No, it's still 8 frames. Also, the final animation is wasteful; every frame has a unique set of tiles, the heads are not reused even when identical like they are for Sonic and Tails. EDIT: Oh, and the final walking was based directly on these frames, they just completely replaced the head with a different one. Also worth noting that the shoes in his "come get me" pose are the almost the same as his final standing frame's shoes.
That IceCap Zone one is directly from Sega because it appears on the back of the US box and I never noticed before aarrrrgh. But these are all from real builds.
Huh, the frames in the prototype where he looks to his left are to his right in the final, and vice-versa. Weird.
Yup, I just noticed the similarities when I was making an attempt to replace Knuckles' sprites with these in Sonic 3 AIR (let's see how long I remain interested in this but I'd like to make a mod based off this particular design). Final Knuckles is a lot smaller and has a more angular head. He's also a lot darker. I wonder what their reasoning was behind such a drastic change? I'm having a hard time figuring out which design is more faithful to his artwork though.
Sonic 2’s character designs are more simplistic, less exaggerated and more reserved in their approach to being cartoony. Sonic 3’s final character designs are more defined at the head and based off 3D designs. Knuckles’ old design is cool, but it’s over the top exaggerated hair and extremities neither matches Sonic 2 nor Sonic 3’s style, and I can guarantee you that is why it was changed.
These two screenshots here are actual from two different prototypes. The first screenshot is from a later build; you can tell this because the HUD text and numbers are using the same graphics in the final version. That means there are at least two later builds that were shown to magazines, but it may not have been through EEPROMs (as you already mentioned).
It is kind of like the middle child of the two. It's not quite Sonic 2 but not 3 either. Since they had to make sprites for Knuckles this was likely an attempt when they were attempting to figure out what the style would be in the end, and after they figured it out and finalized Knuckles they went onto Sonic... I guess they ran out of time for Tails
Hey, Knuckles' head moves in the opposite way in the prototype: In the final version, his head moves along with his arms.
Jesus, didn't realize how drastic the artwork difference is. I can see why they modified the sprites. His Nike mark is also flesh coloured.
Another (mildly) interesting thing I just discovered, in the sound test 1F is where the Knuckles theme is in Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Even though there is no Knuckles theme playing in the Prototype, 1F on the proto is used as the Knuckles theme on S&K Collection (different from both the Sonic 3 and S3&K themes). So 1F can be considered the prototype Knuckles theme.
It's even weirder when you realize: 1: Knuckles' walk cycle is clearly based off Sonic's from 2/3. 2: Sonic's walk cycle in 2/3 has his head face the same way as Knuckles' final sprites. So they decided to have Knuckles face the opposite way...and then decided to change it back.
well now I can't un-notice that proto!Knuckles has a GIANT head tbh the old sprites give me Chaotix vibes, not-eye-searingly-pink aside.
By my eyes, I think the tail is just as smooth, actually. There aren't any extra frames of animation or anything in this compared to the final, it's just the head in this one moves a lot more naturally and his dreads sway more as he walks, so it looks really good. It's all in the way the head turns. But I guess it was too cartoony for their pseudo-CG style.
I just tossed this ROM together (I used the Sonic Boom source by Saxman), also made a mockup of what a standing frame could look like. https://coinsh.red/u/s2knuxs3protosprites.bin EDIT: Or it could've looked something more like this instead: Updated ROM: https://coinsh.red/u/s2knuxs3protosprites2.bin
