Knuckles the Echidna

Continuing Sega's loose trend of one-off wonders, the cartridge for 1994's Sonic & Knuckles allowed players to plug in past Sonic titles for a little bit of added value. Plug in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and you were treated to an epic length conglomeration of the two parent titles; connect Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and you were able to take new kid Knuckles through the sequel stages. Strap on Sonic the Hedgehog though, and all you got were a slew of randomly generated mini-games. Ho-hum! Anyone expecting to take the red echidna for a spin around Green Hill Zone were about to be taught a lesson in bitter bitter disappointment. Hackers to the rescue! Through some nifty colour substitution tricks that circumvented Sega's original palette swap dilemma, home brewers were eventually able to insert Knuckles into an emulated version of the 1991 original. Above be the fruit of their labours. This speed run isn't perfect; there's an over reliance on no-clip shortcuts and Knuckles does appear to be in a permanent invincibility state, but it does represent a nice bit of pointless wish fulfillment.