*THIS REVIEW IS ABOUT THE COMPLETE GAME PLAYABLE VIA LOCK-ON TECHNOLOGY*
Before playing "SONIC & KNUCKLES + SONIC 3" (1994) I always feel nervous. The kind of throat-swelling, mouth-drying, stomach-turning nerves that one gets in anticipation of a first date. I have completed this game consistently for so long and yet I always feel fear and excitement.
For the first two zones my mind's on seven chaos emeralds, earned in the blue sphere stages. Then my mind's on shields and rings. After Launch Base Zone Act 2 we're in Mushroom Hill and my mind is then on seven super emeralds. Once I've got them it's back to shields and rings.
Then it's all sneakers blazing to the Doomsday Zone in a race against time through space.
What this game has that the first two outings don't have (Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles also lack this as individual games) is a rip-roaringly brutal sense of relentless pursuit. The Doomsday Zone is the skull-splitting, edge of your seat climax to a sweaty, grimy, blistering chase.
Spin dashing through these colourful, dangerous, enormous, beautiful levels, to some of the best tracks in the Sonic canon, is intoxicating. The journey you take Sonic, Tails and Knuckles on is unforgettable. Playing it after "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG" (1991) and "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2" (1992) is one awesome ride through a wonderful world