Sonic & Knuckles To Hit Japanese Virtual Console
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Sonic & Knuckles To Hit Japanese Virtual Console

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Author Dreadknux
11 Comments

Looks like SEGA have figured a way around that pesky Sonic & Knuckles lock-on technology problem, as Japan is about to get the classic mushroom-shaped Mega Drive game soon on the Wii Virtual Console, complete with backwards compatibility across other Sonic MD games.

s3k-lockon

SEGA Japan announced the lock-on feature workaround, which involves an additional menu before you boot the ROM up asking you if there is another purchased Sonic game you would like to connect it to. Nintendo itself made no mention of the feature, which led us all to worry that the VC version would have nixed lock-on play – as has been the trend these days with Sonic & Knuckles re-releases. Sonic & Knuckles on Wii Virtual Console will hit Japan on the 27th October for 600 Nintendo Points.

The original Mega Drive classic was released in October 1994, eight months after the launch of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. As the two games were confirmed to be two parts of the same game, Sonic Team created a special cartridge that allowed copies of Sonic 3 to be ‘locked on’ the top of it. As a bonus, copies of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 also worked on the lock-on; the former as an ‘endless’ gauntlet of special stage game ‘Blue Sphere’ and the latter allowing players to control Knuckles in Sonic 2 Zones.

Source: Andriasang (thanks for the tip, BassDS!)

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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.

11 Comments

  2. Got it already on xbox live arcade, I’m no. 17 on the leaderboards for Sonic 3 and Knuckles, had it come out the day before when I had off of work I woulda been number 1, but whateverr

  4. Great little game, I managed to pick up the original a week before its official release date 😀
    With todays techs, they should have Knuckles playable in Sonic 1 by now 🙁

  7. Probably it will have the restore points like Sonic 1 and 2 on VC do, unless you lock-on with Sonic 3, in which case it will have that save feature too.
    I don’t think I’m going to get it though, because of Mega Collection on GC – although it is a bit of a pain to use a Wiimote for the system menu, grab a Gamecube controller, wait 2 mins, then play without progressive scan. :/

  10. I already downloaded and completed all four XBLA versions, and I have all the games on my PSP as well, so I think I’ll give this one a pass. Still, nice to see the lock-on feature being implemented, I honestly didn’t think they’d bother putting it in the Virtual Console versions.

  11. I may get it, I too have mega collection, but it might be nice to have it on console for whenever, providing it does have save features (XBLA FAIL).

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