By 1994, a successful series of 8-Bit Sonic games had been developed by Aspect Co. Ltd for SEGA. After the reasonable success of Sonic Chaos / Sonic & Tails, a sequel was produced. Sonic Triple Trouble (TT) (also known as Sonic & Tails 2 and less formally known as Chaos 2) was released on the Game Gear (GG) only. Presumably there was no port to the Master System because the market (which was largest in Europe) was underway with its transition from 16-Bit to 32-Bit leaving 8-Bit behind but presumably SEGA wanted to keep their only handheld console alive.
Sonic & Knuckles and its extra benefits (connecting to Sonic 3 chiefly) was SEGA's big Sonic title at the time and the last traditional Sonic 2D game.
TT introduced a new character, Knack The Weasel who could be seen in later games and the first time for Knuckles on the GG.
European Case (Click for larger)
Story
Dr. Robotnik (Robotnik) actually achieves his goal of obtaining all of the Chaos Emeralds. Having constructed a mega destructive weapon, one of his robot workers goes beserk and causes an explosion. The result is the scattering of the Chaos Emeralds around the planet - all except one - which Robotnik still has but he wants them all back.
Knuckles learns of this scattering and leaves Floating Island (Angel Island) to reclaim them. He's trusting nobody, not even Sonic and Tails whom are already on the case to stop Robotnik.
Nack The Weasel on the other hand only sees and opportunity for profit not knowing the awesome power contained within them.
Gameplay
TT is a traditional Sonic 2D platformer so gameplay remains mostly unchanged but there are a few tweaks to this as seen frequently in the 8-Bit games. Examples are, The Sea Fox Submarine, Snowboarding and riding in air bubbles. A tweak to the classic formula is differences in the amount of rings being lost when hit. Spike damage causes Sonic or Tails to lose 50 whereas 30 are lost for most other types of damage such as touching an enemy or hit by a projectile.
Not only that but the gameplay has been designed with the GG’s screen size in mind which makes for more comfortable play. Less frustration but the game has frustrating bits anyway.
Sonic and Tails are both playable characters, both of whom are sporting a different look from the original Sonic Chaos / Sonic & Tails. Essentially, Sonic has the speed and Tails has the flight.
In addition, the zones are much larger and variable: some easier with Sonic and some easier with Tails but all still loaded with the essential rings with the usual traps and Robotnik’s drones to contend with.
There are a few more options from the title screen accessible by pressing UP and DOWN before pressing START. They are Time Attack where a character blasts through the first act and a Sound Test mode. The Japanese version has 3D Stage as an option where Sonic or Tails fly the tornado to reach a quota of rings whilst avoiding mines. This is one of the games Special Stages.
On Screen
As ever, critical stats are on screen. In the top-left is: number of rings carried, elapsed time and number of lives remaining.
Controls
Controls remain pretty much unchanged. The D-Pad is used for movement and buttons for JUMP.
Both Sonic and Tails can perform the Spin-Dash done by holding DOWN on the D-Pad and revving with buttons. Interestingly (possibly uniquely) TT is the only game where the Spin-Dash is needed mid-air to break through certain barriers.
By pressing holding UP on the D-Pad and pressing the buttons, Sonic can perform the Peel-Out and Tails can fly. Continue pressing for altitude. Beware that characters are vulnerable whilst doing these moves.
Sonic and Tails can both go into a roll in mid-air by pressing a button. Something required in some boss fights.
Sonic can still bounce and run across the surface of water with enough speed.
100 rings earns Sonic or Tails and extra life.
There are the usual Special Items to be found and two new ones excusive to each character. They are:
Ring Monitor – 10 Rings.
Stars Monitor – Invincibility. Sonic/Tails is invincible for a brief period of time. They can still be killed by falling off the screen and drowning.
Shoes Monitor – Temporary increase in speed. Lost if a hit is taken.
Pogo Spring Monitor – Allows Sonic or Tails to jump much larger heights and distances. Taking a hit will lose this.
Rocket Shoes Monitor – Sonic only item. Allows Sonic to reach great heights and blast through the air for a short amount of time. There will be plenty of extra rings to find whilst doing this. Beware that taking a hit will make Sonic loose them and plummet. When playing as Tails these monitors are replaced with a Propeller Monitor or a Ring Monitor.
Propeller Monitor – Sonic Only - Allows Sonic to swim much faster for a short period of time.
Tails Speed Monitor – Tails Only - Hyper Flight. Allows Tails to zip through the air much faster speed. Lasts for a very short period of time.
Arrow Monitor – Activates a restart point. If Sonic or Tails should die, the act is resumed from this point.
Sonic/Tails Monitor – Extra life.
Chaos Emerald Monitor – Access to the Special Stages. See below.
The end of an act has the familiar Bonus Panel possibly granting rewards. They are:
Flicky – Nothing.
Ring – 10 Rings.
Sonic – If playing as Sonic rewards an Extra Life. If playing as Tails rewards 10,000.
Tails – If playing as Tails rewards an Extra Life. If playing as Sonic rewards 10,000.
Knuckles – A continue credit.
Chaos Emerald – Begin the next act with 50 rings.
If the panel shows nothing (backside) it must be run at again to make it spin.
Score is then updated with ring and time bonuses. Every 100 rings earns a continue credit (3 lives) and each ring is worth 100 points each.
There are three acts in a zone with acts 1 and 2 being full sized whereas act 3 is a prelude before a boss fight with one of Robotnik’s larger robots but TT. There will be some rings to collect making boss fights a tad easier.
The game stats are taken off the screen during the fight presumable for better visibility.
Special Stages
There are 6 Chaos Emeralds with 5 of them to be collected in the Special Stages.
To enter, a Red Chaos Emerald Monitor in acts 1 and 2 must be found and 50 rings in possession. There will be one in each act. These are hard to complete (in comparison to Special Stages in previous games) and there are two versions.
Special Stages 1,3 and 5 are a short course filled with various obstacles. There is an initial time limit of 1:30 but this can be extended with the destruction of Time Monitors. The black spring machines can be destroyed from above. There are plenty of rings to collect and an extra life.
At the end of a Special Stage Nack awaits. He will jump on a button which will blow up in his face and he runs away. He must be chased to get the prize of a Chaos Emerald.
Special Stages 2 and 4 are a flight in Tails' plane where a quota of rings must be found in a specified amount of time. Hindering this will be bombs that will lose rings.
At the end, Nack in his ion-powered skyship must be fought and after a few hits chased to retrieve the Chaos Emerald.
Then it is back to the act but beware this will be with zero rings.
The final Chaos Emerald is obtained after defeating Robotnik for the final time.
The Zones | Screenshots
Great Turquoise
Sunset Park
Meta Junglira
Robotnik Winter
Tidal Plant
Atomic Destroyer
Special Stages
Cheats and Tips
Level Select
Power on the GG holding UP on the D-Pad. Continue holding during the opening intro. The instant Knuckles collects the 3rd Chaos Emerald press START. A ring sound should play. The level select screen will appear after selecting a character.
A tip for doing this is timing the sound on Knuckles' jumps.
Lots of Rings
In Sunet Park Act 2, shortly after the cart ride, whilst preceeding upwards and right, drop below the first exploding bridge (beware taking damage) to a plentiful stash of rings.
Hyper-Heli Tails In 1-1
At the start of the act use the spring (red) in the taller palm tree directly above the first Badnik. Bounce a head left and while moving make Tails fly by pressing UP and JUMP. Keep heading legt to arrive on a platform with a Hyper Heli-Tails Monitor. There are some invisible platforms which may help.
Impressions
Overall this is another great 8-Bit Sonic game if possibly the toughest compared to Sonic 2. A more of a challenge when trying to get all the Chaos Emeralds.
Like its predecessor it crams in as much 16-Bit class gameplay but the platform is just not really up to it but does a better job than the previous game.
Thankfully it does not change the traditional Sonic gameplay and the additions make for some variations and keeps it still feeling fresh.
Graphics are excellent quality with a good use of colour creating the vibrant Sonic theme we all know and love and (possibly at a stretch) can be likened to that of Sonic CD. However, like all Sonic games on the GG the screen size makes for a challenging game.
Sounds and music are to their usual standard. Its suitable and pleasant but nothing stunning to mention or heavily imported from previous games.
It is unfortunate that it was not ported to the Master System and pretty obvious this was a business decision perhaps to keep SEGA's only handheld alive. It's good that the smaller screen was taken into account during the design of the game.
In summary, a great send-off title with challenge and replayability and a superb use of SEGA’s 8-Bit hardware.
Emulator Compatibility
This game runs perfectly with KEGA Fusion, DEGA and MEKA emulators. These can be downloaded from the SEGA Master System and Game Gear Emulators page.
Misc Info
- The moments where Knuckles appears to thwart Sonic or Tails is similar to that of Sonic The Hedgehog 3.
- The music for Sunset Park Act 3 is actually an unused track from Sonic Chaos except with a lower pitch. It was tune 09bh.
- The Japanese version has a minor difference. The title screen along with the title itself.
- The "3D Stage" option has been removed although still shown in the games manual.
- In this game Sonic gets to fight with Metal Sonic. He was only able to race him in Sonic CD.
- In Tidal Planet, Tails can use the Sea Fox Submarine and this would be used later as a transformation of the Remote Robot in Tails' Adventure.
- In August 1995, a 48-page comic titled and loosely based on Sonic Triple Trouble was released. Its cover can be seen in Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus in Extras, Comic, Other Series, Slide 12 of 15.
- Knack the Weasel was also in Sonic The Fighters / Sonic Championship but was renamed to Fang the Sniper.
- In Europe, the game was one of the last 8-Bit releases and is somewhat rare. It fetches £30+ on Ebay.
- It has been included in Sonic Adventure DX (Gamecube, PC).
- It has been included in Sonic Gems Collection (Gamecube, PS2)
- It is available on 3DS in the eShop.
- The was included in the Coleco Sonic device.
- There is an unofficial somewhat buggy port made for the Master System. It is playable with an emulator.
- Aspect Co. Ltd also produced Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic Chaos / Sonic & Tails, Sonic Blast and Tails’ Adventure.
