Video Game / Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16-Bit

16 Bits. 3 Villains. One Hedgehog.

A Fan Remake of Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble for PC, Mac, and Android by Noah N. Copeland, who was part of the team that made Sonic Time Twisted, Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble 16-bit redesigns the Game Gear game to resemble the Genesis games, particularly Sonic 3 & Knuckles, of which the remake is set immediately after.

After returning the Master Emerald to Angel Island, Sonic and Tails ride off towards their next adventure. However, it soon begins storming, forcing Tails to land the Tornado on a nearby island where they find the wreckage of the Death Egg as well as the Final Weapon, which suddenly activates, repairs itself, and attacks the duo. Sonic and Tails turn Super and fight back, easily dispatching the robot and find Robotnik sulking about his defeat nearby. But before Sonic can deal the finishing blow, Robotnik activates the Final Weapon's arms to forcibly smash Sonic into the ground, forcing the Chaos Emeralds away from him. Robotnik manages to steal one, but the other 6 vanish before he can grab them. It's up to Sonic and Tails to get the Emerald back, as well as collect the others before it's too late! Along the way they're met with resistance from a mysterious sniper and… Knuckles?!

The game had a few demos at SAGE events before releasing on PC on August 2nd, 2022, with the Android version delayed for optimization before releasing alongside both the final PC update and a Mac version on May 26th, 2023. It can be downloaded here

Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble 16-bit contains examples of:

• Actually a Doombot: The Knuckles that confronts Sonic and Tails multiple times in their story is actually Metal Sonic shapeshifted into Knuckles after copying his data at the beginning of Knuckles's story.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Knuckles. In the original game, he was duped by Eggman (again) into setting up a few booby traps for Sonic, and then double crossed and imprisoned by the doctor offscreen once he was no longer needed. In the remake, he has his own playable campaign and is not duped by Eggman; instead, Metal Sonic is masquerading as him.
  • Fang. In the original, he was only faced in the Special Stages and even then in some fights, after defeating himself in the first Special Stages, his attacks would backfire on him. In the remake, however, he is the Act 1 boss fight in many of the zones and generally does more to hinder the player throughout the game, and the races against him in the Special Stages are not cakewalks.
  • Metal Sonic, heavily. In the original, he was only seen in Atomic Destroyer Act 3 in a ridiculously easy boss fight. Here, he's used way more, as he shapeshifts into Knuckles after copying his data and goes One-Winged Angel using Dark Emerald power for a Super Sonic-based final showdown.
• Adaptational Expansion: The fan game expands upon the 8-bit original in many ways:
  • It adds more to the original zones (expanding the level design and giving new themes and setpieces to the second acts) and adds four extra one-act zones: Zone Zero or Angel Island (depending on the character), Egg Zeppelin in-between Meta Junglira and Robotnik Winter, Final Trouble, and Purple Palace.
  • Sunset Park Act 3 in the original game was little more than a straight-line Auto-Scrolling Level where you do nothing but avoid Bombaberries. In the remake though, it has been expanded into a full zone with proper level design and new setpieces such as Fang coming in to attack you from the foreground and a sequence in which you run away from an explosion Fang creates.
  • The story is expanded, with it adding Robotnik trying to get the Chaos Emeralds this time to make Dark Emeralds from the Chaos Emeralds' negative energy and gives Metal Sonic a bigger role, with him shapeshifting into Knuckles to trick Sonic and Tails and uses the Dark Emerald power to transform.
• Adaptational Explanation: The original never made it clear what Atomic Destroyer was exactly, only that it was some kind of weapon responsible for creating Robotnik Winter Zone, but whether it was a Kill Sat or an Underwater Base located somewhere near Tidal Plant Zone was never made clear. In this remake, it's explicitly the former.
• Adaptational Heroism: Knuckles in the original game was an antagonist who fought Sonic and Tails because he was tricked by Eggman like in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In the remake, though, the Knuckles that Sonic and Tails fight is actually Metal Sonic in disguise, with the actual Knuckles never acting antagonistically towards them (at least, not in the story mode).
• Adapted Out: Power up jingles aside, the only music track from the original to not be included in the remake is the BGM for 2D Special Stages. While the level aesthetic from said stages was repurposed to become Purple Palace Zone (available in Competition Mode, also a secret Zone in Story Mode), its background music is completely new.
• All There in the Manual: More like "All There in the Comic", but the three-page comic depicts how Fang got hired to look for the Chaos Emeralds, and how Robotnik found out he could duplicate the Chaos Emeralds' negative energy. Downplayed with Knuckles, as the game expands more on him than the page.
• Another Side, Another Story: Beating the game as Sonic and Tails unlocks Knuckles for Story Mode. Unlike his story in Sonic 3 & Knuckles (which happened after Sonic and Tails' campaign), the trope is played straight, as the two stories do happen more or less concurrently, with Knuckles explicitly crossing Tidal Plant Act 2 right after Sonic and Tails do, and finishing his playable campaign in Atomic Destroyer Act 3 shortly before Sonic and Tails get there.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • An idea taken from the developer's previous work in Sonic Time Twisted is that players can choose to immediately retry Special Stages after a loss by spending lives.
  • During the Beam-O-War segment of Dark Metal Sonic, there will always be rings in the player's path to prevent them from dying and therefore averting an Unintentionally Unwinnable situation.
  • In an out-of-gameplay example, updating the game to a new version won't affect any save files, as they'll naturally transfer over to the newer version on their own.
• Anti-Villain: Fang. As despite him being a bit of trickster who hinders Sonic and Tails's progress, he's only collecting the Chaos Emeralds not for their power, but because they would fetch him a hefty profit. Though he does help alongside Knuckles to save Sonic and Tails later on.
• Arc Welding: Whereas the Game Gear game was originally a sequel to the 8-bit games, the remake is (accordingly enough) a sequel to the 16-bit games and picks up right where Sonic 3 & Knuckles left off. Because of this, it adds some new plot elements to link it to Sonic 3, such as how Eggman acquires the Chaos Emeralds and why Knuckles is attacking Sonic and Tails again after seemingly pulling a Heel–Face Turn before.
• Ascended Extra: Metal Sonic receives a much bigger role than his one boss fight in the original.
• Ascended Glitch:
  • In his quest for authenticity, Noah replicated the lag from Genesis games that happens when a character loses their rings. A lot of people think it's genuine slowdown.
  • The bug in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 where Big Arms could smash Sonic out of his Super form is used in a story sense when Robotnik controls the Final Weapon's arms to smash the Chaos Emeralds away from Sonic, forcing him out of Super form.
  • Once the shortcut allowing to bypass a part of Egg Zeppelin has been discovered (see "Good Bad Bugs" in the YMMV tab), instead of patching it out, the following updates made the transition less jarring by removing the falling Zeppelin in the background.
• Astral Finale: Atomic Destroyer Zone and the first phase of Final Trouble Zone take place in space.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: At the end of Great Turquoise Act 2, you fight the original game's Tart Turtle. After it takes enough hits, it flees, and you run into the remake's much bigger Tart Turtle right after.
• Beam-O-War: Once you get Dark Metal Sonic down to his last phase, he'll create a giant dark energy ball that must be pushed back 3 times to finish the fight.
• Berserk Button: For Fang, it's not giving him his money, as revealed in his Competition Campaign.
  Fang: No money? NO MERCY!
• Big Bad Ensemble: Like its original iteration, you fight three villains whose motivations are explained in the comics: Eggman, who wants to clone the Chaos Emeralds to have an unlimited source of energy, Fang, who's looking for the Chaos Emeralds because he's been promised a good fee (although the comic supposes he could be an Unwitting Pawn to Eggman), and Knuckles, who happens to have been duped by Metal Sonic and does his best to obstruct Sonic's progression. The triple part is then subverted when the Knuckles you fight in Sonic and Tails' campaign happens to be Metal Sonic in disguise, then it happens to be a double subversion when Metal creates and absorbs Dark Emeralds, revealing he had his own plan since the start of the game.
• Big Damn Heroes: Knuckles and Fang at the end, with them saving Sonic and Tails from Rocket Metal. Despite not being able to hold the robot back for long, it's long enough for Sonic to turn Super and kick off the events of Final Trouble.
• Bonus Stage:
  • Similar to Sonic Time Twisted, the Special Stages consist of racing Fang to the Chaos Emerald while keeping your ring count above 0. If you fail to get to the Emerald before Fang, fall into a pit, or run out of rings, you can try again at the cost of a life. Naturally, if you only have 1 life left, you can't restart the stage.
  • Like in Sonic & Knuckles, lamp posts can lead the player to one of three possible Bonus Stages, one of them providing a slot machine to win (or lose) rings, another giving a chance to refill on rings, lives, and a shield, and the last providing opportunities to gain extra lives.
• Boss-Only Level:
  • Tidal Plant Zone Act 3 is only an air fight against Metal Sonic below the rocket which goes to the Atomic Destroyer.
  • The same applies to Atomic Destroyer Zone Act 3, which only has the normal final fight against either Eggman with Sonic and Tails, or one final rematch against Fang with Knuckles, alongside Metal Sonic and Eggman together.
  • The only thing you do in Final Trouble Zone is fight Dark Metal Sonic, much like all of the other True Final Bosses in the series.
• Bragging Rights Reward: As in the original game, the final Chaos Emerald is stolen back from Eggman at the end of the story. This means the Super forms for Sonic and Tails can only be used on replays.
• Button Mashing: Used once in Final Trouble, with the player needed to mash to help Super Sonic push the Dark Emerald energy ball back at Mechasonic Type III.
• Call-Forward:
  • The idea of Eggman drawing from the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds comes from Sonic Adventure, where Chaos does the same.
  • The design of the Sea Fox is taken from Tails Adventure, as is the majority of Tidal Plant Act 2, which draws upon Lake Rocky.
  • Knuckles spends the entirety of Tidal Plant Act 2 swimming freely without ever needing to come up for air after equipping an Air Necklace, as seen in Sonic Adventure 2.
  • Knuckles digs underground, an ability he has in Sonic Adventure, and also makes use of his Drill Claw move from Sonic Adventure 2 in the boss fight with him in Robotnik Winter Zone.
  • Metal Sonic's ability to copy data, shapeshift into others, and use scraps of machinery to rebuild himself into larger robots brings up a plot point used in Sonic Heroes.
  • Metal Sonic's first form after transforming with the Dark Chaos Emeralds is Rocket Metal from Sonic the Fighters with the colour scheme of Metal Sonic 3.0 from Sonic Rivals.
• Chaos Architecture: In certain acts, Knuckles starts in different spots than the rest of the characters. While it is justified in Great Turquoise Act 1 and can be handwaved in Meta Junglira Act 1 and Robotnik Winter Act 1 by Knuckles getting off, respectively, the train and the zeppelin in different places, the trope is certainly in full effect in Sunset Park, where the seamless transition from Act 1 leads to a distinctly different place in Act 2 if the game is played as Knuckles.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: A three-page comic was released a few days before the game released, with each page centering on one of the three villains.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The game follows up on Sonic & Knuckles' original good ending as opposed to the best ending in Sonic 3 and Knuckles, meaning Hyper Sonic isn't acknowledged and the Super Emeralds are nowhere to be found.
• Dark Reprise: Part of the true final boss theme is a remix of Super Sonic's theme. Fitting considering that the final boss is Metal Sonic's own super form.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • With Sonic in his Sonic 3 & Knuckles incarnation, one might be tempted to try using the Insta-Shield attack, only to realize he doesn't have it in this game (unless you input 19, 94, 10, 18 on the Sound Test).
  • Since one of the buttons switches characters between Sonic & Tails, those used to speeding up a Spin Dash by mashing all buttons as fast as possible need to avoid this particular button.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sonic in the Competition Campaign.
  Sonic: (to Fang) No reward for ya, huh? Big surprise.
• Distressed Dude: At the end of his Story Mode, Knuckles is imprisoned by Eggman ambushing him with a cage unbreakable from the inside after Fang gets away, explaining how he got captured like in the original game. Fortunately, Sonic and Tails break him out not too long after.
• Dragon Their Feet: Right after Eggman's defeat, Metal Sonic takes his master's Dark Emerald, knocks out Sonic and Tails, makes seven Dark Emeralds, and uses the eight of them to become the True Final Boss of the game. The comic implies it was his plan since the start.
• Dub Name Change: Referenced by the game's options menu, letting players choose whether the jerboa side-villain is named "Nack" or "Fang".
• Elevator Action Sequence: Atomic Destroyer Act 2 features one of these near the end, forcing the player to not only dodge laser-firing Eggrobos, but a Dark Emerald-powered one that destroys part of the elevator, making things harder for the player.
• Evil Counterpart: The Dark Emeralds are duplicates of the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds. Metal Sonic himself is also an evil counterpart to Sonic, right down to also having a super form in the True Final Boss fight.
• Evil Versus Evil: Fang and Metal Sonic fight a few times in the Atomic Destroyer.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Every time Fang is defeated, he leaves with the Marvelous Queen already equipped with the weapon he'll use against the heroes in the next battle.
  • In a cutscene on Egg Zeppelin Zone, Sonic and Tails catch Robotnik making a Dark Emerald copy using the Chaos Emerald he stole, which he uses on them in Atomic Destroyer Act 2 and how Metal Sonic transforms, by making Dark Emerald copies.
  • In a meta-sense, Sonic & Tails can sometimes come across walls that look like they should be destructible, yet aren't, hinting at Knuckles's playable status before he is effectively unlocked.
  • One particular clue to Knuckles really being Metal Sonic in disguise is his boss theme. While it's a remix of Knuckles's theme from the Sonic 3 prototype and PC Collection, it contains some off-key but recognizable riffs from JP Bad Future Stardust Speedway, which is now strongly considered to be connected to Metal Sonic.
    • Another clue is in his boss fight in Sunset Park Act 1. When Knuckles dashes, he gives off a yellow aura when he usually gives off a red aura in other games. However, Metal Sonic usually gives off a yellow aura when dashing in other games…
    • Yet another hint that Knuckles is really still on your side is that when his face appears in the roulette Bonus Stages, it will have a positive effect (giving you rings), and when you run past the signpost and he appears on it, you will be awarded with an extra life.
    • Even the fact that Knuckles initially doesn't appear on the title screen, whereas he did in the original game, is an indicator that something isn't quite right. Indeed, when Knuckles' true role in the story is revealed by finishing Sonic and Tails' campaign, you can occasionally see him hiding in the title screen from that point on.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Before Knuckles throws a bomb at Sonic and Tails, Tails has a unique sprite of him waving hello to Knuckles.
  • The Egg Zeppelin is seen crashing in the background of Robotnik Winter Zone.
• Helpful Mook: There are two examples of these seen in the remake:
  • Snake badniks in Mecha Junglira Act 2 lift the tops of barrels up to serve as platforms, and mean no harm to any player that comes across them.
  • Seal badniks in both acts of Robotnik Winter are present to give the player a boost to higher levels of the stage, which are sometimes needed to progress.
• Hey, You!: Aside from when you unlock him and when he wins in Competition, Fang is never addressed by his name by nobody, mostly due to him having two names, Fang/Nack.
• Hopeless Bossfight: There are two examples of these closer to the end of the game, though each has its own meaning behind it.
  • At the end of Tidal Plant Act 2, the burrowing robot that appeared throughout the rest of the stage shows up, unable to be phased by any of the character's attacks or the Sea Fox's weapons, and closes in on them. However, conveniently-timed missiles from Knuckles's end halt it and send it tumbling off-screen, to make room for the real fight. This is subverted in Knuckles' story, where it can actually be fought and taken down.
  • Played more straight in the true ending, as Metal Sonic is too powerful to defeat, and will always grab Sonic and Tails to force the Chaos Emeralds out of them. Because this is scripted, there is nothing that can be done to best the robot in that state.
• Humongous Mecha: Metal Sonic using the power of Dark Chaos Emeralds and scrap metal. His design is based on the "Mechasonic Type III" concept art for the cancelled Sonic X-treme.
• Immediate Sequel: To Sonic and Tails's story from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Knuckles's story in that game happening at a later time also makes Triple Trouble 16-bit an Interquel.
• Indy Escape: Meta Junglira ends with one.
• Kaizo Trap: When you beat the second phase of Robotnik's boss fight at the start of Atomic Destroyer Act 3, he will drop more flames that will slide along the floor and hit you if you don't jump to avoid.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The launch trailer made no secret of playable Knuckles being Unlockable Content.
• Load-Bearing Boss: The destruction of Wood Buttarundorf in Meta Junglira Act 2 results in the ruins it inhabited collapsing with the heroes still inside.
• Luck-Based Mission: Competition Campaign mode can and will be a pain to clear because of Perfect Play A.I. and the various random elements of each challenge, such as the teleport item in the racing levels.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: The true ending begins with Metal Sonic stealing the Dark Emerald from Fang, before beating up Sonic to make Sonic drop the Chaos Emeralds so Metal can make more Dark Emeralds.
• Mirror Match:
  • Played straight in Competition mode, as the counterparts are holograms created by Robotnik.
  • Knuckles can come across himself during his story. While both Knuckles look identical, their movesets are quite distinct. Ditto for the other two unlockable characters, except they're only available in Free Play and don't have an in-story explanation for their own mirror matches.
• Musical Nod:
  • Each character has a different theme for when they win in Competition Mode: Sonic has the main theme of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Tails has the map theme from Tails Adventure, Knuckles has his theme from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Fang has his leitmotif from this game.
  • A Musical Spoiler nod: Metal Sonic's first boss theme features riffs not only from both the Japanese and American Bad Future Stardust Speedway themes from Sonic CD (the former being his de facto theme and the latter used for his Sonic Forces boss fight), but it begins with an additional riff from "Never Let It Go", the Death Egg's Eye theme from Sonic the Fighters. In two of the games mentioned, Metal Sonic served as the penultimate boss, and Fighters was the sole appearance of Rocket Metal, characterized here as Metal Sonic's super mode after absorbing the Dark Emeralds.
• Musical Spoiler: One clue to NPC Knuckles' true identity as Metal Sonic is that his theme contains a riff from Stardust Speedway, but inverted (it plays high notes where the original plays low notes, and vice versa).
• Mythology Gag:
  • The game's "cover" (so to speak, pictured at the top of this page) is a perfect copy of the game's original North American cover, but with characters drawn in the Japanese Sonic Team style (including using Eggman in place of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog-style Robotnik).
  • The game uses the original's English title, but the title screen's emblem features both Sonic and Tails, taken straight from the Japanese version's Sonic & Tails 2 release.
  • Tails has an Idle Animation in Zone Zero that activates after each lightning strike that has him cowering in fear, referencing the Sonic OVA where Tails was afraid of lightning.
  • Eggman dislodging the Emeralds from Super Sonic (knocking him and Tails unconscious in the process) in the intro with the Final Weapon's arms references the famous bug in standalone Sonic 3 where Big Arms could actually knock Sonic out of his super form with his grab-and-slam attack.
  • The victory poses for Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all look akin to those used in the Sonic X Leapster game.
  • The visual design for Meta Junglira Act 2 draws inspiration from the pitch for Treasure Tails, a scrapped spinoff adventure game by Sega Technical Institute starring Tails.
  • The method for accessing Purple Palace is largely similar to finding the Hidden Palace zone in the Sonic 2 remaster. Both involve falling down a pit that looks as fatal as any other drop in the game. This game's one is made only slightly easier by the game's relative lack of pits.
  • Dark Metal Sonic's final form is that of Mechasonic Type III, a scrapped design from Sonic X-treme.
  • How many Dark Emerald copies does Metal Sonic use to transform? Eight. And how many Chaos Emeralds are there for some reason in Sonic the Fighters?
  • In Fang's Competition Mode story, Sonic calls him a weasel, and Fang takes offense to it. In the English release of Triple Trouble, Fang was renamed "Nack the Weasel", even though Japanese materials gave his species as half-wolf, half-jerboa.
    • Fang also calls Sonic "Mr. Needlemouse", which was supposedly a development name for Sonic (it's actually a literal translation of "Mr. Harinezumi", which is Japanese for "Mr. Hedgehog").
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Fang and Metal Sonic do not have Main Story scenarios, but they can be unlocked for Free Play; the former also being playable in the short Competition story.
• Not Me This Time: Non-accused example. Knuckles is shown throughout the game, with the assumption he got tricked again. But in actuality, it was Metal Sonic disguised as Knuckles; with the real Knuckles chasing after him, and eventually ending up imprisoned in a cage after an ambush from Eggman.
• Only in It for the Money: Fang wants to collect the Chaos Emeralds to sell to the highest bidder in the main game, enters the Competition to claim a reward from Robotnik, and decides to steal the Master Emerald for money after the Competition ends.
• One-Winged Angel: In the true ending, Metal Sonic uses the Dark Chaos Emeralds to transform into his Rocket form from Sonic the Fighters and gathers scrap metal through the fight to evolve into a Humongous Mecha.
• Original Flavour: A fan game example. One of the main goals of the Fan Remake is to emulate and capture the style and feel of the original 16-bit Sonic titles (particularly Sonic 3 & Knuckles) as best as possible. Everything from the physics to the presentation to the soundtrack to even the color palettes are all deliberately designed in a way to make it feel and play like an authentic late Genesis Sonic title.
• Palette Swap: By inputting certain codes in the sound test, you can change Sonic’s palette to be red, as a shoutout to the YouTuber redhotsonic, or turn him into Asura.
• Production Foreshadowing: Inputting a specific code in the sound test reveals an image of Amy and her car◊ from Sonic Drift 2, with the message "Let's race soon!" Chronologically, Sonic Drift 2 was the next Game Gear Sonic game after Triple Trouble; moreover, Noah N. Copeland's next project would be a 16-bit Fan Remake of Sonic Drift, announced in December 2023. This is also a Mythology Gag to a similar image in Sonic the Hedgehog CD which featured a picture of Tails and a car, with the message "See you next game!"
• "Rashomon"-Style: While Knuckles's campaign adheres to Another Side, Another Story in most regards, he still takes Sonic & Tails's place in some events, facing and defeating a lot of the same bosses they do in their story. Both occur in a way in Egg Zeppelin Zone, in which Knuckles doesn't meet Robotnik like Sonic and Tails do, but still busts the Zeppelin's engine in their place.
• Relationship Reset Button: Non-romantic example with Knuckles seeing Sonic and Tails off during the intro (copying the ending cutscene from Sonic 3 & Knuckles), only to suddenly start antagonizing them again. Or so it seems, because the real Knuckles doesn't appear until the tail end of the game, and the "Knuckles" they keep running into is a glamoured Metal Sonic.
• Retraux: Comes with the territory, but the game specifically was meant to replicate not only the Sega Genesis style, but also some of its limitations:
  • Most music has been split from their percussion tracks so that the game could replicate the Genesis effect of "when the music starts fading out, drums immediately stop".
  • While the game offers a choice between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, the former is selected by default.
  • Objects in 3D Special Stages aren't dynamically scaled by the engine, they actually use different sprites while they get closer to the camera.
  • The game even emulates the slowdown seen in the Genesis games when losing a lot of Rings at once.
• The Reveal: Tidal Plant Zone Act 2 pulls a major one after you bust Knuckles's submarine: The Knuckles that harasses you through the game and fights you several times is not the real deal. It's Metal Sonic disguised as him.
• Rolling Attack: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles can roll into badniks and fly off ramps at high speeds as you'd expect. With Fang, on the other hand, this is Played for Laughs. He does have a functional roll, but it makes him tumble around in a panic.
• Secret Level: By falling down one of the pits in Robotnik Winter Zone, it leads to Purple Palace, based on the special stages of the original game.
• Shout-Out:
  • The game's opening sequence (with Sonic and Tails turning on a Genesis) is a homage to the Sega Channel startup sequence.
  • The turning crane gimmick in Sunset Park, the avalanche setpiece in Robotnik Winter Act 2, and the revolving tower at the end of Atomic Destroyer Act 1 are intended as references to special effects from Mickey Mania.
  • One of the Wood Buttarundorf's attack patterns involves moving from one hole in the wall to another, similar to the first mini-boss of Ristar.
  • The corridor before the elevator setpiece in Atomic Destroyer Act 2 features parallax effects taken straight out of Ranger X. This is only seen for a couple seconds for Scenery Porn's sake, without even anything coming out of the background like in the source game.
  • The elevator setpiece from Atomic Destroyer Act 2 is taken directly from Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, featuring a rapidly shrinking elevator with platforms you can briefly stand on, and enemies giving Sonic and Tails grief all the way up.
  • Final Trouble Zone is very stylistically similar to the fights with Nightmare's Power Orb in Kirby's Adventure and Dark Matter in Kirby's Dream Land 2: battling a flying opponent while descending from space to the surface. One of Dark Metal Sonic's attacks in this fight — a series of three shots fired sequentially up, down, and in the middle — is nearly identical to one of Nightmare's attacks. The battle also ends similarly to modern Kirby final bosses in that the player must repeatedly mash a button to overpower Dark Metal Sonic's final attack.
• Skippable Boss: The second half of Robotnik Winter Zone Act 2 and its boss can be skipped by finding the warp to Purple Palace Zone, which is made up of only one short act and has no boss fight.
• Speedrun Reward: The final update adds an optional "Speed Gate" feature. It enables one or two warps hidden behind walls in the act 2 of each zone. They shut down if the player takes too long to find them.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills:
  • Knuckles in Tidal Plant Act 2, after equipping an Air Necklace. In effect, it's a composite of both the aforementioned power-up item from Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic's Propeller Shoes — which let him swim for a while or until hit — from the original Triple Trouble.
  • Being a Killer Robot, Metal Sonic obviously doesn't breathe and doesn't even interact with regular air bubbles when underwater.
• The Teaser: Both campaigns feature short levels preceding Great Turquoise, the official first Zone: Zone Zero for Sonic and Tails, Angel Island for Knuckles.
• Temple of Doom: Early into Meta Junglira Act 2, Fang drops Sonic and Tails into a large temple filled with robotic snakes, arrow traps, and flipping platforms.
• Theme Naming: Averted with Zone names which, just like in the original game, never end with the word "Zone". In fact, the only Zone name to actually contain the word "Zone" ("Zone Zero") is only shown in Free Play mode, and the location doesn't use a title card.
• Timed Mission: Of course, this is the case for all of the levels with a 10-minute time limit, but in Egg Zeppelin, after destroying the airship's reactor, whoever you're playing as only has 40 seconds to escape before the whole thing explodes.
• Traintop Battle: Sunset Park Act 3 is upgraded into an even bigger version of this, with the player running on the tracks, then on the roof of the train and inside it all while avoiding Badniks and Fang taking potshots at them. The original boss still features at the end and goes out the same way.
• True Final Boss: Upon gathering all 7 Chaos Emeralds, Metal Sonic returns and is empowered by the Dark Emerald. He then easily wipes the floor with Sonic and Tails before using the Dark Emerald to create duplicates of the Chaos Emeralds and absorbing them all to become Dark Metal Sonic.
• Underwater Boss Battle: The Centipede Mecha, which is fought in place of Knuckles's submarine in Tidal Plant Act 2. Sonic and Tails fight it in the Sea Fox, while Knuckles swims and uses dashing punches against it.
• Unlockable Content: By beating the game with Sonic and Tails, the player unlocks Knuckles's story along with Knuckles in Free Play. If you beat Knuckles's story, you unlock Metal Sonic in Free Play. If you cleared Final Trouble, you unlock Fang in Free Play.
• Villain Protagonist: If you're playing as Fang in Competition Mode, he functions as this.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • While Fang's first fight is fairly easy and the original Tart Turtle is thought as a joke, the bigger Tart Turtle is the first challenging boss fight as you have to hit its head while avoiding its projectiles (although you can destroy its weapons, making the fight way easier).
    • If Tart Turtle was easy for you, Knuckles won't be as he combines his playable moveset and two special attacks, a ground punch which shakes the earth and creates a shockwave, and a grab attack where he takes Sonic or Tails and throws him on the ground, stripping the duo from their rings if you don't have the good timing to dodge.
  • The first three special stages can be done at first try for a newcomer, as traps are easy to avoid and you have lightning bolts for Fang at the perfect time (even if the third starts to spice things up, it's still visible enough to be done in one try), but the fourth stage is when things start to get serious: the black background makes dark grey mines harder to see, and the red carpets which slow you down are the same colors as springs, which means that you can be tempted to jump above them and be stuck between mines, stripping you from your rings and/or letting enough time for Fang to catch up and reach the Emerald.
• Walking Spoiler:
  • Knuckles in this game certainly qualifies. At least, the one that's not playable.
  • It's also hard to talk about Metal Sonic's role (outside of his boss battle in Atomic Destroyer Act 1 at least), due to it being greatly expanded from the original game.
• Warm-Up Boss:
  • The Final Weapon is fought in the prologue while both Sonic and Tails are empowered by the Chaos Emeralds, so it's very unlikely for any player to lose while checking out the controls.
  • Metal Sonic is the initial opponent in Knuckles's own prologue and he has a pretty simple attack pattern.
• A Winner Is You:
  • Oddly enough, the true ending is just a stock artwork of Super Sonic from Sonic 2 flying towards the screen. The final content update expands on this and provides a more complete ending cutscene.
  • The ending of Knuckles' story can feel like this as well. After a Sequential Boss with Fang's vehicle modes (expanded to a full-blown Boss Rush against all three of the game's major antagonists in the final update), Robotnik and Metal Sonic trap Knuckles in the cage he was in at the end of Sonic and Tails' story, then it shows a very abridged version of Knuckles getting freed from the cage, then credits.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Metal Sonic takes Knuckles' appearance so he can defeat Sonic and Tails, steal the Emeralds, then copy and absorb them to increase his power. When they manage to defeat him thrice with Knuckles' powers and twice in his normal appearance, he lets them go and defeat Eggman so he can take the Emeralds when they let their guard down.

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