In an age before the internet became commonplace, I didn't have as much to entertain myself within the multiple childhood bedrooms I had. A small hand-me-down television of dubious quality eventually made it's way into my possession, albeit with no cable or antenna. Three things kept me company during those rainy lonesome weekends: toys, old video game consoles, and the trio of pencils, crayons, and discarded notebook paper.

I never liked having my room overtaken by the sound of silence, so I would often keep my fan on during even the cold winter nights. The constant noise of the fan wasn't really sufficient when I wasn't actively trying to sleep, so often I would rely on the only thing my television could produce besides static white noise, the music of my video games. This music was something that could either be easily conjured up by the sound test within the options menu, something that I could only hear in-gameplay, or if I'm lucky pausing wouldn't quiet the music. It's the reason a child would do such things like constantly replay a game to the point of being able to no-hit run it, play a racing game to drive on the same tracks over and over, or destroy countless soldiers on the battlefield for an entire evening. It was all due to the cool music.

Sonic 3 and all of it's versions didn't have a sound test, at least as far as I could see. It was quite a bother, because Sonic 2 had this. Why didn't 3 have it? I love the music so much. It wasn't until I came across the miracle of gaming magazines such as Tips and Tricks, Expert Gamer, and the like that suddenly my games would find a new lease on life, and Sonic 3 would perhaps get the most mileage out of it. Go to the vines in the first level, hit left x3, right x3, and up x3. Easy enough to remember. Sure, I get a stage select, but the sound test without any strings attached was what I truly wanted. I didn't need to constantly fight Mecha Sonic as Knuckles to hear the final boss music, even if I did find him super cool. I drew him so much...

Even when I eventually did get cable in my room, there were only like four channels I'd bother watching, and unfortunately I broke my sleep curfew a lot and stayed up like many a kid would, and advertisements would eventually start being shown instead of cartoons, pro wrestling, or stand up comedy. I'd spread my blanket across the floor of my room in front of my TV to either play something or just put music on from something I liked, then I'd draw, play my game boy, arrange my massive stash of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, etc. Was I a weird kid for sometimes enjoying the company of bleeps and bloops or some insane synth-rock music I heard in a fighting game about the anime I would catch after school every day? Maybe so, but music is music regardless of it's origin. For myself, that music represents memories of the journey I have taken through every console's library. Some are just more special than the rest...

I grow older, and I go through changes for better or worse. I live, I learn. Yet, here I am typing up this pointless nostalgia piece to the very music that inspired me to create decades prior, with the sound of the CRT speakers being replaced by some HyperX headphones, and my notebook paper replaced by a digital interface.

Some things never change.

If there's one thing that can be said about the average Backloggd user, it's that they likely have Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles in their top five games. I can't say that's too surprising, because I too think it's the perfect platformer, and expands brilliantly on every mechanic and design concept of the previous three games. It's so good, in fact, that the entire series earned an extended rest until 2016's Sonic Mania. Yup, it's hard to believe but there were no Sonic games between 1994 and 2016! It's a little something called "going out on top."

Of course, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is two games in one, or rather two halves made whole again. Thanks to the power of Lock-On Technology™, it's literally one game's contents stacked on top of another with a few additional bug fixes, layout changes, and music swaps thrown in for good measure. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles both have value on their own, but it's hard not to argue that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the definitive way to play.

Levels are utterly massive, with single acts taking just as long to complete as full zones in previous Sonic games, and yet they never feel like they overstay their welcome. Tails and Knuckles come with their own unique movesets that open additional pathways inaccessible to Sonic, and similar to Sonic 2, special stage portals are scattered throughout levels rather than being an end-of-stage reward for keeping your rings. What you end up with is a game that takes multiple runs to see completely, and each subsequent jog through S3&K's 13 zones feels better than the last. I touched on the importance of exploration in Sonic games without losing sight of the game's pacing, how finding new paths and hidden areas should continue to push you forward, and I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the absolute zenith of this design philosophy in the Sonic series. There's always something new to find, but the game just flows in a way that discovery never comes at the expense of progress.

The zones themselves look incredible, with much more richly detailed sprites than anything seen in the series prior. Mid-act set pieces help change the flow and appearance of levels, like Robotnik's bombing run on Angel Island casting the rest of the level in flames, or an attack from the Death Egg heating up the previously cooled off interior of Lava Reef. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is well known for its cutscenes, which tell a story quite effectively without relying on dialog to give context to character actions or plot twists. Even small details in the backgrounds of levels help flesh out the narrative, like statues of Sonic in the upper portion of Hydrocity serving as an early hint of Sonic's prophesized arrival on the island. This focus on story never gets in the way of the game itself and actually does a remarkably good job at making the adventure feel big. I praised Sonic 1's gradual transition from natural to industrial locations for how it makes you feel like you're working your way from the outskirts of South Island towards the heart of Robotnik's headquarters, but Sonic 3 & Knuckles takes that concept and runs with it. Each Zone features an interstitial cutscene that connects the previous level to the next, making you feel like you're actually chasing Robotnik across the island rather than popping up in unrelated locations because video games. Indeed, the entire premise of the story is built off the back of Sonic 2, with Sonic and Tails following the decommissioned Death Egg in their biplane as it crashes on Angel Island. All of this adds so much character, I don't think you can really go back and do a retro style Sonic game anymore and chunk out these narrative elements. It's one of those things that was done so well it effectively becomes part of the series DNA, an expectation rather than a one-off.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles also features my favorite boss battles in the series. Each encounter offers something unique, and are a fair deal more threatening than those in Sonic 2 while still being intuitive enough so as to not be roadblocks. I also really enjoy the mid-bosses and think it was a smart idea to add these as a way to break up each act. In terms of pacing, these serve as climaxes to the first act as well as pallet cleansers, giving Sonic a reason to stop and plant his feet for a second before transitioning into the next act. This is far more effective than simply having him run through a goal post and fading to black, and actually quite necessary given that doing so after a 4 minute level would just kind of feel awkward.

The blue sphere special stages are perhaps the best in the classic series. I've previously commented on how Sonic special stages are just technical showpieces that Sonic Team couldn't be bothered with actually making fun, but I think blue spheres actually manages to be a good time while still looking impressive. If you smack another cart on top of Sonic & Knuckles you can access a new mode where blue sphere levels are randomly generated. I don't recall the exact number of possible permutations, but there's enough content there that you could go grey before completing them all. And yet, there was a period of my life where I would run through a few of them each day just to see how many I could knock out. I love blue spheres. I'm a danger to myself an others.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles is such an incredible game. Thanks to fans, there's also Sonic 3 Complete and Angel Island Revisted which add various tweaks and improvements to the base game, and I think both are definitely worth checking out. It's fun to play around with Complete's restoration of the original intended level order, and AIR provides so many granular options for tweaking the Sonic 3 experience that you can more or less build your perfect version of the game. Plus it has wide screen sport and the music is crystal clear. The Michael Jackson-like voice samples found in many tracks have all their compression removed, it is almost startling how clear they sound. However, I don't want to get too into the weeds on either of these games. Suffice it to say, I think they're worth checking out.

I could talk about this game forever. At the same time, it's also one that I find difficult to discuss in a focused or nuanced way, because every time I start to describe one element I like it ends up reminding me of another I enjoy just as much, and then my thoughts just become scattered until I'm gushing incoherently about how much I love this game. I just think it's that good. I mean, I like Sandopolis for chrissake. Even people who give this a 5 out of 5 would tell you they don't like Sandopolis. That could've been the whole review and it'd give you just as good an idea of how great I think Sonic 3 & Knuckles is without wasting your whole morning on this essay.

Also, it's pronounced high-draw-city. It's not a city! It clearly looks like an aqueduct that's carrying water to Marble Garden, which is the ruins of an ancient city. It's also a water level that focuses on being fast, Hydrocity is a play on the word "velocity!" Yes I know Yuji Naka said it's actually Hydro City, but he made Balan Wonderworld, are you seriously going to tell me that's who you trust!? I will punch you in the nose if you say "Hydro City" to me, I promise you this.

Sonic 3 and knuckles is a pretty great sonic game and a fantastic conclusion to the original trilogy of games, but that's not to say this game doesn't have its shortcomings, one of which is the levels in this game.

The first couple are great, it's just when we hit mushroom Hill zone that I have issues. This level and every level after it up until Sky sanctuary are just SO BORING, the levels are stupid long and have nothing memorable or special about them. So thank God for Sky sanctuary, and the two levels after it.

One thing I absolutely LOVED about this game is knuckles himself, at the start of the game he knocks sonic OUT of his super state which instantly tells the player just how strong knuckles is, and then throughout the remainder of the game you see knuckles be nothing bully who gets in sonics way.

This is until the end of the game when you find out that he was just trying to protect the master emerald, and through eggmans lies he thought that stopping sonic would save the emerald. It's when eggman betrays knuckles and steals the master emerald, you truly see how much he cares about it.

Immediately he springs up and goes after eggman with the help of sonic. It's crazy to me how they told such a great story in a game that has no dialogue. As usual, the music in sonic 3 and knuckles is spot on, it's great throughout even in the bad levels.

Another thing that is fantastic in this game is the boss battles, I kid you not every single one of them is amazing, and whilst the giant eggman robo is nowhere near as good as the death egg robot from sonic 2, it still makes for a great boss fight.

Overall sonic 3 and knuckles is an amazing sonic game that sadly isn't quite as good as sonic 2 due to it being weighed down by some of its weaker areas.

As a 90s child of a Nintendo household, my life has been one long struggle to break Nintendo Official Magazine's mental hate-conditioning against Sonic the Hedgehog. I've played plenty of Sonic games, of course - every early GameCube adopter on the planet was, at some point, forced to pick up Sonic Adventure 2: Battle to combat the console's early games drought, and since then I've played everything from Sonic Spinball to Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 to Sonic: Dark Brotherhood. But for some reason, I've never fully understood Sonic the Hedgehog's special intrinsic appeal to so many people around the world. I know grown men in their thirties and forties who still hold a bright burning blue flame for Sonic, despite the fact most of his games are straight-up pure bad rubbish and your life would have been better off if you'd never played them. They are otherwise normal men who have hidden vaults of Sonic OCs, tattoos, memorabilia and comic books. I know a guy with a mortgage and a car who cried at the Sonic Mania reveal trailer. I know another guy who involuntarily yelled "OH WOW! FUCK!!" at the intro to last year's Sonic the Hedgehog movie, much to my embarrassment and the anger of nearby parents who had brought their kids. What is it about this Sonic the Hedgehog guy that speaks to the hearts of men?

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, like the titular character's reputation, is something has always eluded and confused me. Whenever I've picked up a £5 Sonic Super Collection or Good Ol' Genesis Games Bundle or whatever, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles has always been absent or semi-hamstrung in some way, and I've missed out on yet another opportunity to play it and go "ohhh man, this one track was totally by Michael Jackson!" or look up some cool trivia about Sandopolis Zone on the Sonic Wiki. What is the deal with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 "& Knuckles" anyway? I still don't totally understand how Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and & Knuckles co-exist as one entity. It was a cartridge you stuck on another cartridge and it added a bunch of levels and Knuckles? But it was standalone? And it could go into Sonic the Hedgehog 2 too? Or was that its own thing? Ahhhh! It's really confusing - even for a guy who understands cryptic games-tech-marketing horrors like the Nintendo 64 Expansion Pak and the Nintendo 3D Dual Screen Circle Pad Pro. The Mega Drive is such a wild plastic beast.

Anyway. I finally played and beat Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. Kinda by accident. I recently discovered that the Sega Mega Drive Collection on PC has official mod support - Sega and/or the contractor they hired to make the collection implemented a handy little in-game loader for fan mods, which Steam workshop users have inevitably hijacked and allowed you to play whatever Sega Mega Drive ROMs you want inside Sega/D2's emulator. I played a bunch of Castlevania: Bloodlines for free! In an officially licensed Sega product! It's nifty! Anyway, anyway. While using that loader to play a Streets of Rage 2 mod that lets you play as any enemy in the game, I realised I'd been sitting on Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles for approximately 10 years on Steam and I decided to finally play Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. It's funny how this shit goes. Games licensing is fucking hell!

Having now played and completed Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, I have now realised that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles may be one the keys I need to decrypting the mystique of Sonic the Hedgehog's appeal. The main thing I took away from this game is that Sonic is cool. Sonic the Hedgehog had a little bit of attitude and flair in Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, Sonic the Hedgehog is in his absolute top form of cool. Sonic the Hedgehog smirks, Sonic the Hedgehog wags his little Mickey Mouse finger, Sonic the Hedgehog points at pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog like "Oh? Him? That's me. Sonic the Hedgehog.". That's cool. He abseils, he grinds, he drives around in a little spaceship. That's even cooler. Perhaps Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is the genesis of these men who cry about Sonic the Hedgehog? I'm one step closer to understanding...

Anyway, anyway, anyway. The game itself! Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles! It's good. Even when I was a kid, I was always kinda aware that Mario and Sonic invariably went against their own reputations and natures - Mario games focused on, and even rewarded, speedy, quick-thinking play; while Sonic games often slowed the player down to a dead end and asked them to solve problems or explore their terrain in way that Mario didn't really care about doing. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is the maximal form of that "Sonic is slow and he does puzzles" philosophy, best epitomised by the infamous Casino Carnival Clusterfuck Zone's up-down barrel. It's exciting, in a way, to think your way through a problem with Sonic's fairly limited move-set, but inevitably it comes into conflict with an urge to see Sonic the Hedgehog go really fast and zip up and down ramps and shit. Dying to a timeout rather than an enemy or a pit or Dr. Robotnik tastes so sour! Some acts go on way too long, and some zones unnecessarily drag the length out of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles to proportions that don't really fit a game about going fast. Which of these stages are Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and which ones are & Knuckles? I have no idea. It's all one big blue blur.

At this point in the review, I was going to go on a big tirade about how the game's limited screen estate makes a lot of the fun-running frustrating, as enemies and obstacles often appear out of nowhere. But as it turns out, there's already a really good fan mod of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles called Sonic 3 A.I.R. that adds widescreen support, and Sega themselves are re-releasing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles in widescreen soon too. So now I look like this: https://picon.ngfiles.com/743000/flash_743809_card.png?f1601004175

Veredito: Meu jogo favorito desde sempre e para sempre.

Não existe tempo ruim com Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Posso estar no meu pior dia, com crises pesadas de ansiedade, posso estar muito doente, ter um dia horrível no trabalho, ou ter brigado com minha esposa, com meus pais, irmãos e amigos... Faça chuva ou faça sol, S3&K sempre vai me fazer feliz, sempre vai trazer sorrisos e serononina. Sempre.

Não é perfeito, claro. Faltou um cuidado maior aqui e ali, e a 1ª metade da campanha do Knuckles é especialmente irritante. Mas fora isso, esse jogo acerta EM CHEIO tudo o que eu amo em Sonic: as fases bônus, as músicas, as esmeraldas, Super e Hyper Sonic, as seções de plataforma, as diferenças entre os personagens, a sensação incrível de velocidade... tudo. Até as fases da água (que normalmente geral odeia) e as fases que andam (que normalmente eu odeio) são incríveis. Me divertir com ele é tão natural, óbvio e inevitável quanto sair na chuva e me molhar. É como reencontrar um velho amigo com a certeza de que o tempo juntos vai ser bom. É meu porto seguro.

S3&K me aproximou de minha família, me trouxe conforto numa infância difícil, e me fez adorar Videogame pra começo de conversa. E certas coisas nunca mudam.

Mas até agora, eu nunca tinha apreciado o TANTO que ele fez pela franquia. Muito mais do que introduzir Knuckles, este é o 1° Sonic com personagens que controlam diferente, o 1° em que aparecem a Esmeralda Mestra e os escudos elementais, e o 1° a contar com os trabalhos de Jun Senoue e Takashi Iizuka. Também é o 1º com um chefe final secreto envolvendo Super Sonic, pra ser o clímax de uma história que pela 1ª vez tem importância, e que por sinal é excelente e muito bem contada, além de nada invasiva. Para um jogo de plataforma nos 16 bits... Puta que pariu, irmão. ❤️ O fascínio foi tanto que catei uma tradução do manual japonês pra aumentar ainda mais a imersão no enredo.

Depois de platinar 3 vezes seguidas, infelizmente chega a hora de seguir em frente e ir jogar outra coisa. Tou meio triste, bate aquele vazio existencial pós jogo foda, sabe? Mas sei que S3&K sempre vai estar aqui pra mim.

Eu hei de voltar, e o reencontro há de ser incrível. Ele sempre é.
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PS: desta vez fui na versão Sonic 3 Complete, mas quando registrei a partida não tinha notado que a 3 Complete tinha uma página própria no Backloggd. Foi mal aí, Tiddles e equipe. XD

I really really enjoy S3&K level design, it's incredibly good just in terms of level density and smart use of building up momentum and utilizing downtime. The 2D Sonic games really find their rhythm here, ironing out the issues like enemies within the pathway that you have to outright memorize to not take hits and making sure the downtime where you're not speeding through is effective.

The speedruns of the game elegantly show how strong the levels get, and the exploration element to find the chaos emeralds is pretty fun this time around too. The minigame to get it itself is still ok at best but at this point I've come to expect it. The bosses this time around are also pretty strong, and not much needs to be said on the game's excellent soundtrack.

It's great, everything from Mushroom Hill to IceCap to Sky Sanctuary is strong and consistent. Sure, you do have a couple stinker levels and the platforming in of itself doesn't get to anywhere where I'd call it amazing, but I definitely enjoyed my time through the whole thing.

So…after every other game: sonic 1, sonic 2, and sonic cd, we finally hit this masterpiece: sonic 3 & knuckles. I’m gonna review this as the complete package as I believe if I split the games up I wouldn’t be doing it justice, so I’m gonna review it as one whole experience and oh man…what an experience.

It’s funny really, the previous 3 games hadn’t truly scratched my itch in terms of what a sonic game could be: sonic 1 had potential during the start but ended up falling flat on its face because of its dreadful slower levels. Sonic 2 had an excellent beginning but ended up completely breaking during the final few levels…looking at you metropolis. And sonic cd was stuck on an add-on that only 2.4 million people bought compared to the over 30 million others on a normal Genesis. And so finally these two games came along. They were split up because they couldn’t fit it into one cartridge and eventually came up with the lock-on feature for & knuckles which gave us the perfect package.

It starts off by giving us a new antagonist: knuckles the echidna. Who only really blocks your path a few times and is just really annoying…that is until he figures out all the wrong dr robotnik is doing and joins your side…and that’s kinda all the story you get out of this game, but it gets a plus for actually having a developing story unlike the previous games where you either had to rely on the manual or the final cutscenes (cd).

The zones in this game are probably the best ever, especially the 3 portion of the game. Carnival night, Ice cap, launch base, and marble garden are wonderful zones that not only have some of the best music in the series…but also the best level design in general. The & knuckles portion of the game is also not too bad, mushroom hill, flying battery, lava reef (personal favourite), and sky sanctuary are really excellent and carry the torch which 3 had already lit. And even though sky sanctuary is quite a short level, it’s an excellent one at that. The music for the level emphasises that sonic, tails and knuckles are off to save the world, and the level design is excellent as always!

Overall, this is a masterpiece, and not only is it one of the best 2D sonic games, it may quite possibly be one of the best 2D platformers of all time.

Masterpiece, excellent level design, nostalgic music, it did have knuckles!

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (1994) is through and through the most solid and consistent of all the classic Genesis titles. It's not only peak Sonic but peak platforming. For being the longest of the classic Sonic games, it still manages to have the most diverse and fleshed-out level design, gimmicks, and story*.

As someone whose favorite genre is platforming, I still find it hard to really compare it to any other 2d platformer. Sonic was in his own league back in the day and became a household name for a good reason.

THE FUCKING MUSIC! Incredible like every other Sonic game I've played. I refuse to believe there's a Sonic game without jammer slammers.

All in all, this is probably one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played.

As this is the beginning of my journey through the Sonic library I cannot compare it to much else, what I can say is though that I'm very excited to see what it has in store (especially 3D Sonic). I grew up watching Sonic X, so even though I never played the games (up until now), Sonic is still dear to me. Also, the Jetix Sonic X European intro is so much better than the North American one. If you do not agree, you are objectively wrong.

O Sonic 2D definitivo. Visuais bem detalhados e vivos para um jogo do megadrive. Trilha sonora espetacular composta por verdadeiros gênios da composição e do sound design.
Os controles são simples e extremamente intuitivos. Os jogos clássicos do Sonic aparentam serem simples plataformers 2D, só que mais rápidos, porém, eles possuem um diferencial dos outros plataformers da época, isto é, sua física bem complexa, que reflete na maneira que a movimentação do jogador interage com o terreno, aprofundando bastante a gameplay e criando uma mesclagem perfeita entre um jogo de pinball e um plataformer. Dito isso, o design dos levels de Sonic 3 & Knuckles, diferente de outros Sonics da trilogia clássica, acomodam quase que perfeitamente a gameplay, além de oferecerem uma exploração satisfatória, o que geram fases com um fator replay magnífico que proporcionam horas de diversão ao jogador. Por falar em fator replay, não só o jogo oferece um minigame extra para 2 jogadores, como também possui 2 personagens extras com habilidades únicas que mudam a forma que você joga os levels, um desses personagens tendo uma expansão da história original e percussos totalmente novos. A história do jogo é simples, mas bem legal de se acompanhar. O jogo possui cutscenes in-game e sem diálogos, mas ainda sim consegue apresentar a história ao jogador de maneira muito boa.
Dito isso, concluo a review dizendo que não me restam dúvidas de que esse é o melhor jogo do Sonic e um dos melhores plataformers 2D já criados, recomendo para qualquer um.

Só cheguei a jogar esse jogo um bom tempo depois de ter jogado os dois primeiros e foi algo emocionante pra mim, conseguindo até mesmo me fazer voltar a ir atrás de videogames. É uma continuação fantástica que expande ainda mais tudo que a franquia já havia visto, trazendo uma aventura ainda mais épica e empolgante. Sem dúvidas um dos maiores marcos do Mega Drive!

Mesmo as fases que você possa começar torcendo o nariz vão te conquistando aos poucos com seus diversos elementos e dinâmicas novas, recheadas de pistas e sequências de velocidade que mantém o ritmo até mesmo das fases mais lentas, me fazendo rejogar e curtir ainda mais cada fase do jogo com seu level design extremamente bem construído e com ampla variedade. O jogo consegue até mesmo recriar cenários anteriormente frustantes já vistos na franquia, como fases aquáticas e industriais, e torná-las extremamente cativantes e memoráveis.

A implementação de pura narrativa in game com cut scenes bacanas no meio do jogo, sem sequer precisar de uma tela de loading entre cada fase e simplesmente continuando uma da outra é algo lindo que traz ainda mais autenticidade pra essa sequência (Ok que morrer e ter que ver tudo de novo é um saco, mas dá pra aguentar).

Esse é um jogo que dá vontade de ficar horas falando sobre ele e todos seus acertos. Tais como a adição de save com uma música deliciosa, o dobro de special stages e o dobro de super transformações, o dobro de fases por ser basicamente dois jogos em um, inúmeros bosses em todas as fases, e com aquela que é facilmente a melhor trilha sonora dentre a trilogia inteira do Mega Drive (algo que já era espetacular nos dois primeiros), além de um final que realmente é ampliado e recompensador se você pega as esmeraldas... Sem falar na adição de outro personagem instantaneamente icônico que chega até a estampar o título, e além de jogável, tem uma jogabilidade e história diferente em suas fases.

Esse jogo é brilhante, o pico do Sonic clássico e do meu amor por videogames!

Um sonho realizado!!!

shovelware yuck ahh level transitions but it's enough that they exist! That's how I feel mentally rn so Sonic 3 might pave the path to self-acceptance I've been reaching for. If only with a bit of validation. I lied tho it ain't do shit to my mental health anyways they smoked the whole pack last time so Sonic 3 is free of some of these insane levels we had to suffer through in 2. No more 7_7 just >.< on another note these levels fall under a questionable game essence bcuz it feels apparent in hindsight the game's development was rocky and its actually a best-of levels compilation, albeit the veil is thick enough to hide that fact unless you actively knew this fact.

Sonic hit the slay button and got a big makeover! Tails too I suppose. I'm not even sure tbh he might be keeping me company but he ain't even no factor tho he been surprising me hitting the boss in my stead sometimes, this is the cowardly way we know real mfs just hit their bosses with their own hands. um pauuuse that was outta pocket. Have you seen these bosses? Now you have. The well of ideas hasn't run dry yet and you're free to cook some of them to your liking, if you dare try a riskier approach to speed things up.

I wanna have a little break here to mention the music. Now, I'm a great VGM enthuthiast but I keep that shit away from reviews since my list and compendium are enough for me. However, it's understated to say how colossaly fucked Sega got themselves the exact moment the fanboy side of the psyche beat the rational side in a cerebral tug-of-war, yes I'm talking about MJ. He owns his music at any rate, and played a big part in the Sonic Origins fiasco, I aim to be this problematic post-mortem.

Well, for the lack of a better term, that's Sonic in a nutshell. We got a sizeable entry that doesn't outstay its welcome. Is it the first game that needs two "discs"? Whatever the case, it's an awesome hour inside the hedgehog. I mean controlling him. Fuck I mean-

(Part 3 of 5)

As I have previously mentioned, during development of Sonic 3, the game had to be split in half in order for Sega to meet deadlines with their releases, and out of this decision, we got two completely separate games: Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Sonic & Knuckles. This decision did make both of these games seem a bit lacking in terms of content, but thankfully… there was a way to remedy this situation. See, while Sonic & Knuckles is still a fully original game that you can play all by itself, it is also a game with a lock-on feature, where you can take any other Sega Genesis title and plop it right on top of Sonic & Knuckles while in the system, making it look like some sort of inbred monster. For the most part, most Sega Genesis titles don’t really give you anything new or special from doing this (aside from one thing that I will get to later), but, whenever you put Sonic 3 onto it, you are able to finally play the true, definitive version of Sonic 3, which is comically referred to as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

For all the years that I have been playing this game, THIS is the version that I have always stuck to, whether it be for just a regular run or for a 100% run, and honestly, why wouldn’t I? Given the fact that this is a thing, there really isn’t any reason to go back and play through the original versions, unless you wanna see all of the little details those games had compared to this, which are interesting to see, but let’s be real here: THIS is the only version of Sonic 3 that you ever need to play. So, with that in mind, I can confidently say that this is, without a doubt, one of the best games in the entire series, and quite possibly the best game you could possibly find on the Sega Genesis. Sure, it’s not my favorite Sonic game, and it doesn’t necessarily fix some of the smaller issues I have about the game, but as a whole, it not only brings these two games together to make one big, wonderful package to blaze through, but it adds just that little bit extra to make it all worthwhile.

Once again, for the most part, not too much about the game has changed, as all the graphics, music, the story, control, and gameplay remains the same, running at that consistent quality you come to expect from these titles, but this time around, some things are now altered to fit the experience more. From the start of the game, you can now play as Knuckles, and you can play through all the levels as him, from Angel Island all the way to The Doomsday Zone, so that is pretty cool. In addition, several of the levels have new layouts for the sake of having these new characters to play as, you go right from Launch Base to Mushroom Hill whenever you beat that level, and you can now play as Tails in all of the S&K levels, so that is pretty cool for those of you big Tails fans out there.

The biggest change made between this and the original versions, however, would have to be with the Chaos Emeralds. As per usual, you collect them in the same manner that you would in the original Sonic 3 and S&K, and you can still turn into Super Sonic, but you don’t get to do so forever. Once you reach Mushroom Hill Zone, all of your Chaos Emeralds are now gone, and you are now forced to go looking around for new Special Rings in order to get them back. Only this time, once you go inside one of these rings, you are taken to Hidden Palace Zone, where you will be tasked with getting one of the seven Super Emeralds… which are essentially just the Chaos Emeralds, except bigger and more powerful. You do this by playing through the special stages from S&K, and once you manage to get all of them, you are then given the ultimate reward: the ability to turn into Hyper Sonic… which is essentially Super Sonic, except now you can do a screen nuke attack, and you can give people seizures! So that’s fun.

Sonic doesn’t get to hog all the god-like fun for himself though, as Tails and Knuckles can also get their own super forms from doing this as well, which is pretty great to see, especially since Tails didn’t even get his own super form in the original Sonic 3. For the most part, these forms are pretty similar to that of Hyper Sonic, so there isn’t much difference to be found here, with the exception of Super Tails, who not only has all of those previously mentioned qualities, but he can also summon an army of birds to help him out. Once again, I don’t particularly play as Tails or Knuckles in this game, but for those that do, getting these rewards is pretty great if you enjoy these characters more then Sonic, and they can also be even more helpful, such as the aforementioned bird army Tails has, which is able to annihilate bosses.

Overall, despite not adding too much new content, or changing anything in the game too drastically, Sonic 3 & Knuckles manages to do what it sets out to do, and as a result, creates not just one of the best games on the Sega Genesis, but also one of the best Sonic games of all time. It is one of my personal favorite games in the series (previously my favorite), and it has so many fantastic qualities to it that are still fun to go back and revisit all the way to this day, even after 30 years. I would absolutely recommend this version of the game alone, for those who loved the original versions, or for those who are just Sonic fans in general, because if you somehow haven’t played this version of the game, then you have clearly been missing out for all these years. By the way, you wanna know why Sonic 3 was initially sliced in half during development? Like, the actual, concrete reason why? It’s because Sega wanted the game to be released alongside a Happy Meal toy line that was gonna be released with McDonald’s… I’m fucking serious, look it up, it’s so dumb.

Update #7

I've already penned plenty of my thoughts on both Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles previously so I don't have a whole lot to add, but this game really contains the best of both worlds. Building on S&K's exploration of Sonic and Knuckles' different strengths and movesets to create different paths through each stage, this game lets you play as Sonic, Knuckles, or Tails, each with their own movesets and optimal routes. The game has stages from both Sonic 3 and S&K resulting in a game that is much meatier in scale than any of its predecessors, and reuses the save system from Sonic 3 to ensure you can enjoy the game in bite-sized chunks without getting burnt out. Minor gripe: they did Tails dirty in this, giving him the cheapest boss fight (Marble Garden Act 2), and not giving him a Hyper form.

Anyways, this is the pinnacle of 2D Sonic, a fitting synthesis and improvement of everything that came before it. Surely the series would move onto bigger and better things, right? Right??

"It's quiet. Kimahri go now."

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the pinnacle of 2D Sonic and probably one of the spot’s for the series magnum opus, not necessarily the best game in the series but the most important. You could argue that the entire trilogy and maybe even the Adventure games have that magnum opus status but Sonic 3 is the amalgamation of everything they’ve learned so far in this series. Being more ambitious, bold and bigger than any other game in the series of even the Sega Genesis, so much so that this was planned to be a fully 3D game.

Developed by the same peeps who made Sonic 2, (Sega Technical Institute) helemed development this time and had the same goal as they did with Sonic 2, make it bigger. Bigger story, levels, more things to do and so much more, Sonic 3 was a game that may have been too ambitious, with possible cartridge limitations without having NVRAM (which was very expensive).

Then Mcdonalds came along.

The funniest thing is that without a Mcdonalds promotion, Sonic 3 would not have been split into and the team would have possibly figured out a way to get both ends of the game in one cartridge but I guess that Mcdonalds money was too tantalising. Sonic 3 didn’t end being such a breakout success commercially as Sonic 1 or even 2 since it was released on it’s own only selling 4 Million combined sales with both parts but received critical acclaim both then and now, with many fans considering it the best sonic game, i don’t think that but it’s still pretty damn good.

One thing before i go into this game’s story and such is the amount of ports this game received, I played this game one of the best ways possible via Sonic 3 Complete, keeping the core experience the same while adding a few quality of life changes such as unique zone icons, fixing up the sprites for Super Sonic, Egg Robo in Flying Battery (you can also put Flying Battery before Ice Cap, which is the better order in my opinion), skippable cutscenes, new Knuckles intro, correct colour palette for Knuckles, Big Ars Boss, Tails being playable in Blue Spheres and a heap of customisable options, there’s also Sonic 3 AIR which has all of these as additional mods or features in it along with 16:9, Achievements, and the Drop Dash. But yeah, onto the actual review.

The Story of Sonic 3 begins immediately after Sonic the Hedgehog 2, When the Blue Blur kicked the absolutely shit out of Robotnik, his Space Station “The Death Egg” crash lands on a remote floating Island named Angel Island, which then shortly falls into the Ocean, causing a Tsunami. Robotnik investigates the crash and finds the guardian of the Island, a Stocky Jamaican Red Echidna called Knuckles. Realising he’s on the Island with a Giant Emerald of limitless power, he creates a plan to once again put his floating masterpiece in space, tricking the gullible Echidna that an evil Hedgehog named “Sonic” with his cowardly 3 tailed named “Tails” who will steal his Giant Green Emerald as they have already stolen 7 other Emeralds. Knuckles stays on guard on the Island while Robotnik captures the Animals in the Island to convert them into Badniks once again. A few days later, the duo investigate the island after Tails notes of a large chaos energy surge while Sonic finds a ring with ancient inscriptions, knowing where this ring comes from. Using the Tornado and Super forms, the duo rush to the island but are ambushed by Knuckles, who then steals the Emeralds, the duo are thrusted into another high octane adventure, now with a red rat on their tail.

Sonic 3’s story is bigger than any other game before despite Sonic CD having fully animated cutscenes, but you can tell there’s a vision to feel like Sonic 3 was one big interconnected adventure feels fulfilled, since i played 3 Complete, having that transition cutscene using the Sonic & Knuckles feels so right and slips right into the game, there’s also transition cutscenes for each Act to make getting to the stages feel more natural, some points have Eggman fuck with something in the middle of the stage and most transitions are caused by that red rat named Knuckles, i like this little rascal. He has a funny design and they can’t figure out if he’s Red or Pink, hell since he also made a playable debut, they made an extra campaign about an rogue Egg Robo raising an Army to finish the fight that Eggman has done.

It feels like the themes (jesus what am I doing with my life of examining the thematic story elements of a Genesis game released in 1994) of previous games have all culminated into one, the idea of nature vs technology and how both serve as the perfect utopia and solution and the positive impact that Sonic has on people, excellently shown through the sequence after the Sonic and Knuckles boss fight, showing how Knuckles will put aside having a rivalry with the blue blur for the entire game and will help him to the greater good. It’s simple but effective, it really makes Sonic 3 feel grander than all of the other games, having one Act Zones that act as more as set pieces such as Hidden Palace and Sky Sanctuary while still remaining enjoyable in its own right. Sonic 3 feels like a pure culmination of what has come before just in terms of story being bigger, bolder and more involved, and it’s just getting started.

Presentation wise, it feels like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 feels like a swansong game to the Genesis despite the thing running for 3-4 years after this game, I’d say Sonic’s sprite is slightly rough in this game, it doesn’t look bad but compared to previous games something does look wrong in opinion but other than that in terms of presentation, i don’t have much complaints. The environments look more alive (as much as a Genesis game could) than ever before while still maintaining a great balance between cartoony and realism, the sprite art has been polished to perfection with the best roster of design badniks, the backgrounds genuinely look great and varied, you can tell the team really wanted to use the more realistic world of Angel Island to sell this Island and how it connects all together despite their being so many different ecosystems like previous games. One thing i’d also be hard pressed not to mention is the soundtrack which was infamously composed by 6 people, 7 if the “rumours” are true that Micheal Jackson did contribute somehow (I mean if Yuji Naka went to his house then i’m pretty sure he did have some involvement), I don't know if the 6 composers helped, but this soundtrack slaps. Each zone now has 2 unique tracks, making this easily the largest soundtrack in the Genesis trilogy, all the tracks are good. All. of, them. The Soundtrack also started the career of the greatest Sonic musician, Jun Senoue, so it’s fitting the soundtrack is so good. I’d say the Sonic 3 half has the better songs overall but the Knuckles part is great too! I’ll go in depth on the Ost when I go over the stages, but just so you know, while Sonic 1 and 2 have some more iconic tracks like Green Hill, Chemical Plant and other tracks, I feel Sonic 3 has the better score overall.

Finally, onto the game itself, Sonic 3’s gameplay is, once again, more of the same from previous Sonic games, Linear Stages scattered with rings which you collect as health, allowing Sonic to have one extra hit before the rings scatter everywhere, once he’s hit again, he will lose a life. There’s a lot of new features to the core Sonic gameplay. One being Sonic’s new move, The Insta Shield/The Air attack, the spin dash (more based on it’s incarnation from Sonic the Hedgehog 2) returns alongside the super peel out in Sonic 3 Complete, being the literal game changer here is the Insta Shield, by a press of a button, Sonic will gain a white “air” shield for a split second, allowing him to deflect certain projectiles and (more importantly) increases his hit box, allowing for more reach to hit objects, Badniks and Bosses. This feels like a technique that’s easy to learn but hard to master, i never really used it when i first played Sonic 3 but i regularly use it, while not as much of a game changer as the Spin-Dash does help to fully widen Sonic’s Arsenal and make it accessible for all situations.

Another new aspect of Sonic 3 is its playable characters, Tails and Knuckles. Tails is essentially the easy mode allowing players to fly for a limited time, though doesn’t have any flight cancel options which is a weird omission , and Knuckles, who can’t jump as high as the 2 characters but can glide, break certain objects just by walking and can climb on walls. While I still prefer Sonic, I can't deny how well that these characters feel natural to the Sonic gameplay and lend themselves well to multiple playthroughs.

The Biggest and best new addition are the Elemental Shields, once again Speed Sneakers, Invincibility Power Ups return but the Shield power is removed and is in place for 3 new Shields that only Sonic can fully utilise, all of which provide some kind of immunity to the environment. The Fire shield allows for Sonic to air dash and gives him immunity to fire, but at a cost will instantly deactivate when he comes in contact with water, The Bubble Shield allows for a bounce attack, instantaneously making Sonic lose all momentum and drop to the floor, also making Sonic immune to water and in turn, can’t drown, and finally, the Thunder Shield allows Sonic to Double Jump, absorb rings and be immune to the very scarce electrical attacks. I feel, once again, all of these new gimmicks add a ton to the game in terms of variety and ways to play, and they’re also just fun to use whenever they scarcely appear in the stages.

But enough about the new fangled gimmicks that Sonic 3 gladly has, the core gameplay of Sonic 3 is just fun, there’s no other way to explain, it’s just fun. Sonic 3 perfectly mixes all 3 level design philosophies from previous games, the platforming of 1, the speed of 2 and the exploration of CD, all of these are mixed into one nice concoction, all elements feel prevalent in the entire game and doesn’t feel like there’s too much of one element nor to little. The Zone roster this time includes:

-Angel Island Zone: Great opening Zone for the game, definitely not as iconic as Green/Emerald Hill but it’s a fun zone and shows how much grander and better Sonic 3 is compared to Sonic 2 and 1 with great tropical visuals and that iconic 16-bit Music, This is also where another one of Sonic 3’s new gimmicks comes into play, each zone now is capped by a Boss. The Act 2 Boss is slightly frustrating at points and the 1st Act is way too easy, there’s also what i like to call the “play Sonic Forces demo” with that ship section
-Hydro City Zone (It’s called Hydro City!): This keeps the momentum (literally) that Angel Island Zone has and manages to be better, the music goes hard especially in the 2nd Act, I love the aesthetic of the lost ancient city and the bosses here are fun despite there being some jank in the 2nd Act for the boss, the best part in my opinion is how it mixes platforming underwater and full on high octane action in the surface, both feeling naturally woven into the level design. It's overall a great Zone and sorta feels like a slightly better version than Chemical Plant
-Marble Garden Zone: Honestly, this is the only Zone in the entire game that sorta turns me off, well the first Act at least, the 2nd Act is actually pretty decent, the first act is really boring, despite a cool aesthetic and admittedly decent music. But the main issue is that a lot of the Zone just wastes your time, whether it be the moai mini bosses, running down long slopes or the annoying top spin gimmick, in a game where the pace is always going, it doesn't feel smooth whenever it leans into it's gimmicks, the bosses are also not very interesting or memorable in this zone and can be pretty frustrating in Act 2's case. It's not a bad stage but is pretty boring and a noticeable low point in this game
-Carnival Night Zone: Is it weird to call this Zone underrated? The Red Barrel of Doom isn't really that bad (maybe it's because when I was younger I watched a Sonic Paradox short that featured it so I had foresight beforehand but I digress), i really dig the aesthetic they were going for here of a fun filled park, however i don't really like the original Music that this stage offers and i vastly prefer the prototype music for this stage only, the original music is way too repetitive in my opinion but the prototype music fits the stage a lot better with its upbeat tone. The Bosses also are really enjoyable in this act and actually give some good challenge, overall while not as good as the other Zones, it's nice to see the game picking up steam after Marble Garden
-Flying Battery Zone: Playing the game in the intended Zone order is way more fun in my opinion, since it naturally progresses in terms of difficulty, it felt too much like a difficulty increase after Mushroom Hill but onto the actual zone itself, it's fun, as said before in terms of difficulty this is where Sonic 3 really ramps up especially in the 2 Bosses, a lot of the fun with this zone is with gaining speed and platforming, it feels rewarding fully speeding through the stage after a tough platforming section. The aircraft setting really allows for all of the cool set pieces such as bursting through the skies or hastily switching between the inside and outside, the music is also great, feeling dire yet energetic, especially in the 2nd Act. Overall it's a great zone, though the Mania version is far superior
-Ice Cap: It's fucking Ice Cap Zone, the music is the best in the game, it's essentially one of the first songs that come into whenever i think of Sonic, while the original prototype track probably fits the stage slightly more, the MJ Track we got fits perfectly unlike Carnival Night despite balantly coming from an unreleased Song that also slaps. The stage itself is also great, I love the iconic snowboarding section, the cold winter aesthetics looks great and the platforming is challenging yet fun/fair. I'd say some gimmicks that this stage brings can be annoying but its overall a fun stage with great music
-Launch Base Zone: This act in this game that acts as the final Zone of the standalone Sonic 3 works pretty well though is probably slightly weaker then a lot of the other Zones, especially in the 2nd Act, but it's fun. It's a satisfactory ending to the original game with the great and challenging Big Arms boss and the wrap up to Knuckles character, but it's missing the special sauce that all the other final zones had that made it so great and unforgettable, but since it isn't the actual final zone it's cool, i like the both versions of the music and the aesthetic of a ancient city being hastily turned into a rocket station, the difficulty is hit or miss, sometimes it gives a good challenge with fun in terms of platforming and the gimmicks it has, but i feel the stage does have a weird lack of rings, especially in Act 2. It's not a bad Zone, far from it, but it definitely feels slightly weaker than the other stages
-Mushroom Hill Zone: After the consistent difficulty increase in the stages, Mushroom Hill is suppose to be a short little break before the game ramps up in difficulty again as well as being as an introductory zone for the & Knuckles part of the game, it's a fine zone, i love the stoner ass music they gave for it and the 4 seasons forest aesthetic is unique, i love the bosses in this zone for being unique and challenging, it's a fun zone, though i don't have much to say on it.
-Sandopolis Zone: I'm usually the one only fan of Desert stages and yeah, this is one of the Desert stages, Sandopolis is a good fun yet challenging stage, Act 1 is really fun and i found the Boss in Act 1 to be a neat little change of pace but Act 2 is slightly annoying with that ghost gimmick, It's not too bad but at points nuking the ghosts with the light gets too far at points, overall a weaker zone in this game but a good zone nonetheless
-Lava Reef/Hidden Palace Zone: I feel a lot of nostalgia with this Zone. A lot of flash media extensively used this Stage's cool ass volcano setting for stages and animation along with the music, so it does hold a special place in my heart. That being stage this stage is just okay, other than the nostalgia i hold for the aesthetic and music, it's really a zone that i draw a blank when thinking about the level design in this version of the game at least, a fun zone but sorta forgettable, with the exception of the boss in Act 2 and the part leading up to that with the Death Egg, I additionally lumped Hidden Palace into this Zone because it uses the same aesthetic from Act 2, it's not really a zone per say more so a Boss Act like Death Egg from Sonic 2, this boss itself is piss easy though so I don't really get the point so yeah onto the next Zone.
-Sky Sanctuary: A One act Zone this time that acts as the transitory act for Death Egg or as a climactic final stage for Knuckles, either way this stage is fantastic. I love how it feels like a mad dash to stop that Egg Fucker from unleashing that Egg Shapped space station or a mad dash to protect the Master Emerald from Mecha Sonic (another Metallic Sonic Eggman mad) fitting with the great hevenly yet forbidding music playing as Sonic or Tails it has a short section of 2 Bosses from previous games from Green Hill Zone and Metropolis respectively before the actual boss happens which is pretty fun. Mecha Sonic for Knuckles is the final Boss for him, surprisingly fitting well especially in the 2nd Phase when it uses the Master Emerald for power. Despite being a shorter Zone, it packs a punch both story wise and gameplay wise, a great zone to get us ready for the final frontier.
-Death Egg Zone/Doomsday Zone: Damn what a way to cap of a game, now being promoted from an actual 2 Act Zone with a optional final boss zone, Death Egg rules in this game, i love the music and the aesthetic of the space station, the sub bosses here are pretty fun, it's fairly challenging with its unique gimmicks though some jank is linked with gimmicks and can waste your time such as the gravity not fully working as intended. The extra final boss is really fun and challenging and really exemplifies the mad dash nature with Robotnik, i love the design of the new Death Egg Robot and the music is so insanely unnerving yet somewhat powerful. It's overall a great way to cap off the game and the Classic Sonic series on Genesis as a whole.

All in all, it feels genuinely fun and challenging to explore all these stage since you can find a plethora of collectibles such as the aforementioned items, Rings, Special Stage Rings which warp to the Special Stages, The Blue Sphere stages, where you’d have to get a certain amount of Blue Spheres (or rings as an optional bonus) while the stage speeds up, these special stages are easily the best in the series so far since they’re actually fun! The Simple fun of trying to collect all the Blue Spheres while trying to avoid the red spheres, all of the stages feel fair yet challenging, which was a balance that Sonic 1 and 2’s Special stages wished they had, once again giving you Chaos Emeralds and even Super Emeralds past Mushroom Hill, The Super forms feel a lot better and more fleshed out here especially with Hyper Sonic, Tails and Knuckles also get Super and Hyper forms (Though Tails only gets a Super from from the Super Emeralds i guess), it's not a super amazing award but i do like the better endings and plus, doing the special stages aren't as much as a pain so it's not a big deal. There’s also Bonus Stages, taking the place of Sonic 2’s methods of Special Stages which uses 50 rings for entry, consisting of a few Minigames not too dissimilar to Casino Night Zone, allowing players to get Shields, Continues and Lives.

Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is great. It's the culmination of everything that the series has done and set out to do so far, if your not even a fan of sonic, a fan platformers or just games in general. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Angel Island Revisted and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Complete get my earnest recommendation.

This review was inspired by one of my friends, who I've been told has said that "A lot of people claim Sonic 3 & Knuckles to be the best of the Classic Era, but nobody explains why that is."

Initially this was going to be something where I'd play 3 playthroughs of S3&K and Sonic CD (A game they consider better than S3&K) to compare how both handle their explorative aspects, but after just playing a few acts of Sonic CD, I just cannot waste my time doing that as it's a game that I think is shallow in every regard. Either way, I think I can explain well enough the various reasons, as I did take notes for this playthrough to note what makes Sonic 3 & Knuckles special.

To start, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a game that heavily rewards exploration and replayability while not being outright hostile with its objectives, level design is lengthy but in a way that doesn't halt Sonic's momentum.

The big complaint I hear about S3&K is that it's "too long", which I feel is an incorrect statement. S3&K's length is to the strength of the inherent rollercoaster nature of Classic Sonic. Many levels have you blistering through most of it within seconds, before having you stop to do some platforming, which gives the player time to fully explore their surroundings to find hidden power ups or Special Rings, before thrusting them yet again into another rewarding burst of speed.

The best comparison I can make is that S3&K's level design shares a similar philosophy to Nirvana's music. With Nirvana's music there is a clear rollercoaster type of design of "Loud-Quiet-Loud" segmenting the song. If the Loudness of the song was just on its own, it would get very annoying, but if the Quietness was also just on its own it would be boring, thus the combination of these elements, with the quietness enhancing the loudness creates the great tracks. So too does Sonic 3 & Knuckles do this with its level design, with Fast-Slow-Fast, which this entire analogy went to explain.

This not only is rewarding to play but also caters to what I think is the major pull to Sonic 3 (I'm just going to call the whole game Sonic 3 at this point because that's what it is.), it's an actual adventure. No longer are we warped off screen to be sent to new zones that have no correlation to one another, this game has actual transitions that show us going from place to place. Acts now directly lead into each other, giving the game a great sense of continuity and flow. The story cutscenes themselves, while minimalistic, feel larger than life and express an interesting narrative better than almost any other Sonic game.

There is only really one low point in the entire game, which is Sandopolis Act Two. Easily the one mire this game has, a level that's slow for the entirety of its runtime and based around a gimmick involving Ghosts and stuff, easily the worst level... but considering that it's the worst level in a game filled with gems like Hydrocity Zone (the best Sonic water level), Flying Battery, and Lava Reef (all levels that made it into Sonic Mania btw) I think it can get the pass, especially since other Sonic games have way, way worse.

Back on the topic of the explorative nature of Sonic 3, let's talk Chaos Emerald hunting, which has never before been more rewarding to complete. Unlike the prior Sonic games which required a ring quota, and to possibly find a checkpoint in the case of Sonic 2, Sonic 3's Special Rings are placed throughout the levels to allow the player multiple chances in a single stage to gather the 7 emeralds and unlock Super Sonic.

This is easily my favorite way of going about emerald hunting, and something I'm glad Mania kept over the "Ring at the End of the Stage" from Sonic 1 and CD or the Checkpoint system from 2. This just feels more in line with the things you do with the blue dude, as searching through the levels to find hidden goodies has been a trope since Sonic 1.

I'd also like to say that compared to something like Sonic CD's robot generators, the level design actually accommodates the player to get these and doesn't just fucking softlock you from getting the best ending when springs send you to the end of the stage.

Blue Sphere is, in hindsight, easily the best of the original special stages from the Classic Era, with only Mania's special stages beating it out in my opinion. The levels speeding up over time, gathering around the center of a group of spheres and turning them into rings to collect which helps to give the player continues and lives through increasing their score. I still think overall that Special Stages are antithetical to the inherent design of Sonic, but if they had to be in these games, I'd like them to be either Blue Sphere or Mania's Races.

On that note though, Super Sonic has never been more rewarding to earn and play. All of those Fast-Slow-Fast segments are made super fast, allowing you to completely annihilate enemies and the level itself, doubly so if you get the Super Emeralds and get Hyper Sonic, who himself has a screen nuke double jump. I did not get Hyper Sonic for this review though, mostly because he does hurt my eyes with his seizure inducing rainbowness. Still, I love getting him.

Let's talk about another thing unique to this game (unless you count the mode in Mania), Sonic's Insta-Shield. This ability, which is activated when you press the jump button twice, gives Sonic a brief few frames of increased range as well as invincibility which allows him to kill any enemy in the game that isn't a boss without taking damage. Orbinauts, the little spiky bois, are now nothing more than another obstacle to take down rather than a sit and wait. It is a move with a lot of versatility and makes Sonic, easily the weakest character to play in the game in regards to abilities, very unique. There's also the Elemental Shields, which while not only defending Sonic from their respective elements, gives him a secondary move to replace his insta-shield, be it a fiery dash, a bubble bounce, or an electrifying double jump.

This game is also the first mainline (fully) playable appearance of Tails and Knuckles, both characters being like Sonic but with their own unique way of traversing levels. Tails can flat out fly, allowing for exploration to be a breeze, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls, but can't jump as high as Sonic. These two characters provide oodles and oodles of replayability for the game, as they have their own Super, and in Knuckles case Hyper, forms with Tails being easily the most broken with his, and I quote SomeCallMeJohnny with this one, "FLICKY ARMY OF DEATH" which absolutely obliterates boss fights.

If you want an answer as to why this game is considered not only the definitive Classic Sonic experience, but the definitive Sonic experience in general, I can tell you: Sonic 3 is bigger, better, and uncut. It has that size, and it knows how to use it. Incredibly replayable, a grand journey, and rewarding gameplay. It's no question baby, it's the tops.

Anyways Sonic CD and Sonic 4 suck, good night.

Played on Sega Saturn via the Sonic Jam compilation.

It’s always seemed odd to me that Sonic 3 is the fan favorite when, in many ways, it is the least exemplary game of what Sonic actually represents, at least out of the trilogy. In the process of pushing the supplementary elements to their peak, I can’t help but feel that it lost a bit of what made the previous games special in the first place.

Stages are now more segmented than before, stressing the core facets of Sonic in set increments based on what the game wants you to experience at any given point. And that isn’t a bad thing at all in and of itself, but it creates a strange mismatch between the loosey-goosey mechanics that are meant to be stretched in wide-open stages with several different ways of traversing them and the new more fixed way the levels are designed. And no, having a bunch of different pathways doesn’t exonerate the game of this, because those pathways don’t naturally lead in and out of each other in ways that dynamically interact with the mechanics. They just sort-of… exist for their own sake. They exist to make the characters feel more distinct from each other and to stress the inherent enjoyment of exploring, which is fine! I’m just trying to say that it doesn’t feel like Sonic in the same way the other games do. Take Mushroom Hill for example. You can move around the stage in a lot of ways, but they aren’t systemic; they don’t naturally interact with the mechanics. You go fast because the game has taught you to go fast at these specific times and you explore because the game has taught you to explore at this specific time. Compare this to Emerald Hill, where most paths offer gameplay that is fit to purpose for their location and naturally lead to each other.

I think that because of this, Sonic 3 is much more focused on the situational interactions, which, again, is perfectly fine. But, again, it isn’t really fit for a game that plays like this. Launch Base is a fun zone because you speed through these amazing setpieces and roll under lasers. Lasers are cool! My point here is that it is fun because of what it is on its own, and not because Sonic is in it. It is often elevated by fantastic narrative design that naturally weaves the player through a believable world full of super impressive sights and some of the best sounds produced on the Genesis. Sonic 3 is a well above average platformer that stands its ground, but the definitive Sonic experience? Not a chance. I hope this doesn’t piss anyone off. When I was younger this was like my favorite game ever but, well, people change. It was probably a good thing that I had distanced myself from these games for a bit. While I’ve played them so much in the past that I still remember them thoroughly, the time has allowed me to re-evaluate how I really feel about them.

sonic 3 & knuckles sits in a very weird spot within the genesis tetralogy (yes cd counts) for me, and i suppose it always will. sonic 1 and 2, i played to death on genesis and the mega collection, cd i bought gems collection to play alongside sonic r (which isn't really as bad as people make it out to be, by the way) and of course drooled over the 2011 remaster, and sonic 3 & knuckles kinda becomes the outlier. i played each game a good bit independently on the mega collection but i can't recall having unlocked the full title on that set. i think i first regularly started playing this game as intended via emulation, especially when i started hearing early youtube gaming guys and all the gaming magazines i read calling this the holy grail of the series. at this point in my life, i think i've been able to set the nostalgia glasses aside and after completing this game 3 times this year, as recently as today, i feel ready to share my earnest opinions on sonic 3 & knuckles - which from now on, i'll just call s3&k.

with all the improvements this game brings to sonic 2 - 3 playable characters, more bonus stages, a ton of levels, the insta-shield, to name a few - functionally speaking, yes, this is the most realized a genesis sonic game has ever been. the story is told subtly but effectively via short unplayable sequences or background effects, and it's pretty neat. the music, ever a point of copyright controversy, is incredible - while not my favorite of the era (cd's japanese soundtrack wins out by a gargantuan deal) there are some absolute masterpieces here. the spritework looks incredible and i think knuckles and tails look their best here - still more of a fan of sonic's 2 design though. even so, can i say that i feel this is the BEST of the genesis games? well... yes, and no.

yes, to the extent that this is unquestionably THE game the series was building up to and it masters that on almost all fronts. if you were to have someone play any of the genesis sonics, this is almost certainly the one to go with, even with its issues. the 'no' comes from the fact that considering its rocky development, it's very obvious that s3&k isn't one cohesive adventure - it's two rushed chapters smashed together to create a single comprehensive experience, and for being that, it's fantastically executed.

the game could've trimmed its two weakest stages -sandopolis and marble garden - and been better for it. the stage order makes sense when considering the sonic 3 stages and the sonic & knuckles stages individually, but when combined, it kind of feels off. why is mushroom hill halfway into the game? why is ice cap in the first half? there IS a cohesive, say 14 stage, dipless masterpiece here, but the rushed execution to promote sales shoots the game in the leg from being just shy of pristine. another point of contention is blue sphere, the chaos emerald-nabbing minigame, just not being all that engaging or fun - maybe not sonic 2 half pipe bad, but nothing enjoyable. i'm also sort of let down by the obvious rushed moments in the soundtrack where an act 2 remix will simply strip or swap instruments from the act 1 theme. this game's soundtrack is too good for those moments.

the more i think about it, the more grateful i am for sonic mania; sure, it might repeat stages from previous titles a little bit too much, but i really feel it delivers on the promise of the cohesive, story-driven, long-haul, fillerless masterpiece s3&k comes JUST shy of fulfilling.

They say that Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are solid games on their own, but combined, they form what may very well be the greatest game of the classic series. Honestly, this doesn't make much sense to me. Two lukewarm beers do not make a cold and refreshing one.

Both halves of this game have some admittedly solid zones (I'd argue that Sonic & Knuckles more-so), and some really vibrant backgrounds that makes it stand out from the previous two games. Unfortunately, the attractive package is severely hampered by plenty of other subpar, and even downright terrible zones (I'm looking at you Carnival Night). The problem is made even worse by the fact that most of the zones are just too damn long. I actually ran out of time while doing one of the Acts in Carnival Night. That has never happened to me before in a Sonic game.

Y'all can laugh all you want and say it's skill issue (hell, I didn't even know you could jump in the special stages until someone pointed it out), but I still beat it, didn't I? I just really don't think the level design is up to par with what I expect from a good Sonic game. It's ambitious, I'll give it that. And you certainly get a lot more content than your average classic Sonic title. This game is like crab legs, though. If you wanna enjoy the meaty bits, you gotta really work for it, and I honestly don't think it's very much worth it. I'll just go back to the superior game: Sonic 2.

P.S. I'm not a big fan of seafood.