Let me get my one gripe out of the way…

This is proof that bigger isn’t always better. Sonic 2 is still my favourite. Some of the levels in Sonic 3 and Knuckles outstay their welcome a little, with the reuse of assets over and over. I couldn’t sit and finish this in one and instead preferred bite sized sessions. A small gripe, but one which means it’s not one of my favourites.

Everything else is fantastic…

The controls are perfect. Responsive, fast and very fun.

It looks absolutely mega cool for its time. The sprite-work, levels and colours are all fantastic. The backgrounds compliment the levels perfectly. The Sega Megadrive really shining here.

The sound and OST are amazing. Super cool music.

The end sequence is nowhere near as good as Sonic 2’s. But the giant egg man robot boss was fantastic and mega enjoyable.

A great game that everyone should experience more than once.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles is what Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was meant to be all along before prolonged development and a looming McDonald's tie-in forced the game to be split and released in two parts as Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. Individually, both of those games feel a little short and unsatisfying but when combined they result in the best Sonic game bar none. I think this is a fairly common opinion, especially for Sonic fans of a certain age, but I wanted to try my best to write about exactly why I happen to share that view.

Let's break things down. For starters, I think that the graphics reached their apex in S3&K. Sonic and co have enjoyed a slight redesign that makes their sprites slicker, the beautifully evocative backgrounds compliment the diverse array of levels you explore and Robotnik's machinery looks even more mechanised and industrial. I mean, how much cooler does this game's Mecha Sonic look compared to the one in Sonic 2? The sound design and music is also the best in the series for me. I'm particularly fond of the tracks made by the Michael Jackson team (Carnival Night, Ice Cap and Launch Base) because they sound so...different. I love the lonely minimalism of Ice Cap's music, the off-kilter spookiness of Carnival Night's and the tropical urgency of Launch Base's which simultaneously cheers the player on while calling back to the Caribbean-sounding Angel Island Zone music. The graphics and music go hand-in-hand to make S3&K's levels impressively immersive.

I also enjoy the many small tweaks to the core Sonic formula that S3&K introduces. Nothing quite as dramatic as the spin-dash has been added but Sonic's insta-shield is a satisfying move to pull off to blitz through otherwise impenetrable enemies and the three new elemental shield power-ups are fun to play around with. Also, the Special Stage 'Blue Sphere' mini-game is a lot more fun than what Sonic 1 or Sonic 2 offered up. The Special Stages are now entered via giant rings hidden in every zone which offers an incentive for players to explore every inch of every zone.

Of course, S3&K also adds Knuckles to the mix. An antagonist-turned-ally, Knuckles can glide, climb up walls and break through barriers that Sonic isn't able to. Knuckles is not as fun to play as as Sonic but, admirably, Knuckles can traverse totally different paths through most zones than Sonic, adding a layer of replayability to the game. There are some really wonderful little details in Knuckles' campaign that might not even register the first time you play it. The ghosts in Sandopolis Zone Act 2, for example, are already loose. That's because Knuckles' campaign takes place after Sonic's already been there! The Knuckles playthrough is full of neat little moments like this and speaks to the delightfully subtle way S3&K's narrative unfolds.

The level design philosophy of S3&K is quite different from Sonic 2's. Sonic 2 put an emphasis on different branching paths through each level, with upper paths rewarding skilled players with easier and shorter routes. S3&K levels are a little more about trying to strike a balance between wowing the player with cinematic set-pieces, encouraging some light exploration to scour the zone for Special Stage rings and asking the player to interact with level-specific gimmicks. I think S3&K succeeds in striking a good balance that makes the levels endlessly replayable. A few of the gimmicks really don't work, like the Carnival Night barrels, but plenty do and take the Sonic formula in new directions. Shockingly, I love Sandopolis Zone Act 2's gimmick of forcing the player to keep the lights on or face the wrath of vengeful ghosts. It makes the zone one of the hardest in Sonic history but it creates an amazingly tense atmosphere. For a series which is generally pretty easy, the little difficulty spike feels quite welcome.

As you can tell, I really like this game but the one element that pushes it into GOAT territory for me is the way the game's narrative unfolds. Through short cutscenes, little level transitions and environmental details a wonderfully intrepid, Indiana Jones-style adventure unfolds and it's such a delight to experience. It's truly a game that is greater than the sum of it's parts. The improved graphics and sound combine with the solid Sonic gameplay and the little narrative moments to create an unforgettable experience. S3&K is, probably, the game that really made me fall in love with the medium of video games and helped me to see the storytelling potential videogames had.

Sonic 3 is widely consistent and widely improved over its predecessors, and among the classic trilogy, is some of the best Sonic has to offer. You can play as Sonic and speed thru the levels at top speed, play as knuckles and glide thru the level and climb up walls that Sonic could only dream of traversing, or play as Tails and fly all around the level. Sonic 3 introduces the elemental shields to maximize abilities, such as bouncing and immunity to drowning, double jumping and attracting rings to you, and immunity to fire and electricity, with the ability to do a midair dash. The designs for the levels are breathtaking at times, and are the best aesthetics of the trilogy, with a wide range of scenery, from machinery created by Robotnik, to large mushroom forests undergoing seasonal manipulation. There feels to be an equal amount of speed and adventure in this game, compared to 1 and 2, which focused on one or the other, rather than both. There is a lot to do in this game besides just beat the main story, with the introduction of bonus stages, to help you earn a little bit of extra goodies. The wide range of things to do in this game is really cool, even if I don't end up going out of my way to utilize those. The game runs well and has no real major bugs, which is good. The level design for the most part is pretty great, sometimes a little confusing, but never too simple or headache-inducing. They go all out with the gimmicks in this one, and a lot of them are relatively fun to play with. There was really only a couple levels that I did not like. One, really... Carnival Night was just... meh. The bosses in this game are kinda easy for the most part, but they are pretty creative, which I like. What Sonic 3 does over its predecessors is have a story play out in front of your eyes aside from just the main story. Knuckles having a character arc in a 2D game from 1994 with zero dialogue is really cool. Going from helping Eggman by thwarting Sonic, to discovering he had been used by Eggman, who was taking the Master Emerald, Knuckles then helping Sonic the rest of the way to make it to the Death Egg and stop Eggman, its really cool to watch play out, and it is really what makes this game stand out as so great compared to its predecessors. It is a little too long with some weaker levels for me to confidently call it a personal fav or perfect game, but it is a very good one.

You know the drill. I'll rate all the levels individually, average it out, then change the rating a bit based on the rest of the game and my opinions on that.
Angel Island Zone: A great first zone in a Sonic games. It starts as a normal Green Hill-like zone, but there's a great twist of it being set on fire halfway through. It makes for a fantastic zone. 5/5.
Hydrocity Zone: An actually good water zone! A friend of mine says this is the best Sonic zone, and while I wouldn't agree, it's definitely pretty good. You know, this is shaping up to be an amazing Sonic game. 3.5/5.
Marble Garden Zone: UUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH. There are cool ideas here, but on the whole, this stage is pretty bad. Hopefully they cleaned up their act with the next zone. 2/5.
Carnival Night Zone: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. 1.5/5.
Ice Cap Zone: Well, this is actually a solid Sonic zone, if not overrated. The music is also definitely overrated. Yeah, take that, Michael Jackson. Hopefully the next zone keeps up this level of quality. 3/5.
Launch Base Zone: bruh. Cool idea for a zone, though. 2/5.
Mushroom Hill Zone: Another solid Sonic zone, I like this one. 3.5/5.
Flying Battery Zone: It's mid. But the song is awesome. 2.5/5.
Sandopolis Zone: It's....not as bad as people say it is. Of course, I am referring to the first stage. The second stage is pretty bad. 2.5/5.
Lava Reef Zone: This zone is at it's best in the first act, when you're invincible, blasting through walls with the fire powerup. It's a BLAST. The second act isn't as good, but it's not bad either. 4/5.
Hidden Palace Zone: They made a zone out of the scrapped zone from Sonic 2, that's cute. Basically just a cutscene, gameplay-wise. 3/5.
Sky Sanctuary Zone: I am indifferent to this zone, for the most part. I like how it brought back older boss fights, that was neat. But if you fall, you land all the way at the beginning, that was lame. 3/5.
Death Egg Zone: I'm running out of things to say, seriously. 2/5.
Well, that's Sonic 3 & Knux. Is it a good game? Well, no...but is it a horrible game? Again, no. I find it very mid. The zone rating, save for Hidden Palace because it's basically just a cutscene, comes out to 5.75/10. Which is roughly 2.8/5. But what about the rest of the game? Well, the rest of the game definitely impresses where the levels don't. The game looks fantastic. I like the new Sonic sprite, and the levels just look...GOOD. The music, while not as good as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Sonic CD in my opinion, is pretty solid. The special stages, Blue Spheres, are the best in the series so far. I still skipped them all in my playthrough, though. I just found it tedious to stop the game all the time to play these special stages. But I do believe it would be fun to look for and find all the special stages if you really wanted to. But as a whole, so many things about this game just disappointed me. The levels had some standouts, but for the most part, it was boring and tedious. I don't care if this is a hot take. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is mediocre.

The Best.

That may sounds like a bold statement but honestly,only few sonic games that matched how much i had fun playing Sonic 3 + Knuckles,however this replay made me realize some of the things that i thought are perfect then,actually aged worse for me now especially towards latter half of the game(Sonic & Knuckles portion),before i'd get into that i would like to praise what makes Sonic 3 rules over all of 2D sonic for me.

First things first i can't express enough how much i love the added power ups it both makes the gameplay more varied also adds a lot to the fun,it can be argued it makes the game easier but with how consistently challenging Sonic 3 is i don't really think that's an issue could be applied to the new insta shid as well but as it stands they're all still fun. The music and graphics goes without saying as well the music is literally composed by the Michael Jackson team all of them are banger and served to their respective places,while the graphics really shine with how charm and creative it is.

Zones is where i think my biggest gripe came from,on one hand the first half of this game is actually close to perfection with how balanced it was. it's pacing,gimmick,and the overall layout and bosses are much consistent with how great it is especially something like Launch Base,it is anti climatic without the continuation of Sonic & Knuckles but the whole zone made up for it with how much fun i had. Then we get into Sonic & Knuckles portion which if i'm being honest good but it does feels like mixed bag at times due to some of the zones outstays it's welcome and plays into the gimmick too much where it just makes the game less fun than it could've,not saying this issue only exclusively in the latter half i also do feel this way towards Hydrocity act 1 and Carnival Night but it's just more apparent in this portion than the afromentioned Sonic 3 zones,i don't think all of them are this mixed either zones such as Mushroom Hill and Sky Sanctuary are up there with my favorites.

That being said,it does bogs down my love and experience the game quite a lot but that doesn't automatically ruined the game entirely it still is goated because it's highs are just so good that it's hard to acknowledge it's flaws but i do have to acknowledge it's glaring flaws which unfortunately bogged my love for the game down,though at the end of the day it is still the best 2D Sonic game and one of the best 2D platformer of all time.

This is the good Sonic game. All the Juice went to this one. Sonic 1 and 2 Feel like beta tests for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and also Knuckles.

There's so many weird mechanics in this it almost feels like a Kirby (& Knuckles) game. That's the highest compliment I could possibly give a 2d platformer.

I have yet to discover why so many... special people... are into this franchise. So far they are just decent platformers with very good 16 byte arcade graphics that nintencan't. I don't know when the inflation diaper crowd came in. I tremble in both anticipation, fear & Knuckles to find out.

Featuring Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles!

I love Sonic 3K, and I can see why it's widely regarded as one of the best games in the series, it really feels like the full package of 2D Sonic (...and Knuckles).

While Sonic 2 rewarded speed in the level design, 3K emphasizes exploration again in a similar fashion to Sonic CD; the player needs to track down hidden large rings in a level to gain access to the special stages, where Sonic navigates across a maze-like board to activate blue orbs, while steering clear of red ones. Simple in theory, but certainly tricky at times. I would absolutely recommend going out of your way to do these special stages, because you'll unlock the ability to transform into Super Sonic after getting all seven Chaos Emeralds, and blazing through later levels in the Super Saiyan form is a joy. That's enough talk regarding the special stages though, as the actual main level design is the meat of the game.

With over a dozen different levels with multiple acts, Sonic 3K is the longest entry from the classic 2D games, and it's very nice to see how consistent the quality remains throughout its runtime. I'm not going to bring up every stage here (like in my Sonic 1 review), as I don't have extensive thoughts on all of them. There will also be a bunch of inevitable comparisons to other (Sonic) games, as I bear the curse of only recently becoming a fan in 2024 and those games just happen to be fresh in my memory.

Angel Island Zone is an amazing opening level, as it introduces the player right to the design philosophy of 3K and has many easily accessible special stages and multiple of the newly introduced elemental shields. For those who don't know, the elemental shields replace the shield power-up from the previous games and all are special in their own way. The lightning shield allows Sonic to double jump and attract rings, the bubble shield provides a move similar to Bounce Bracelet in Sonic Adventure 2 and allows him to breathe underwater (so the bubbles aren't required), while the fire shield gives immunity to fire (including lava) and a mid-air dash. In Angel Island Zone no shield is particularly better than another, so it's a good place to try their abilities before using them in later levels which make extensive use of their specific traits. One of those levels is Hydrocity Zone, which follows directly afterwards - here the use of the bubble shield is encouraged, as the bubble placements in the levels are only at certain spots and the ability to freely navigate underwater is very important if you actually want to explore there to find special stages without a rush. Marble Garden is arguably the longest and most confusing stage in the game, but it's still enjoyable in its own way. Carnival Night is plenty of fun to rush through too and has some nice underwater segments, while Ice Cap Zone is one of my favorites in the game with the snowboarding intro and overall satisfying level structure - this is particularly cool, because I was already very fond of Ice Cap in Sonic Adventure 1. Meanwhile, Flying Battery Zone is the result of "what if we made Wing Fortress Zone but actually good", taking the airship aesthetic of that level and making it more fun and sightreadable and Sandopolis is an innovative desert level, where the second half reminded me a lot of Pyramid Cave in Sonic Adventure 2. Afterwards follows Lava Reef Zone, which felt very reminiscent of Celeste's Core to me, but also stood out from the rest with its more vertical level design and great soundtrack, causing it to quickly become a favorite. Everything is rounded off with the Death Egg Zone, which gave me huge SA2 vibes again, as the atmosphere felt quite similar to the ARK levels in that game, same with the gravity switching mechanic. The final boss for 3K was also surprisingly fun compared to the other classic 2D entries, and Doomsday Zone is a great bonus for players who got all the Chaos Emeralds. Man, I love Super Sonic, no matter how basic the idea behind him is.

Sonic 3's soundtrack is an interesting one to discuss, as I completed the game through Sonic Origins, which uses the prototype versions of a few songs, as I believe the licensing for Michael Jackson's songs ran out (don't quote me on this). I don't think those prototype versions are as horrible as some make them out to be, and I actually prefer Carnival Night's prototype rendition to the original. Can't say the same for Ice Cap though, the original song is iconic for a good reason and I love how it ties in with the snowboard section at the beginning. The prototype version just sounds a bit too upbeat for my taste here, considering the original track conveys the gloomy feeling of an icy cave perfectly fine. Putting the differences of MJ and prototype songs aside, some other songs I thoroughly enjoy are Angel Island Zone, Hydrocity Zone (Act 1) and Lava Reef Zone (Act 1).

Even 30 years after its original release, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles managed to provide me with a surprisingly good time and I hope that many more people will continue to play it over the years. I really wish I would have grown up with the Sonic games in my childhood...

Я не хейтер Соника. Трудно недооценивать вклад маскота SEGA в память юных геймеров девяностых и поп-культуры в принципе. Но я хейтер злополучной фабулы, обязывавшей тех самых геймеров перепроходить одну игру от корки до корки бесчисленное количество раз ввиду ограниченного количества жизней. И нет, это не трай контент, это образ жизни жука самоёба, которому не жалко собственного свободного времени и нервов. Трай контент это дрочить тот или иной сегмент с его же начала, а не душиться перепрохождением предшествующих ему сегментов. К чему я это? Да к тому что преемственные проблемы так никуда и не исчезли, а вновь повторяться я не намерен. Прижимать вас будут, падать в пропасти будете, всё неизменно. Более того, теперь вдобавок к этому порой ещё и таймер ощутим. А значит соси и переигрывай всю игру заново, да-да. ТАЙМЕР. В ИГРЕ ПРО СКОРОСТНОГО ЕЖА. ИДИТЕ НАХУЙ. Так что вместо ожидаемых и очевидных изъянов сразу перейду к хоть каким-то преимуществам в рамках самой линейки.
Не знаком с предысторией игры, и как в подзаголовке оказалось то самое & KNUCKLES, но не сомневаюсь, что пошло оно только на пользу. Тут же с порога нас встречают весомой вариативностью, предоставляя на выбор аж четыре пути прохождения - Соник, Соник с Тейлзом, Тейлз, Наклз. Играл я за последнего и в кои-то веки ощутил хоть какую-то свежесть в геймплее. В действительности, кто вообще захочет играть за Соника, если остальные герои имеют все те же самые способности и даже больше? Хотя мой любимый персонаж, конечно, шипастая снизу платформа, которая может прижать и к потолку.
Уровни стали более разнообразными и располагающими к себе, нежели во второй части. Относительно сносное варево необычных гиммиков по продвижению во всевозможных направлениях. Однако визуально многие уровни лишены креативной идентичности уникального мира, преобладавшей в первой части, взамен предоставляя банальщину вроде песочной локации со скорпионами или снежной локации с пингвинами.
Да пожалуй и всё, больше в положительную сторону отметить нечего. Игра как по мне довольно невзрачная и незапоминающаяся, но в отличие от Соника 2, это хотя бы можно назвать полноценным продолжением, привносящим хоть что-то новое. Но не могу не упомянуть, что здесь наверное одни из худших боссов во всей 2D квадрологии. Такого говна, контрастирующего с более менее проходимыми уровнями я не видал даже в нелюбимом мной сиквеле. Особенно секции с зажимающимся пространством, из которого надо наспех выбежать. Пройти всю зону, под конец в край задушившись на боссе - золотой стандарт сей игры. Хотя финальный босс всё же поприятнее всего того скопа говна, поочерёдно вывалившегося на нас в конце второй части. И на том спасибо.