Mathematicaster

I saw this word and just had to use it. It doesn't mean a mathematical magician, it merely means a minor or inferior mathematician.

This post is a bit of a toughy. I'm not blessed with inspiration, like I was on Friday (I won't lie, I loved writing that post). I have, however, instilled a fear of the Internet in myself, so that was a little stupid of me, but hey, can't have everything.

I'm writing this on my train to Cambridge again. It's more cramped than I've yet experienced on my travels, so any typographical errors are going to be blamed on the fact that I can't type comfortably, or even really move my hands all that much. Don't ask how I managed to get this laptop out. To cut a long story short, it was with a great deal of difficulty.

But I'm going off on a tangent. Short of inspiration today, so I'm going to just start writing and hope that it ends up somewhere decent, or at least readable.

[[I'm running out of battery here because I'm a fool and I did not put my laptop on a proper charge today, so I may have more inspiration when I finish this. For now, however, my laptop will have a little rest and when I get chance, I'll finish it off later today. But may God have mercy on the guy sitting next to me with his legs opened wide, crunching peanuts with his mouth wide open, for I may kill him.]]

Ok, I've hit a little bit of inspiration while relaxing with a childhood game of mine. I recently mentioned that I'd downloaded a Sega Genesis (MegaDrive) emulator for my PC. I decided that, in a bid to kill some time, that I'd play Sonic 2 & Knuckles, so in today's blog, and possibly a few ones after if it takes a lot of time or space, I will be writing somewhat of a walkthrough-review combination. (Forgive me if this post seems disjointed; I'm not particularly focused right now, but I'm gonna give it a try)

Sonic is a blue hedgehog who has the unusual ability (other than being able to walk on two legs, wear red trainers and talk) to run very very fast. Knuckles is a red echidna whose unusual abilities (other than, again, being able to walk on two legs, and talk) include being able to glide, and be able to grip onto walls with his . . . well, knuckles.

Sonic and Knuckles was a unique Sega Genesis game cartridge in that it could be played as a standalone game cartridge, but it also contained a game slot that could be used to combine Sonic and Knuckles with any other game from the Sonic franchise, allowing Knuckles to be implemented as a playable character and allowing the player to reach new areas using Knuckles' climbing ability.

The game begins with the beautifully harmonised "Sega!" as the Sega logo is shown, before moving to the Sonic 2 and Knuckles title screen. Here, the player can choose whether to play a single-player game or a two-player split screen race. (I will, of course, be player a single-player game. I'm a skilled gamer, but unfortunately not skilled enough to play as two players at once). The game is split into nine "zones", usually with two "acts", and a boss at the end of the final Act of the Zone.. Each Act is a side-scrolling level, through which the player has to fight past robotic enemies, created by the nefarious Dr. Eggman to imprison the innocent animals of the land and attempt to defeat Sonic and his allies.

The first Zone is Emerald Hill Zone, a beautifully picturesque landscaped zone, where the main risks are wasp-bots that fire a fireball stinger from above, fish-bots that leap up from under most bridges the Knuckles passes over, and spikes. For each of these dangers, a mere touch will cause you to lose all rings in your possession, and fall backwards. If you are unfortunate enough to touch one with no rings in your possession, you will lose a life and start back from the last checkpoint that you touched. Emerald Hill has some happy background music played on, presumably a synthesised (all music for these games were synthesised on 8-bit synthesisers, because the games did not have space for MP3s or the like) marimba or metallophone of some kind, with a bouncy little bassline.

If you pass by a checkpoint with fifty rings or more, a ring of stars begins to open up above the checkpoint. If you jump into this rings of stars, you are instantly transported to a "Special Stage". In these so-called Special Stages, you have the opportunity to win a Chaos Emerald. Chaos Emeralds are, and have always been a crucial part of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Once the player has obtained all seven Chaos Emeralds, and obtained fifty rings, the on-screen character can transform into their Super form. For Sonic, Tails (Sonic's friend, a young two-tailed fox who uses his two tails as a propellor to fly with) and Knuckles, their Super forms, respectively, are Super Sonic, Super Tails and Super Knuckles. In their Super forms, they are largely invincible to anything other than falling off the bottom of the stage, and will turn a golden or silver colour. A disadvantage to transforming is that for every second that passes in Super form, a ring is used up. Once all rings are used up, the character reverts back into their standard and vulnerable form.

During a Special Stage, you are required to collect rings (an instruction is shown on screen "Collect X rings!" where X is the number you need to continue) three times. If you have the number required or more by the first "checkpoint", you get a thumbs-up (I know, I wish I got such praise too) and a higher number to collect. If not, you get a thumbs-down and you get transported out of the special stage. If you collect enough rings three times, you reach the Chaos Emerald and add it to your collection, along with a tasty little point score bonus, and get transported back to the level.

The boss at the end of Emerald Hill Act 2 takes the form of Dr. Eggman in a car with some sort of spiked drill on the front. He drives back and forth across the screen, trying to spear Knuckles with the the weapon. An easy boss, to say the least, being vulnerable to Knuckles just jumping on top of the car eight times. Once you have defeated him (he'll crumble into a series of explosions and fly off in his little ship) you'll be permitted to pass and release all of the imprisoned animals from the Emerald Hill Zone.

From here, you move onto Chemical Plant Zone, a Zone with a new set of dangers. There are, of course, the standard shooting enemies, this time taking the form of wall and floor-clingers. They look like little pods just sliding up and down walls and floors, and if you get too close, they'll open up and throw a little ball of . . . something at you. Jump on them to destroy them. Another danger is the chemical jumpers. They emerge from pipes on the ground, and jump to another pipe, and are invulnerable to any of Knuckles' attacks. Other than falling off the bottom of the stage (a danger found in almost every Zone), drowning is a big danger. In the second Act of this Zone comes a place where the water is rising around you and you have to rely on moving blocks to find your way up and above the water level before you drown. Knuckles can survive around fifteen to twenty seconds below water until he runs out of air. Of course, playing as Knuckles is easier than playing as Sonic since Knuckles has the ability to climb walls and thus doesn't necessarily have to rely on jumping on the moving blocks to reach air level. The music in this level is honestly one that you'll find yourself bouncing to. It's a techno-funk groove going on (I actually have it in my music library) and I love it.

The boss in this level is a little trickier than the last. Eggman, this time, has a suction machine that he uses to suck harmful chemical waste from the bottom of the plant into a bucket that, when full, he tries to tip onto Knuckles. The tip for this boss is to jump attack him while he's filling the bucket and then try and avoid the bucket when he's trying to tip it. Be careful, however, of the flipping platforms. If they turn upside down while Knuckles is stood on them, he will fall off the screen and die. Once defeated, he will again explode and fly away, leaving you free to free the animals. Why are there animals in a chemical plant anyway? Bad Dr. Eggman.

Next comes Aquatic Ruin Zone, a ruins-style Zone (obviously), where the biggest danger is drowning. There are arrow-firing stone pillars, pirhanas, and harmful flies, but the latter two can be defeated with a simple jump. Avoid the arrows, though. Drowning isn't an issue if you stay above the water as much as possible, or when in the water, you use every air bubble you can find. If, on the ground underwater, you see a little collection of bubbles, with an infrequent stream of bubbles coming from it, stay near it, and wait for a big bubble to be produced. Then, jump into it to receive its airy goodness and replenish Knuckles air supply. Incidentally, if you've never played any of the Sonic franchise before, you are notified when you only have five seconds left by a Jaws-style change in music and an on-screen countdown. Two quite difficult levels if you can't find any air bubbles.

Dr. Eggman takes the form of a flying, mallet-wielding robot this time, who is frustratingly just out of reach. He raises two totem poles out of the ground that he hits alternately. Each time he hits one, it fires an arrow that will bury itself in the other totem pole. Knuckles can use these to jump onto to provide a platform to perform a second jump attack from to hit Dr. Eggman. I should note here that each boss takes eight hits to defeat. After eight hits, he'll fly off and you can free the animals again, blah blah blah. See the pattern here?

Casino Night Zone follows with its swanky Vegas-style layout of flashing lights. In these two Acts are an incredibly fun little perk. There are useable slot machines. If you see a slot machine layout with a little container for Knuckles to jump into, you can use these to gain rings very quickly. The best result you can get is three "Jackpot"s, gaining you a juicy three-hundred ring payout. The worst, however, is three Eggmans. If you are unlucky enough to get one of these, it will steal around one-hundred rings from you. The only up-side to this result is that if it hits you with no rings, you won't die. Other enemies include bouncebots, robots that use a shield if you try and jump attack them (Spin-dashing from behind is a good method of defeat). Another groovy, bouncy little tune accompanies you through this Zone too.

A particularly tough boss this time, he flies above you, dropping cluster bombs (bombs that, when exploded, release small clusters that can also harm you). You, however, cannot attack him from beneath, since he has an electric shield beneath him. A good trick is to spin-dash up the walls and leap off to jump attack him from above. Tricky nonetheless. Defeat him, he'll fly off, you can release the animals and move on.

Not one of my favourite Zones, but Hill Top Zone follows. It's not a particularly tricky Zone, I just find it a little, you know, dull. A new danger in this Zone, however, resides in some of the caves. Occasionally, you'll find yourself trapped in a cave, with the exit way above you and a floor of lava rising beneath you, and you'll have to slowly work your way up through a maze of platforms as quickly as possible to avoid being harmed by the rapidly rising lava. Other than that, just work your way through. Some enemies return from earlier Zones, such as the Wasp-bots from Emerald Hill, just defeat as you usually would.

The boss in this is around as tricky as the last. Three platforms, and two pools of lava. Eggman emerges from each lava pool alternately, firing a fireball (in a straight line, so fairly easy to dodge) and then returning into the lava. While he is out of the lava is your opportunity to hit him as many times as possible, but move onto the other side of the screen when he returns to the lava. The reason for this? Splashback. When he returns to the lava, he splashes some onto the two platforms either side, igniting them for a few seconds. Eight hits, he's defeated, flies off, you free the animals. Bish bash bosh.

Mystic Cave is next. A strange level, I can't really describe its layout, since it doesn't really look like a cave. Nonetheless, beware of spikes. They can emerge from almost anywhere here. Don't stand too close to walls, since some have spikes that will slide out when you're in the vicinity. Give yourself ample space to jump too. The most annoying enemies are the fireflies. You can defeat them with a normal jump attack, but don't go anywhere near them when they start flickering. When flashing they will hurt you. And infuriate you, but foremost hurt you.

The boss is a little easier if you know what to avoid. He drills down from the ceiling, causing all sorts of shrapnel (I couldn't think of a better word) to rain down. Most of it is fairly harmless, but avoid the sharp bits that look like spines. He'll then lower his drill horizontally and race over to you, before drilling back upwards and causing the shrapnel to fall again. Jump on him as he races across with the drill horizontal. And the usual happens again, with the freeing of the animals and whatnot.

Oil Ocean Zone is the final two-Act Zone in the game. It's easier to not fall off the bottom of the screen due to its namesake ocean of oil which delays the death as you slowly sink into the oil, but it's still a labyrinth from start to finish. Avoid the oil-spouting floating seahorses (are they still seahorses if they're not in a sea?) and try not to get flattened by the lid-poppers (and don't touch the flames that are beneath the lid when it pops off). These levels are particularly long and tedious, but once you get to the end, what's waiting for you?

Find out on Wednesday. Though, I'm sure you already know, since the game follows a fairly obvious pattern. My back hurts and I think I've written way too much for a single blog post anyway. But it's alright, I don't really have much else to do anyway.

"So you're going to sacrifice your life, for a taste of the greener grass? And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgement, He's going to kick my heathen arse."