Every Version of Metal Knuckles

a while back I put together a video talking about one of my all-time favorite robots in the world of Sonic the Hedgehog the robotic double of one certain Akida Metal Knuckles at the time there was not much publicly available to the fans for us to observe and appreciate he was playable sure but only in a janky racing game for the Sega Saturn and the low poly character model and the blurry portrait left a little too much to the imagination what a prude sure he showed back up in Archie many years later but clearly they were using that low poly model to base that design off of I just wanted to see the original intended design for this thing and as such I declared this robot to be one of the most underutilized characters in a series with way too many underutilized characters but after all this time I'm very very happy to report that my dramatic declaration has aged miserably not only has Sonic R gotten a lot of lovely references over the years but the robot Akida himself has returned a couple of times in pretty significant ways so we're going to do a very quick update to celebrate not only the return of Metal Knuckles but also his mea brother and we'll talk about what this could mean going forward and we're going to dig a little deeper into every other robot Aida in the Sonic franchise and the first one appeared way sooner than even Knuckles himself before we get into it need a shout out today's sponsor mantis sleep man asleep makes well sleep masks the best in the world they're made with soft breathable material that managed to to give you 100% blackout and they have extremely adjustable comfortable headbands that give you the perfect fit and they do all of this without putting any pressure on your eyelids but that's only the Baseline expectations everybody sleeps a little bit differently and may need more specific requirements to get the rest you need but thankfully they got plenty of types of masks they have the cool masks that evenly distributes a cooler 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your order at checkout thank you again to Mana sleep and let's get on with the video long before there was a mecha Knuckles Metal Knuckles or even a knuckles in the wonderfully weird Sonic manga where we would find a surprising amount of Origins for other characters and ideas for the franchise we also come across a mechanical Akida for Sonic to face off against like a lot of bad Nicks this particular robot resembles the real world animal more than Knuckles ever would unlike the animal powered Bots this one is piloted by Eggman himself designed specifically to match Sonic's spinball abilities Sonic of course eventually gets the upper hand and wins but it's kind of cool to see them play with the Akida species as an interesting rival to Sonic's abilities honestly surprised they didn't go with a porcupine I'm still surprised that's not a thing outside of Archie but that's not the only Akida that existed in Sonic media prior to the introduction of Knuckles we also have Eric now I know this is about robotic kidas and I've had some people say that this is a robotic kidna but after skimming The Source material myself it sounds like Eric is just a clone still I'll briefly mention him here because I did just spend a couple hours reading through a boring British Sonic novel and really I don't know where else I'd talk about this and being a novel unfortunately no official art of this guy exists so instead I'll be showing off some clever interpretations done by fans and also this novel called Eric the Akida and the turtle family which has nothing to do with Sonic but it's got Turtles and I think it's adorable in the book Sonic and the fourth dimension Robotnik is sending robots through time to cause problems so of course sonic tals hop into one of his time machines to stop his Antics only to come out into an alternate reality Green Hill Zone is looking a lot more like brown Hill Zone and in a cave there is where we meet Eric and a kidna who looks an awful lot like Sonic except this guy has darker quills along thin muzzle and a tongue that whips out every now and then clearly meant to be the Sonic equivalent of this world but it all turns out to be a front as Eric kicks Sonic into a grave void that knocks the Hedgehog out of time and into the fourth dimension this is where we learn that Eric is a creation of Robotnik as the akina reports his success to the Mad Doctor and that's it he just disappears from the book the rest of the narrative is more about this convoluted time travel mess with so much more ridiculous lore and rules and it's a whole thing Doctor Who has ruined that entire country Eric is in this story for about a page and a half if that and while he was created by robonic he is not a robot as some fans claim or as the Sonic Phantom wiki page claims anyway unless I misread this book it looks like robotic also started cooking up clones Eric is long gone by this point but since he has no outwardly robotic features about him yeah he's probably just a clone now if it's a clone of another kidna I don't know the book is a mess and I don't even think this is a robot so let's just move on and actually get to Knuckles robots now before we get back to Metal Knuckles let's take a little closer look at other variants we have briefly discussed last time starting with metallics from Sonic the comic I haven't discussed metallics in a great deal on this channel so if you're unfamiliar this was just the name of all metal Sonics and their variance in the Fleetway Cannon and there wasn't just one Metal Sonic either there was a whole slew of them and interestingly enough in Issue 7 2 we will learn that they weren't designed by Robotnik in this continuity but rather his assistant grimer a character exclusive to Fleetway I am doing this story a massive disservice but it is based off more Doctor Who crap but the long and short of it the metallic spots went rogue formed a posi and caused all kinds of problems because of this grimer concluded that designing a robot based on Sonic would always be too unstable so he instead made a metallics based off of Knuckles but while all of this was teased in issue 72 it wouldn't be until issue 106 in the Sonic Blast adaptation where things would kick back up Sonic is confronting Robotnik in his flicky fuel badnik when suddenly the giant ring from the game activates and this wild Jack Kirby looking New Gods son of a gun pops on out calling himself the prosecutor repping the draon Empire who had left the giant ring known as the Mobius ring thousands of years ago when Mobius was still primitive just to see if the life forms would ever evolve enough to use the Mobius ring and if they ever did they would be seen as a threat to the dracon Empire Sonic says that most of the inhabitants of mobus are cool but snitches on Robotnik for being a dictator and all that and the prosecutor hauls Robotnik off to be interrogated but if you beat Sonic 3D Blast you already knew all that arot doesn't show up in this issue but it does help set up for the evil empire story that kicks off an issue 108 turns out the draon Empire and Robotnik got a lot in common and they send the doctor back to Mobius with a slew of new badniks to cause problems including the knuckles metallics a variant that isn't as rebellious as the Hedgehog version the robot makes quick work of Sonic and takes him through the Mobius ring so he can answer for crimes against the dracon empire that crime apparently is destroying one of their Sentinels that were left behind on Mobius but even when Sonic tries to explain that this Sentinel crumbled on its own they just call him a liar and lock him up and hey turns out these guys are responsible for the ruins an aquatic ruin Zone in Sonic 2 but goes hard with its World building anyway Sonic is taken to trial for his crimes now unfortunately we don't get a British Sonic version of Phoenix wri but we do get a trial by combat against the metallic Knuckles the two take up deadly dracon weapons which are um barn door latches I guess and begin their battle Sonic does get a few good licks in but metallix rocks his blue spines for another few issues and is only taken out by taals coming into the rescue and shut in the door on the robot All Star Wars style man these medals just don't take well the doors I swear but that's not the last we see of this robot the comic does tease multiples of this particular bad neck in issue 116 but as far as I can tell they don't actually do anything with that plot and it once again takes center stage in issue 139 kicking off the story by Wrecking up Metropolis City demanding its citizens deliver Sonic the Hedgehog but of course Sonic arrives on his own accord before the end of the first page and once again the metallics handily knocks out Sonic the bot then takes Sonic back to Grier's base so he can scan Sonic's brain to figure out what happened to Robotnik who had gone missing at this point in the story grimer then has metallics bring Sonic back to Metropolis City with no memory of the fight having staged everything so the Hedgehog would never realize grimer was hunting for Robotnik it's a convoluted scenario but I mean it worked they could have just killed Sonic right then and there but n whatever but yeah that's it for the metallics knuckles it's rarely used and it never once battles the real Knuckles but it kicks the crap out of Sonic every single time the two faced off I'm not a big fan of this look it's pretty obvious that this didn't have the same design sensibilities as the other metallic spots which are obviously just metal and mechas Sonic designs that they pulled from the games but still this is one tough robot and he's the first proper Knuckles robot to appear in any part of the franchise but he's not the only robot to beat Metal Knuckles to the punch get you get it punch is it I'm funny after metallics but still before the launch of Sonic R we got Archie's take on Mecha Knuckles we have discussed this robot a couple times already detailing his famous fight with Mecha Sonic and looking over the design so let's not eat up too much more time to talk about it but once again I'm not a huge fan of this look honestly outside of Metal Knuckles I'm just not really impressed with any of these Knuckles robots but I do have a bit of nostalgia for this one and while the armor is a bit over the top you can still tell that spaz had a lot of fun going crazy crazy with this look so yeah despite my better judgment this robot still holds a lot of sentimental value for me like metallics Mecca holds more value in terms of what he does in stories Mecha Madness was a big deal for Archie Sonic fans back in the day and while it's far from perfect the art was gorgeous and the concept is awesome and it was kind of cool to see Knuckles take up the role of hero to take on a Sonic gone Rogue it was nice to see that the whole world didn't completely revolve around the Hedgehog he had proper Rivals that could take him on it's not the greatest story especially when compared to what Sonic comic storytelling evolved into but it was exactly right for its target audience I read this as a kid and thought this was just the coolest thing as I said before in other videos I think this story was great for what it was and I still think it's pretty special today if you want me to ramble on it a bit more I did Cover the book itself in another video and I did talk about meca Knuckles before in the previous Metal Knuckles video but as important as this story and Knuckles himself was to Archie comic cannon that's about the only time Mecha Knuckles played a prominent role in the series we would get another quick glimpse of Mecha knuckles for a panel in a later story and I'm sure there are flashbacks to this one specific fight floating around there somewhere but that's all there really is to say about this particular design of Mecha Knuckles we would get another roboticized Knuckles though but this time with a dose of Mega Man design mixed in with the world's collide crossover and the introduction of the roboticized Masters which of course included nothing Knuckles man I do love the concept more than I actually like the designs but that said Knuckles man might be my favorite of the bunch he proves to be a headache for the likes of protoman and of course Sonic and Mega Man later on eventually he's turned back to normal and it gives the blue bomber the spike knuckle PowerUp now that is the last time we got a roboticized Knuckles but we do also get a zomot version of the character at the tail end of the metal virus Saga which of course is based off that unlockable skin in Sonic Hero so there I finally mention those stupid skins you guys can stop pestering me about them in the comments but let's get back to Mecha Knuckles before we stray too far away yes the Archie version is over and done with but of course we would finally get one in the main game cannon in Sonic Advance and like I said in that other video I'm really not a big fan of the design simply because it's a basic Knuckles template except with some metal bits but that is for a reason this is supposed to emulate the actual knuckles as we see in the first round of its boss fight looking exactly like the akid just a little off color it's only revealed to be a robot in the second and much more challenging portion of the battle where he begins to puke missiles that are far bigger than his entire body and I already made all the gross jokes I can make about that particular ability so let's move right along if it wasn't already clear enough at this point that the Mecha line was originally just a loving nod to Mecha Godzilla this one pretty much seals the deal Mecha Godzilla originally disguised itself as the real deal Godzilla before being revealed to be a robot just like our mechanical Aid here and the design does give off that corny old school Japanese robot Vibe I know I blasted it a bit in the past but truth be told I was absolutely hyped to come across this robot the first time I rolled through Angel Island Zone and it's a great way to show off the concept of robot clones to first time Sonic fans you got to remember this battle takes place in Sonic Advance which was meant to serve as an introduction to the traditional sidescrolling Sonic gameplay to The Wider gaming audience once Sega stopped making their own consoles this was basically a sampler showcasing iconography from the original trilogy Angel Island Zone and fight obviously is a call back to Sky Sanctuary the Mecha Sonic battle and of course the fight against Knuckles himself no it's not as iconic as that first time through and the level layout of the preceding level certainly doesn't compare to Sky Sanctuary but hey it's nice to have a Knuckles fight that isn't a complete joke and they manag to revisit these Concepts without being painfully redundant and just slapping the exact same content in a new game my point is mecha knuckles deserves a little more respect than I originally gave him but thankfully others saw his potential those others would go on to work for IDW and create scrap Nick Island shout out to all those amazing folks yet again I love this story yes to my great surprise Mecca Knuckles would reappear this time with a little bit of a haircut and also sporting the OVA hat everyone freaks out about every time it shows back up even though it reappears almost as often as Green Hill Zone but hey you crazy kids love what you want to love I've never been a big fan of it but I got to admit this bot is rocking that hat pretty hard also supporting some makeshift arms which looks to consist of those scorpion badnik tailes from Sonic and Knuckles and even has shovel claws once sported by Knuckles himself in scrap Nick we actually get to learn a little bit more about the robot itself it seems Eggman programmed it to protect the Master Emerald from Intruders but programmed it a bit too well as the bots on scrapn have been unable to undo Mecha knuckle's core programming leading the angry bot to attack not only Sonic but also Mecha Sonic and sigma triggering some memories in the Mecha Hedgehog and well of the two meccas that have ran around on Angel Island it became pretty clear pretty quickly that the robotic Hedgehog was the superior robot sorry MK still the bot is salvaged and repaired with its core programming rerouted to protect the grounded a carrier instead and well I guess making it a little bit more friendly it's not quite as much screen time or well page time as some fans were expecting but thanks to scrap niik Island we know that Mecha Knuckles is still around and living its own life beyond that single boss fight all the way back on the Game Boy Advance that's pretty neat of course that's not the only Knuckles bot to get a Revival but before we get into the main event let's pay the respects to the two other robots we probably won't ever see again and that's the two automatons based on the infamous Sonic Boom version of Knuckles we have cyborg Knuckles who we have seen in a couple episodes and it got a funny moment here or there in that soccer episode but that's about it and we also have the knuckles bot racer from Sonic Boom Fire and Ice normally don't like any of these designs but that bulky tank-like look actually works for this representation of the a kidna and while I'm thinking about it we did get another robot knuckles in animated form thanks to Sonic Prime season 3 probably be the only time we see this one and I think Grim Knuckles is going to be the very first of any Knuckles spot to get an actual toy unless you count that weird Lego Knuckles Mech that recently released it's a weird idea but Knuckles piloting some Machinery is nothing new for the Sonic series and while I'm not a Lego guy I got to appreciate this ridiculous idea if I ever found this for a decent price I would buy it and then never build it because I don't like Legos sorry again not even sure I'd count that as a robot but I'm covering all my bases today but let's get on with the main event as I keep discovering with these robot videos there are far more variants than I ever realized but as much as I love all the variety I think it's pretty clear that Metal Knuckles Remains the best design out of the entire Bunch now that was a little more challenging to say for a very long time considering all we had to go off of was a blurry portrait and a low poly model from the Sega Saturn game and while I was super hyped to see the bot show up in Archie like I said at the top of this video that design was clearly based off that low poly model and well I don't blame the artists they had very little work off of but not super impressed but then we got that lovely Sonic R anniversary piece from Richard Elson and the release of the IDW 30th Anniversary comic and I will spare you all because you know I went off for a while about this design but once again I got to say I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to see this robot not only return but finally getting a good idea at what his intended design was always supposed to be there are elements that don't quite match with what I had made up in my head but this is still my personal favorite design by a country mile and man it was great to see this bot duke it out with the real deal Knuckles and that would have been more than enough but we did also get the Sonic Minecraft pack which of course gave us a metal knuckle skin and last but not least Sonic Superstars gave us yet another 3D model but not low poly this time thankfully looking clean as hell and I just realized that Metal Knuckles is playable in all three of his game appearances that's pretty awesome also love seeing the robot go head-to-head with metal Sonic on the main menu and if you are so inclined you can make Knuckles fight against this thing in that cyberstation boss fight but it doesn't end there as it comes back around because we finally had it confirmed that the concept art released alongside Sonic Superstars is actually the original art used for Sonic R back in the day at least that's what IDW artist Aaron hammerstrom has told us on Twitter and if you compare that art to the original profile picture of Sonic R it matches up perfectly this is it this is the original piece of art they used for Sonic R it's crazy to see the original piece after all of this time what an incredible journey it has been since we first discussed this robot look how much more has come out since then not just in terms of new content and new games but also what has been une earthed we got a piece of History finally revealed to us this is one of my all-time favorite characters from the Sonic series and I cannot believe the amount of Love he's gotten in recent years and yes of course I'm greedy I would love to see more I'd love a proper action figure I love a mecha Knuckles versus Metal Knuckles fight maybe Mecha Knuckles Mark 1 versus Mecha Sonic Mark 1 heck I'd love to see a mecha Knuckles Mark 2 I'm actually going to draw one of those up Sonic artist if you'd love to play with that idea as well I'd love to show it off in a video in the future I I love these robots and I will always want more but man this is so much more than I ever expected to see the very first scent I ever got of this robot even existed was a blurry little silhouette in Sonic R and after all these years that one image has finally fully been revealed to us and I mean what more can a fan ask for and that my friends covers pretty much every single Knuckles robot I could find of course there's also brass knuckles that was at the end of one that the Arie Comics yeah I know some of you thinking that I was going to get caught off guard with that one nah let's see how many edited comments are going to be showing up in this video I got you before we go I have to thank the amazing people who helped support the channel That includes Kyle winter cus the skeptic Joseph Duncan Sonic 2 blue 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Channel: Game Apologist

Views: 56,868

Keywords: knuckles, knuckles the echidna, mecha knuckles, metal knuckles, knuckles 2024, angel island, archie sonic, sonic vs knuckles, sonic the hedgehog, lego sonic, lego knuckles, knuckles mech, brass knuckles, sonic manga, eric the echidna, blue knuckles, no problinski, sonic r, sonic superstars, fleetway sonic, idw sonic, zombot, metal virus, sonic heroes, sonic movie, knuckles show, scrapnik island, android april, knuckles robot, metallix, eggman, robotnik, sonic advance, gba

Id: WcGwnotd2ug

Length: 23min 2sec (1382 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024