Rankles the Otter

Rankles the Otter is a supposed sidekick to Knuckles the Echidna found in Sonic & Knuckles, who had oversized spiky ankles to contrast Knuckles' oversized spiky knuckles. A fake million pound bounty to find Rankles was presented by the United Kingdom version of Sega Magazine, where the author admits at the end that Tom Guise made up Rankles.

Appearance
Rankles the Otter is a green recolour of Knuckles the Echidna, specifically artwork seen within American and European releases of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. His fur is entirely green, and his skin has a green hue. Rankles has less dreadlocks than Knuckles, no spiked knuckles and has his feet replaced with spherical "ankles" with crooked spikes on them.

Existence
Despite Rankles being made-up, somebody claimed to find the mythical character months after the original article. They came with specific instructions on how to find Rankles. By going into Marble Garden Zone and moving around with Debug Mode, then loading to Launch Base Zone and heading to an underwater section, a green Knuckles could be found. However the follow-up article dismissed this being Rankles, since it's not truly Rankles and just a palette-confused Knuckles underwater.