Knuckles the Echidna first appeared in 1994’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and has been a staple
in Sonic’s universe ever since.
And it’s easy to see why - he’s ridiculously cool.
Fans like him so much that there’s even been ROM hacks of the original Sonic game
online, featuring Knuckles rather than the blue hedgehog.
So naturally, a character this popular is bound to have different versions pop up.
If you guys are familiar with our sister channel top 10 nerd, you’re probably no stranger
to our alternate versions list.
These alternates are from both the games, and the comics!
So let’s give Knuckles the alternate treatment and count down the top 10 alternate versions
of knuckles.
10 Knuckles-Zilla Starting off our list with one of the versions
of Knuckles that deviates A LOT from the original, meet Knuckles-Zilla.
Looking kind of like a Kraken, Knuckles-Zilla is from an alternate version of Mobius, where
Chaos Emerald radiation mutates and disfigures Knuckles.
He becomes Knuckles-Zilla, and starts to terrorize civilians.
Luckily he’s defeated by Sonic, when Sonic pilots the Giant Robotno and fights him.
9 Knuckson Up next we have a parody of a character from
Gatchaman called Knuckson.
So Science Ninaj Team Gatchaman is a Japanese superhero team from an anime created in 1972.
Knuckson is a parody of Joe, and the alternate reality that Knuckson is from is a parody
of Gatchaman itself.
Called the Senati Zone.
The team in this alternate reality is called Sonicaman: Chaos Ninja Team who fight against
Sallactor, aka the alternate of Sally Acorn.
8 Sinbad From the Arabian Nights zone, this alternate
is a brave pirate adventurer who helps Sonic fight Erazor Djinn.
Who is a sinister genie trying to take over and rule the Arabian Knights Zone.
Based on the character of the same name from the novel 1001 Arabian Nights, Sinbad appears
in the Nintendo Wii game Sonic and the Secret Rings.
7 Lieutenant Knuckles Knuckles is known for being honourable, and
always fighting to do the right thing, even when he’s manipulated into doing what he
thinks is right.
This alternate version of him, Lieutenant Knuckles, takes this to a whole other level,
by being the leader of a group called the Echidna Enforcers.
From the Litigopolis Zone, a city dedicated to law and order, the Echidna Enforcers are
the equivalent to the Dark Legion and also share many a quality to the Echidna Security
Team.
Anyway, Lieutenant Knuckles mistook Sonic for Anti Sonic and tried to arrest him, but
failed to do so when he was knocked out by Sally McAcorn.
6 Znuckles Knuckles’ No zone counterpart.
And here’s the fun weird part about it - no one has even seen what Znuckles looks like.
He’s the one No Zone inhabitant that’s been mentioned in official Sonic media in
text, but has no image.
Or rather, no images have ever been produced of the character, despite being one of the
Zone Cops.
If you’re unfamiliar with who the Zone Cops are, they’re essential the police that patrol
all of the zones of the multiverse.
While we may not have an actually image to run with for Znuckles, take a look at Sonic’s
counterpart, Zonic.
5 Sonic Boom Zone Knuckles
Not to be confused with the Sonic Boom of record store fame in Toronto, the Sonic boom
Zone Knuckles is from an alternate reality where he, Sonic and co all reside on the tropical
island of Bygone Island.
This Knuckles is, well, isn’t necessarily the sharpest tool in the shed.
Or the sharpest knuckle spike in the multiverse, perhaps.
Nah?
Pun doesn’t work?
Yeah, that’s fine, it was a long shot.
ANYWAY this Knuckles is known for his lack of intelligence, and general slowness.
Of the mind, that is.
That being said, he’s incredibly loyal to his friends and teammates.
Physically, this Knuckles has got some subtle but important differences.
He’s taller and more muscular than the regular Knuckles, with many noting the similiars to
thrash the devil.
He also has hand wraps on, and wraps on his lower legs, too.
4 Tuxedo Knux Take one guess who this is a parody of.
If you thought of Tuxedo Mask from sailor moon, you’re spot on.
Not that it was that difficulty to assume though, let’s be honest.
He’s pretty much wearing the same outfit.
Tuxedo Knux is from the Luna Zone, and he pursues Ivanna Robotina when she escapes their
zone and attacks Mobius Prime.
Knux, Sally Moon and Chibi Rose chase after Robotina, who he manages to subdue with one
of his roses, returning to the Luna Zone.
Of course, after making Sonic uncomfortable, that is.
Many feel that having Knuckles assume the role of Tuxedo Knux was for a comedic effect,
considering Sonic’s feelings towards sally.
And the fact that he and Knuckles are, yknow, rivals.
Knuckles taking his girl!
3 O’Nux Also known as Anti Knuckles, the overseer
of Demon Island, O’Nux went head to head with the OG Knuckles.
And the two couldn’t be any different - O’Nux is a total pacifist.
He doesn’t like to use violence, and only does as a last resort.
So, back to that fighting Knuckles situation - he was tricked by evil Sonic into aiding
in the theft of the Chaos Emeralds from Mobius Prime’s floating island.
This eventually left him in a situation where he had to battle Knuckles, first on Mobius
Prime and then on Anti-Mobius, which resulted in him forfeiting the fight because he didn’t
think violence was the answer.
Knuckles was like DUDE that’s messed up, saving your home should be worth fighting
for.
Despite that, Knuckles ends up helping O’Nux try to figure out why his home on Sunken Island
is losing it’s oxygen.
Eventually O’Nux would be defeated by Scourge during his takeover of Moebius, where he was
sparred because Scourge wanted him to grovel beneath him.
2 Light Mobius Aka cowboy knuckles from an alternate future
timeline.
So, this version of Knuckles defeated Dr Eggman when he turned into his Chaos Knuckles form,
and in the aftermath decided he would try to recreate Mobius the way that he thought
it should be structured.
This is where Sonic gets involved, who busts out an alien device that rids Knuckles of
his newfound powers, and results in him losing an eye.
This starts an age old rivalry, that only detours when he and Sonic must team up to
save Mobius.
Twice.
Still hot-headed and aggressive, he’s a bit more wise than the Knuckles we’ve grown
to love, and with age has learnt how to control his temper better.
He’s also a dad.
1 Dark Mobius And on the flip side of that, we’ve got
Dark Mobius!
Also from a possible future in an alternate timeline, Dark Mobius was a guardian who had
become corrupted with chaos power.
Turning him into an incarnation of Enerjack who is also known as Dark Enerjack.
He conquered the planet, extracts cores from his victims and eventually got bored of ruling
the world.
So naturally, he up-ed his game and started trying to control other alternate realities.
As one does when you’re trying to up your villain cred.
Anyway, it doesn’t go as planned for Enerjack when he crosses paths with Silver the hedgehog,
a time traveller, and the two duke it out.
There we have it friends!
Alternates of Knuckles.
Who is your favourite?
Are you guys big fans of the comics?
Let us know in those comments below, we always love hearing from you.
And speaking of comics, if you haven’t already check out our sister channel top 10 nerd!
It’s like this one, but all things nerdy, mainly comics and harry potter though, if
I’m being honest.
But for now I’m Kelly Paoli for top 10 gaming, and I’ll catch you all in the next one.