In case anyone missed it, Sonic & Knuckles is now available for the XBox Live Arcade service. And the good news, once again, is that this game is compatible with Sonic 3 for XBox Live Arcade, meaning you have access to all the original Sonic “lock-on” features available for the Genesis system.

A quick recap: “Lock-on” means that if you have the XBox Live Arcade versions of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or Sonic the Hedgehog 3, then Sonic & Knuckles will detect that and unlock extras available in conjunction with those games! That means being able to play as Knuckles in Sonic 2 and Sonic 3, as well as the bonus stage game “Blue Sphere”.

More good news? We’ll be giving away Sonic & Knuckles XBLA codes, for one lock-on-fueled hour, starting tomorrow! Tune in tomorrow (Sept. 23rd) between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM (PDT) to our SEGA Twitter, Sonic Facebook, and official Sonic forums to snag codes. As an added bonus, over Twitter we’ll be giving away several Sonic 3 codes in conjunction with the Sonic & Knuckles codes!

Here’s what’s on tap:

• Twitter: Just make sure you’re following us! We’ll post a message tomorrow, and if you’re the first to direct message us with that message, we’ll direct-message you back with codes to download both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.
• Sonic Facebook: Become a fan! Then check tomorrow starting at noon for codes. As with previous giveaways, the codes are first-come, first-serve — so whoever enters the code first will receive the game!
• Sonic the Hedgehog Forums: Just check in tomorrow between 12:00 and 1:00 PM (PDT), and be the first to claim the code!

Hey everyone!

I’m going to keep today’s blog post pretty short text wise, because I’ve been up for… too many hours to count – it was 8 AM San Francisco time on the 21st when I got up, and it’s now 1:30 AM Japan time on the 23rd – and I haven’t slept yet. However, I do have a lot of cool pics to show you guys, so let’s get started!

The welcome banner at the airport, just before customs. After being stopped at customs and the security guy freaking out about the big blue DS-ish-box I had in my luggage, I explained to him that I worked at SEGA, and he finally went “Oh, SEGA? OK, go on.”

Friends from SEGA! After the airport, we had to take a bus ride to get into Tokyo – Narita airport, which we came into, is actually quite a ways from the city.

I thought about trying to figure out what the pamphlet was all about, but the scenes outside the bus window were much more exciting – so I took this picture to look into it later.

This is Patrick. He suggested we take the train instead of the bus – but we took the bus anyway as we were rushing to catch it.

About the time we heard “This bus is taking a detour due to a traffic jam”, Patrick sighed a bit, called us noobs, and said “I told you so.”

He also knows Japanese, so we count on him for all sorts of important things – like finding out when breakfast ends tomorrow morning. You may remember that he’s one of our senior producers here at SEGA, and we actually did an interview with him about Sonic Unleashed many months back.

The bus ride continued for over an hour until we passed through Tokyo, and finally made it to our hotel.

Hopping a train to Shibuya for dinner and the evening industry party. Every where I look, I keep thinking to myself “Oh wow, that looks just like (insert stage) from Jet Grind Radio…” The crazy part – I think I’ve seen at least four stages so far. Pics to prove it in the coming days.

Don’t let the picture fool you – Japanese portions are actually quite smaller than what we’re used to in the U.S. That, and having not eaten a real meal in a day might have also played a part. Maybe.

This was the view from my hotel room as I stepped inside. A perfect, picturesque “Welcome to Tokyo”.

You can find even more pictures, including the Japanese Toilet of Power, here on our Flickr stream. Tomorrow we’ll be checking out the SEGA Booth, getting everything ready, and seeing a bit of Tokyo – lots more pics and fun stories to come!