What Ever Happened to Knuckles?

Sonic 3 for many stands as a beacon of 2d glory, a monument to not only SEGA’s blue blur but to the platformer genre as a whole. Expansive levels with multiple paths that lead to set piece scenarios and unforgettable finales, Sonic 3 really was the first true blockbuster game. One of the major factors that mad Sonic 3 so enchantingly different from it’s predecessors was the introduction of a new villain, that of the mischievous and roguish Knuckles.

No I didn’t type that wrong, mischievous and roguish are the best way to describe the character of Knuckles in Sonic 3. From his ever present smirk to his snarky chuckle as he rips the chaos emeralds from you at the very start of Sonic 3, Knuckles is presented to the player as a good-for-nothing bandit who is in bed with Dr Robotnik. So where did that Knuckles go?


Where did this guy go?

See I’m fairly certain that Sonic 3 (and to a lesser extent Sonic & Knuckles) made it very clear that the one thing Knuckles couldn’t really be was stoic. So why is it that from Sonic Adventure onwards we get this utterly po-faced, miserably determined guardian? It’s not like Knuckles was presented this way in anything else prior to that, even in his brief stint in Sonic Underground has snarky, cheeky voice that comes across more as a stroppy teenager than an ancient guardian.

I’ve only recently began to realise this when I started playing Sonic and the Dark Brotherhood on DS and realized just how boring and flat a character Knuckles has been forced to become. His determination to just get on with the quest made him a sort of solemn nanny, and not really the kind of gjuy I’d like to have in my party. This shocked me a great deal, as I remember Knuckles almost always being my favourite, but upon looking back I’ve come to realise that it is old Knuckles, that of the chuckle, the smirk and the smash and grab, that was my favourite, not this tedious Batman wannabe.

Lewis Dunn writes for the satirical gaming site Pixel Grater http://pixelgrater.com/