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The Super Emeralds (スーパーエメラルド[1][2][3] Sūpā Emerarudo?) are powerful objects that appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. They are the seven Chaos Emeralds transformed with the help of the Master Emerald, and are essentially enhanced versions of said items. Accordingly, they currently reside in another dimension.[4]

Description[]

Appearance[]

The Super Emeralds highly resemble the Chaos Emeralds in appearance and colors (green, marigold, blue, magenta, vermilion, aquamarine, and platinum), though they are much larger than the aforementioned Emeralds, but slightly smaller the size than the Master Emerald. Unlike the Chaos Emeralds which are seen in an asscher cut in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Super Emeralds are brilliant diamond cut gems.

Powers and abilities[]

Though most of the Super Emeralds' powers have yet to be revealed, they house unbound and incredible amounts of Chaos Emerald energy that surpass even those of the seven regular Chaos Emeralds, possibly on-par with the Master Emerald, which themselves are already said to hold enough energy to bestow someone unlimited power and energy;[5][6] Noticeably, by harnessing the energy of the seven Super Emeralds combined, the user is able to enter a "Hyper State", which is an even more powerful version of the Super State achieved by using the Chaos Emeralds.

Overview[]

In Sonic & Knuckles, the Super Emeralds appear in Hidden Palace Zone after the fight against Knuckles, where they only serve as decoration based on the amount of Chaos Emeralds the player has, and are always seen as dull, gray Emeralds, serving no purpose.

S3&KEmeraldChamber

The Master Emerald (center-top) and the seven Super Emeralds, from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

In the full lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the Super Emeralds now have a fully functional purpose in the plot. In this game, they are upgraded versions of the Chaos Emeralds, and were added to "enrich the experience" as stated by Takashi Iizuka.[7] In the story, the Super Emeralds serve the same impact as the Chaos Emeralds, with the only notable change being the short, better sequence that plays after the credits.

In gameplay, unlike the Chaos Emeralds, the Super Emeralds cannot be obtained from the start of the game; instead, the player has to first collect the seven Chaos Emeralds in the Special Stages to be able to get their corresponding Super Emeralds. They will be able to use a Super Ring in Mushroom Hill Zone onwards to activate the Super Emeralds in Hidden Palace Zone; doing so will disable the Super Transformation for the rest of the game until the player gets them all. At first, the Super Emeralds will be a dull gray in color, seemingly powerless, but will regain their respective colors and energy by obtaining them. All of the Super Emeralds obtained by the player also flash during the cutscene in said zone when Dr. Robotnik steals the Master Emerald. If the player has not collected all seven Chaos Emeralds upon their first visit to Hidden Palace Zone via a Super Ring, the Emeralds they have collected will still be absorbed into gray Super Emeralds, while the remaining emerald slots are left vacant. Here, the player will be given a single chance to get one Super Emerald; Super Rings from then on will turn into ordinary Giant Rings that only take the player to the Special Stages where they can obtain the remaining Chaos Emeralds, before being granted access to Hidden Palace Zone to play the Special Stages where they can earn Super Emeralds.

The Super Emeralds are obtained the same way as the Chaos Emeralds. When the player gets all 7 Super Emeralds, they will be able to transform into Hyper Sonic as Sonic, into Hyper Tails (Super Tails) as Tails, and into Hyper Knuckles as Knuckles. Also, by collecting the seven Super Emeralds, as the game's true ending becomes unlocked, the post-credits scene will show Sonic, Tails and Knuckles posing at the player, while standing around a "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 & KNUCKLES" logo; while the save slot icon at the save select will display an image of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in a Ring regardless of which character(s) is used.

In Sonic Origins Plus, a new hyper transformation is added for its Sonic 3 & Knuckles release; Amy Rose in this game can transform into Hyper Amy after obtaining the seven Super Emeralds.

In other media[]

Books and comics[]

Archie Comics[]

Super Emeralds Archie

The Super Emeralds, from Sonic Super Special #13.

In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, the Super Emeralds, also referred to as Super Chaos Emeralds, appear as their own independent objects rather than transformed Chaos Emeralds. However, their appearances and history are very inconsistent.

In this media, the Super Emeralds were seven special Chao who turned into Emeralds after stopping Perfect Chaos' first rampage. After freeing Chaos, Dr. Eggman sought the Super Emeralds to make Chaos invincible, but was foiled. Chaos eventually managed to get the Super Emeralds himself and become Perfect Chaos with them, but was defeated and the Super Emeralds reverted back to their Chao form again.

Trivia[]

  • The Super Emeralds are the first instance of Emeralds in the Sonic the Hedgehog series having brilliant diamond cut (the Master Emerald, which also has a brilliant diamond cut, was also introduced in Sonic 3 & Knuckles). This carried on to the Chaos Emeralds' cut in later games.
  • When all of the 7 Super Emeralds are obtained, the Master Emerald will begin flashing, as the giant green magical gem itself also absorbed more Chaos energy possibly from the aforementioned Emeralds.
  • In Mushroom Hill Zone, it is possible to collect all seven Super Emeralds - three in Act 1 and four in Act 2. Coincidentally, in Sonic & Knuckles, this can be done to obtain all seven Chaos Emeralds.
  • When playing through Hidden Palace Zone as part of a regular playthrough, it is possible to use the Super Emeralds to be transported to a Special Stage, either by using Debug Mode to reach the emeralds' shrine without fighting Knuckles or by using a glitch to fight Knuckles which then affects the cutscene where Dr. Robotnik steals the Master Emerald.
  • When the red Emerald is obtained and then either the blue or yellow Emerald, the red Emerald appears dark violet. This may happen due to a palette glitch.
  • The Super Emeralds can be very easily gained by activating the Level Select cheat code and repeatedly completing "Special Stage 2". The Emerald itself would be yellow each time but the game still would think the player obtained the other ones and the player will still be able to get the Hyper forms after it says the character got all the Super Emeralds. The Super Emeralds will not appear in Hidden Palace Zone, but the player will still get the true ending and use hyper transformation.
  • In Sonic Adventure, when the player sees the past version of the altar, the Chaos Emeralds shown there are, in comparison to the Master Emerald, about the same size as the Super Emeralds. They are also larger than the Chaos Emeralds in the rest of the game.
  • Takashi Iizuka has stated that the Super Emeralds were added to Sonic 3 & Knuckles after the game was split in half, serving as additions exclusive for the lock-on technology to enrich the experience for players who had already collected the Chaos Emeralds. He also indicated that the Super Emeralds (and other similar collectibles) will not return to the series anytime soon, as the number of Emeralds was made consistent since Sonic Adventure.[7]
    • As stated by Christian Whitehead, the Super Emeralds and the Hyper States are canon, but lore-wise, Sonic Team do not want to deal with "multi-tier power level stuff", in resemblance to the Dragon Ball series.[8] Consequently, Sonic 3 & Knuckles mark the Super Emeralds' only official appearance in the franchise.
  • The Super Emeralds make an appearance in LEGO Dimensions, where they are used in a memory puzzle that requires a character with the Technology ability to access.
LREEF2-24

The stone relics of the Super Emeralds in Lava Reef Zone Act 2, from Sonic Mania.

  • At one point of Sonic Mania's development, the Super Emeralds alongside the Hyper transformations were set to appear in the game. Unused sprites of Super Emeralds are found at Blue Sphere-themed Bonus Stages' and Lava Reef Zone's internal files. In the final game, Knuckles' exclusive battle against the Heavy King in Lava Reef Zone Act 2 takes place on the Master Emerald altar from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where the Super Emeralds have been replaced with cracked gray versions. According to Christian Whitehead, these are stone relics which were created in the absence of the Super Emeralds, as the Chaos Emeralds had drifted off into the Special Stage.[9]

References[]

  1. Sonic & Knuckles (Sega Mega Drive) Japanese instruction booklet, pg. 45.
  2. (in Japanese) ソニックジャム オフィシャルガイド. SoftBank. October 2, 1997. p. 76. ISBN 978-4797303377.
  3. ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ【公式】 (May 29, 2023). ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ【公式】 on Twitter. Twitter. Retrieved on June 1, 2023.
  4. Sonic Frontiers: 123 Rapid-Fire Questions With Takashi Iizuka. YouTube. Game Informer (July 12, 2022). Retrieved on July 13, 2022.
  5. TailsTube #1 (feat. Sonic). YouTube. Sonic the Hedgehog (March 24, 2022). Retrieved on March 24, 2022.
  6. Sonic Team (27 February 2004). Sonic Battle. Game Boy Advance. Sega. Area/level: Emerald Beach (Shadow). "Sonic: I've heard that he who collects 7 "Chaos Emeralds" will be granted unlimited energy."
  7. 7.0 7.1 At Sonic Boom 2013, Takashi Iizuka said (as translated by the Q&A board's translator) "So Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles had...the lock-on, and...for people who played Sonic 3 the first time, they went through and they collected all the emeralds, right? ...So you already played Sonic 3 and you go to play Sonic & Knuckles, you've gotta have more emeralds to collect...and we put the Super Emeralds right there... Going forward, y'know, we also have...the Super Emeralds, the Master Emerald, and there's all these emeralds, and we've got too many, so when we released Sonic Adventure, we went back and just sort of cleaned up all the Emeralds and kind of reduced that down so we can have a little more control." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nzxRoIX4QU at 19:40
  8. Christian Whitehead on Twitter. Twitter (December 2, 2020). Retrieved on May 8, 2022. "Ryuko Shion: Hello, sorry to bother you. I know you may not answer me, but I wanted to try. I saw this tweet where you seem to mention super emeralds. I just want to know, Hyper Sonic happened? Is it canon at least for Sonic from Sonic Mania? Thanks and sorry for bothering you / Christian Whitehead: I think you can say it happened. Visually the appearance of the Chaos Emeralds changed to a diamond shape in S3K and have remained so in subsequent games. But lore wise ST don't want to deal with multi-tier power level stuff so everything is just 'Super' now."
  9. Christian Whitehead on Twitter. Twitter (August 30, 2017). Retrieved on July 21, 2021. "Christian Whitehead: They're stone relics, created in their absence when the Chaos Emeralds once again drifted off into the Special Stage Dimension"

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