Sega 32X1995SegaPlatformer

Knuckles’ Chaotix (1995)

Knuckles gets his own game, and a gang to go with it: five heroes joined in pairs by a stretchy band of ring energy, racing through an amusement park on Sega’s short-lived 32X.

Released21 April 1995 (JP) · May 1995 (US) · June 1995 (Europe)

PlatformSega 32X only

StarsKnuckles, Espio, Mighty, Vector and Charmy

Players1–2, co-operative

IntroducesHeavy and Bomb

HookTwo characters tethered by rings

Title	Chaotix (Japan); Knuckles’ Chaotix (North America and Europe) カオティクス
Japanese box title	Chaotix: Featuring Knuckles the Echidna
Platform	Sega 32X
Developer	Sega (Sega CS3)
Publisher	Sega; Tectoy in Brazil
Executive producer	Mamoru Shigeta
Directors	Masahide Kobayashi, Atsuhiko Nakamura, Naohisa Nakazawa
Team leader	Hiroshi Fukutsu
Chief graphic designer	Takumi Miyake
Music	Junko Shiratsu and Mariko Nanba; sound director Tatsuya Kouzaki
Players	1–2 (the second player controls the partner)
Released (Japan)	21 April 1995 (¥7,800)
Released (North America)	May 1995 (US$69.99)
Released (Europe)	June 1995; UK 23 June 1995 (£49.99)
Save	Battery back-up
Re-releases	Once only: briefly on the GameTap service in the mid-2000s

Overview

Sonic is barely in it. Knuckles’ Chaotix, the only Sonic-series game made for the 32X add-on, hands the lead to Knuckles the Echidna a few months after Sonic & Knuckles gave him his own adventure, and surrounds him with new faces: Mighty the Armadillo, Charmy Bee, Vector the Crocodile and Espio the Chameleon, plus a pair of unreliable robots called Heavy and Bomb.

Its big idea is the tether. You never play alone: your character is joined to a partner by a band of ring energy that stretches and snaps back like elastic, and the pair can fling, drag and catapult each other around the stage. A second player can take the partner, or the computer does it for you.

It came out in spring 1995, built in a hurry for hardware that was itself on borrowed time, and sold far fewer copies than the Mega Drive games. Apart from a brief spell on the GameTap subscription service in the mid-2000s it has never been re-released, which has made it one of the series’ great curiosities. Its cast did not disappear, though: three of them came back as Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes.

Quick Answers

Quick answers, with links to the full story.

Plot / Story

Chaotix’s two manuals agree on the cast and on very little else.

Eggman’s robots tell part of the tale. They run on grey, drained rings instead of captured animals, and the rings fade away soon after a robot is broken. The Japanese manual explains why: Eggman has built a base, Newtrogic High Zone, and powers his new army with artificial Dark Rings.

Then there is the setting, and the prize. In America and Europe it is Carnival Island, a high-tech amusement park that Knuckles watches over, and Robotnik wants the power emerald that keeps its rides running. Japan’s manual has no theme park, just an island newly risen from the sea soon after Sonic & Knuckles. There Eggman has found a ring engraved with the history of a lost civilisation and a Special Ring like those of the Floating Island; the Special Rings lead to a pocket of space charged with energy from the Master Emerald’s altar, set hard into six Chaos Rings, and he wants their secrets and a way to summon the Master Emerald itself.

The trap is much the same in both: a machine that holds Knuckles’ future friends prisoner, the Combi Confiner in the West, which freezes them in time, and the Combi Catcher in Japan. In the Western telling Knuckles chases Robotnik off just before Espio can join Charmy, Vector and Mighty, then finds that the power of his rings can free his friends one at a time, and two of Robotnik’s mechanics, Heavy and Bomb, offer to help. Japan’s Eggman, with Metal Sonic beside him, catches all four newcomers, and Knuckles, come to see what the new island is, breaks Espio out.

Tethered: how the ring link works

Chaotix has five heroes and two robots, each with its own speed, weight, jump and throwing strength, and you always play two at once, so the pairing matters. Monitors add to the chaos, including Grow and Shrink, which double or halve your size, and change your weight and jump with it, for twenty seconds.

The pair are tied together by an elastic band of ring energy, and moving one drags the other. You can plant your character, pull back and let go to fire yourself forward like a slingshot, throw your partner up to a ledge, or summon a lost partner back to your side for ten rings, even if that leaves you with a negative ring count.

Damage works differently too. A computer-controlled partner who is hit drops just one ring. When you are hit, everything depends on the Combine Ring, a blue-ring monitor: with it, your rings spill out as one big ring that you have ten seconds to grab back; without it, they are gone. Get hit with no rings at all and your partner vanishes for a while. There are no lives, so the worst that can happen is being sent back to the hub.

Five attractions, five acts, any time of day

After a training run on Isolated Island, the game is played from Newtrogic High Zone’s World Entrance, a lobby full of fairground machines. A claw game picks your partner and a spinning selector picks the next attraction, so you rarely play the levels in the same order twice. Each of the five attractions has five acts, and every act has a ten-minute limit. Finishing one moves the in-game clock on by three hours, so the stages cycle through eight times of day, each with its own colours.

Finish an act with 50 rings and leap through the giant ring for the Special Stage, a 3D course where you collect blue spheres for one of six Chaos Rings, which stand in for the Chaos Emeralds and decide which ending you see. There is also a Bonus Stage whose prizes include items that tame the World Entrance’s machines. The game saves automatically to the cartridge after each act.

Clear all five attractions and the selector machine itself turns on you: Metal Sonic Kai hooks into it for the penultimate battle.

Attractions in Knuckles’ Chaotix

Isolated Island is a one-off training stage; the five attractions each have five acts and are reached from Newtrogic High Zone.

1. 
   Isolated IslandTrainingKnuckles and Espio’s approach to Eggman’s base. The Western manuals call it the Practice Stage. Liftor.
2. 
   Botanic Base5 actsA greenhouse gone wild. Am-Bush, Burboom, Bushbubble and Catalurcher.
3. 
   Speed Slider5 actsA rollercoaster of a stage, made for going fast. Dribbler, Gotcha, Hoverby Mk II and Needlenose.
4. 
   Amazing Arena5 actsA dark funhouse where you hit switches to turn the lights on. Beatal and Motorspike.
5. 
   Techno Tower5 actsA long climb past Eggman billboards, with Grow and Shrink monitors. Blitz, Bombbearer and Gut Buster.
6. 
   Marina Madness5 actsDocks and cruise ships, with ferries worked by switches and no water hazards. Floatsam, Piranha and Poptank.
7. 
   Newtrogic High ZoneHubThe World Entrance, where you pick partners and attractions, and in the end the scene of the penultimate boss.

In comics, TV & other media

Chaotix was barely adapted at the time, but its cast and setting turned up in comics for years. More in Sonic in other movies and media.

Characters

Five heroes, two robots who may or may not be on your side, and the usual villains. Where the characters came from is a story in itself.

Character	Who they are	In this game	Stats & abilities
Knuckles the EchidnaThe star	Fresh from Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, and now the lead. In the Western manual he guards Carnival Island; in the Japanese one he simply wants to know what this new island is.	Frees Espio from the Combi Catcher and leads the fight against Eggman and Metal Sonic.	Glides and climbs walls, as in Sonic & Knuckles Rescues Espio first in the Japanese story
Espio the ChameleonPartner	A ninja-like chameleon. Much of the personality fans know him for, quiet and disciplined, came later, in other games and comics.	The first friend Knuckles rescues in the Japanese story; nearly frozen by Robotnik in the Western one.	Clings to walls and ceilings Later playable in Sonic the Fighters
Mighty the ArmadilloPartner	Created by Manabu Kusunoki for the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog. In Chaotix he took the place Sonic had held when the project began.	Caught in Eggman’s machine and freed by Knuckles.	Wall jump Returned, playable, in Sonic Mania Plus (2018)
Vector the CrocodilePartner	Older than Sonic’s first game: he was drawn in 1990 as the keyboard player in the Sonic band that was cut from Sonic 1, and slimmed down to star here.	One of the four captives, freed by Knuckles.	Air dash Climbs walls Leader of Team Chaotix in Sonic Heroes
Charmy BeePartner	Designed by Naoto Ohshima and first seen in a 1992 Sonic manga in the Japanese magazine Shogaku Yonensei.	One of the four captives, freed by Knuckles.	The fastest character A near-unlimited ability to fly
Heavy and BombRobotnik’s Mechanix	Two robots who say they have escaped from Dr. Robotnik, though nobody can be sure they were not sent to slow Knuckles down. Heavy, the doctor’s chief mechanic, is big, silver, slow and cannot be hurt. Bomb is small and red and blows himself up whenever he is hit, then rebuilds himself.	A booby prize from the partner-picking claw machine; they vanish after Robotnik’s defeat.	First appearance Bomb’s explosions can hurt you Playable through the level select, a Swap monitor, or by throwing one through a giant ring
Dr. EggmanDr. Robotnik in the West	After the Special Rings in the Japanese story and Carnival Island’s power emerald in the Western one.	Builds an army that runs on drained rings and fights the team at the end of each attraction.	Bosses run on grey rings too
Metal SonicEggman’s enforcer	Back from Sonic CD as Eggman’s partner in crime. For the climax he becomes Metal Sonic Kai, a far bigger machine.	Helps capture the four friends; as Metal Sonic Kai he takes over the World Entrance’s selector for the penultimate fight.	Metal Sonic Kai was nicknamed “Devil Sonic” by its artist

The Badniks

The Badniks of each attraction. Pictures are game sprites; some robots on Sonic Retro’s lists have no known name and are left out.

• LiftorIsolated IslandThe training stage’s robot.
• Am-BushBotanic BaseA leaf-covered cousin of Sonic & Knuckles’ Bubbles.
• BurboomBotanic BaseGrabs hold of you and blows itself up.
• BushbubbleBotanic BaseA potted plant that spins its leaves and glows in the dark.
• CatalurcherBotanic BaseAnother of the greenhouse’s robots.
• DribblerSpeed SliderBounces two bumpers like basketballs.
• GotchaSpeed SliderA thief that makes off with your rings.
• Hoverby Mk IISpeed SliderSonic CD’s Pata-Bata, rebuilt with fans.
• NeedlenoseSpeed SliderA flying robot.
• BeatalAmazing ArenaRolls about and slams the ground; best attacked from behind.
• MotorspikeAmazing ArenaHovers with its sides protected.
• BlitzTechno TowerFires homing missiles.
• BombbearerTechno TowerCarries a bomb, and drops it when you destroy it.
• Gut BusterTechno TowerWears a chef’s hat and coughs up bombs.
• FloatsamMarina MadnessA robot stingray.
• PiranhaMarina MadnessA flying fish that drops mines.
• PoptankMarina MadnessA robot hermit crab.

The people who made it

A selection of names from the game’s credits.

How it was made

Chaotix started as a tech demo about two characters on a rope, nearly became a Saturn game, and ended up as a Knuckles game on the 32X.

A tether in search of a game

The tether came first. Around April 1994 an internal Sega team, several of them Sonic CD veterans, built a Mega Drive engine test called Sonic Crackers (it also went by Sonic Stadium) in which Sonic and Tails are linked by a band of energy; the name probably comes from clackers, the toy made of two balls on a string. It was never announced, and the journalist Ken Horowitz thinks it was most likely a ROM made to show ideas to management. A few of those ideas later surfaced in Sonic 3D Blast, but the tether, the level design and some of the music went into Chaotix.

Sonic and Tails did not make the trip. By December 1994 the project, briefly titled Knuckles’ Ringstar, starred Knuckles, with a supporting cast gathered from all over: Mighty from the arcade SegaSonic the Hedgehog, animated largely with Sonic’s old Crackers frames; Vector, a character created for the first Sonic and dropped before release; Charmy, from a Sonic manga; and Espio, the one brand-new face, designed by Takumi Miyake. Sonic Retro points to strong evidence that Sonic and Tails were playable for a while, but in the finished game they only appear in a cameo at the end, and the Chaos Rings were still called Holy Rings for part of development.

Shrunk for the 32X

Why the 32X? Tom Kalinske, then running Sega of America, said the game was once meant to be a mainline Sonic for the Saturn, but it grew too big, too slow and too expensive, and the 32X badly needed software, so it was cut down and brought out quickly on the add-on. Horowitz adds that the 16-bit era was ending anyway. The new hardware brought sprite scaling, polygon Special Stages and a palette system that gives each level its own colours.

The haste shows. Twelve prototypes have leaked, dated from December 1994 to mid-February 1995, only weeks before launch, and Sonic Retro suggests that building the game alongside the console itself would account for its colour-test screen and its taste for showy effects that serve the hardware more than the player.

Drawing Metal Sonic Kai

Concept art for Chaotix is scarce, but artist Ryo Kudou has described how he drew the final boss, which Takumi Miyake designed. He built and rendered a rough 3D model, then repainted it by hand in Mega Drive colours, until the model was, in his words, “almost entirely gone, except for the rough direction of light and color”. Among his programmer friends the robot was “Devil Sonic”, a G Gundam joke.

Firsts: what this game introduced

What Chaotix brought to the series:

Cheats & secrets

Chaotix hides its best secrets behind the MARS colour test on the options screen.

Time bonus

Points for finishing an act within the time shown. You also get 100 points for every ring you hold, and a 10,000-point secret bonus for finding a hidden route, winning a Bonus Stage item or reaching the Special Stage.

Stage select and debug mode

In the MARS colour test, set the first six values to 06 0B 11 and 04 00 04. A Stage Select option appears on the main menu, where you can choose the attraction, the time of day and the pair of characters. It also turns on debug mode: pause during play to move freely around the level, holding buttons to move faster.

Amy’s cameo

Another colour-test combination puts Amy Rose in the corner of the sound test, pacing back and forth with a speech bubble that reads “Cool sweet & catchy!”

Sound test extras

With a six-button pad, the sound test gains two hidden controls: one switches between mono and stereo, the other changes the tempo of the music.

Play as Heavy or Bomb

If either robot is your partner and you have enough rings, throw him into the giant ring and you control him in the Special or Bonus Stage. A Swap monitor, the stage select or a second controller also put you in charge.

Glitches, exploits and oddities

Chaotix was rushed out on brand-new hardware, and it shows. Here are its oddities, from the clocks and the demo to the tether and the animation.

Clocks that lie

Finishing a level moves the in-game clock on by three hours, or by six in Amazing Arena, yet that attraction’s clocks only ever show two hours going by and start and stop at the wrong times. The World Entrance clock is off as well.

A clumsy demo

The first attract-mode demo, Vector and Bomb in Techno Tower, plays erratically and leaves Vector climbing into a corner for several seconds, as if its recorded inputs belonged to another level.

Partners that come untied

Get hit with no rings so that your partner is knocked loose, then take a ride that crosses the map, such as a Marina Madness ship or the Techno Tower drill. The partner comes along for the trip but arrives untethered, and stays that way until called back.

Partner in the wall

The tether can drag a partner into walls and scenery (the Marina Madness boats are one cause), and calling them back, at a cost in rings, is the only way out.

Backward rolls

Mighty, Knuckles, Vector and Espio always face right while rolling. The spin animation turns clockwise, so heading left looks like a string of backward somersaults.

Upside-down throws

Toss your partner while aimed downhill, for instance on the way down a quarter pipe, and the throw animation is drawn upside down.

Robots off the curve

On curved corners, Heavy and Bomb are drawn out of line with the ground they are standing on.

Videos & media

There is no official trailer for Chaotix on SEGA’s channels, but its most famous returning character has had his moment: two videos from the official Sonic the Hedgehog channel, made for Mighty’s comeback in Sonic Mania Plus.

Part 5 of the animated series, “Metal Mayhem” (July 2018): Sonic, Tails, Mighty and Ray against a powered-up Metal Sonic.

SEGA’s 1990s-style advert for Sonic Mania Plus (July 2018), the game that made Mighty playable again.

Trivia & facts

• Vector the Crocodile was designed five years before the game, as the keyboard player in Sonic 1’s abandoned sound-test band.
• Heavy cannot be hurt at all and Bomb rebuilds himself after every explosion, yet both make the game harder, not easier.
• The planner who wanted to call Metal Sonic Kai “Death Metal Sonic” lost the vote.
• Marina Madness is all docks and ships, yet it has no water hazards.
• Only the Western release puts Knuckles’ name first. In Japan the game is simply Chaotix, with “Featuring Knuckles the Echidna” added on the box.
• Progress is saved to a battery in the cartridge: automatically after every act or Special Stage, or by hand when you pass the exit sign.
• Finishing an act moves the clock on three hours, so Chaotix cycles through eight times of day; Amazing Arena lets you jump ahead six.
• Ask the two manuals where the game is set and you get two answers: a newly risen island in Japan, an amusement park called Carnival Island in the West.

Media & artwork

Box art, artwork and screenshots, mostly from Sonic Scene’s own galleries. Select any image to view it larger.

• Box art from Knuckles’ Chaotix
• Screenshots from Knuckles’ Chaotix
• Official artwork from Knuckles’ Chaotix

Legacy

Chaotix itself all but vanished, but its characters kept coming back.

From the 32X to Sonic Mania

• Sega 32X 1995 – Out first in Japan (21 April); the UK date was 23 June, and Tectoy handled Brazil.
• Sonic the Fighters 1996 – Espio is one of the playable fighters in the arcade game.
• Sonic Heroes 2004 – Vector, Espio and Charmy return as Team Chaotix, a detective agency.
• Sonic Advance 3 2004 – Builds a whole game around two-character partnerships.
• GameTap 2000s – Its one official re-release, available for a short time on the subscription service.
• Sonic Generations 2011 – Remixes Isolated Island’s “Door Into Summer” and the Special Stage’s “Tube Panic”.
• Sonic Mania 2017 – Brings back the Combine Ring as the Hyper Ring, along with one of its Badniks and a number of its sound effects.
• Sonic Mania Plus 2018 – Mighty returns as a playable character.

The black sheep

The 32X sold poorly, and Chaotix with it. The add-on’s hardware has also made official emulation harder, and the game has never been brought to a newer system, so many players know its characters far better than the game itself.

When Sonic Team brought Vector, Espio and Charmy back for Sonic Heroes, Takashi Iizuka said they were chosen partly because Sonic Team had never used them, and that the team treated them as new characters who happened to share the old designs.

Where to play it today

On original hardware only: a Mega Drive or Genesis with a 32X and the cartridge. The GameTap version is no longer available.

Sales & reviews

Sales

No sales figure for Chaotix could be confirmed. Sonic Retro says only that it sold far fewer copies than the Mega Drive Sonic games, held back by how few people owned a 32X.

• 1Official re-release (GameTap)
• 73%Sega Retro’s average of 34 reviews

Reception and review scores

A selection of period reviews from Sega Retro’s index of magazine scans; scores not out of 100 are shown as Sega Retro converts them.

Few Sonic games have divided critics so sharply. GameFan scored it 98%, while Next Generation gave it the equivalent of 25%; most British and European magazines landed in the 70s and 80s, and Sega Retro’s average across 34 reviews is 73%.

Standing out

Further reading

More from Sonic Scene:

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against the sources below. Sonic Retro and Sega Retro are linked through the Wayback Machine copies we read (the live sites sit behind a bot check). Magazine scores come from Sega Retro’s review index, which links each score to a scan of the original page.

• Overview: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Development (Sonic Crackers, the Tom Kalinske interview, prototypes, Ryo Kudou on Metal Sonic Kai; October 2025 copy); Sega Retro, Chaotix (release dates, prices, magazine scores with scans); Sonic Scene, “Knuckles Chaotix” (original page, 2017: infobox)
• Quick Answers: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sega Retro, Chaotix (release dates, prices, magazine scores with scans); Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Hidden content (colour-test codes, sound test, Amy cameo)
• Plot / Story: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro attraction pages: Isolated Island, Botanic Base, Speed Slider, Amazing Arena, Techno Tower, Marina Madness, Newtrogic High Zone; Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic; Knuckles’ Chaotix US manual (1995), as summarised by Sonic Retro; Chaotix Japanese manual (1995), as summarised by Sonic Retro
• In comics, TV & other media: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic; Sonic Retro attraction pages: Isolated Island, Botanic Base, Speed Slider, Amazing Arena, Techno Tower, Marina Madness, Newtrogic High Zone
• Characters: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic; Sonic Retro attraction pages: Isolated Island, Botanic Base, Speed Slider, Amazing Arena, Techno Tower, Marina Madness, Newtrogic High Zone; Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Development (Sonic Crackers, the Tom Kalinske interview, prototypes, Ryo Kudou on Metal Sonic Kai; October 2025 copy); Sega Retro, Chaotix/Production credits
• How it was made: Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Development (Sonic Crackers, the Tom Kalinske interview, prototypes, Ryo Kudou on Metal Sonic Kai; October 2025 copy); Wikipedia, “Knuckles’ Chaotix” (Development: Sonic Crackers, the move to the 32X, the cast; Legacy: Iizuka on reviving the Chaotix for Sonic Heroes); Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy)
• Firsts: what this game introduced: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic
• Cheats & secrets: Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Hidden content (colour-test codes, sound test, Amy cameo); Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic
• Glitches, exploits and oddities: Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Bugs
• Videos & media: YouTube, Sonic the Hedgehog (official channel), video 3HSc3ASFoG8, published 17 July 2018 (checked with oEmbed, 5 Nov 2026); YouTube, Sonic the Hedgehog (official channel), video oiFgaatXuRc, published 16 July 2018 (checked with oEmbed, 5 Nov 2026)
• Trivia & facts: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro, Chaotix/Development (Sonic Crackers, the Tom Kalinske interview, prototypes, Ryo Kudou on Metal Sonic Kai; October 2025 copy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic; Sonic Retro attraction pages: Isolated Island, Botanic Base, Speed Slider, Amazing Arena, Techno Tower, Marina Madness, Newtrogic High Zone
• Legacy: Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy); Sonic Retro character pages: Espio the Chameleon, Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, Mighty the Armadillo, Heavy the Mechanic; Sega Retro, Chaotix (release dates, prices, magazine scores with scans); Wikipedia, “Knuckles’ Chaotix” (Development: Sonic Crackers, the move to the 32X, the cast; Legacy: Iizuka on reviving the Chaotix for Sonic Heroes)
• Sales & reviews: Sega Retro, Chaotix (release dates, prices, magazine scores with scans); Sonic Retro, Chaotix (titles, story from both manuals, gameplay, items, scoring, legacy)