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.

(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

this right here is what sonic is about. a simple, well told story, with banger ass music, excellent level design, and super fun gameplay. i cant believe its taken me this long to finally see what people are talking about but this is it. i can truly say that sonic is GREAT and have no regrets about that. i love all of the sprite art and paralax backgrounds, every zone felt unique and had fun gimmicks unlike the earlier games might have. even the water/puzzley levels felt snappy and fun to explore. man i really love this game

Here's my absolutely favorite game of all time, I've beaten it more times than any other game out there, the story it manages to tell with how little it actually does is incredible, the gameplay of 2D Sonic is at its PEAK in this game, even the newer 2D games like Mania or Superstars don't come even CLOSE to this game, even at this game's lowest points, like Marble Garden or Sandopolis, I am having an absolute blast playing through the masterfully created acts, the music is some of the best videogame OST ever, every song manages to immerse you into the feel of the level while also making you bob your head.
It's actually mind boggling how incredibly fun this game is.

Here's the good stuff. Hot damn, do I love this entire package. Far and away my favorite game(s) in the series when I first played them back in '05, and the only games that have since superceded them have been newer releases. Sonic's one of those series I've been into since before I owned game consoles - I have to thank demo kiosks at stores for Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Sonic Heroes for that - but I was never sure about 2D Sonic going into the GameCube Mega Collection. Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 lost me after a bit, but from the moment I tried Sonic 3, the game had me.

...of course, a big part of that was that Sonic 3 is the first game in the series to have a proper save feature, so when I was inevitably bad at the video game, it was easy to pick up the pieces and try again. I actually had a slightly harder time getting into the Sonic & Knuckles half for precisely that reason; yeah, it's more Sonic 3 goodness, but no save meant I had to start over at dumb ol' Mushroom Hill when I doofed up.

Save feature or no, though - both halves of Sonic 3 & Knuckles are great games in their own right. If Sonic 2 represented a start of understanding what made Sonic compelling in 2D, Sonic 3 & Knuckles represented full confidence in this knowledge. Levels are huge and expansive, naturally integrating spectacle set pieces with exploration and gameplay mechanics. Of course the most obvious thing is how each Zone shifts between the first and second Acts: Angel Island catches fire, the power goes out in Carnival Night, the magma cools in Lava Reef, etc, all complete with melodic progressions as the composition shifts from the first to the second Act's version of the music. But there are things baked into the levels, too, like the slopes of Marble Garden, the jets and hydroplaning in Hydrocity, the turns and outdoor segments of Flying Battery, the ghost chase in Sandopolis, etc... So many things that naturally invite the player to explore and experiment with the game's physics systems, so many things smartly built into the makeup of the worlds. I'd argue that the mobius strips and loop-de-loops that characterize key moments of Sonic 1 and 2 felt like they were shoehorned into the levels (I'll be honest, the loops in Green Hill look unnatural to me), while everything in S3&K feels like something that might incidentally exist within the parameters of this world, gleefully being subverted by Sonic & friends. I really do love just about every set piece here.

...and, yes, I include in that the infamous drums in Carnival Night. I don't think I had issues figuring those out? What, kids in the early 90s never thought to pump the D-Pad up and down on their own?

Another show of confidence is the expansion of playable characters. Tails now has a fully expanded moveset, with his flight being naturally integrated into level design (and something that translates into swimming! The animation of him paddling is adorable). Knuckles becomes playable with Sonic & Knuckles, presenting a slower but more exploration-oriented approach to levels. Not to be outdone, Sonic gets access to the Insta-Shield (which I never really experimented with, admittedly), plus those nifty elemental shields' secondary functions. Having a full 4 different ways to play the game adds a ton of replayability to the experience, particularly since the routes themselves through the game change bit by bit. Tails is good for cutting your teeth on the game (though good luck with that Marble Garden boss), Sonic solo/Sonic & Tails represent a standard run, and Knux is sort of a bonus round.

And those bonus stages, though! Not content with the standard 1 Special Stage archetype, the team ultimately wedged FOUR of them suckers in here! Even my least-favorite of these, the glowy sphere one, is a solid enough time. But, like, Blue Sphere? Hoh baby, I love love love Blue Sphere. Finally, a bonus stage that represents a completely different challenge from the usual cadence of 2D Sonic gameplay but derives its difficulty from the same sort of speed and careful planning that high-level Sonic play asks for. I love that feeling of slowly-building panic I get as the game speed picks up, and I try to track down whichever Blue Spheres I've missed. It's a completely fair game, one that has lots of regular means of optimization - not just route-planning overall, but also that question of how best to turn each grid of Blue Spheres into Rings. And the music builds and builds and grows faster and faster with each loop, and... man! I love love love it. And I love that there are over ONE HUNDRED MILLION different variations! Yeah, I know they're semi-randomly generated, but still!

It's genuinely hard for me to find things to complain about with Sonic 3 & Knuckles. If I had to complain, I guess I don't love Mushroom Hill? It makes sense if you're playing Sonic & Knuckles alone, but in the context of a combined game, it feels like a second Green Hill wedged into the game's midpoint. There's also something to Sonic & Knuckles that makes it feel way shorter than Sonic 3, even though the two halves have roughly the same amount of stages. Maybe it's that the Special Rings go away after Lava Reef, so playing after that without all Chaos/Super Emeralds feels like an extended failed run? Um... I sorta think Sonic 3 ends on a weird place, like it's pretty obvious that Launch Base is a fake final level in retrospect, with Big Arm cobbled together as something that can approximate a final boss...

Oh, actually, speaking of Launch Base - I think it's a bit mean to have the timer running for that extended sequence where Sonic and/or Tails rides an Egg Mobile over to the bottom of the Death Egg. I got screwed over in an early run at that point, clearing the Ball Shooter with like 9:30 on the clock. I had to slooooooowly run out the rest of my lives with Time Over after Time Over, trying fruitlessly to see the cutscene through. In retrospect it's a minor thing, but it was pretty annoying at the time!

Most of the time, when Sonic does throwbacks to its Genesis roots, it does so specifically to Sonics 1 and 2. There are a number of reasons for this - the first entry tends to win out with these sorts of throwbacks, Sonic Team was more heavily involved with those games, Spin Dash was introduced in Sonic 2, Sonic 3 proved to be less of an evolutionary throughline for the series, Developer SEGA Technical Institute was kind of an internal punching bag, etc etc etc. I get it, but there's a part of me that qualifies how good a Sonic game is based entirely around if its throwbacks harken to Sonic 2 or 3. Sonic Heroes, Sonic Rush, Sonic 4? Bah! Sonic Mania? Now THAT'S where it's at. This is reductivist, of course, but I mention it mostly to represent how GOOD I think S3&K is. If Donkey Kong Country is a series that unquestionably hit its stride in 2 and spent its third title with lower-stakes experiments, Sonic the Hedgehog is a series that hit its stride in 2, then redoubled its pace and really hit its stride in 3 & Knuckles.