(This is the 91st game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)
As part of this challenge, I've been going through these Sonic games as fast as, well, Sonic, and just like that, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the Sonic series' fourth attempt to make me a fan of the franchise. It's not like I think these are bad games, definitely not, but there are some pretty key things about Sonic games that do not align with my tastes, and that has been the case for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic CD, though Sonic CD has been the game I enjoyed the most so far.
I'm going to explain my likes and dislikes about the Sonic series below and whether this game does something different in those regards, but going in, I didn't really expect anything different here than what Sonic fans got up to this point. And that's more than OK, considering that this is a beloved series of many gamers. Additionally, this is the 4th Sonic game for the Genesis / Sega CD in just 3 years, so I imagine that innovation will be kept to a minimum simply due to time constraints. Looking at this game's wiki, that seems to be the case, as Sonic the Hedgehog would not only not include certain features that would later be turned into Sonic 3D Blast, but there is also a large part of the game that was simply cut and later republished as Sonic & Knuckles. Sonic & Knuckles' cartridge has an adapter that lets you attach Sonic 3 to it, which turns both games into Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in case you are interested in that. I'm only reviewing Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
At the beginning of the game, Sonic has the Chaos Emeralds but gets them stolen from him by Knuckles the Echidna, a new character in the Sonic series at this point in time. Knuckles is the last of his kind living on the "Angel Island", on which the Death Egg of Dr Robotnik crash-lands prior to the start of this game. Knuckles guards the "Master Emerald", which gives Angel Island its levitational power, so Dr Robotnik uses this opportunity to pit Sonic and Knuckles against each other by telling Knuckles that Sonic is attempting to steal the Master Emerald.
For the game itself, that's pretty much it. Knuckles makes life harder on Sonic during the game but there is very little in terms of story here, not unlike other Sonic and platforming games in general at the time. As per usual, this is fine, as it is not expected, especially for a game in 1994, where story cutscenes would likely damage the experience more by interrupting it than enhancing it.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is, to me, the worst Sonic game to date in terms of gameplay. On the one hand, it innovates very little from the formula of the other Sonic games. If you enjoyed those, you will enjoy this game too for the most part, so no need to read on. In the following however, I will explain what exactly irked me more than usual in this game, especially since it is coming off the heels of Sega CD and Sonic 2, both of which are games that I praised for innovating enough in terms of controls, gameplay and level design.
The core gameplay idea behind this Sonic game is the same as with the others. Enter a large level with multiple ways to traverse to the exit, explore to find secret areas, defeat a boss at the end of the zone and in between, learn the flow of the level to go through it without losing one of your limited lives. As per usual, Sonic has a lot of speed, and as per usual, you are supposed to use this speed during appropriate times.
Because, AS PER USUAL, this Sonic game has terrible enemy placement and enemies appearing a millisecond before you can process them as you speed through any area of any level. So, while controlling a fast character, you once again tip-toe around levels once you realize that no matter where you go, unfair threats look to take your rings from you. You then have to recover those rings, because carrying at least one ring means you won't die from your next hit. Unfortunately, in this game, rings are unrecoverable for a good 2-3 seconds after you get hit, so I found myself either recovering very few even if I had dozens on me, or recovering 0. For example, there is this one enemy that has spikes and shoots three balls diagonally upwards. Almost always, it hit me. Half the time, I couldn't recover any rings. This means I had to tip toe next to it to wait for it shoot the balls in order to jump on top of it. Sonic moves like he is gliding on ice however, so the controls are not nearly as tight as you would want them to. Plus, input detection is not as immediate as you would need it to be either. Ultimately, you need to get close enough to time the jump, you need to stay away far enough to not touch the enemy and you can't stay away too far, otherwise you won't time the jump within that short time frame between the three balls that are shot. This would lead me to die countless times to one of these things as I try to do a very simple thing of just jumping on top of this one goddamn enemy.
Enemy design in this game is horrible in general, but there is no enemy more infuriating than that fucking piranha that tries to bite you underwater. It won't let go, you can't do anything about it, so 100% of the time, this means you are just waiting 10 to 15 seconds until Sonic can't hold his breath anymore and dies. Fucking terrible. You fall downwards a lot and can't see these piranhas, so if you jump downwards unfavorably, you literally cannot do anything against them. One of my biggest gripes in any video game is having to jump down from somewhere without seeing enemies/obstacles, and this game's challenge is simply made out of this trope.
Two other things I dislike in Sonic 3 are 1) the special stages, which I think are the worst of all Sonic games so far (you collect blue balls and have to quickly change direction, where you fight the game's controls more than anything) and 2) Tails now being completely forced on you. In Sonic 2, you could go to the options menu and remove Tails, but here, you can't. Tails does almost nothing in 1-player mode but constantly die and distract you. Tails for example cannot breathe underwater, and has his own timer appear for whatever reason, which confuses you into thinking that you need air yourself. The worst fucking part is when I stood near the air bubbles with 2 seconds to go on my own timer, jumped up to grab one of the air bubbles and have FUCKING TAILS STEAL IT FROM ME. I died after those 2 seconds and quit the game right after.
Again, Sonic games are not objectively bad, despite the overwhelming negativity here, but at their best, the 2D platformers are tolerable to me, and at their worst, like here, they're downright terrible to play.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10
The saving grace for Sonic games comes from their soundtrack. As with all other Sonic games (minus the Sega CD boss fight theme), this game has a good soundtrack as well. From what I've listened to, the save select screen's theme is funnily enough my favorite. The worst track here by far is the one for the new special stage, which makes the special stage even less tolerable than it already was to me.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
I can only really say the same thing here that I was able to for the other Sonic games. They are some of the best-looking games on the Genesis, some of the better looking games of the 16-bit era and all that applies to Sonic 3 as well. At the same time, Sonic levels often have a cluttered quality to them and can be overdesigned visually, which is not as bad herre as in Sonic 2, but still present.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 7/10
Not much to say here for this game. It plays, sounds and feels like a Sonic game. The only thing I dislike here in that sense are the underwater levels, which are a lot more present here than in the other Sonic games unfortunately, and they usually are my least favorite part.
CONTENT | 5/10
The main content is similar to what you have come to expect from the other Sonic games, only worse in my opinion due to the issues I mentioned under 'Gameplay'. The special stage here is the worst out of the 4 16-bit Sonic games in my opinion and this game doesn't innovate in any way here, a far cry of the effort that was put into Sonic CD in '93.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10
Levels are long as per usual and you can go through them in multiple different ways once again. There are a lot of rings to collect, Chaos Emeralds to find through the special stages and bosses to battle, but the in between issues of enemy placement and the terrible way through which this game achieves its difficulty makes this game a step down from the other Sonic games, where I had complained about the enemy placement as well, but never at the level of Sonic 3.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
Play Sonic 1, 2 and Sonic CD instead of this. Sonic 3 innovates the least out of all these games and feels like a step back for the most part. Knuckles' debut is cool but that's really all you get here.
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
Less replay value than for Sonic 2 and CD, but Sonic games always have plenty of secret areas to find and Chaos Emeralds to collect, so replay value is present at usual levels.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 55/100
Sonic games eminate high production values, and there certainly was a lot of money poured into making them once Sonic 2 took off as it did, but money can't buy creativity, and Sonic 3 to me is the proof of it. The core system for Sonic games is in place, and Sonic 3 feels like those were simply re-used with little thought given to how the levels work. Based on the very good reviews the game got at the time, I realize I'm in the minority with this thinking, but I truly did not have a good time with this game. Its above-average visually and through its soundtrack as per usual, and when the game actually flows well it's fun like the others can be, but the annoyances that enemy placement and pop-ups present are more discernible here than they ever were.
As part of this challenge, I've been going through these Sonic games as fast as, well, Sonic, and just like that, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the Sonic series' fourth attempt to make me a fan of the franchise. It's not like I think these are bad games, definitely not, but there are some pretty key things about Sonic games that do not align with my tastes, and that has been the case for Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic CD, though Sonic CD has been the game I enjoyed the most so far.
I'm going to explain my likes and dislikes about the Sonic series below and whether this game does something different in those regards, but going in, I didn't really expect anything different here than what Sonic fans got up to this point. And that's more than OK, considering that this is a beloved series of many gamers. Additionally, this is the 4th Sonic game for the Genesis / Sega CD in just 3 years, so I imagine that innovation will be kept to a minimum simply due to time constraints. Looking at this game's wiki, that seems to be the case, as Sonic the Hedgehog would not only not include certain features that would later be turned into Sonic 3D Blast, but there is also a large part of the game that was simply cut and later republished as Sonic & Knuckles. Sonic & Knuckles' cartridge has an adapter that lets you attach Sonic 3 to it, which turns both games into Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in case you are interested in that. I'm only reviewing Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
STORYTELLING/CHARACTERS | 2/10
At the beginning of the game, Sonic has the Chaos Emeralds but gets them stolen from him by Knuckles the Echidna, a new character in the Sonic series at this point in time. Knuckles is the last of his kind living on the "Angel Island", on which the Death Egg of Dr Robotnik crash-lands prior to the start of this game. Knuckles guards the "Master Emerald", which gives Angel Island its levitational power, so Dr Robotnik uses this opportunity to pit Sonic and Knuckles against each other by telling Knuckles that Sonic is attempting to steal the Master Emerald.
For the game itself, that's pretty much it. Knuckles makes life harder on Sonic during the game but there is very little in terms of story here, not unlike other Sonic and platforming games in general at the time. As per usual, this is fine, as it is not expected, especially for a game in 1994, where story cutscenes would likely damage the experience more by interrupting it than enhancing it.
GAMEPLAY | 9/20
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is, to me, the worst Sonic game to date in terms of gameplay. On the one hand, it innovates very little from the formula of the other Sonic games. If you enjoyed those, you will enjoy this game too for the most part, so no need to read on. In the following however, I will explain what exactly irked me more than usual in this game, especially since it is coming off the heels of Sega CD and Sonic 2, both of which are games that I praised for innovating enough in terms of controls, gameplay and level design.
The core gameplay idea behind this Sonic game is the same as with the others. Enter a large level with multiple ways to traverse to the exit, explore to find secret areas, defeat a boss at the end of the zone and in between, learn the flow of the level to go through it without losing one of your limited lives. As per usual, Sonic has a lot of speed, and as per usual, you are supposed to use this speed during appropriate times.
Because, AS PER USUAL, this Sonic game has terrible enemy placement and enemies appearing a millisecond before you can process them as you speed through any area of any level. So, while controlling a fast character, you once again tip-toe around levels once you realize that no matter where you go, unfair threats look to take your rings from you. You then have to recover those rings, because carrying at least one ring means you won't die from your next hit. Unfortunately, in this game, rings are unrecoverable for a good 2-3 seconds after you get hit, so I found myself either recovering very few even if I had dozens on me, or recovering 0. For example, there is this one enemy that has spikes and shoots three balls diagonally upwards. Almost always, it hit me. Half the time, I couldn't recover any rings. This means I had to tip toe next to it to wait for it shoot the balls in order to jump on top of it. Sonic moves like he is gliding on ice however, so the controls are not nearly as tight as you would want them to. Plus, input detection is not as immediate as you would need it to be either. Ultimately, you need to get close enough to time the jump, you need to stay away far enough to not touch the enemy and you can't stay away too far, otherwise you won't time the jump within that short time frame between the three balls that are shot. This would lead me to die countless times to one of these things as I try to do a very simple thing of just jumping on top of this one goddamn enemy.
Enemy design in this game is horrible in general, but there is no enemy more infuriating than that fucking piranha that tries to bite you underwater. It won't let go, you can't do anything about it, so 100% of the time, this means you are just waiting 10 to 15 seconds until Sonic can't hold his breath anymore and dies. Fucking terrible. You fall downwards a lot and can't see these piranhas, so if you jump downwards unfavorably, you literally cannot do anything against them. One of my biggest gripes in any video game is having to jump down from somewhere without seeing enemies/obstacles, and this game's challenge is simply made out of this trope.
Two other things I dislike in Sonic 3 are 1) the special stages, which I think are the worst of all Sonic games so far (you collect blue balls and have to quickly change direction, where you fight the game's controls more than anything) and 2) Tails now being completely forced on you. In Sonic 2, you could go to the options menu and remove Tails, but here, you can't. Tails does almost nothing in 1-player mode but constantly die and distract you. Tails for example cannot breathe underwater, and has his own timer appear for whatever reason, which confuses you into thinking that you need air yourself. The worst fucking part is when I stood near the air bubbles with 2 seconds to go on my own timer, jumped up to grab one of the air bubbles and have FUCKING TAILS STEAL IT FROM ME. I died after those 2 seconds and quit the game right after.
Again, Sonic games are not objectively bad, despite the overwhelming negativity here, but at their best, the 2D platformers are tolerable to me, and at their worst, like here, they're downright terrible to play.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10
The saving grace for Sonic games comes from their soundtrack. As with all other Sonic games (minus the Sega CD boss fight theme), this game has a good soundtrack as well. From what I've listened to, the save select screen's theme is funnily enough my favorite. The worst track here by far is the one for the new special stage, which makes the special stage even less tolerable than it already was to me.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
I can only really say the same thing here that I was able to for the other Sonic games. They are some of the best-looking games on the Genesis, some of the better looking games of the 16-bit era and all that applies to Sonic 3 as well. At the same time, Sonic levels often have a cluttered quality to them and can be overdesigned visually, which is not as bad herre as in Sonic 2, but still present.
ATMOSPHERE/IMMERSION | 7/10
Not much to say here for this game. It plays, sounds and feels like a Sonic game. The only thing I dislike here in that sense are the underwater levels, which are a lot more present here than in the other Sonic games unfortunately, and they usually are my least favorite part.
CONTENT | 5/10
The main content is similar to what you have come to expect from the other Sonic games, only worse in my opinion due to the issues I mentioned under 'Gameplay'. The special stage here is the worst out of the 4 16-bit Sonic games in my opinion and this game doesn't innovate in any way here, a far cry of the effort that was put into Sonic CD in '93.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 5/10
Levels are long as per usual and you can go through them in multiple different ways once again. There are a lot of rings to collect, Chaos Emeralds to find through the special stages and bosses to battle, but the in between issues of enemy placement and the terrible way through which this game achieves its difficulty makes this game a step down from the other Sonic games, where I had complained about the enemy placement as well, but never at the level of Sonic 3.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 3/10
Play Sonic 1, 2 and Sonic CD instead of this. Sonic 3 innovates the least out of all these games and feels like a step back for the most part. Knuckles' debut is cool but that's really all you get here.
REPLAYABILITY | 3/5
Less replay value than for Sonic 2 and CD, but Sonic games always have plenty of secret areas to find and Chaos Emeralds to collect, so replay value is present at usual levels.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
Works well at all times.
OVERALL | 55/100
Sonic games eminate high production values, and there certainly was a lot of money poured into making them once Sonic 2 took off as it did, but money can't buy creativity, and Sonic 3 to me is the proof of it. The core system for Sonic games is in place, and Sonic 3 feels like those were simply re-used with little thought given to how the levels work. Based on the very good reviews the game got at the time, I realize I'm in the minority with this thinking, but I truly did not have a good time with this game. Its above-average visually and through its soundtrack as per usual, and when the game actually flows well it's fun like the others can be, but the annoyances that enemy placement and pop-ups present are more discernible here than they ever were.