A step forward and a step back. Sonic 3 is more consistent than Sonic 1, far more elaborate than any of its predecessors, but doesn't quite reach the level of CD.
3K's most interesting addition is the elemental shields. Previous Sonic games had the speed shoes, a power-up that could be found in levels which uncapped Sonic's top speed and acceleration, allowing the player to pull off feats that would otherwise be impossible. In 1 and CD, it was used to force players to think harder about what the fastest route through levels really was, as they were often placed in out of the way locations which may have seemed slow at first, but which afforded so many more possibilities than ignoring them upon experimentation. 2 fumbled the bag quite a bit in this regard by often giving them to the player for free, but 3K elaborates on the idea of the speed shoes in the spirit of 1 and CD greatly by carrying over their use of it, but with new and interesting abilities which create unique traversal options for players who are skilled enough to hold onto them long enough without getting hit to make proper use of them. It's frankly an ingenious addition.
The insta-shield or the double spin attack is also another fantastic addition, allowing players to phase through enemy and projectile hitboxes with a super precise button press while also extending Sonic's own hitbox to hit out of reach foes to make bouncing on them less strict. All it does is add another layer of skill to keeping the flow going.
This game isn't all positives though. With the introduction of Takashi Iizuka as a level designer, his most well-known characteristic of indulgence in shallow spectacle where control is taken away from the player to show them something visually striking but which gets in the way of the fluid, player controlled experience first rears its ugly head here. Sonic thrives on the variables in its mechanics. So anything which interrupts or gets in the way of that is a problem. It's not a constant problem, but it certainly is one. This includes instances of the player being stopped dead in their tracks unavoidably and forced to use the spindash. This could hardly be called a challenge as much as an example of call-and-response. It sucks on two levels in that it forces the player to stop, but also that it takes away the player's agency by only affording them one method of progression, which is the exact opposite of the mechanical strengths of this series. "stop-and-go" is the term for this trait, and it's a problem.
Sonic 3 is a spectacular game, in more ways than one...On the one hand, it has some stellar level design following in the footsteps of 1 and CD. On the other, it similar to Sonic 2, is the beginning of what will gradually become one of the series' worst trends.
3K's most interesting addition is the elemental shields. Previous Sonic games had the speed shoes, a power-up that could be found in levels which uncapped Sonic's top speed and acceleration, allowing the player to pull off feats that would otherwise be impossible. In 1 and CD, it was used to force players to think harder about what the fastest route through levels really was, as they were often placed in out of the way locations which may have seemed slow at first, but which afforded so many more possibilities than ignoring them upon experimentation. 2 fumbled the bag quite a bit in this regard by often giving them to the player for free, but 3K elaborates on the idea of the speed shoes in the spirit of 1 and CD greatly by carrying over their use of it, but with new and interesting abilities which create unique traversal options for players who are skilled enough to hold onto them long enough without getting hit to make proper use of them. It's frankly an ingenious addition.
The insta-shield or the double spin attack is also another fantastic addition, allowing players to phase through enemy and projectile hitboxes with a super precise button press while also extending Sonic's own hitbox to hit out of reach foes to make bouncing on them less strict. All it does is add another layer of skill to keeping the flow going.
This game isn't all positives though. With the introduction of Takashi Iizuka as a level designer, his most well-known characteristic of indulgence in shallow spectacle where control is taken away from the player to show them something visually striking but which gets in the way of the fluid, player controlled experience first rears its ugly head here. Sonic thrives on the variables in its mechanics. So anything which interrupts or gets in the way of that is a problem. It's not a constant problem, but it certainly is one. This includes instances of the player being stopped dead in their tracks unavoidably and forced to use the spindash. This could hardly be called a challenge as much as an example of call-and-response. It sucks on two levels in that it forces the player to stop, but also that it takes away the player's agency by only affording them one method of progression, which is the exact opposite of the mechanical strengths of this series. "stop-and-go" is the term for this trait, and it's a problem.
Sonic 3 is a spectacular game, in more ways than one...On the one hand, it has some stellar level design following in the footsteps of 1 and CD. On the other, it similar to Sonic 2, is the beginning of what will gradually become one of the series' worst trends.