Your main objective is to stop Eggman's plans for world domination. The game is set over eight zones ranging from green fields and ancient sunken cities to raging volcanoes and the Egg Rock itself. Each zone is split up into three acts, the third one being a battle against Dr. Eggman in one of his powerful machines.

    When you encounter enemies, to defeat them, simply use your spin attack by jumping. Enemies can also be destroyed by spinning through them along the ground. Knuckles can even glide through his enemies.

    However, beware! You are not invulnerable and, unless you have at least one ring, an enemy will kill you on contact, or if you are hit by one of their attacks. If you get hit by an enemy while you have rings, you will survive, but your rings will be dropped and scattered. You can pick them back up again, but only if you are quick; rings will dissapear after a few seconds have elapsed! You can find out how many rings you have in the top-left hand part of the screen.

    You can also obtain shields, which will dissapate to protect you if you are hit by a robot or an attack. Some shields have additional powers, which were described above, along with other power-ups you can obtain.

    Getting killed by a robot or by other hazards (described below) will result in the loss of one life - keep an eye on your lives in the bottom left hand side of the screen - losing all of your lives will end your game (unless you have a continue)!