Knuckles' Chaotix

Knuckles' Chaotix is Sonic on the 32X... without Sonic (minus him appearing in the ending screen if the player gets the good ending).

Considered one of the franchise's strangest games, Chaotix features oddly-constructed levels, claw machines, and a plot involving Knuckles being literally shackled to various characters with magic rings while trying to stop Eggman from inducing disaster with his Chaos Rings. Although the Chaotix team (sans Mighty up until Sonic Mania) would make a grand return in Sonic Heroes, Chaotix remains largely inaccessible, thanks to its release on an ill-fated add-on. To date, it has been re-released exactly once - for the defunct GameTap service.

Sub-Pages#

Prototype Info Prerelease Info Unused SpritesThis game seems to have more unused sprites than used ones.

Debug Mode#

To do: Other configurations.

Configuring the Color Test to look as it is on the left activates a stage select in the main menu. Choosing a stage and configuration also enables a free movement debug mode, activated whenever the game is paused. Use the D-Pad to move and combinations of A, B, and C to move faster. There are three numerical values shown: the X coordinate of the crosshair (which is always at the center of the main character sprite; all sprites are drawn relative to their centers in Chaotix), Y coordinate of the crosshair, and a value that indicates the Zone, the Act, and what time of day it is.

The player can access levels, including some combinations that aren't used in normal gameplay:

• For the five "attractions", the level numbers should be between 1 and 5. While the game normally deters accessing level 0 or 6 of an attraction (playing a buzzer sound when trying to select them), trying to force those levels to load leads to a copy of level 1 (for level 0) or a game crash (for level 6).
• Training loads the Training stages of Isolated Island. Only Levels 0-4 can be selected; the other levels are deterred from loading. Level 0 uses the stage layout of Level 1, but without any objects.
• Introduction Levels 0-4 are the Scenario Quest stages of Isolated Island with the Training title cards. They have objects that end the level, but on Levels 1-3, it functions as if you have died and thus boots you back to the title screen. Levels 1-3 play Take a Nap if loaded through this menu, but proceeding to Level 1 from Level 0 will have it play Door Into Summer like normal. If you complete Level 4, the game continues to the character select and plays normally as if a new save file was loaded.
• Introduction Level 5 is a buggy version of the practice mode that infinitely loops and has no objects. The player cannot exit the room aside from continuously calling your partner to drain your "rings" until you are booted out. It plays Take a Nap instead of Combination.
• World Entrance Level 0 is the normal world lobby, 1 is the penultimate boss, 2 is the final boss, and all others crash the game (with Level 3 playing the bonus stage music, while Level 4 plays the Special Stage music).
• Not Used is actually used for a single level - Level 0, which loads the bad ending credits. The other levels in the place can't be selected.
• Bonus Stage can be selected from Levels 0-6, but they all just load the same layout.
• For the Special Stage, 0-5 are the six normal stages and 6 is the first wireframe stage. It is impossible to access the other wireframe stages from this menu.

The stage select also features a character select; "Player" is the player-controlled character, while "Combi" is their partner. Knuckles and Mighty are the default Player and Combi selections, respectively. The player can choose to control any character, including Bomb and Heavy (who normally can only be controlled by a second player or with the "Swap" monitor), or have the playable character and partner be the same character. The character select also shows the internal order that characters were added in, which differs from the final order. (Italics means a character is not selectable from the character select shown upon starting a game.)

Mighty and the unused character are listed in the first two slots before Knuckles, a remnant from when the game originally featured Sonic and Tails. (Mighty replaced Sonic, while Tails was removed.) Meanwhile, Espio is the last character rather than the third. Charmy and Vector's spots remain identical.

Tails Remnants#

The second character on the player select menu is a deleted character named "**********", who is listed second after Mighty. Informally known as "Wechnia" (a portmanteu of "white" and "echidna"), this character is the remnants of Tails, who was present in Sonic Crackers but scrapped sometime before the 1207 Chaotix prototype. In earlier prototypes, Tails could fly if the player pressed the jump button while holding up. Tails' palette remained in use in the 1207 prototype, while his behavior was intact until the 0119 prototype.

In the final game, Tails uses Knuckles' graphics and Mighty's palette and moveset in attractions, and Mighty's graphics in the Bonus and Special Stages. The game will usually crash the instant Tails touches the floor, but it's possible to properly control him through hacking or loading the game in certain emulators such as Gens. However, the game will still be prone to crashing through certain interactions, such as balancing on a ledge. Although Tails uses Knuckles' graphics, almost none of them are displayed correctly - in fact, playing as Tails is the only way to see certain unused Knuckles graphics within the game itself, such as his throwing animation (used when spin dashing) and his dizzy animation (used when clinging to a wall).

Sound Test Stuff#

Unused Sounds#

In the prototypes, the Sega screen plays a sound at code 6B. While this was removed from the final game, a different version of the sound remains in slot 6B.

Amy Rose#

Configuring the Color Test to look as it is on the left will replace the volume meters with a dancing Amy Rose saying "Cool Sweet & Catchy!" while periodically moving around.

Hidden Programmer Credits#

At address 2D997E, there is a hidden string of text that lists the programmers that worked on the game.

32X CHAOTIX TEAM PROGRAMER HIROSHI OKAMOTO,TOSHIAKI YAJIMA,TATUO YAMAJIRI,KENJI KAWAI AND CHIKAHIRO YOSHIDA
 
MD SONIC TEAM PROGRAMER HIROSHI OKAMOTO,TOSHIAKI YAJIMA,KENJI KAWAI,CHIKAHIRO YOSHIDA,SYUJI TAKAHASHI AND ARATA HANASHIMA
 
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!! AND SEE YOU AGAIN!!

Unusually, this message makes use of both the Hepburn and Nihon-shiki systems.

No 32X Error Message#

When trying to play the game without a 32X attached, it tries to show an error message saying it needs a 32X. However, on real hardware the 32X security code tries to access the 32X directly without checking if it's there, which makes it hang up and the screen stays blank. The message can be seen in emulators that don't implement this hangup.

It always says "SUPER32X" regardless of region.

Oddities#

Special Stages Jumpball Sprites#

Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog CD)	Knuckles (Knuckles' Chaotix)	Mighty (Knuckles' Chaotix)

Knuckles and Mighty's Special Stage jumping sprites were traced over Sonic's from Sonic the Hedgehog CD (including one frame that was originally unused), leaving some residual weirdness:

• Knuckles' sprites are nearly identical, the only differences being the palette and the removal of Sonic's ears. The middle frame even keeps an error from Sonic CD: it has two erroneous pixels marked as transparent instead of grey/white.
• The edges of Mighty's sprites were shaved off since his jumpball is smaller than Sonic's. This was done rather crudely, as Sonic's quills are still visible in the second and fourth frames.
• In Sonic CD, the Special Stages have a 256x224 screen resolution and are stretched horizontally to fit 4:3, so Sonic's sprites are thinner than they actually appear in the game. Chaotix's Special Stages are already running in 4:3, but Mighty and Knuckles' jumping sprites were not altered to accommodate this, so they're shaped like an oval rather than a ball. It's unclear whether this was an intentional artistic choice or an oversight. It should be noted that in the Windows port of Sonic CD, Sonic's special stage sprites were all redrawn to appear wider, since the special stages in that version were not stretched horizontally. However, those sprites seemingly weren't referenced here.

"Unused" Sound Test Button Functions#

Watch on YouTubeAlthough the US and European manuals state that the six-button controllers don't do anything, they actually do! Pressing X lets you change the output between stereo and mono, while holding Y and pressing Left or Right lets you change the tempo.

These functions are mentioned in the Japanese manual, so it's unknown why the international manuals state otherwise.

References#