Blue Sphere

Blue Sphere is the game created by locking on Sonic & Knuckles to Sonic the Hedgehog. The name Blue Sphere comes from the name shown in its listing in Sonic Mega Collection. 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 and Knuckles. In Blue Sphere, the ring counter decreases rather than increases, and if you collect all the rings and blue spheres in a level, you receive a "perfect" score and are presented a screen showing the stage's difficulty. Then you are advanced 10 levels. Each time you complete a stage, you are given a 12-number password for the 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 "No Way? No Way!" message that scrolls across the screen at first seems to inform the player that the game attached is not Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or 3. Pressing the A, B, and C buttons simultaneously brings up the main screen on Blue Sphere. When at the main screen, pressing A, B, or C allows you to switch characters. However, you cannot play as Tails or Sonic with Tails following like in Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

Blue Spheres can also be created by locking on Sonic & Knuckles to any other Sega Mega Drive game, based on something in the header of the game. Please note, however, that playing these levels via a game with battery back up will erase saved games. Also note that this won't work with games made after Sonic & Knuckles was released. There are also some instances of it not working with games made before Sonic & Knuckles, such as Phantasy Star IV.

List of icons by difficulty level (Note: Each difficulty level contains the icon of all difficulty levels below it)

1. Nothing
2. Sonic
3. Tails
4. Knuckles
5. Robotnik
6. Mecha Sonic
7. Eggrobo (flying)
8. Chickens
9. Squirrels
10. Rabbits
11. Master Emerald
12. Sonic & Knuckles logo
13. Sonic turns into Super Sonic

Also Released for

• Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC (1997)
• Sonic Jam for Sega Saturn (1997)
• Sonic Mega Collection for Nintendo Gamecube (2002)
• Sonic Mega Collection Plus for Sony Playstation 2 and Microsoft X-Box (2004)

External Links

• Blue Sphere generator

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

1991  Sonic the Hedgehog | Sonic Eraser     1992  Sonic the Hedgehog 2     1993  Sonic the Hedgehog CD | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine | Sonic Spinball     1994  Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | Sonic & Knuckles     1995  Chaotix | Sonic Classics     1996  Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island      Prototypes  Sonic the Hedgehog | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Sonic the Hedgehog CD | Sonic Spinball | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine | Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | Sonic & Knuckles | Knuckles in Sonic 2 | Chaotix | Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island  Unreleased  Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega-CD) | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 CD | Sister Sonic | Treasure Tails | Sonic-16 | Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition | Sonic Sports | Sonic Mars