Knock Knock...
Knuckles trailer
We open on a close up of AiAi's face looking nervous. Behind him is a beautiful blue sky. We do a dramatic pan out shot to reveal he is standing upon the ramp of
Monkey Target. Cut back to a mid shot of AiAi concerned until he shakes his head and forcibly pumps himself up for the mini game.
Suddenly Sonic, Tails, Kiryu and Beat appear alongside him all in their own Monkey Balls (reference to Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania). Sonic gives a thumbs up to AiAi before throwing himself off the ramp, with Tails, Beat and Kiryu following shortly afterwards. AiAi surprised quickly throws himself onto the ramp to catch up to the others. We see a below shot of all five Monkey Balls zipping off of the ramp, a short pause and then a smaller red blur follows suit.
Cut to an aerial shot where the Sega crew all open their Monkey Balls, only for Beat to start sinking immediately, splashing down in the water. He shrugs and begins to dance inside the sinking Monkey Ball.
AiAi carries on attempting to catch up to Sonic who smiles confidentially as he is currently in the lead when he starts to drop. Mild panic begins to set in for Sonic as he slowly falls into the ocean below before he sinks, hand outstretched as he goes under, unable to swim. Tails abandons his Monkey Ball to save Sonic, grabbing him and yanking him from out the ocean.
AiAi now only has Kiryu as competition. AiAi looks on determined to catch up just as a red blur glides clean past him, causing him to be surprised and steer off course. Kiryu releases his Monkey Ball dropping towards the target's bullseye.
Just as he's about to land there though, that same red blur blasts into the targets bullseye, forcing Kiryu to dodge back to avoid being struck. He slowly walks across the target to see a crater in the middle.
Peering into the sudden hole, he is surprised at as a sudden uppercut knocks him into the air.
Knuckles leaps out of the ground triumphantly with his fist raised high holding a shard of Master Emerald. He begins to walking away unaware of what just happened.
As Kiryu lands back on the target with a loud crash, Knuckles stops. Kiryu slowly stands up, absolutely covered in Heat as he makes his way to the Echidna. Knuckles punches his fists together, sensing the aggression from Kiryu.
We cut to gameplay of Knuckles facing off with Kiryu on Monkey Target, still with his Heat meter maxed. We see Kiryu perform his beast charge and witness Knuckles unique dodge animation, pushing Kiryu aside from him and following up with his powerful basic jab combo.
We see Sonic and Tails appear on stage and Knuckles showcases his unique Knuckles Chaotix Ring grab by throwing the ring to Tails, who is grabbed by it. Knuckles begins the wind up, knocking Tails into Sonic knocking him away (subtly referencing the trio's team attack from Sonic Heroes). We then see some of Knuckles other moves showcased:
- Knuckles winds up a punch and is hit by a fireball from Arle, before returning the favour to the mage with the Volcanic Dunk, fireballs spewing from the ground as he does so.
- We see gameplay of Knuckles performing Dig, tunneling into the ground and leaping out to perform a powerful uppercut, alongside Axel Stone who performs his Grand Upper back to back with him.
- We see gameplay footage of Knuckles chasing Dr. Eggman down on Mt Eternal with Heavy, Eggman's old creation, throwing him at the evil scientist. It sends him flying. Close up of Heavy casually standing around on stage.
- We then see gameplay footage of Alex Kidd also on Mt. Eternal. Knuckles throws a heavy chunk of rock at him, which Alex breaks with ease(his martial arts are designed for this of course) and matches blows with Knuckles briefly before Knuckles throws Heavy onto Alex, finishing him off in battle (a reference to Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle's Janken loss screens) and showcasing that defeats via stamina are possible(not sure if we've actually showcased this yet).
- We see Knuckles gliding through the air alongside NiGHTS and Ulala who are performing their own glide moves respectively.
Knuckles showcases the
training dummy, as the camera pans to reveal Akira Yuki, Ryo Hazuki, and Alex Kidd waiting impatiently behind him to use it.
Gameplay footage of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all spindashing past the screen in Green Hill Zone before breaking out and performing their taunts; Knuckles boxing the air, Tails flying in a circle and Sonic performing the Super Peel out, referencing each of their special abilities and yet another Sonic Heroes reference.
Cut to CGI where we see Knuckles in the Casino of Envy looking at the shard of Emerald he obtained in the opening cutscene. Bayonetta appears. “So you're the guardian of this 'Angel Island' I've heard so much about...” she poses dramatically and swoops in to attack Knuckles who is mid 'emerald radar' taunt, cutting to gameplay with her All-Star meter flashing.
Suddenly,
Rouge the Bat swoops past and steals some of Bayonetta's All-Star meter, preventing her from performing it, and handing it over to Knuckles, Knuckles in turn winds up a punch, throwing himself forward, and beating another piece of the emerald out of Bayonetta, and performing his All-Star move consisting of reassembling the Emerald and unleashing a barrage of furious punches on Bayonetta.
We end on Knuckles victory screen (slightly edited to remove score details) where he is attempting to guard the Master Emerald only for Rouge to steal it whilst he's not looking.
Cut to
'BATTLE OF AGES' title.
Knuckles yells at Rouge and demands she gets back here with the Master Emerald whilst she teases him.
The after credits stinger is back on Monkey Target at sunset. AiAi, who has been gliding this ENTIRE TIME touches down perfectly on the goal with a flourish.
Big the Cat is seen fishing on the side of the target, pulling a
very waterlogged Beat out of the ocean, who proceeds to dance after a single beat whilst still dangling on Big's fishing line.
Total reveals:
- Knuckles the Echidna (Fighter)
- Monkey Target (Stage)
- Training Dummy (Mode)
- Rouge the Bat (Assist)
- Big the Cat (Assist)
Also I agree with Janx's sentiments about letting both Sonic and Alex Kidd be the 'Mario' victims of these trailers, appropriately being his Sega equivalents at various points.
Honestly if I didn't want to focus on AiAi, have the whole Banana Mania gang there and felt Kiryu should be the last there due to AiAi and him having the same creator, Alex would have been the one getting uppercut by Knuckles. I needed for Sonic to fall in the water though.
Not that anyone in particular is safe from slapstick in my submissions...but...