AFD 2006: Exclusive – Knuckles DS in Development

Hey guys, I have a few really important announcements for you! Bear in mind I’m quite torn to report this now in a rush to get this out first on TSS – a world exclusive. Life sucks when exciting stuff happens when you’re packing your bags to move to Japan for six months.

Well, first off SONIC NEWS have a few awesome stories, one of them a bit dubious considering Sonic Channel loves to pull April Fools jokes every year. Check them out. I got a phone call late yesterday that I can reveal what the super duper secret is that I’ve been telling you all about, but haven’t had time to speak about it till now (packing bags and all has to become a priority you know)…

Screenshot 1. You can see the Punch Gears on the bottom screen.

Knuckles DS. We’ve caught wind that another game is in the works for the Nintendo DS, and it’s starring everyone’s favourite echidna. Damn us and our insider ways, we’re unable to reveal our source under anonymity terms, but we know that Traveller’s Tales in the UK is developing Knuckles DS, for Sonic Team in Japan (for once) wishes to fully focus on just the one Sonic title (that being next-gen Sonic – it had BETTER be good!).

The formula looks to do the same thing for Knuckles as Sonic Rush did for Sonic, with the second screen being used to da max. We currently know that the touch screen is used for selecting different types of knuckle weapons, tentatively called ‘Punch Gears’. We’ve been told of only one Punch Gear, which is a metal claw attachment similar to the digging claw in SA2. You can destroy armoured enemies with this gear on. As well as Punch Gears, you can get accessories, like the scuba gear from SA2 – meaning more water levels that 3D Sonic games won’t give us, yay!

The levels are varied in design and take cues from traditional Sonic platforming stages, rather than shard-collecting.

Being literally a quick insider grab, we know nothing of the story, but we were treated to a rolling demo of early code, and it looks just like Traveller’s Tales’ style. The game actually looks like they learned from Sonic 3D Flickies’ Island, perhaps SEGA is giving them another shot. The levels, however, are pure Sonic fare, and although we can be sure the Master Emerald’s involved somehow, the stages themselves aren’t Shard-searching ones. It’s actual platforming starring Knuckles. Just as you like it.

Technically speaking, we could get into trouble here. But having said that, we signed no NDA and unless there’s some sort of desist order, there’s not much else to do but show you images.

Punch Gears can be swapped on the fly, by pressing the one you want on the touch screen.

Free press and all that stuff! Mind you, SEGA loves ‘accidentally’ revealing things – why, this time last year the world knew about Shadow the Hedgehog by way of a leaked trailer for it. What more can we say?

Soak in the juices of these two, I’ve gotta dash off so’s I can actually finish packing my bags. Tokyo’s a-calling me. I wish I could keep typing forever about this brilliant revelation, but I’m sure the TSS Staffers will be able to write a bit about what we discovered in the Game Archive later tonight. I’ll be settling into my new Nippon home and organising things for a week or so, so I’ll be away for a bit. See you when I get back! 🙂

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Dreadknux

Founder of The Sonic Stadium and creator/co-organiser of the Summer of Sonic convention. Loves talking about Sonic the Hedgehog in his spare time. Likes Sonic Colours a little too much for his own good, apparently.