Sacchariferous

Meaning sugar-bearing.

I believe that I left my last blog a little unfinished, so now is when I will be finishing it (my neck is absolutely dying since I've been turned at an awkward angle playing the rest of the game this evening, and my eyes hurt a lot, so forgive any mistakes or anything)

The boss for Oil Ocean Zone is rather like that of Hill Top Zone. Dr. Eggman emerges from the oil in a submarine-style machine for a few seconds before retreating back into the safe depths of the ocean. Your chance to hit him is while he is in the submarine. After he's retreated come two waves of attacks. The first is easy enough to dodge. It is merely a spike on a chain that you either jump over or duck under as it passes overhead. The second wave is in the form of a laser-gun on a chain. Again, fairly simple -- dodge the blasts from the gun by either jumping or ducking. Watch out if a shot is aimed at the platform that you are stood on though; it sends a shockwave along the platform that you'll have to jump over. And this cycle repeats until you've defeated Eggman and he's run away again, leaving you to save the animals.

The final Zone is Metropolis Zone. This zone is jam-packed full of mecha-goodness. Watch out for lava, mantis-bots (they launch a pair of blades at you that are quite difficult to dodge), starfish-spine things that explode (firing spines in all directions) and of course, spikes. There are, however, three Acts in this Zone to endure with a fittingly difficult boss at the end.

Eggman descends from the skies in his standard carrier, surrounded by eight balls orbiting quickly. In my experience, I've found that you can't be afraid to lose rings in this boss battle. Just keep jumping up and hitting him. Each time you hit him, a ball will break away and turn into an inflatable version of Eggman. Just jump on it to destroy it. After you've knocked all eight balls away and destroyed them, he'll move to the side and start firing lasers. Just hit him once more and you'll have defeated him. Yippee (I wish I hadn't left the last one unfinished -- I'm really not feeling this review tonight . . .).

Sky Chase is a standalone level. You don't play a particularly active role in this level, it's merely a level of self-preservation. You are stood atop The Tornado (Sonic and Tails' little plane) as it is flown, chasing Dr. Eggman's flying fortress. Just collect as many rings as you can, and jump attack the enemies, avoiding any projectiles they might fire. The level itself doesn't go on that long, so don't worry too much, and there isn't a boss.

Penultimately, is Wing Fortress. The Tornado is shot down, and you need to start the level by jumping from the plane onto the fortress. Main danger in this level is falling off the bottom, since it's an open level in the air. Just make your way through the fortress (it's somewhat of a labyrinth with many entrances and exits hidden behind walls, so just make sure you check every available wall before declaring defeat in an area). Once you find you way to the cockpit of the ship, you discover that Dr. Eggman has just one more surprise for you in this level.

You are trapped between two forcefields at each side of the screen as two peripherals appear on he ceiling of the room within which you currently reside. One of them stays in the centre, and fires out three moving platforms with spikes on the bottom, and the other moves back and forth. When the moving one stops moving, jump on one of the platforms and jump attack the exposed part. Don't get too carried away, this thing fires out quite a beefy laser after a second or two. Nonetheless, the biggest danger is probably the platforms. It's difficult to focus on all three at once, along with the laser. Still, once you've broken the laser, Eggman runs away, and you have to chase after him, by dropping down out of the bottom of the ship. Before you do, jump over to the other side and jump attack around a bit to discover a free life, and then drop down and let the cut-sequence take control.

Finally (I love that word right now) comes Death Egg. The evil Doctor's spaceship of destruction. There are no rings in this place, making this the most difficult and frustrating level of them all. Why? There are two bosses. Two incredibly difficult bosses. And no rings. One hit, and you're a goner.
Boss #1 - Mecha Sonic. For all kinds of functionality, this thing just has to be made out of razor blades with the damge it inflicts. Hit him with standard jump attacks only when he is standing still at the sides. Dodge any other attacks by jumping or ducking. His attacks include rolling along the floor in a ball, doing the same but jumping in a ball, jumping in a ball while firing spikes, and running back and forth at high speeds. Respectively, the evasive procedures are jump, duck, duck and dodge, and jump. A real tip here is to be patient. Don't get carried away hitting him too many times or you'll die. After eight hits, he'll blow up and you'll move onto the final boss. Eggman inside a metal . . . well, Eggman robot. Don't get stuck behind him or you will die, no question. Jump over his arms when he shoots them out. Finally, attack him just once when he lands after leaping into the air. I think it takes twelve hits to beat him, but don't quote me on that. If you've obtained all seven Chaos Emeralds, you will see the "good" ending (I'm not one for spoilers, so I won't be telling what happens in either of the endings) and if not, you'll view the "Not-So-Good" ending (it's referred to as the bad ending, but nothing inherently bad happens, so I refer to it as the "not-so-good" ending.).

Ta-da. That's my very in-depth review/walkthrough of Knuckles in Sonic 2. Great game, as is every other game of the Sonic Megadrive franchise. If any of you are wondering, I used Fusion 3.64 as my emulator of choice (since Gens+ screwed up my graphics) and just downloaded the ROM of Sonic 2 & Knuckles. It's fairly easy to find with a Google search, but if any of you are particularly unable to find it, I'll post a link to them both up here.

"Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better in something or other."