Batteries
25:05 - Dr Reverbnik - Spring Yard Zone Act 2
27:05 - Sandopolis Zone Act 2
27:55 - Knuckles Theme (S3 version)
28:34 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Midnight Greenhouse
29:21 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Moonrise
30:12 - Act 1 Boss (S&K version)
30:59 - Project Chaos - Live at the Sandopolis
31:40 - Gumball Bonus
32:09 - Lava Reef Zone Act 1
33:24 - Dr Reverbnik - Lava Reef Zone
34:40 - Sonic Mania - Lava Reef Zone Act 1
35:34 - Lava Reef Zone Act 2
36:57 - Act 2 Boss (S&K version)
38:15 - Project Chaos - Scrambled Eggman
39:01 - Project Chaos - Knuckleduster
40:10 - Sonic 2 - Unused Track
41:30 - Hidden Palace Zone
42:00 - Sonic Mania - Lava Reef Zone Act 2
42:29 - Sonic the Fighters - North Wind (Sonic vs. Knuckles)
42:54 - Project Chaos - Caution! Echidnas May Eat Your Brain
43:26 - Sonic Championship - Death Egg's Hangar (Hurry Up!)
44:28 - Sky Sancutary Zone
46:16 - Sonic 1 - Boss
46:35 - Sonic 2 - Boss
46:45 - Sonic Championship - Death Egg
47:11 - Project Chaos - That Freezing Feeling
48:19 - Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed - Sanctuary Falls
50:17 - Virtual Sonic - Metal Sonic
50:52 - Fastest Thing Alive (Instrumental)
51:45 - Robotnik's Revenge
52:45 - Sonic Generations - Death Egg Robot
53:55 - Sonic Forces - Mega Death Egg Robot (Phase 3)
54:59 - Death Egg Zone Act 1
56:05 - Sonic 1 Master System Title Screen (PAL version)
56:24 - Sonic 1 - Scrap Brain Zone
57:42 - Dr Reverbnik - Death Egg Zone
59:35 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Child's Song
1:00:18 - Knuckles' Chaotix - Mechanical Dance
1:01:04 - Death Egg Zone Act 2
1:01:28 - Act 2 Boss
1:02:10 - Sonic Generations - Big Arm
1:04:56 - Sonic Championship - Super Sonic
1:05:27 - Project Chaos - The Secluded Stronghold
1:07:33 - Project Chaos - Beneath the Ashes
1:09:13 - Virtual Sonic - Chaos Jam
1:10:32 - Project Chaos - So Long, and Thanks for All the...
You gotta do a retrospective on Unleashed man I’m a classic and Dreamcast era guy but Unleashed Sonic was the best and most accurate Sonic portrayal by far! Unleashed is Top tier when it comes to Sonic storytelling!
Have you tried indie games like celeste,pizza tower,and the spark games they're fast paced platformers that rely on twitch reflexes which seems like it would appeal to you
You should have gotten alex yard and knuckles to explain scrap brain music
My favorite part of your channel is that you acknowledge the context of when the games you review is as opposed to other reviews that talk about the games from a modern standpoint
OMG YES! I used to ask if you'd do this, and holy heck, ya did, thanks so much dude!!!!
Real fans know that Knuckles... has always chuckled. Glad to see the latest part of the Sonic & Geek Critique Saga.
It was another reason to think that the Adventure games were a new canon! xD
The real Sonic movie I've been waiting all year to watch.
True
This and the metroid series are absolutely must watch.
Woah, I think I just saw your comment on a Dragon ball GT video haha
Ok but actually tho, sonic 3 was incredible!!!!
Facts
I love how sonic 2 and 3 is connected and told a story without words.
I don't know how you do it but the way you described everything about your first day of having S&K, I could just perfectly feel and understand that exact feeling of having your child mind blown by both extremely innocent and mundane stuff like the alternate Knuckles paths in Sonic 3 and genuinely wild and out there stuff like the figuring out the Lock On Cart.
Ooh, yeah, I was hoping I could convey that! 'cause like, everybody thinks of S3&K as one and the same nowadays, and fairly so, that's what we as Sonic fans always wanted! But as someone who was there to experience them separately...
I 💯 agree, thank you. Good comment, I tried to say the sane thing.
-and you did a good job with it!
(lock on to the Sonic 3 video to get the full comment)
Bruh.
“I hit the power button, and here’s what I saw” an Ad Break for the Pokemon TCG game plays.😂
I got the "Become a Correctional Officer" ad
I saw an ad for YT Premium. I don't use Spotify, but i assume this would be the same as hearing "want a break from the ads?" Just as the chorus is about to appear
Hmm, I should probably go in and tell RUclips NOT to put an ad right there, huh? xD We were still a little ways away from PokeMania in 1994!
@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious “Don’t you HATE ADS! Pay us $10 a month and forget about it till your credit card expires. Also don’t mind the fact that the small creators you watch get even less from your views than the pittance they get from each Ad you skip the second the skip button appears. They’re all rich anyway…right? Don’t think about that, think about how much you Hate those rascally Ads.”
@@GeekCritique It’s certainly the kind of video that has more clear breaks that an ad break would make more sense than the random places RUclips tosses them.
I get it that’s extra work though, and don’t personally fault you for not jumping through whatever hoops RUclips requires to place them in particular spots that make more sense.
This particular example I just found funny because the transition into the ad in a place I was expecting a cut to a different scene made my brain do a double take.😆
While there would be solid titles released after, Sonic & Knuckles in many ways feels like the culmination of what the Genesis was. Software pushing the limits of 16-bit hardware, feeling a full-fledged adventure while still staying true to Sega's arcade mentality, and being part of a game so big, it took two cartridges to fully do it justice.
The company had utilized sports titles and price cuts to effectively get the market share of sales in the US and maintained it for a few years, but Sonic spearheaded that success, with the strongest years of the system being dominated by a game from it on the console every single year. While it wasn't the best-selling entry in the series, there's even more of retroactive finality to Sonic & Knuckles because (speaking a kid that had a Genesis and SNES) it was the last time that early to mid 90s conception of Sonic was at the top of the mountain. Within two months after the game's release, the gaming space irrevocably shifted.
Donkey Kong Country comes out for the SNES, not only doing great business as the graphical killer app for that console but being the release that really pushes Nintendo to regain market share in North America. The Saturn arrives in Japan, officially marking the end of Genesis/Megadrive's reign as the sole mainline Sega console (with Sonic never ending up as the same kind of major figure in it). And the Playstation arrives there shortly after, soon emerging as the first major player to be actual competition to the big two worldwide.
In a lot of ways what Sonic had been in that 1991-1994 period; the contemporary series doing unthinkable graphical feats, the focus of Sega's software efforts, and franchise that was actively challenging Nintendo in places like the US? It would not be that in the immediate years after 1994 (and some would say never would be again). In the respect, beyond the brilliance of its platforming/speed/exploration fused level design, the on-point aesthetics, and eternally masterful music, Sonic & Knuckles is further special because it is the peak of what Classic Sonic meant in its time before the world forever changed.
Well-said, as always! And yeah, this was the final moment where the video game industry would be defined as "Sega versus Nintendo," as well as the FIRST time since the release of Sonic 1 that Nintendo had the edge in that battle.
36:19 "Hi-droh-ssity". Meeting in the middle, a surefire way to mildly annoy both sides as much as possible. Never change man lol
What about the inverse? "Hydraw City"
46:55 This design has always been so damn good.
I think there's a reason the creator of Super Mario Bros Z decided to use this specific Metal Sonic design as its big imposing villain!
Probably a hot take but I think Mecha’s design is even better than the normal Metal Sonic. It’s so imposing. He just looks built to mess shit up.
I’m glad the comics finally gave him the comeback he deserved. I hope he shows up in them again.
whoa....Super Mario Bros Z....that's been a long time....
It always bothered me that he called it Metal Sonic, when I always knew that design was Mecha Sonic, but oh well.
@@villageronps5317I sort of agree Mecha definitely is 100% way more imposing than metal but I still prefer metal because imposing wasn’t it’s designs main objective it was to reflect sonic mecha isn’t a reflection and is cooler for it but to make a comparison I think Mecha is cooler and metal is frieza Mecha by far has a cooler look and design but he doesn’t got the same level of character like frieza.
Man, Josh's memory is simply incredible. I'm younger than him and I can't remember nearly as much from my childhood as he does from his.
I don't know if you'll see this but I've followed you for quite a while now, and I gotta say, I kinda love your approach to critique. They feel like a story about your experience with a game that you're excited to share with the world, especially with how you weave personal stories into them. It makes me wanna just sit down and have a chat with you. I've come to realize that I'm really turned off by serious, analytical critique that seem like an "objective" diatribe even though it's all based on one's perspective, especially if it's multiple hours long.
All this to say, you're an inspiration. Here's to 10 more years.
I mean, I don't fault how anyone else does it, but I could never do this WITHOUT putting a whole lot of *me* into it, y'know? Glad you dig it, and thanks for the kind words!
I agree, Geek Critique and Noah-Caldwell Gervais do critical analysis better than anyone else on the platform, and I think that’s due to placing their games reviewed in proper context of their time, their intention, and feels like a history lesson as much as a game review.
@@GeekCritique Thanks for your reply! I've just taken a more conscious effort to think about the content I watch instead of just having some background noise. You may find someone to be excellent and well said, I might not, and vice versa.
I absolutely love TGC videos. They've gotten me through some rough times and the dedication and love that goes into each video is so amazing! Thanks, man...
This guy went out of his way to send me the file of the DK video so I could watch it in the airplane while flying to my dad’s funerals.
Helping me through a rough time is an understatement. Literally saved me from breaking down crying like an idiot in the middle of an airplane.
It was already one of my favorite channels before, but this dude from the other side of the world helped me remember that not everyone sucks.
You're very welcome! Keep your head up!
@@GeekCritiqueYou've become a genuine inspiration to me to do better, and you’ve helped cement a much healthier approach to new experiences and facing disappointment, not just in games but in life. You're fantastic, keep on keeping on.
@@GeekCritique Thanks man, I do! And you just keep being a good human being! :D
Ditto. How t me through literal mortal peril.
Screamed like a lunatic when I saw Katana Zero footage, that game's an all time favorite and it feels right up TGC's alley. Happy 10th!
It is, indeed! And thanks!
I’m not even the biggest Sonic fan, but watching you go this in depth into the level design, worldbuilding, and personal attachment of these games is truly mesmerizing.
15:30 I have, since the 90's, always assumed mushroom hill is actually having the life sucked out of it or being killed by pollution from flying battery zone and that's why it goes dead and more grey in the second half of act 2.
Y'know, that makes a LOT more sense than what I'd always assumed!
That was also my assumption, like the closer you get to where Eggman is hiding out, the more sickly the forest becomes, like his contraption is slowly reaching over it and strangling the life out of it
I mean I personally just thought it was Winter like how Fall’s the first half
I always thought it was just different parts of the forest 😂
oh, ohh, ohhh.......
This is why I support you on Patreon. To view all those wonderful home movies made of you as a preschool age kid in a Barney Tee. More of that, please.
Oh, and the Sonic stuff is alright too. But personally I'd swap Flying Battery and Sandopolis as fave and least faves. A little snowstorm has sadly foiled my plans to go see Sonic 3 tonight, so this video is more than adequate compensation. So thanks. :)
This episode definitely breaks the record for "Most Tiny Josh Footage in One Episode." Stay warm! :)
2 Sonic movies in 1 day, what a great day for me!!
we gotta stop meeting like this
@ in the strangest places, we meet yet again
It's true, every eggrobo launched in the cutscene is the same amount as there are in the level!
ALRIGHT -- This video was a long one to watch, because there are few games I have such an emotional connection for--I want to start this comment out by saying, I loved this video!
Buuut, the ending stuck with me: The conversation about being born at the unique time to accept the multiple versions of Sonic--And, that is an opinion I've held personally, however for different reasons: I was only about five, I'd already played the Genesis Sonic games, watched the Cartoons, loved the OVA more than any Disney Film--When Sonic Adventure released, I had just been old enough to play through the Classic games--I was too young to see any two different versions of Sonic as separate entities.
I could tell that the design had changed, but my brain couldn't quite pick out exactly WHAT was changed--When Sonic was resting in Station Square at the pool, it was a direct link to the Sonic in the OVA--Scratch and Grounder may not be around anymore, Sarah was replaced with Amy--But, this new Sonic Adventure, was to me, just a continuation, not a change. I'd say the first time I really noticed that the series had shifted, was in Heroes--Metal Sonic, was a noticeably different character than he was in the OVA--It didn't help that I'd never owned a Sega CD, so my assumption was that Metal came FROM the OVA.
My eight year old brain was far better at noticing the major differences in the series after Heroes than it was before. It was then that I learned to appreciate WHAT I loved about the Classic games, and why I preferred them. I went back to play them, beat the original 3 again, but stopped at Sonic & Knuckles. Something about it didn't click with me, I went into it, just thinking it was another Sonic Game like I had as a kid, I didn't know it was meant to be played with Sonic 3. I kinda just assumed plugging it into Sonic 3 let you play Knuckles in that game like Sonic 2, so I never investigated it further.
Sonic & Knuckles, was the only Genesis Sonic game I didn't complete in my youngest years of gaming, other than CD--But, that wasn't by choice, if I HAD a Sega CD, I'd have played i! But no, to me, Sonic & Knuckles, was the lesser game from Sonic 3--No introduction cutscenes, Tails can't follow you, and WHY would I want to play as Knuckles? He's not Sonic, AND he's a jerk. No saves files? Really!? I beat Mushroom Hill, got stuck on Flying Battery because I couldn't figure out the missile part, and just kinda ignored the game from there, Sonic Adventure had just released, why should I think about that last game?
For years thereafter, I played Sonic 1, 2 and 3--Even CD dozens of times,--No, HUNDREDS of times. Sonic & Knuckles hadn't been something I even thought about anymore, it was that gimmick that let us play Knuckles in Sonic 2 or 3. I'd say I was probably nearly twelve, chronically on the Internet of the late 2000s, had dropped the Sonic series after the Shadow '05 and seeing the reaction to Sonic 06 online that I even learned that Knuckles was an add-on to Sonic 3, not just another Sonic game.
So, I put the two together, played through Sonic 3 AGAIN, and then--Something clicked. The story I thought I'd been done with, the game I thought I knew, was only about half the Adventure. I somehow had never seen any of the Zones after Flying Battery, each was new, was fun, and I quickly realized: This was my favorite Sonic game.
We got our Genesis games second-hand, no manuals or anything, the fact that we learned we could play Knuckles in Sonic 2 is something I still don't know how we discovered. We probably just assumed if you could connect a game to it, it would work with anything and through trial and error, tried Sonic 2.
But, upon reaching the Death Egg, and conquering that final boss, going back to play Doomsday Zone--This story was somehow greater than the ones that Adventure told. It built up a threat over two full games, and offered a climax--All within the limitations of the 16-Bit, wordless storytelling. After the Death Egg, the Egg Carrier really wasn't that grand of a threat. Eggman, wasn't building fantastical machines, he was trying and failing to control Gods, or creations of the past. Even his own creation, turned on him as he cowered in a corner. He dies in '06 due to some mechanical failure after kidnapping the Princess twenty times in a row and losing her just as many, tries to steal the Master Emerald and just gives up after Knuckles smashes it--His most menacing appearance in the Modern games was in Tail's story of Adventure, where he was just throwing a temper tantrum after losing Chaos and failing to blow up Station Square.
Eggman, was no longer the always antagonistic force he was in the Classic games, he lost that menacing tone, that rivalry with the Blue Hedgehog he hated so much, he was no longer allowed to build planet size world destroyers. Playing Sonic and Knuckles to its end made me realize, Eggman was no longer _Sonic's_ villain, he was just the guy who popped up, caused trouble, and then helped out to stop what he created in the end.
I think this is why many Classic fans loved Colors and Generations, while Adventure fans didn't. Complain about the writing of these games all you want, but they brought back the classic rivalry between Sonic and Eggman. There was no greater threat, this was Eggman messing around, and Sonic thwarting him, and _that's_ what I want from a modern Sonic game. _Eggman, being as big of a threat, as he was in Sonic 3 & Knuckles._
This wasn't just the end of the mainline Classic Sonic era, in many ways, this was Eggman's final moment to be the main antagonist, at least until later.
This was the game that made me not just truly LOVE the Classic games, but also, made me appreciate Sonic and Eggman the most. This was the greatest conflict between the two, the greatest struggle.
Stepping into Sandopolis Zone for the first time, is a gaming moment I'll never forget.
BRO!!!! its amazing how you can not ever meet someone and share the same experiences!!! this is me to a T! i was around 9 years old when I played sonic and knuckles and it just seemed like a downgrade from 3 at the time and I neglected it, but now that I understand the arc its AMAZING! thank you for this detailed testimony and thank you @greekcritique for the amazing review!
That's kinda the point of Sonic and Tails having their own unique stories.
Sonic, especially in the localized version, treats Robotnik like a joke multiple times within the story. Doesn't help that Eggman sounds like a cartoon villain.
When you play Tails story, however, Eggman sounds much more menacing. The final fight with Tails sounds like he was given a completely different voice direction because he definitely was.
Sonic Adventure up until Sonic 06 (counting sonic advance-rush adventure) stops being about the player and starts being about characters as individuals. That's why the same events play differently for other characters. Sonic and Knuckles is arguably a proto version of this multi character storytelling.
This was absolutely brilliant. Your storytelling is fantastic, you really managed to put me in your shoes at the start of the video. On a side note I must be around the same age as you since I had that same experience of being just the right age for sonic and knuckles and then adventure.
this might be one of the best geek critique episodes, it gives me such a different perspective from the one i had, and im incredibly thankful ive gotten to hear it. Video is nothing short of phenomenal, thank you so much josh :D ♥️
Dude that hair is looking majestic! Great work as always
I appreciate it! That's what three years of no haircuts will get'cha!
@@GeekCritique The long hair suits your chill vibe, but you look cool regardless!
@@GeekCritique hell yeah been growing mine since 2015, gotta let that freak flag fly 🤙
It’s finally out! I’ve been thinking about this lately: I wonder what would’ve happened if Sonic 3 & Knuckles was a Saturn launch title, it’s something not many think about! Locking the highly anticipated second half of the story to a new console probably would’ve helped the Saturn A LOT, but it could also be seen as really scummy on Sega’s part. It’s an interesting dilemma, since Sonic & Knuckles came out one month before the Japanese launch of the Saturn. Another great video, I'm really glad you brought up Yasuhara's underrated influence!
Hmm, that would've been a REAL tough fit given how the dev team went directly from Sonic 3 to Sonic & Knuckles. I think the expectations would've always been so much higher on Saturn that if Sonic was "just" another 2D game, it would've been a bad look at the time no matter how brilliant it was. If we were gonna change the timeline, I think I'd adapt Chaotix to Saturn, instead.
sadly, contrary to what many people says now. People by the Saturn/PSX/N64 era were pretty stored of 2D & were clamoring for any crumb of precious 3D
Sonic Mania would have been lambasted for having that "outdated look," and the big claim would have been, "Why didn't the full game look like the 3D Special stages?"
I've been watching your content since 2018 or so, and I've always been intrigued by your history within the Sonic community. While I haven't been part of this journey since the beginning, I'm still glad I've been able to watch so much of your content, Josh. While this video may only cover the latter half of the game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles will always be my favorite Sonic game, and I'll always be happy to revisit it, be it through playing the game myself or seeing others talk about it.
Here's to another ten years of geekin' and critiquin'!
Good to have you back, mon. I've seen very few people on the net talk about one of my childhood games in such a way that speaks to me.
As a 90s kid, I started gaming in the mid 00s and I had already played a handful of DOS and NES games (mostly Super Mario Bros.) but nothing got me quite as obsessed as S&K, even the other Mega Drive / Genesis Sonic games. I had some fun with the Adventure games, but, for me personally, they could never reach the heights of what had come before.
After falling out of love with the series during the 2010s, the way everyone talking about how "Sonic was never good" went as far as to get me to question what made me love those 2D classics for such a long time. Sonic Mania was such a ray of hope. It told the Internet "Sonic WAS good (at least during the 90s)".
But more importantly, it got be to replay the classics again and reexamine their unique qualities as video games, instead of nostalgic pieces of my formative years. If I could make the ideal video of this caliber about S&K, it would be like this.
It's always such a joy whenever you release something new, the videos are always the best. Thank you for this deep dive on game. Your talk about how the industry had changed when Sonic returned for the Dreamcast really hit me in particular because it's been a topic I've been finding myself landing on a lot when I try to explain to people just how stable things have become vs the old days. I always knew it had, but it didn't hit me how extreme the shift has been until I sat down to come up with an example.
For example, Metroid Prime on the Gamecube came out in 2002. That makes it roughly about 22 years old. (Yay, Metroid Prime is old enough to drink! :D) Now if I show you Metroid Prime right now, you can tell it's not the newest thing out there, but it still looks good. What mainly gives it away is it's 4:3 aspect ratio. If I gave the game to someone who somehow had never heard of it and told them it was a new game from a smaller studio, they'd probably think it was fine, and it has most of the standard gaming conventions we're used to. You're moving around a 3d space made of polygonal shapes that are textured and have lighting effects and bub mapping on a system with an Ati 3d graphics accelerator. It's fundamentally built the same way 3d games are built today. It uses design principles and conventions that are still standard today. The most non-standard thing about it is it's control scheme.
Now imagine if in 2002 you were to look back to a game 22 years old then. You'd be going back to 1980. The top selling console of 1980 was Space Invaders for the Atari 2600. The difference between Space Invaders on the 2600 and Metroid Prime on the Gamecube is staggering. The game looks ancient to the 2002 gamer. The hardware is so bare bones you have to write your games in Assembly instead of using a higher order programming language. The sprites are barely recognizable, you're limited by the Atari 2600's sound chip, and your controller is a stick with one button because we still haven't quite figured out how to to design a controller yet.
It's just so mind boggling how from the 1st through 5th generation of consoles (Up until N64, PS1, Saturn) video games leapt forward. Compared to the 6th generation and after which largely have smaller incremental increases in ability. Whenever people talk about what is retro I make this my dividing line, as the 6th generation and after really is a different age for the medium, kind of like how comics had their golden, silver, and bronze ages.
I do agree that 6th gen and beyond is a different age, but I think SO much of that is contingent on my experience with it. The Dreamcast always felt to me like the last "old-school" video game console, but it was also the last one released when I was still *entirely* a child, y'know? I do think that between the PS2 and the Wii, gaming was exposed to a much wider, more mainstream audience than it ever had been before, and it's no coincidence that was around the point where certain standards started getting more locked in.
At the same time though... I found this article from around 1996 where they interviewed a long-time gamer, and he said the then-new 3D stuff really wasn't blowing him away the way that 80s arcade games had. The quote was something like, "To go from Virtua Racing to Daytona is amazing, but it can never match how it felt to go from NOTHING to Pole Position!" I think it's true that graphical fidelity has plateaued and game design standards have stagnated, at least in the AAA space. But I think there's also something to the idea that each generational leap was ALWAYS a little less impressive than the last, and it's hard for anything modern to match how we REMEMBER a game that pushed the envelope the way Super Mario 64 or Metroid Prime did.
This is one of your best. I put it right up there with the Dreamcast video.
You always do a phenomenal job of not only diving deep into the heart of a game, but bringing your own unique experience into it.
Happy 10th, Josh! As a fellow lifelong Sonic fan, your passion for S&K is inspiring; I gotta admit I was worried I'd missed three full reviews when I saw this uploaded, but as a celebratory piece for a decade on RUclips, this was fantastic. Love your work, PLEASE don't ever stop, and lookin' forward to the next way past cool video you got headed our way! Keep on juicin' and jammin', pal!
Up, over, and... still critiquin'! :D
@@GeekCritique that's what i'm talkin' bout! Hey, I wanted to reach out for a while; i'd love to have you as a guest on our podcast sometime! How can we make that happen?
I loved it! Sonic Team always amazed me with their boldness & creativity, from lock-on technology, to creating the first full analog controller, complete with sensitive triggers. Sonic & Knuckles is easily my favorite in the franchise. Thank you for sharing!
This game is special to me, I was not around in the decade it was made however one of the first games I ever played was a rerelease of it and I remember playing Mushroom hill zone over and over before getting a game over at flying battery.
This game is probably the reason why I am a Sonic fan considering I did play it a lot more than the other classic games for some reason and nowadays it is the second half of one of my favourite games of all time and favourite Sonic game.
I always love how you insert your experience when the game you're talking about was contemporary when you were exposed to it, the context adds so much to how these games were made and percieved in their hayday. And i especially loved the inclusion of explaining Hirokazu Yasuhara's influence in the classic games, i hadnt heard anything about this guy until now and its facinating to peel back and see the intent behind sonic level design
I always loved sonic as a kid, but never really got the lore because I was too young, you made me fall in love with it all over again, thanks!
I played Sonic & Knuckles way before Sonic 3. Back in middle school, I had one of those terrible AtGames portable Genesis systems (the ones with very noticeable input lag and horrible sound quality), and it had Sonic 1, 2 and Knuckles, but no Sonic 3. I wasn’t very good at Sonic then so I never got past Flying Battery Act 2. It wasn’t until high school when I finally played Sonic 3 and realized it and Sonic & Knuckles were two halves of one game. It’s my less preferred half because Sandopolis Act 2 exists, but it still makes for a great second half to me. Death Egg Zone’s theme is one of the biggest bangers on the Genesis btw.
Y'know, in an earlier version of the script, I had a bit related to that:
---
For whatever reason, Sonic & Knuckles always seemed a little more common to me than Sonic 3. Maybe because it was the last major Sonic game on the Genesis? Maybe because it didn’t have a save battery and was cheaper to make? Whatever the case, I knew quite a few kids growing up who had this and this, but not THIS.
And that’s just MY age group. Sonic 3 was persona non grata for over a decade, unable to be re-released on compilations and mini-consoles… but Sonic & Knuckles WAS. I think it’s reasonable to assume at this point that a not-insignificant number of people have played Sonic & Knuckles, but not Sonic 3. Some of them, like a be-hair-gelled kid I knew in 8th grade, might have grown up loving S&K, without even knowing there WAS a Sonic 3.
@GeekCritique A popular theory is that it had something to do with the legality of the Michael Jackson stuff. Noting that a lot of the stuff changed musically between the two halves. We'll never know for sure, of course. Atgames just kinda did what they wanted anyway.
@@spacepilgrim3023I think it's because Sonic 3 has a save file system, but the AtGames Sega doesn't save your progress, so they left Sonic 3 out because they were afraid of all the letters they'd get about "my game doesn't save!"
Josh has this insane ability to make me nostalgic and hyped over a game I never played before. He did it with the Storybook games, and he's doing it now.
Never change Josh.
I am so hyped to watch this ahhh!! Thank you for your amazing videos, Josh :D
That was a BEAUTIFUL cut from learning what the top of the cartridge was for, and you blowing through the rocks as Knuckles. lmao
Your love for this series is absolutely palpable. Even for me, whose biggest experience with Sonic was in Smash, someone who picked up Sonic Mania once when I was younger and didn't quite get it, I can't help but find a little love for it myself. Every time I watch one of these videos, I can't help but think to myself... maybe I should give it another chance.
The most unbelievable part of this story is having a dad who actually reads the manual.
I'm sorry you didn't have a father figure growing up.
Thanks!
The segment about Yasuhara's level design philosophy made me tear up. It's what i've been trying to communicate to other level designers for fan games for a while, but I don't think i've ever had the verbal ability to convey that so accurately.
Today I found out that you and me basically had the same childhood lol
Happy Anniversary!
This game is rather special to me, as I played it under similar circumstances, albeit about 4-5 years later; I had Sonic 3 alone for what felt like forever as a kid (only about a year, I think lol), and was able to finally experience Sonic&Knuckles via trading some other game with a neighborhood friend. (I thought you could play as Knuckles in every Genesis game via lock-on, but I was clearly very mistaken haha) There's a special sense of resolution and catharsis that came with Knuckles being able to break open that path in Angel Island.
I've never liked Sandopolis, but watching this gave me a slightly renewed appreciation for it, especially since I hadn't realized until now that you can just climb up as Knuckles in Act 2.
Also, the second phase of The Doomsday definitely confused me. I had no idea how to actually damage the thing, so I just flew tight counterclockwise circles around the ship until it worked lol
Sounds like you've got pretty amazing parents
Every Sonic video from you makes me emotional for a series I've barely experienced. Thank you for the phenomenal videos!
Sonic 1 was one of the first video games I ever played. Later on we got Sonic 3 and S&K too. The admiration I have for this series of games matches yours man. Such great memories. Also I remember how crazy it was to attach S&K to random sega games and end up playing random special stages. My mind was blown. It made no sense to me but it was really cool. I only wish I got to spend more time with S2 tho. I believe we rented it once or twice but never owned it.
31:09 THANK YOU regarding that comment about the haters and Sonic Origins. People really treat that compilation like as if it's the equivalent to Sonic 1 on the GBA and I find that incredibly unfair. Yes Sega definitely did screw up with it at launch regarding the DLC situation and the multitude of problems it had, I won't defend them on that, but Origins is far from a broken mess of a collection, especially after patch updates properly fixed most of the issues it had. And even then, the issues it had weren't game-breaking by any means. Hell I had gotten the game at launch and I only encounter two bugs that didn't even affect gameplay.
Whether it's definitive is a matter of opinion (Especially regarding the music situation with Sonic 3.) but I still think it's a great collection worth picking up.
Right? Especially with the UltraFix mod that has done wonders to it. IDK if people may still take issue with stuff like S3&K's physics being a bit different allegedly because of crunch, guest star Dave even mentioned it on Twitter one time alongside podcast cohost Shoogles, but if there's one franchise with entries fans are kinder to in retrospect, it's the one with Sonic 06 in it.
Part of the reason for this treatment was because of Sega delisting most versions of the classic sonic games (aside from the better mobile versions, 3D versions on 3ds & the sega ages ports on switch)
@@bingobo2551 What are the superior elements of the mobile versions?
@@TomTheyy let’s see, the price is way cheaper for sonic 1, 2 & CD. Being about 8 times cheaper than origins. Sonic 1 and 2 has a better save file system in the mobile versions compared to their origins counterparts, Sonic 2 mobile has Proto Palace zone but for some reason was removed in origins, Sonic CD has a better designed menu. For the case of Sonic CD and sonic 1 on mobile it actually added “new” characters and for the case of sonic 1 specifically they added routes for both tails and knuckles to explore through with even a new exit in spring yard. Only thing I can give to origins is that debug mode is technically easier to use. (While you can connect a controller to play the mobile ports, most people apparently don’t know that.)
I personally can’t recommend origins especially after they delisted both sonic CD & Sonic 3&K on steam.
@@bingobo2551 I will agree that the delisting situation was definitely bullshit on Sega's end, especially considering it's odd that they even decided to do that considering they never had an issue with having multiple versions of the same game being sold at the same time on different platforms.
But I'm not gonna rank Origins low just because of that. The delisting has nothing to do with Origins and its quality, that's just Sega making some boneheaded decision.
I thought “Egg Robo” was just Eggman with a mask on. He had a mask to trick Knuckles so he wouldn’t know he was a bad guy. But it makes more sense that he is completely a robot.
You did a truly amazing job with this video. The love you have for the game shines through! Honestly, 10/10 work here! 👏🏻
My older bro at some point came up with a Sonic story idea that involved Sonic coming across Metal Sonic for the first time in Sonic CD and assuming that Metal Sonic was himself robotisized in the future. So it was really cool to see you got a taste of that when you first encountered Mecha Sonic as a kid! That's actually really cool! :O
I love hearing about these misconceptions as a kid. I remember thinking Knuckles looked like a cow (ie: not an elongated snout) when he teetered at the end Launch Base Zone. 😂
I always thought that about a possible S&K tattoo, too! (Outside something family-related.)
I had a war of worlds with my best friend in Kindergarten because he was absolutely SURE that Tails was a girl!
Yet another incredibly high quality video from The Geek Critique… you love to see it
after seeing the sonic 3 movie ive been flooded with nostalgia and videos like yours are exactly what i need, this was very good, it brought me apprection i didnt have before and i love the passion you have for the blue blur, i mean dude i can listen to you talk about sonic all day, i look forward to checking out your other videos
Diggin the long hair, man!! Glad to see a new upload, much love.
Right back at'cha! Well, the "much love," part, I can't see your hair!
Early Christmas gift from tgc lets gooooooo
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for the early Christmas Gift, your video truly encapsulate what I love about Video Games
You are seriously one of the more relatable people to listen to when talking about Sonic. I am very happy with watching your videos, because you very much tell how genuine the feelings were involving your experience. Rotating your D-Pad during Sky Sanctuary? Aw yeah, that was exactly how it was! Actually, when Knuckles was being electrocuted and the ground broke, I would go and duck by Knuckles, imagining it as me helping the poor guy up because I realized that the Rad Red had gotten himself duped by the maniacal manipulator.
So, yeah, it's a blast to watch your critiques since we're roughly around the same age generation, so I can absolutely agree with you: It was a strange time to become a sonic fan at such a young age where one's formative years were spent seeing such different Sonics. Once I was closer to a teen and was given full internet access, I found places like Concept: Mobius and even was part of creating a fan forum for Sonic (and other fandoms eventually). There, I learned that Sonic was so much more then just the games I grew up on with the Mega Drive. Fleetway, Sonic X, Sonic Heroes - and hearing your genuine experiences, which might come off as nostalgic at first, but what it does is set the tone and understanding - it's introspective, as much as it's retrospective.
Keep up the good work. Here's to another anniversary set of Geek Critiques!
Thank you so much! And what was Concept: Mobius? I definitely remember that name, but I need a little more to jog my memory!
@@GeekCritique Ah, it was an old forum back in the 2000s. It specialized in the 'Science of Sonic' as well as trying to gather the so called 'real character profiles'. It was created by Nuclear Envoy, and was like, a small-time forum, though its dedication to discussing Sonic theory was very large. And its profile page was phenomenal of its time (they gathered information like voice actors, appearances - essentially a Wikipedia page of character information, and they would explicitly tell you if any information was an educated guess or where they got the information from).
Nowadays it's easy for people to find this information, but back in the 2000s, finding information like that was very difficult since there wasn't a focused database for that kind of information like we have nowadays. You know, going to 'Shadow of a Hedgehog' to download the game music since there wasn't much of a youtube to use for music finding xD
god i love that project chaos album.
I love it more now than ever! One of my favorites is the Doomsday Zone remix, but it didn't really fit my script so I couldn't use it.
Hirokazu Yasuhara actually worked on Sonic Xtreme surprisingly which almost makes me wish it came out
Yep! While the rest of Sonic Team worked on NiGHTS, Yasuhara stuck with Sonic. He actually lived in the UK for a while, helping Traveler's Tales with 3D Blast and Sonic R!
I have no others words but "Thank you" for the passion you carry across all theses videos. It was a very fun ride since I first saw that Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze video for the first time, and I hope it will continue for a very long time ^^.
Holy cow… I did NOT know about that Sando 1 boss trick in Origins! Great video man!
I appreciate that you explained “mon” but not “no probalo.” It conveys an implicit assumption that all TGC fans are also Homestar nerds, which sounds good to me.
I would never expect less from my audience! So, originally I was planning to wear a red muscle shirt and appear on-screen *as* Knuckles next to my "real" self, and I'd speak as white and generic as possible. But I needed to get the episode done before 2025 and doing all that would be a headache, so I decided to do it like this instead. But THEN the problem was Knuckles just sounded like me, but monotone, and that didn't really land either. The solution, of course, was Senor Cardgage.
I spent a moment trying to find a humorous parallel between the scrapped story of Tails' admiration of Knuckles and Strong Bad's of Senor Cardgage, but I couldn't think of much. Having Tails say it's cool that Knuckles gives Sonic nightmares seems a bit out of character.
I always figured the white part of Mushroom Hill was just even more dead, escalating and communicating to you how dire Robotnik's effect on the land was.
I got home, first thing I see, new tgc video, truly a good day
One thing I love about your videos is comparing/contrasting your experience of this franchise with mine. I was born in late 1987 and I can't be more than a few months older than you, but I still had a bit of a different experience with the games. I fell in love with all the lore and storytelling, vague as it was, but honestly always sucked at the gameplay until I was older and a friend taught me the cheat codes. I had Sonic 1, then later 2, and then eventually 3, but I wouldn't get S&K until some time after it had been released, and even then it was a used copy (actually so was my copy of 3; it had bite marks on the box. T_T ) But by that point I already knew that both 3 & Knuckles were two halves of one game, so I basically never played S&K on its own.
I'm pretty sure my childhood copies still have their saves on them.
I also loved reading the manuals, learning as much as I could about these games. If I'd had that strategy guide, I would have read it over and over. I love this franchise.
Thanks so much for your videos, they are such a treat every time.
I've been hoping you'd return to this game! Lava Reef is my favorite zone in it too. I'm sure it must've taken some restraint not to talk about Sonic 3, but if you DID ever feel like revisiting that game, I'd happily watch it. I really like your modern, long-form approach to these
I Love your videos, there quality is extraordinary, the videos are funny and they are always a great time. Keep up the good work 👍👍👍
So Strategy Guide Knuckles spoke like Rob Ford on a drunken crack bender?
Nice.
"I have plenty of grapes to eat at home."
Amazing video as always, man. I love how you being from the US and me from Argentina, living completely different childhoods still had the same feelings for this game (and this franchise) it's like I'm listening to the same ideas and thoughts I had playing this when I was a kid, a teen and an adult.
Happy new year Josh, with you the best!
I'm glad you came back to talk about this one again, another great video (and you've made me want to replay this game yet again. Awesome that you used Project Chaos music throughout, I always loved that album!
Dude, this was amazing. It really took me back to those years of discovering these games, and was just an absolute genuine pleasure to watch. I could honestly feel your passion oozing out of this video. Seriously, thank you for making this.
You found a kindred sonic and knuckles fan... and despite being as old as I am, this game was so developmentally important to me growing up. And the fact I never knew the final level in sonic & knuckles blows my mind. Thank you for your video, the time and effort you put into this, and your love of the game. Cheers mate ❤
Your Sonic videos are easily my favorite, alongside Metroid. Those seem to be the series that really make your critical lens shine so much
Your title is incomplete- this video is also about how involved your parents were in your interests.
I am so tremendously envious. No one's ever cared so much about how much I've cared about something.
...I'm gonna be talking about this one in therapy.
Happy holidays to my favorite RUclipsr of all time. Josh you are a legend thank you for every video you create having such sincerity! Amazing work as always good sir.
Happy holidays, right back at'cha!
what a killer video dude. "and i'd just seen the white ranger for the first time" is an unforgettable line i'm dead.
I really appreciate all the personal things you add to the videos in terms of home videos, things you did in the past and such. It's one thing to talk about something nostalgic, but adding those elements gives it an extra... credibility(?) you don't see often. Makes it truly feel like even when you fall into the general consensus that they're your words rather than just parroting the consensus if that makes any sense. Here's to 10 more years and then some.
Man this video is like soul food for me.. such awesome memories of S&K.
I went straight from Sonic 1 to this game without seeing 2&3, so this game was pretty mind blowing. The “shown, not explained” story telling and extra lore you talked about has always been amazing, and a big reason that Mania and Superstars just didn’t measure up for me - they play well but stories seem trivial. Years later I did get Sonic 3 and then the combined game became one of my favorites even to this day. the first time you go to the Super Emerald chamber was so so cool.
This video was truly a nostalgic experience for me. It honestly amazes me how similar our experiences were haha. Thank you so much for posting this. Easiest sub of my life.
Have to say I love your videos on the sonic series. Hearing your passion for this game is amazing, as I've always loved it. Most retrospectives rarely give it the attention it deserves in my opinion.
i love when i open the description at the same time he says the line thats in the description, now that's a well made video
I have Genesis now, but I was a super Nintendo kid, so I didn't play sonic until it came out on the GameCube collection.
18:07 i can tell here that josh and I had very similar childhoods. First video game I ever played was a Christmas gift, the port of super mario bros 3 for the GBA, along with the strategy guide for the game. I loved that book so much i had all the enemy names and secrets memorized; read that book till the cover came off. Most of the favorite games from my childhood are accompanied in my brain by memories of the manuals and strategy guides i read over and over and over.
Hope one day we’ll hear your thoughts on bowser’s inside story, that’s one of those games.
Happy 10 years to one of the most underrated channels on this site!
Haha, yeah, there are quite a few spots in this video where I directly reference things I remember from the strategy guide without directly calling it out, just in case anybody else read it as much as I did. I love how incredibly worn my Sonic 2 manual looks too, and I've got a bunch of 'em with the covers falling off myself!
The ghosts scared the shit out of me as a kid. They just kept getting bigger and bigger, causing panic not knowing what's gonna happen when they're at their max. Dark stage, massive ghost chasing you as you're stuck on a loop slide. Absolutely brilliant.
I've been in a bit of a depressive funk the last month and a half, so seeing this did bring a smile to my face when I needed it the most.
Thanks for the upload, always glad to get more TGC content when it happens 😁
Thank you for this. Great memories. I was in 3rd grade when this came out. I was so hyped. The way you described the feeling of its release and the cover art and just exciting vibe of this game is spot on. Thanks again for helping me remember that whole experience.
I'll need to watch this tomorrow--But I can't wait!
This one's still my favorite Sonic game!
Yeaaaah, apologies for posting it at 4am my time, but these things are done when they're done! xD Sleep good!
I rarely comment on videos but this one in particular helped me relive so many core memories from my childhood. This is one of the best videos I’ve ever watched on RUclips. Thank you so much for sharing it!
Oh my God that bit about "learning time" hits so hard. Honestly that whole bit about childhood and the way you approach games in that specific "inexperienced with life itself" manner just made my day because there were too many times in my life where I was just used to "the games are just there" and then suddenly you found out about "coming soon" and nothing was the same ever again.
Couple of thoughts:
- It's funny that you saw the Mushroom Hill transitions that way. I don't know what it was but I think because I had experience with Ghibli movies at the time, I saw the changes in scene in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 1 and all of 2 less as a change in season and more of a "the forest is dying" way thinking about like the mold forests from Mononoke. The closer you get to Eggman who's just trying to get back in the game after Death Egg's crash landing, the more his rampant technological inclinations start becoming apparent and through some fun with stretching you could almost see it as the device he's using is causing the immediate area around him to be drained of life.
- You have an almost uncannily similar background with reading and games to my own with the way strategy guides were a part of your diet and your mother being such a strong influence in your early reading life. Though its funny, I learned to read early "out of spite" because I thought my parents were hiding information or something cool from me when they'd read print newspapers and wouldn't share any of the text with me. PBS and GED learn to read programs came in super clutch haha.
- Oh damn I never really thought to verbalize that bit about the different shapes before now either. Yazuhara is a treasure and to this day I think he's someone who needed to get flowers from the greater gaming development culture especially as a lot of the design and appeal of the series continued to be credited to someone who really shouldn't have been...
- The transition to Lava Reef from Sandopolis on every humanly appreciable level is a fucking masterpiece. The music, the visual aesthetic (including the way you really don't see any "lava" until a bit early I personally think the run from there to the end of the game is an all timer up there with the greats. Then you mention your experience with the Mania version and I legit see another way we mirror in experiences. I also didn't spoil myself on stage listings and played through a solid chunk of that game in one sitting only to be so overwhelmed by the first notes of Lava Reef Zone that I legit cut my stream right there because I had to go sit down and process what had just happened (fun fact: a friend *still* makes me laugh from time to time vividly recalling how he had just got in to watch me play saw this play out and cracked up laughing because he didn't realize I didn't know), especially with Tee Lopes' doing me specifically a solid with the additional bombastic flairs added to the Lava Reef Zone Act 1 theme and the years overdue increase in the number of times That One Part™ of the song looped. You know the one.
Additionally, Lava Reef is really where you start to appreciate the silent story telling going on through the entirety of the complete Sonic 3. That sequence from Knuckles' interruption all the way to beginning Sky Sanctuary is really what sticks out to me when people ask me what's "cool" about the Sonic series. That and the Sonic CD animated intros just formed this canon in my head of an ensemble of endearing pastiches of cartoons and stand in "attitudes" of the era running through surrealist worlds doing things much larger than what their designs would ever suggest.
- To this day, I think if Mecha(?) Sonic had a Sonic 3 remix of the Sonic 1 and then Sonic 2 boss battle themes for two encounters before the last one, that would have been an insane set of moments on our way to the Death Egg. A quick reminder that Death Egg was something built up over two (edit: three; just got to your part on it and haha love the pomp and circumstance given to this here) games -- literally a decade in kid time! -- and had a whole arc of us trying to stop it, "succeeding" once but now it was right there and we enter it in the most Sonic cool way. The way that all of the energy of Sky Sanctuary's "breath of fresh air leaves us", the way you have that endearing to this day cutscene of Sonic (and Tails in the full experience) rushing up that brittle final column, the leap of faith into the cut to black and then *the first few notes of Death Egg Zone synced to the beginning jogging animations of your two player heroes as the screen fades back in*.
Absolute Cinema™ as the kids say.
- Straight up only learned that trick with the Spike Tops in Death Egg Act 2 last year seeing a random person's stream of the game and I was LOSING it. I thought it was legit just modded content.
- The entire sequence from the "megazord" to the end is such a thrill ride. Grit for grit, Sonic and Eggman just becoming increasingly more desperate to beat each other with the highest stakes possible and then the way Doomsday Zone would just feel like you've got this even though the tension of the music and setting just sells you a different tone.
- That bit about growing up with both Sonic 3 and Adventure hit hard too when I think about how I was always that specific brand of enthusiast who wanted to play all the things but realities of living in a family well under a specific income threshold meant we locked in with one system per generation and I could only use those gaming magazines and word of mouth to fill in my curiosities. Then a funny thing called the Scholastic Book Fair/Club had the funniest things in one of their circulars including "Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC" (alongside Sonic R, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and... A broken version of Sonic CD that never ran on anything it was installed on ever leaving me to dream about what could be as the .avi files for the intros and endings were accessible if you were that kind of kid leafing through file systems ravenous for "secrets" and I got my first ever hit of Toei Sonic with Sonic Boom blasting through the then best PC setup we had) and almost two years later, Sonic Adventure DX for the Gamecube hit and I *had* to see where the series went next after the former.
What a lovely episode especially for it being your 10th Anniversary video!
The rush of nostalgia watching this! lol I haven’t seen that sonic and knuckles intro in idk how long and the white ranger debut?!? it was the best time being a kid lol
Man. I was born in '86 so I get that nostalgiac feeling for this era myself. Always loved watching your stuff since I've found you, and despite the disconnect of "Some youtuber that some random fan watches" it always seems to hit me a bit different than most channels. Especially when the VERY first music note of your video plays, and I know EXACTLY what song it was. the OCRemix stuff and wonderful music and great editing, and the way you explain stuff is great. Sorry for gushing or whatnot, but I see this and think of the ol' Sonic 2, and Adventure, and random nostalgia for it all. Thanks for always making this stuff, it's great, and means a lot!
This was such a great piece dude. Amazing work! You articulated so much story that my younger mind kinda got but never understood fully.
Mate! I love these type of videos so much. I loved hearing about your sonic and knuckles experience! Amazing work. Well done.
14:50 I'm probably wrong, but ive always seen the second and third part of Mushroom Hill not as fall and winter, but just as the forest dying. First, everything is alive and well. Then it is freshly dead. Then everything is so dead that the forest has lost its color
Yes
This video is so heartfelt and wholesome it almost brings a tear to my eye at points. This is why I subscribed.
I absolutely loved this video, as always!! I don't play Sonic, but hearing Josh talk about his history and memories with the game and culture surrounding it... It's always so engaging!
This video made me cry. You brought me back to my child hood. Thank you.
Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1 music was lifted from Blade Runner End Titles theme
Great video as always! It's not talked about enough how S3&K's final boss basically set the precedent for the entire rest of the mainline series and a lot of the spinoffs. Ending a Sonic game with a final super sonic (or a close derivative) is the overwhelming norm and has been since this game.
Also I have watched that 8 hour Sonic CD critique a while ago (which I know your aware of due to your comment on it) and have reflected on it a lot (alongside this video), so a lot of this level design talk at this point comes pretty smoothly for me, but I do like how you put a spotlight on how the level designer made the levels look unique, that's the kind of thing I really only thought about when I was younger, until I stopped thinking about it at some point, but that is a really cool idea to consider...
More importantly though, I was surprised to hear that you don't like Flying Battery and Death Egg as much as the other zones, when they are arguably my favorite zones in the latter half of S3K! (Sonic 3 as a whole right now is either my fav or second fav game right now btw!) I heard your reasons, and I think they make sense, but it got me to realize something...
I think there's a bit of personalization that goes on with this stuff. Like...what effects these subjective differences in the first place. We've both played this game a lot for a long time, we both like all of these levels, or at least most of them. But I don't think I'm alone in feeling Sandopolis is the more annoying zone to go through, in fact I actually like Lava Reef Act 1 better in this game as opposed to Mania because its place feels more meaningful in this game whereas in Mania its my least favorite level in the game! I think there's little things that both of us are more tolerant of/like more compared to each other. Little things we might have picked up on when we first played these levels as kids and reinforced throughout our lives for whatever reason. What may seem gimmicky to me might be what makes a level engaging and vice versa.
I also really like Death Egg in this game due to the fact that the level is _just_ hard enough that it still feels a bit intimidating even when I know what I'm doing. That too me offsets most of the nitpicks you have about how its presented and whatnot. (all the countdown loops except one can be skipped anyways but I'm sure you know that already!) I don't however particularly feel that way about most of the other levels which is why Sandopolis feels off...doesn't help that it feels like it should be one of the "last levels of the game" given how long Act 2 is yet it technically isn't, hence its the level that drags the most for me...
But yeah, this game is great! I'm at the point where I'm learning a few speedrun glitches just to give the game a bit more variety. The day I master skipping the Lava Reef Act 2 boss will be a very good day indeed! (For you specifically I'd recommend looking into how to defeat the Hydrocity Act 2 boss quickly, its very fun to do and isn't really glitchy so much as just very effective, using the edge of the water geyser to cheese the boss and all!) Sky Sanctuary skip is cool, but that's mainly because of how easy it is, its probably more fun to play through the level normally tho! Haha! :D
Anyways this video is long so I can't really comment on ALL of it in good faith! But I can definetely see that this was, indeed, a labor of love!
Great work as always Josh! Keep on geekin' alright! :D