Blue Sphere

From Sonic Retro

Blue Sphere Starting Screen.

Blue Sphere is the game created by utilizing the Lock-On Technology in Sonic & Knuckles in conjunction with any game but the full game is unlocked when using Sonic the Hedgehog. It is a compilation of "Special Stages" in the same style (and engine) of the ones featured in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles with a total of 134,217,728 levels in all. However, after level 128,016,000 some of the previous levels begin to reappear. After completing all 134,217,728 stages it restarts from the beginning.

The levels in Blue Sphere are slightly different than the special stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic& Knuckles. In Blue Sphere, the ring counter decreases rather than increases, and if the player collects all the rings and blue spheres in a level, a "perfect" score is awarded and the player is shown a screen with the stage's difficulty. Then the player is advanced 10 levels. Each time the player completes a stage, a 12-number password is given for that stage. Also, each stage has a difficulty level assigned to it, represented by an icon. There are 13 difficulty levels in all. Difficulty is assigned based on the number of spheres in each region of the stage's map, so some level 13 stages might actually be less difficult than level 12 or 11.

The name Blue Sphere comes from the name shown in its listing in Sonic Mega Collection.

List of icons by difficulty level
Each difficulty level contains the icon of all difficulty levels below it.

The final difficulty with all the characters present

Nothing
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles
Robotnik
Mecha Sonic
Eggrobo (flying)
Chickens
Squirrels
Rabbits
Master Emerald
Sonic & Knuckles logo
Sonic turns into Super Sonic

Method of Accessing the Game

To access the game Sonic & Knuckles must be locked-on to another game. Once this is done a "No way? No way!" screen will pop up with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Robotnik making odd faces, telling you the cartridge is supposedly incompatible. However, pressing , , and simultaneously will allow this mini-game to be played. From here, pressing , , or will switch characters between Sonic and Knuckles; the player cannot play as Tails alone or as Sonic with Tails following.

A single Blue Sphere stage can be created by locking on Sonic & Knuckles to any Sega Mega Drive game. The stage layout is produced randomly from information in the inserted cartridge's ROM header, along with the stage's 'code' for use in the full Blue Sphere game. Only by locking the original Sonic the Hedgehog or Sonic Compilation can one play through all the stages.

In Sonic Jam, Sonic Mega Collection, and Sonic Mega Collection Plus the Blue Sphere game is playable as a separate game. Sonic Jam allows the player to access it by choosing to play Sonic & Knuckles and "lock it on" with Sonic 1. In Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus, the game has to be unlocked separately.

Unofficial Pro Action Replay Cheat Codes

Code	Description
FFE443:00	All Rings Collected

Also Released for

Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC (1997)
Sonic Jam for Sega Saturn (1997)
Sonic Action Pack for PC (2000)
Sonic Action 4 Pack for PC (2001)
Twin Pack: Sonic CD and Sonic & Knuckles Collection (2002)
Sonic Mega Collection for Nintendo GameCube (2002)
Sonic Mega Collection Plus for Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox (2004)
Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the Microsoft Xbox (2005)
Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Shadow the Hedgehog for the Sony PlayStation 2 (2009)
Sonic PC Collection for the PC (2009)

Trivia

Because the Sonic & Knuckles cart was able to connect to Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 and let you play as Knuckles in those games, it was assumed by some that the same would happen when the game was connected to Sonic 1. This was not the case due to palette issues. Instead, they put the full version of Blue Spheres there. Since then, a ROM hack has been made to make this happen, dubbed Knuckles in Sonic 1.