Knuckles' Chaotix for the Genesis 32-X

A game review by Chaos Theory T. Echidna.
ŠSeptember 20, 1999.

Now Playing: "Walkin'" (Morning at the World Entrance) from, well...uh...the game you're currently reading about...

Okay, first of all, even though there are a FEW other reviews of this game out there on the internet, this will not be like any of them. The other reviews basically just tell you that you play with two characters who are linked together, give short descriptions of the Chaotix crew without telling you whether those descriptions are the official ones or just the writer's opinion, and say something about the play control being goofy. The best reviews I've seen so far are MAYBE all of one page long! If you're lucky, you'll come across one that tells you a TINY bit about the levels, but they hardly ever talk about each level individually. And there is a LOT of stuff NOBODY ever mentions for some reason. Such as, did you know that you can get NEGATIVE RINGS in this game?! And there's a lot more where that came from. Read on!
Let's start off with the characters and storyline. A lot of different things have been said by various people about the Chaotix characters, to the point where it's hard for the inexperienced fan to tell just WHAT comes from Sega, what's from Archie, and what's from a fan. And the STORY of the game itself is practically never discussed at all, except for vague references to "Carnival Island". (Which is called "Happyland Amusement Park" in the comic book version, by the way.) So, without further ado, I give you the OFFICIAL story and character bios, directly from the actual instruction booklet to your screen!
Story:
"Tomorrow's the opening day for Carnival Island, a huge amusement resort with the latest in high-tech rides and games. As Guardian of the island, it's Knuckles' job to make sure nothing goes wrong before the grand event.
"Unfortunately, the evil Dr. Robotnik has other plans. He needs fuel for his latest diabolical devices, and the Power Emerald that supplies electricity to the entire island fits the bill perfectly. His awful new invention, the Combi Confiner, should help him get rid of that annoying echidna and his friends.
"When Knuckles returns from patrolling the far end of the island, he discovers that Dr. Robotnik has imprisoned all of his friends--Espio the Chameleon, Mighty the Armadillo, Vector the Crocodile and Charmy Bee. After chasing the doctor off, Knuckles discovers that he can rescue one friend at a time using Ring Power--only the power that sparks between the Rings holds the two partners together like a magical rubber band. Never held back for long, Knuckles discovers that he can use the stretching and snapping action of the Ring Power to double--even triple--the partners' speed.
"And they need all the speed they can get. As Dr. Robotnik drains the power from Carnival Island, everything on the island begins to break down! Dr. Robotnik must be stopped, or else by tomorrow morning--the morning of Carnival Island's big opening day--the grand amusement park will lie in ruins!"

Okay, so that's the official story and Sega of America (only) is sticking to it. This raises some interesting questions if you're a nitpicky obsessed fanfic writer like me. First of all, yes, they DID say "Power Emerald", not Chaos Emerald or Master Emerald. Me, I take that to be a mere misprint or a case of the people who wrote the story of this game not having studied the earlier ones too closely. It HAS to be the Master Emerald; nothing else is that powerful or that important to the Island. (And anyone who's ever read my fanfic--notice how they have the Emerald powering all the machinery on the Island....JUST like I did, eh? I wrote that well BEFORE I ever got this game, though.) Another good question is--is Carnival Island on the Floating Island, or somewhere else? (Remember: "Angel Island" ALSO has a name like it's a seperate body of land, but isn't, so the fact that it's called "Carnival Island" as if there was nothing else to the entire island BUT a Carnival doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.) My first guess is that it's the Carnival Night Zone under a different name. What Sonic and Tails saw was only a tiny part of the whole thing; the rest was hidden behind a magical shield or in another dimension or something. Or--since this IS taking place a year later--maybe the Carnival Night Zone is the BEGINNING of what was going to become Carnival Island, and it just took them a year to build the rest of it. Could be.
But the REAL problem with that story is the thing about a "grand opening". Like, excuse me, but exactly WHO is going to come to this thing? I mean, Knuckles is the last of his kind! There's not exactly a huge crowd of people living on the Island with tons of little kids eager to scarf down cotton candy and go on the roller-coasters and throw up. Maybe in the Archie comics version, but NOT the Sega version. Me, I explain this the same way as I explained the "Power Emerald" slip-up--the people who wrote this simply DID NOT study the storylines of Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles, and I think this second instance proves my point.

Character Bios

(Note: the long sentences in quotes are from the instruction booklet, the parts that aren't in quotes are from me.)

Knuckles: "Knuckles the Echidna is the guardian of the island and of the Emerald Pillar that it conceals. When Dr. Robotnik invades the Island, it's up to the Echidna to set things right."
Yes, you heard that right, "Emerald Pillar", whatever the heck that is. Aw, we don't need a bio for Knux, we already know him from his WAY past cooler intro in Sonic 3's instruction booklet. Moving along...

Vector the Crocodile: "This cool croc loves the rush of running when he isn't jammin' with his friends, doing fancy footwork to the tunes on his headset, or investigating the local food courts."
First of all, I must point out that I see absolutely NOTHING in that bio to make most fans hate him as much as they do. I frankly see nothing wrong with the character at all, and don't understand what he's done to deserve all the animosity. Nothing in the game ITSELF, I can tell you that much. Any obnoxiousness he has comes from Archie. Saying he enjoys running is kinda funny, as he's rather slow. The slowest character in the game. And you may have seen "his size" listed as a disadvantage if you've read his bio at the Sonic HQ. It's TRUE. His height makes it so sometimes a low-flying badnik will whack HIM but not his partner, unless you duck in time! (If you're playing as someone else WITH Vector, and it's much harder to make him duck when you want, he'll often get hit and loose some of YOUR hard-earned rings. Not to mention, usually, if something is way the heck over your head, most people would just want to ignore it and walk normally!) As for the fancy footwork--yes, he does DANCE when he gets bored. But not hip-hop. DISCO!! Play that funky music, green-boy! Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it, Archie! They have him speaking in rap-talk all the time, and it's OBVIOUS, from watching the way he dances, that he is NOT listening to rap. On the other hand, the line about "investigating the local food courts" could have come right out of one of the comic books--since they always write Vector as being hungry all the time (well, you would be TOO, if you had that large of a body to keep up!) and the Chaotix often hang out at the MALL. And yet ANOTHER example that evidently the people who wrote this instruction booklet seem to think the Floating Island is inhabited by a big, happy, living city instead of a bunch of ruins and five lonely people, for some reason. I WOULD say that they have been reading the comic books and were trying to slyly sneak in references to Echidnaopolis but the Knux comics didn't EXIST yet in 1995...

Mighty the Armadillo: "Mighty is just that. He's strong, smart, confident, and can't stand weakness in anything. He's one of Knuckles' good friends, and he is determined to save the island from Dr. Robotnik."
Is it just me, or did Mighty come out sounding kinda obnoxious from that description?! Strong, fast, smart, cool, AND the best friend of a major character--oh, great, another perfect superman. If this was fanfic I'd be yelling "SELF-INSERTION!!" right about now. In the game, he's okay. Probably about the most average character. I really haven't seen him use his super-strength he's supposed to have, though, so the name "Mighty" really means nothing in game terms. The one who REALLY impresses me when it comes to strength isstrangely enough, Charmy! He can lift Vector even when Charmy has hit a tiny box and Vector has hit a huge-box (more on those later) and carry him as high up and as far as he wants, super-fast, without ever loosing his speed or getting tired the way Tails does when carrying Sonic (who is only a few inches taller than him, NOT at least 3 times his size!) Now THAT'S strong, my friends. But getting back to Mighty, he is pretty fast, and probably the most agile character of the game--if, again, you don't count Charmy and his Sonic-in-the-air flying speed. And even though you may not think so at first, Mighty looks a LOT like Sonic. He may be red, yellow and black with a shell instead of spines, but TRUST me, he looks like him. When he gets bored, it's a Sonic expression and gesture. When he looks up, he does it the same way Sonic does, when he looks down, he curls up into a ball just like Sonic. He runs like Sonic, balances like Sonic, pushes like Sonic... The unfinished Beta version game "Sonic Crackers" eventually led into Chaotix, and Mighty inherited all of Sonic's movements and animations. I've heard that he IS a retouched Sonic sprite, in fact. Makes sense, as he's about the same size, too.

Charmy Bee: "Surprisingly sophisticated for his 16 years, Charmy came to the island in search of new kinds of flowers--and found a ton of trouble. But he handles things in his usual quick, cool, and charming way."
Ya notice that Charmy's the ONLY one to be given an official age? What's up with that, I wonder? (And also notice that if he's 16 in 1995, then he was 15 in 1994, and therefore is the same age as Knuckles.) Anyway, seeing bios similar to this is on the 'net is what made me decide I liked Charmy best. His description doesn't talk about special abilities or duties, but rather just his personality and background--it's a real BIO. And the personality sounds very likeable. It also shows that the thing about him coming originally from Mobius rather than being an Island native is correct, and the fact that he's that sophisticated at that young of an age DOES get you wondering if maybe he comes from some special background. You can see where Archie got the "Prince" thing from, it fits him. As for why they made a point of saying he's sixteen (Archie had him as about ten years old), the only answer I can think of is because he's so darn LITTLE! The others all LOOK like teenagers (Vector and Espio both look adult, if you ask me) from their size and/or facial expressions; but Charmy is so tiny you could easily mistake him for being Tails' age or younger. I guess they just didn't want us to be confused. Oh, and one more thing about Charmy before I go on to Espio. You may want to hold your computer screen away from your ear when you read this:
He is so KAWAAAAAIIIIII!!! That means "cute" in Japanese for those of you who aren't in the know. Speaking of Tails, I seriously think our little bee-friend gives that orange furball a MAJOR run for his money in the cuteness department. You have to see Charmy move, dance, flutter his bitsy wings, strain to lift a heavy load, or bug his eyes out with fright to understand it, but he is SO adorable! I don't CARE that he's an insect--and normally, in real life, I HATE bees!--he's CUTE! I would have to get Tails and Charmy together somehow to figure out which one is cuter. Basically, I don't think anyone COULD figure it out. If you got the two of them together, the Cuteness Rays would cause everyone else in the room to pass out, so no judging could be done.

Espio the Chameleon: "This colourful chameleon values freedom above all else, and after he was freed from Dr. Robotnik's Combi Machine, he decided he must stop the evil Doctor at all costs. He has a hot temper and an intense drive in everything he does, and sometimes his friend Charmy Bee has to remind him of his manners. Espio is quick and strong, and his whirling attack is just the thing you need to get out of a tight spot."
Espio, the "International Lizard of Mystery", USED to be my favourite Chaotix member. I mean, who WOULDN'T like him? Mysterious, tough, full of special abilities (change colour, climb walls AND ceilings, spin like a tornado, and the tongue attack he got in "Sonic the Fighters"), dangerous, slinking along the walls of the city, turning invisible to hide from the eyes of evil--or the LAW--you're not quite sure which side he's on or which way he'll turn. All you DO know is that you don't want to be on the OTHER side when he's around.
That is to say, he USED to be my favourite Chaotix. But that was before I discovered the true adorableness of Charmy Bee (before I played this game) and realised that his personality fit my own much better than Espio did, and that if I met the Chaotix, I'd end up chatting happily with Charmy over a cup of tea and honey (more specifically: I would drink tea and HE would drink honey) while all the others probably got into a wrestling match or something. (Not to mention, I feel sorry for Charmy for getting written out of the comics when he shouldn't have been!) Also, Espio is EVERYONE'S favourite Chaotix (with the exception of one of the people who runs the Sonic HQ, who has for his screen name "Vector"), he's way too popular. And I NEVER follow the crowd if I can help it.
Still, Espio is pretty darned cool, and his abilities are really neat. Also notice that the thing I have in my fanfics about he and Charmy being best friends is TRUE, and that Fleetaway is basically off the deep end when it comes to those two characters.

Robotnik's Mechanix

"These two robots claim to have escaped from the evil Doctor and want to help...but could they be part of Robotnik's plot to slow Knuckles and his friends down?"
(Me, I say, yes. They never did anything MAJOR to hurt me, but they often jumped right when I was trying to set up a spin-dash, thereby jerking my character to his feet and stopping the revving, or--basically, they jump at the wrong time to jerk you and ruin your carefully cultivated momentum. But they never actually caused me to DIE, and, indeed, the first time I defeated the Botanic Base boss was when I had Heavy as my partner. The end verdict is that, even though they never APPEARED to be actually evil, they are easily the WORST partners you can get and I don't reccommend them. Besides, all the REAL Chaotix members have much more animation and personality.)

Heavy: "Heavy works as Robotnik's chief mechanic. He's just as his name says--heavy--and he's slow."
Bomb: "Bomb works as Robotnik's other mechanic. He's not very quick or strong, and he blows up when things start looking bleak."
Just a couple more things to add to this--first of all, with having robot characters with goofy names and incompetent abilities, do you get the feeling that the people who wrote this thing have been watching a little bit too much "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", or is it just me? Heavy and Bomb strike me as a somewhat quieter and less obnoxious (but BORING) version of Scratch and Grounder.
Secondly, I have not yet had Bomb ever blow up on me, but I always ditched him and grabbed one of the other true Chaotix crew as fast as I could, so it's not like I've played with him that much. (Although I DID finish over half of Speed Slider as Vector and Bomb...)
Oh, by the way, you CAN'T choose these guys from the start screen; they can only be partners.

Gameplay and Character Moves:

As I'm sure everybody has heard by now, Chaotix does indeed feature a weird new style of gameplay in which two characters are hooked together by a rubber band--or at least, a rubber band made out of sparkles. And if you visit Sonic sites and read game reviews regularly, you probably know that almost EVERYONE thinks that the rubber band is very annoying and makes controlling your character almost impossible.
Well, guess what.
IT AIN'T THAT BAD!
Personally, I was dreading the "bungee-ring" thing and thought it would make it so that the game was totally unplayable. I was prepared to just enjoy the characters and look at the graphics without ever winning. Yet I got up to the main battle with HyperMechaSonic (haven't beat him yet, but I got there) in only THREE DAYS!! And I'm a BAD player! Trust me, there is nothing to fear with the bungee cord. It will--for the most part--NOT slow you down when running. It will NOT cause you to fall off a cliff if your partner doesn't make it up there and you do--in fact, you can pull your partner up to meet you! It will NOT stop you from spin-dashing, lower your jumps, or make you fall into a lava pit. The bungee ring was, once I did the practice demo for about five seconds, SO easy and fun to control that I couldn't believe it. The only thing that's hard about it to control is the fact that you go ZOOMING all over the screen. Sometimes you go shooting right past three ledges to land on the fourth, way the heck up in the air, when you wanted something back on the second ledge, and you can't go back and get it now. But that hardly matters as it is very hard to die in this game and practically ALL the items are pretty much always a luxury rather than a necessity. (More on that later.)
The play control of this game does, in fact, also open the door for a lot of HUMOUR. Yes, you heard me, humour. This is one heck of a FUNNY game! When you do that "forward snap" move, your partner does this really straining expression as he "HOLD!"s in place, (Vector bugs his eyes and puffs his cheeks out, even), and sometimes, you can have one character move but the other one not, for hilarious results. There was one time I was playing as Vector with Charmy, and Charmy got stuck at the top of a hill while Vector was walking up it behind him. Now, I COULD have had him just jump up the hill, but that wouldn't have been as funny. After a bit, Charmy got bored and started doing his adorable little dance, all innocent, and Vector kept creeping slowly up the hill behind him with his fangs hanging out, until eventually I realised that it looked like a scene from a stalker movie! I fell on the floor laughing, and so did my family.
And just for the record--my mother thinks that the bungee-ring is a CLEVER idea, and fun, and that this game should not have failed because it's so original. She also thinks it's shocking that the 32-X failed so badly and is almost universally hated even by Sega fans today. So ha.
Now, onto the character moves...
Knuckles can glide and climb walls like he always could. I frankly don't know if he can still bash through things with his fists 'cos there was never any opportunity to test this. When he gets bored, he squats down on the ground and twirls his ring on one finger while...wagging? his tail.
Vector can roll up into a ring shape, and SUPPOSEDLY also climb, but for some reason I can't get him to stay on the wall once he's stuck to it--he always jumps right back off. (There's something wrong with my Genesis, but I fail to see why it would let Knuckles climb but not Vector or Espio.) He's the largest, slowest, and clumsiest Chaotix, but he is EASILY the funniest and most animated one. Vector's real value is as humour. And everything he does has the most detailed gestures and emotional facial expressions! When he looks up, he doesn't just put his head that way, he also shades his eyes like he's lookin' towards the sun. When he looks down, he puts his hand to his ear and leans way over with both eyes shifted over that way, like he's trying to be sneaky. He doesn't just walk, he STRUTS, with his head held high and his shoulders thrown back, and a really arrogant expression. When he gets up some speed, he leans way forward and his legs turn into a spinning wheel while his tail sticks out for balance. When he dangles on the edge of a cliff, he opens his mouth wide and you can really SEE the fangs. When he does that "hold!" thing he looks as if he's about to have a stroke or something from the strain. And when he gets bored, he doesn't merely tap his foot and glare at you, he dances. I mean DANCES--he does some moves that remind me of John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever! All in all, Vector is the character who shows the new capabilities of the 32-X off best. I sincerely doubt that they could have had Sonic move in such a detailed way AND have SIX other characters available to play as and TWENTY-FIVE LEVELS in a normal Genesis Sonic game without seriously sacrificing the graphics and sound.
Mighty is, like I said, very Sonic-esque in almost everything he does, including when he gets bored (glare at you, spin ring on finger while standing up) except for his special moves. He has this thing called a "wall-kick" that can propel you wildly through the air with great force--I guess that COULD go with the name "Mighty" but I still want to see him lift something heavy with his arms--and he can do a "wall-jump" as well, which basically allows you to quickly climb a wall in little hops, but ya gotta be REALLY fast on the joystick trigger to pull that one off.
Charmy cannot EVER roll into a ball. He cannot spin-dash. He cannot protect himself while bashing into a badnik, or turn into a whirling circle to open a monitor box.
Yet, he can still protect himself and get special items ANYway.
Charmy has only one move, really, but BOY is it useful. The C-button causes him to "buzz-dash" along the ground (and yes, you do actually hear a buzzing noise when he moves) and to fly once you've put him in the air by pressing up at the same time. That's all he has, but that is ALL YOU NEED! The game flies by (pun intended) so FAST when you're playing as Charmy, it becomes almost criminally easy. The buzz-dash breaks open monitors--with his face. When in the air, he can carry anything, go any direction, smash enemies simply by flying right into them face-first, (strange, I would've thought his BACK end, with the stinger, would be more deadly...), never, ever get tired, and fly at a speed that puts Tails even when he's on SUPER SHOES to shame! He is SO FREAKING FAST!! Hard to control, but once you get the hang of it, he's like Sonic in the air! So incredibly small, light, and agile that he's a true joy to play as. It makes YOU feel light and effortless when you're doing it. He really moves like a BEE--you know, how they are known for making a straight fast line for things? Yeah, like that. He is so small and cute and innocent looking, but he is very accurate and much stronger than you think, and of course fast, and I've beaten so many bosses with him I lost count! (Including ALMOST beating HyperMechaSonic.) Charmy is a one-trick pony--but WHAT a trick!
He is also the second most animated character in the game. His inability to roll up into a ball makes it so that he ALWAYS looks like himself, and you can always see his facial expressions. When your partner gets ready for a Spin Dash, Charmy just ducks down and puts his ring over his head protectively while wiggling his little butt in the air. (At least, that's what it looked like he was doing to ME...) When you do the "throwing" move with him he stays in his normal shape, and you can see his little wings fluttering. The end result is that it looks as if the other character is trying to give him a hug (awww...) and he's like, "LET ME GO YOU CLUMSY VERTEBRATE OAF!! GET OFF OF ME!!", 'cos he's being held in the arms of the other guy (especially funny when you get the characters to FACE each other) but the wings make him look as if he is struggling! When you go off to the new level, he doesn't roll up or spin the way the others do, but instead holds onto the thing with one arm while the rest of his body blows back in the breeze and does this "WHOAAHHH!!" expression. And when he gets bored, he first does this sorta "UH!" salute with his ring in the air, then starts fiddly-doodling it back and forth while turning his head to the beat. It looks kinda like he's doing that famous early '60s dance, the Twist. All in all, totally adorable.
Espio can turn himself into a whirling tornado, ala the Tasmanian Devil, when you go to do the Spin Dash move. He can also climb walls and CEILINGS but I have a hard time getting him to stick, same as with Vector. He does turn colours, but the ability hardly helps him as for one thing, you are fighting against robots who don't have normal eyes to begin with, not other organics, and for another, he doesn't seem to be able to do patterns. He turns colours by accident rather than by design--you can't control it, and I have a feeling he can't either. It seems to be brought on by emotional or physical stress. He starts fluctuating through all the colours of the rainbow whenever he gets bored, scared, or is straining hard. He is fairly fast and agile, and if you really want to make the game zoom by, the combination of playing as Charmy with Espio for a partner can't be beat.
As for animation, Espio moves very like a dinosaur at all times, and with his horn and bone-frill, kinda LOOKS like one too. He starts off walking leaning forwards slightly like a Velociraptor, then leans WAY forward with his head all the way horizontal so as to use his horn as a weapon when he picks up more speed. When he gets bored he goes down on all FOURS like an animal rather than doing a more humanoid pose the way the others do, and changes colours while glaring at you and swishing his tail from side to side.
Heavy and Bomb? They have NO cute moves or animations. Let's move along to the level descriptions now, shall we?

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