All this tech speak is going right over my head, time for a gripping update on the heroic quest.
Mission Street
Thats a really odd stage name now I think about it, is this what Tails codenamed his grand plan of luring the police away? Well whatever its time for more mediocre mech stuff, this stage has to be one of the most irritating ones in the game when youre just trying to keep hold of rings for that one mission because enemies will drop out of the sky and onto your face with no warning and random missiles from nowhere will blast you in the rear end, its like a stage that punishes you for going too fast. Tails picks up his hover upgrade in this stage, nice music as well but nothing much else to praise outside of that, it is at least a stage theme unused by Eggmans mech stages so it feels more unique to Tails side of the story, even if it also radical highway and kart racer stuff.
Once again were off to the mysterious mountainside region where Knuckles is once again disconnected from everyone else hunting for his emerald pieces, I love how both this and Pumpkin Hill have so little fanfare for their arrival, its just suddenly like MEANWHILE AT 10:45 RED LOADING SCREEN=KNUCKLES.
Aquatic Mine
Knux remarks how he didnt expect the mine interior to look like this, its hard to tell if hes puzzled by the waterlogged nature of the mine or the fact that Pumpkin Hill décor has made its way to the mine itself. This stage gets a bit of grief from some but honestly I dont mind it, nothing like a tense bit of potential drowning to keep you on your toes. The place operates like a low budget OoT water temple, the water has three levels which are altered by switches (and not by playing Zeldas Lullaby on the mystic melody). First port of call is switching to water level 3 so you can go nab the Blue Tunic oxygen necklace to counter the fear of drowning and its damn useful for Cannons Core later on. The path to said necklace does its best to bewilder with awkward camera angles in a vain attempt to drown you but Knuckles lungs are made of tougher stuff. All the extra faffing around grabbing the necklace meant I had to settle for a B grade instead of an A, the Knuckles A streak is over but just so you know Im still an ace treasure hunter
unless its mad space.
Oh and I would be amiss if I didnt mention the music here, the instrumental part is actually one of the best tracks in the game, it doesnt get the praise it should since you know, lyrics, unlike Pumpkin Hill they arent so bad theyre good, theyre just sort of there distracting from the mellow melody.
Back in the nondescript city area Tails is just bumming around waiting for Sonic to shake off his four star wanted level, another star and those damn FBI agents will join the party. Suddenly Knuckles bursts out of the nearest manhole desperate to be more plot relevant, a contrived event to be sure, obligatory long time no see statement in the tradition of Sonic Adventure and then I must have got lost in the mines, yeah those mines stretch from mountainous region to random city through the sewers it seems. Then Knuckles starts talking about his Master Emerald hunt as if Tails and Amy are aware that he actually punched the thing to pieces in the first place, Tails does not raise any questions at this so its safe to assume he and Amy are just ignoring Knuckles rambling. Tails guesses that Eggman is in space since he cant track him with chaos emerald magnetism and that intercepting Eggmans transmission with the president will solve all these dilemmas, as for how he found out about this it appears our fox friend is into hacking government computers now, so first he breaks a criminal out of prison, resists arrest, hacks into top secret government files and now hes off to break into the presidents limo, HERO STORY!
Route whatever number it is
So not only can the tornado fly, walk and shoot but it also drives, what a handy piece of kit yet the instruction booklet for the GC game at least calls it the cyclone, I like that name, makes it feel like a superior follow up to the previous tornado. Time for another type of gameplay, the kart racer, in this stage we race down the most bland looking stage possible within the time limit and thats pretty much it, really, no enemies, no obstacles, just a few jumps and you got boost power every 20 or so rings. Who the hell designed this road anyway? Its an absolute mess, maybe it wouldnt be so long and treacherous if it were straight, I can only imagine the badass skills of the presidents limo driver swerving through all these turns and launching off the jumps. Tails can add more crime to his increasing list by ramming innocent drivers off the road to their death, Tails is an absolute fiend in this game. The alt missions for this stage include such gripping outings as not touching the walls, yeah this stage is a dud alright.
According to the presidents aide (who actually has a menu theme for some reason) the event with Eggman blasting the moon to bits happened three hours ago, then how the hell is it like midday now?! Well anyway Eggman and the Presidential pushover discuss terrorist negotiations and then sonic using his acute hearing abilities once again yells NO WAY to these threats whilst running up the street outside the limo and promptly launches himself through the sun roof. Meanwhile The president loses his shit, Tails magically appears inside as well and they find out that Eggman is transmitting from Space Colony ARK. This scene brings tears to Mama Robotnik's eyes, so masterful.
Jumping ahead in time its back to the Desert, Knuckles and Amy seemingly travelled here for some reason while all that president stuff was going down and spied Eggman and Rouge entering the pyramid hidden base, I like how when Knuckles describes what he saw to Sonic and Tails he mentions how more importantly that Bat Girl was there as well, do Sonic and Tails even know who Rouge is yet? More mad ramblings from old Knuckles, he must look like quite the crackpot to these guys. Time for more Tails action since he volunteered to go find the entrance, the horrid pacing continues.
