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Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ3 Sonikku za Hejjihoggu Surī?), also known as simply Sonic 3 (ソニック3 Sonikku Surī?), is a 2D platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive in the first quarter of 1994.

The game picks up after the events of its predecessor, Sonic the Hedgehog 2. When the badly damaged Death Egg re-enters the earth's atmosphere, it lands on "Angel Island", an island that floats with the power of the Master Emerald. Having survived his previous encounter with Sonic at his space station, the infamous Dr. Eggman tricks the island's guardian, Knuckles the Echidna, into believing that the blue hedgehog is after the Chaos Emeralds, while he begins repairing his spaceship. Sonic and Tails must travel through Angel Island to destroy the Death Egg for good whilst dealing with the misguided echidna along the way.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is actually but one of the two parts of a grander adventure. However, due to time constraints, the game was split into two.[6] The second part, Sonic & Knuckles, came out a few months later in the same year, with a unique "lock-on technology" that allows the player to combine both titles' cartridges to get the original, complete experience: Sonic 3 & Knuckles.[7]

Plot[]

Sonic 3 title screen

The title screen of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Following immediately after the events of the West Side Island incident, Dr. Eggman's damaged Death Egg is on a collision course towards the planet like a giant fireball. Lying in its path towards the surface of the planet however, is a floating landmass with towering mountains and spread out forests: the legendary Angel Island.[8] There, Knuckles the Echidna, who is also the island's guardian, is patrolling the island's altar as he usually does, his duty being to protect the seven Chaos Emeralds that control the power of the "Pillar" that sleeps in the depths of the island and keeps the island and its Animals safe. As Knuckles tries to make sure that there is nothing strange going on with any of the Chaos Emeralds however, the Emeralds begin shining with a momentary flash of light, and before he can react to it, they begin vibrating abnormally, leaving the echidna bewildered by this unknown phenomenon. As the Chaos Emeralds' vibrations grow more intense, a bright flash erupts before Knuckles as the vibrations reach their climax, knocking him out.[9] It is in this moment that the Death Egg collides with Angel Island. This tremendous impact destroys mountains and forests on the island and makes the floating island fall into the ocean and create a giant tsunami upon hitting the sea's surface. Fortunately, the island does not sink to the bottom of the ocean, instead staying slightly above the sea as if nothing has happened.[8]

Having escaped the fallen Death Egg, Dr. Eggman picks up the signal from a seemingly giant Chaos Emerald from a crack in the island created by the spaceship's impact. Realizing that harnessing the power of that Emerald would allow him to re-launch the Death Egg, Eggman quickly builds a base on Angel Island in order to locate the Chaos Emeralds. In addition, he starts turning the local Animals into Badniks and remodeling Angel Island's nature into a more severe one with an environment-changing machine.[8]

In the meantime, Knuckles regains consciousness and discovers his body has been thrown out of the altar. Discovering the altar in a partially destroyed state, Knuckles hurries back to the altar, only to discover that the Chaos Emeralds have vanished without a trace. Leaving the altar dumbfounded, Knuckles soon noticed the Death Egg in a lake nearby. This sight makes Knuckles deduce that the Death Egg is a legendary dragon described in the Chaos Emerald's altar, which states that it will bring disaster to the island.[9]

Knuckles spends the next few days patrolling the altar, but cannot find any traces of the Chaos Emeralds. Refusing to give up though, Knuckles begins searching every nook and cranny of Angel Island until he encounters Dr. Eggman in a forest. Upon learning that Knuckles is the guardian of the Chaos Emeralds, the doctor tells him lies that he is a kind scientist who has come to investigate the Death Egg. He also "warns" him that he is being followed by an evil hedgehog named Sonic who is disrupting his research and has stolen the island's Chaos Emeralds. Believing Eggman's lies, Knuckles teams up with him to foil Sonic when he arrives.[9][10]

A few days after the Death Egg's crash, on an island far away from where the Death Egg impacted Angel Island, Tails suddenly catches a strong Chaos Emerald signal on the Jewel Radar he has invented. Pondering if the giant tsunami that happened recently is connected to this, Tails hurries out to find Sonic. As Sonic himself tries to nap on the beach, he finds a small ring with ancient letters craved in on it drifting along the shore. Picking it up, Sonic starts to remember a legend about a certain "island" that was once a part of a continent. According to this legend, an exceptional civilization lived there and built a peaceful and wealthy society using the energy of a certain "power stone". However, when a rogue faction of elders tried to seize the power stones for themselves, they accidentally made their energy go awry, causing their entire civilization to be destroyed in an instant. After that, it was said that the gods came down from the sky and restored part of the civilization as an "island" and hoisted it into the sky, along with the power stone. Driven by strong, unexplainable nostalgia, Sonic resolves to set out on another adventure.[8]

Sonic 3 Intro 4

Sonic and Tails meeting Knuckles for the first time.

Arriving at Angel Island with the Tornado, Sonic uses the seven Chaos Emeralds he had acquired prior to turn into Super Sonic and begins exploring the floating island while Tails tries to follow. Shortly after arriving on the island however, Knuckles pulls off a cheap shot on Sonic from below, which forces Sonic to de-transform and drop all of the Chaos Emeralds.[10] Knuckles proceeds to take the Chaos Emeralds before leaving. Now having to retrieve the Emeralds again and stop Dr. Eggman, Sonic and Tails make their way through the island, dealing with Eggman's various attacks and Knuckles' antics along the way.

Eventually, Sonic and Tails arrive at Launch Base Zone, Dr. Eggman's base where he has almost completed the re-building of the Death Egg. At the end of this Zone, the Death Egg is ready to take off. To reach the space station, Sonic and Tails hitch a ride in an Egg Mobile nearby, but Knuckles keeps them from proceeding with it. Fortunately, local tremors causes Knuckles to lose his balance and fall down from the pillar he is on, allowing the heroes free passage. In the end, the duo manages to jump onto the Death Egg just as it starts taking off. Here, Eggman returns to defeat the two through excessive force with the Big Arms. However, that force proves to be his own undoing. When Sonic defeats Eggman once more, the battle has already taken its toll on the Death Egg during a critical point of its launch. As the platform Sonic and Tails are standing on falls apart from the Death Egg, the space station plummets back to Angel Island while the two watch from afar, then seemingly explodes (which proved false, as Sonic & Knuckles reveals it simply crashed again).[10] After the credits, a post-credits scene will play, which will depend on the player's actions:

  • If the player has not collected the 7 Chaos Emeralds, the post-credits scene will show Eggman and Knuckles laughing, with the latter juggling any of the Chaos Emeralds the player did not collect with his left hand. The text "TRY AGAIN" will appear as well, similar to the original Sonic the Hedgehog game.
  • If the player has managed to collect all the Chaos Emeralds, the scene will show Sonic and Tails posing in front of the "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3" logo.

Characters[]

Image Character Biography
Sonicthe20Hedgehog20320Japan Sonic the Hedgehog You know him as the world's fastest sonic-speed hedgehog. In this adventure, he plays a major role on the legendary "Floating Island".[11]
Tails 4 Miles "Tails" Prower Sonic's sidekick and an energetic fox with two tails. He flies through the sky and helps Sonic in his adventures.[11]
CD Eggman Dr. Eggman The evil genius scientist appears again. Will he get the Chaos Emeralds and become the ruler of the world? Or will he be a perpetual loser?[11]

Gameplay[]

Sonic 3 Angel Island Zone 10

Sonic and Tails in Angel Island Zone, the first Zone in the game.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a side-scrolling 2D platforming video game which plays similar to past Sonic games. Players can control either Sonic or Tails. They can also play as Sonic while Tails is controlled by either a second player or the AI. Both of these characters can run and jump as their basic abilities.

The goal of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is to beat a series of Acts in less than ten minutes. In these Acts, the player can find many Gold Rings, which serve as their playable character's main method of protection. If a character is hit while having at least one Gold Ring, they will survive with the cost of losing all their Gold Rings. However, if the playable character is hit without any Gold Rings, they will lose a life and must restart the current Act from the beginning or at the last Star Post. Additionally, the player can also lose a life if they fail to reach the end of an Act within the time limit, get crushed, fall into a bottomless pit or drown underwater. If Sonic and/or Tails run out of lives, they'll get a Game Over, but the player can resume playing by using Continues.

The secondary objective of the game is to find the Chaos Emeralds. To do so, the player must enter a Special Stage within a Zone and upon completing it, they will be awarded with an Emerald. If all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, the good ending occurs. Additionally, if Sonic gathers all of the Emeralds, he can turn into Super Sonic during gameplay.

Scoring system[]

Controls[]

Button formation[12] Movement
Sonic-S3&K Sonic Miles-Tails-S3&K Tails
Controlpadds left/right Move
Controlpadds up Look up
Controlpadds down Crouch
Sega Genesis A Button/Sega Genesis B Button/Sega Genesis C Button Super Spin Attack
Controlpadds left/right + Controlpadds down Spin Attack
Controlpadds down + Sega Genesis A Button/Sega Genesis B Button/Sega Genesis C Button Spin Dash Attack
Sega Genesis A Button/Sega Genesis B Button/Sega Genesis C Button x2 Insta-Shield Fly/Swim

Objects[]

Items[]

Gimmicks and obstacles[]

Characters[]

Playable[]

Non-playable[]

Enemies[]

Zones[]

The game features six Zones, each with two Acts. Also, for the first time in the series, each Act has a boss fight at the end, with the player facing a mini-boss in the first Act. And later on, that Zone's main boss in the second Act.

  1. Angel Island Zone: A tranquil jungle that is set ablaze by Dr. Eggman after Sonic and Tails arrive. The mini-boss is one of the hovering flame drones that burned the entire jungle into a massive wildfire. Sonic and/or Tails faces off against Dr. Eggman's own flame-wielding vehicle at a waterfall.
  2. Hydrocity Zone: The inner workings of a complex dam from the echidna age. After tangling with a mini-boss that can spin Sonic and Tails in a whirlpool, Eggman tries to stop them with his own whirlpool inducer as well as depth charges.
  3. Marble Garden Zone: The marble ruins of an ancient civilization. The mini-boss uses a pair of drills to attack Sonic and Tails, both directly and by drilling into the rock above and raining debris on their heads. Eggman attempts to crush the pair under the collapsing ruins, and when Tails airlifts Sonic out of danger, charges at them directly with his drill. This is the only Zone without any water to drown Sonic or Tails, though tar pits can still drag the heroes down and kill them.
  4. Carnival Night Zone: Tails drops Sonic into a playful carnival filled with balloons, pinball bumpers, and cannons to launch from. After Sonic and Tails survive the mini-boss on a slowly eroding platform, they face Eggman, who this time drops a large sphere and uses it to create an electric storm that draws the pair towards its discharge.
  5. IceCap Zone: An icy area that takes place within an icy cavern and within icebergs. The level contains vents that shoot out cold bursts that freeze and harm Sonic. At the end of Act 1, a snow machine that spins snow at Sonic or Tails tries to crush them. Eggman attacks in Act 2 in a machine that that has a spiked platform drop down and fires the freezing bursts in a pattern at Sonic.
  6. Launch Base Zone: Eggman's site that houses the stricken Death Egg, with spinning elevators for facilitation of travel and alarms to keep out intruders. The mini-boss uses two flailing arms. Eggman uses three different weapons to stop Sonic and Tails: first, a static projectile launcher at the foot of the Death Egg. When that fails, Eggman flees to the Death Egg and Sonic chases after, leaving Tails behind. After boarding, Eggman employs a rocket armed with lasers to fight Sonic, and then finally resorts to a large pair of arms (possibly inspired by his power suit at the end of Sonic 2) to grab Sonic in a ball and slam him into the floor.

Bonus Stage[]

As in previous Sonic games, Star Posts are scattered throughout each Act to save the player's progress. Furthermore, if the playable character has collected at least 50 Rings and hits a Starpost, a bright halo of stars will float above it, which the playable character can then jump through to access the Bonus Stage. The Bonus Stage is a large Gumball Machine in which the playable character constantly falls down. Springs and bumpers on the side of the walls make sure they stay in the air, but whenever they hit one it disappears. Each time they pass the slot of the Gumball Machine it releases a gumball with a bonus item in it, which the player can then grab. Bonuses include Shields, Gold Rings and lives. Additionally, black balls bump the playable character down while transparent balls contain nothing. The Stage ends when the playable character falls to the bottom of the stage offscreen.

Special Stages[]

Special Stages are entered by jumping through Giant Rings hidden in the scenery, with multiple of these being found in each Act. In addition, the player is not required to collect any amount of regular Rings to enter the stage.

The Special Stages themselves are three-dimensional and spherical in lay-out. The playable character moves across the surface of a giant, checkered orb and has to hit a set amount Blue Spheres while dodging bumpers and Red Spheres. As time goes by, the player's movement will increase, which raises the danger of touching a Red Sphere. Sometimes Blue Spheres are found in a square formation. If the playable character checks all Blue Spheres around the sides of a square, the field turns into Gold Rings. Collecting 50 Rings gains a Continue, and collecting all possible Gold Rings in the stage gains a "Perfect" bonus of 50,000 points (equal to an extra life).

The playable character is rewarded with a Chaos Emerald when they have collected all Blue Spheres in the stage. Should they touch any of the Red Spheres, however, the Stage will abruptly end and the player is transported back to the Zone.

Bosses[]

Mid-bosses[]

  1. Fire Breath (Angel Island Zone) (first appearance)
  2. Big Shaker (Hydrocity Zone) (first appearance)
  3. Tunnelbot (Marble Garden Zone) (first appearance)
  4. Bowling Spin (Carnival Night Zone) (first appearance)
  5. Big Icedus (IceCap Zone) (first appearance)
  6. Twin Hammer (Launch Base Zone) (first appearance)

Bosses[]

  1. Egg Scorcher Mk. III (Angel Island Zone) (first appearance)
  2. Egg Vortex (Hydrocity Zone) (first appearance)
  3. Egg Drillster Mk. II (Marble Garden Zone) (first appearance)
  4. Egg Gravitron (Carnival Night Zone) (first appearance)
  5. Egg Froster (IceCap Zone) (first appearance)
  6. Egg Cannon (Launch Base Zone) (first appearance)
  7. Egg Rocket (Launch Base Zone) (first appearance)
  8. Big Arms (Launch Base Zone) (first appearance)

Other modes[]

Competition[]

Sonic 3 Competition screen 1

The Competition menu.

Competition is an additional mode of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, loosely based on the 2 Player Vs. mode in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Players can play as either Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, with Tails being able to fly in gameplay.

Unlike the 2 Player Vs. mode in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Competition mode features five exclusive Zones. These are:

  1. Azure Lake: A short but speedy course along the waters of Angel Island.
  2. Balloon Park: A bouncy stage similar to Carnival Night Zone, with a loop and several bumpers and balloons to get ahead.
  3. Chrome Gadget: A tour through a Death Egg-like maze filled with platforms and force fields.
  4. Desert Palace: This desert ruin takes the player through high speed loops and over quicksand bridges.
  5. Endless Mine: An abandoned mine cave.

Each of the Zones in Competition loop around, and the players' goal is to pass through a post-like obstacle five times. Competition also has the following modes to play in:

  • Grand Prix: The main mode of Competition mode. Players race through the five Zones mentioned prior in order. The player who wins the most Zones is declared the winner. Before the race, the players are given the option as to whether or not they can get power-ups in the Zones.
  • Match Race: A mode similar to Grand Prix. Players race through the Zones, except they can select which Zone they will play in. Like in Grand Prix though, the players are given the option as to whether or not they can get power-ups in the Zones.
  • Time Attack: A mode for just one player, where the objective is to beat the Zones in the least amount of time.

Level Select[]

Main article: Level Select

Development[]

Background[]

By 1993, Sega was dominating the video game market with the critically acclaimed Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) being released for its Mega Drive system. Their new mascot, Sonic, quickly became one of the most recognizeable characters at the time in just two years. After the success of Sonic 2, Sega began to maximize profits with their flagship franchise by releasing multiple Sonic games across a variety of platforms. Much of the Japanese staff at the Sega Technical Institute (STI), the United States-based developer that made Sonic 2, returned to their home country, but designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and programmer Yuji Naka remained at the STI, already conceptualizing a potential follow-up.[13]

Conception[]

In early 1993, Naka went back to Japan for a meeting with Sega of Japan executives. Though he began to miss his home country after spending a year abroad, he returned to the United States, more motivated than ever to develop a third Sonic game. Convinced that he was in the best environment to make an ever more impressive work than Sonic 2, he began brainstorming new ideas to make a new and more ambitious game.[14]

Whereas Sonic 2 was developed by both American and Japanese members of the STI, Yasuhara and Naka assembled an all-Japanese team for the new game to avoid the cultural complications in Sonic 2.[15] They also asked Sega of Japan to send in more developers; however, Sega was forced to send in new employees due to being stretched thin themselves and only being able to spare a few experienced recruits. One of these newcomers was Takashi Iizuka, who went on to work on numerous future Sonic games and become the current head of Sonic Team.[13][16][17] A total of twelve people worked on the project.[16] Meanwhile, the American members of the STI would begin to work on original games.[17]

Development for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 started in January 1993. It took place in a separate section of the STI building, with special security passes. Due to the Japanese-exclusive team, many American members were disappointed that they were unable to contribute to the project, but a few of them did help in development.[13][18] Naka served as producer and Yasuhara as director,[19] and both were the primary creators of the game's design document and release schedule. Naka also selected the majority of the team, while the STI director Roger Hector oversaw development.[6]

"Sonic 3D"[]

Special-Stage-2-Sonic-3

The Special Stages in Sonic 3 (example pictured) are what remained of a prototype of the game called "Sonic 3D".[14]

Sonic 2 was about the two-player mode, so we said to ourselves that Sonic 3 would be about 3D.


Yuji Naka in June 2011 at Joypolis,
commenting on the earliest ideas for Sonic 3[14]

With the previous two installments in the series being 2D side-scrollers, the developers originally intended to make a 3D game with the working title "Sonic 3D". For this, the team planned to use the Sega Virtua Processor (SVP), a chip that, despite still being in development at the time, would enable polygonal rendering and was created to port Sega's arcade hit Virtua Racing to the Mega Drive. Naka and art director Kunitake Aoki made tech demos and mock-ups featuring a low-poly Sonic with an isometric gameplay featuring the character running around in a small spherical field. Though the team worked hard on these experiments for several months, they were ultimately unsatisfied with the results, and conflicting release dates and the high cost of the SVP chip made it clear that the 3D game would be too ambitious. Instead, the developers switched back to the 2D gameplay of the previous games around June 1993.[13][15][16][14] The concept would be ultimately reused for the game's Special Stages, while the idea of a 3D isometric game would later be used for Sonic 3D Blast in 1996.

Design and art[]

Yuji Naka said that the team felt that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 needed a deeper story, which "made the project huge"; the Acts were made three times bigger than in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.[20] Due to the development being set in the United States, the team had several play test sessions with focus groups consisting of children, allowing the developers to see which parts were the toughest for them and which were the most enjoyable.[16]

There were a lot of ideas that had been brainstormed up, but had not been used in Sonic 2. In addition, many more ideas started to pour out during the creative process... [...] The team brainstormed up two games' worth of material initially and it was decided, before the Alpha stage I think, that it would make sense to split it into two games.

Roger Hector, supervisor of the development of Sonic 3,
on the ideas that were being integrated into the game[17]

Many concepts that went unused in Sonic 2 were revisited in Sonic 3.[17] Yasuhara, along with two junior designers, came up with unique setpieces to give each Zone a distinct flavor. The team was inspired by several places and activities; Angel Island Zone, for example, was inspired by the real island of the same name just off the coast of San Francisco, where the STI was situated. IceCap Zone, meanwhile, was inspired by the snowboarding the team members did for fun.[13] The ideas quickly grew to over ten gigantic Zones that demanded a 24-megabit cartridge, and by the alpha stages of the development it was already starting to become clear that the game would need to be split up.[17][13] However, the developers were encouraged to not be concerned about hardware limitations, convinced that a solution would be eventually found.[13]

Sonic 3 Angel Island Zone 33

The airship bombarding scene of Angel Island Zone Act 2. The lack of trees here is to make room for the airship to appear.[13]

Angel Island Zone was just one of the many Zones that were filled with unique setpieces. Scenes like the opening of Act 1 and the airship bombarding sequence of Act 2 were conceptualized by Iizuka. However, some of these required clever planning. The airship in the aforementioned bombarding scene, for example, was too large to draw with sprites, and the jungle settings already used the two background layers. The solution was to clear said layers of all plants during this scene to make room for the airship artwork. The following scene takes place in a forest, with the Act's boss passing through. For this, the sprite layer was used to add a new layer of trees to make the forest look deeper.[13]

Oh I remember this annoying guy..

A screenshot of Launch Base Zone, the final level of the game, as an example of the artstyle that Sonic 3 employed. Notice the texture, lighting and patterns of the setpieces.

Each of the three Mega Drive games had a different art director, resulting in a slightly different artstyle; for Sonic 1, Naoto Ohshima made a CGI-inspired look with polygonal elements and checkered patterns, while Yasushi Yamaguchi served as art director for Sonic 2. The art director of Sonic 3 was Kunitake Aoki, an experienced designer who had made small contributions for Sonic 2. Aoki took inspiration from the previous games, but sought to make the new game feel more "modern"; the aforementioned look for Sonic 1 was based on the CGI from the 1980s, but since then the technology had considerably advanced. The artstyle of Sonic 3 reflected this by adding texture and simulating lighting, but the polygonal shapes and unique patterns were still used to be consistent with the previous titles.[13]

Much of the pixel art in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was traditionally drawn pixel by pixel. However, with the advent of 3D technology, some of the sprites in the game were drawn using Amiga, Mac and most notably with the Softimage 3D program, which was designed for character animation and was used in films like 1993's Jurassic Park. The main character designer of the project was Takashi Yuda, who reworked Sonic's sprites from scratch to make him look more "3D".[13]

Knuckles-the-Echidna-Character-Sketches

Early concepts for Knuckles the Echidna, the new rival for Sonic that debuted in Sonic 3.

The development team wanted to introduce a new rival for Sonic in this game. The designers brainstormed for a fitting design for this character, and relied on the aforementioned focus groups to look into the tastes of American kids.[16] There were eight different candidates for a design, but the most popular one was one of dreadlocks.[15] A contest was held within the STI for a new rival to be featured in Sonic 3. Nearly one hundred designs were studied by the American executives for a month. Ultimately, a drawing of a character named "Knuckles", by Takashi Yuda, won the contest.[14] Following countless meetings, the new rival, Knuckles the Echidna, was born. He was given shoes with a Rastafarian color scheme, as well as knuckles that would allow him to climb walls, hence his name. His design was made to contrast Sonic's own; for example, the white crescent on his chest was made to symbolize the moon, as opposed to the hedgehog's round belly which represents the sun.[13]

Deadlines and split[]

McDonalds Sonic 3 US ad

A promo for the McDonald's tie-in with Sonic 3, which ultimately resulted in the game being split into two to meet the deadline.

With the success of the "Sonic 2sday" campaign, Sega wanted to keep the tradition of a holiday season release of a new Sonic game. However, by the annual planning meeting of Sega of America at the start of 1993 it had already become clear that Sonic 3 would be behind schedule. Managment came up with the idea of tasking the American staff of the STI with making a smaller spin-off game, which would be released as Sonic Spinball, to compensate, buying the Sonic 3 developers some extra time.[13] However, a new problem turned up soon after: Sega had planned a giant promotional tie-in campaign with McDonald's to promote the release of the game starting from February 4, 1994, having spent over 2 billion yen on it.[15][14] The ever-growing concepts for the game resulted in it getting further and further away from the release schedule. Not only that, but the entire content would only fit inside of a 32-megabit cartridge with NVRAM, which would be incredibly expensive.[7][16]

Level Select Sonic 3

The Level Select menu of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, showing oddities that are not present in the final game, like Flying Battery Zone being in-between Carnival Night Zone and IceCap Zone, and "Mushroom Valley Zone" and Sandopolis Zone following Launch Base Zone.

With the February 1994 deadline approaching, the developers were reluctantly forced to split the game into two: the first half of the levels, which would be released for the McDonald's promotion, was codenamed "Sonic 3A", while "Sonic 3B" would encompass the remaining ones. The full experience was called "Sonic 3C". Knowing that Knuckles would be a major selling point, he was reserved for Sonic 3B. To compensate, a Competition mode was implemented in Sonic 3A.[13] Some Zones originally meant for Sonic 3A were also moved to Sonic 3B; most noticeably, Flying Battery Zone was originally meant to be between Carnival Night Zone and IceCap Zone. This is reflected in the Level Select menu of the final game. Sonic 3A was allocated a 16-megabit cartridge, and the split-up meant that a lot of memory was left for more detailed graphics. A ferroelectro RAM chip was also incorporated inside the cartridge, allowing the players to save their progress.[13] The split-up also meant that the developers had more time to finish the second part, and it was predicted that selling two separate games would be more profitable.[14]

The cartridge sizes were limited in space, so we were finding out that not only did we have these obligations to get the content out at a certain time, but we also couldn't get this massive game that we wanted to make onto the space that the cart would allow.

Takashi Iizuka on the conception of lock-on technology[21]

Development of Sonic 3 wrapped up in late 1993. Afterwards, the developers began to brainstorm ways to combine two cartridges, so that the rest of the envisioned content could be put in a game that did not feel like a different experience.[15][21] A Sega of America employee then brought up the idea of a "lock-on" cartridge, which had been used by programmers to add new content to a pre-existing game.[13] Shortly after finishing the game, the team thus figured out the way to implement "lock-on" technology and, at the very last minute, rewrote all of the Sonic 3A code to be compatible with a future lock-on cartridge.[15] Sonic 3A would then be renamed simply Sonic 3; Sonic 3B would be released months later as Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3C was called Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Soundtrack[]

The giant number of Zones in Sonic 3 would require an equally great soundtrack. The music in the first two Sonic games had been composed by Masato Nakamura of the band Dreams Come True, which had become so successful that royalties were starting to become a problem. As such, Sega of Japan turned to its own sound team, as well as a dozen of musicians from the Japanese-based Cube Corp.[13]

Another face would also be part of the team of musicians: Michael Jackson. The popstar had made various partnerships with Sega, like his own game Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Around spring of 1993, Jackson, himself a huge Sonic fan, met with the members of the STI and either was given the opportunity[22] or offered himself[13][17] to compose his own music for Sonic 3. The developers eagerly accepted. Afterwards, Jackson called keyboardist Brad Buxer, who was his tour director during the Dangerous World Tour, for help. Assembling a team composed of four other musicians and engineers, the two composed a number of tracks for the game. The crew developed forty-one tracks, with extensive samples of Jackson beatboxing, for the Mega Drive.[22] Countless hours were spent making these tracks satisfy the development team's demands.[13] According to Buxer, the popstar only worked on one of the tracks that were made, while the rest was handled by Buxer at Jackson's request.[23][24]

In mid-1993, accusations that Jackson had sexually abused a child flooded the media. The musician abandoned the Sonic 3 project soon after to continue his Dangerous World Tour, either because he was unsatisfied with the music in the end result or due to the molestation allegations,[23] and was left uncredited in the game's credits. Either way though, the game was late in development, and his music had already been implemented.[17] The STI musician Howard Drossin, who expected to collaborate with Jackson,[22] was called in to quickly rearrange the music. However, traces of the collaboration still remained, as there are many similarities to the popstar's songs in the game; many of the tracks feature samples of Jackson's voice, while the music for Carnival Night Zone resembles his song "Jam". The tracks for IceCap Zone, meanwhile, bear a great resemblance to "Hard Times", a then-unreleased song by The Jetzons, a band which Buxer was a part of.[23] Despite the complications, the developers were satisfied with the end results.[17] Drossin would later be the sole composer of the music in Sonic & Knuckles.

Vastly different statements have been made over time regarding Jackson's involvement in development. Sega has repeatedly denied it;[23][22] senior staff like Tom Kalinske, then president of Sega of America, claimed that no contracts were made and that he he had no real involvement. It has been speculated that the collaboration was done without Sega's consent, since none of the people involved have mentioned the higher-ups' approval.[25] However, according to Sonic's co-creator Naoto Ohshima, Jackson recorded a demo tape for the game and sent it to Sega, who was unable to use it due to the controversy.[26] Meanwhile, Roger Hector would be open about the collaboration at first, even claiming in 2007 that Jackson and his team made a soundtrack covering all of the game's levels,[17] but when he was asked about it in an interview in March 2008 said that he was unable to reveal any details about it due to confidentiality.[25] In an interview in early 2009, Yuji Naka similarly refused to give any information on the matter, but promised to reveal more details in the future.[27] Buxer and other members of Jackson's team claimed that their music made it into the final game,[22] while Hector said that the music was remade from scratch and no one outside of the STI has heard Jackson's tracks.[17]

Some other tracks were composed by Sega's sound team members, including guitarist Jun Senoue, who would become a recurring composer in the series. A few tracks were replaced in the PC port of Sonic & Knuckles Collection, as well as the remaster in Sonic Origins; these were discovered to originate from a prototype of Sonic 3 dated November 3, 1993, suggesting that they were originally implemented in the game before being replaced with Jackson's music in the final game.[28] It has been noted that Sonic 3 & Knuckles has been rarely re-released following Jackson's death in 2009,[29] and some speculated that this might be due to legal issues,[28] which was hinted to be the case when AtGames, which was briefly involved with the Sega Mega Drive Mini's development, said that the game was not included in that console's library for this reason.[30]

Release[]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was first released in North America on February 2, 1994. As Groundhog Day is a local holiday on February 2 there, promotional ads renamed the festivity "Hedgehog Day" to commemorate the game's release. It was later released in Europe on February 24.

In Japan, the game was not released at this time due to the lack of a McDonald's promotion there in February. Without any time constraints, the developers intended to release an exclusive edition containing the levels from Sonic 3 as well as the ones that were moved to Sonic & Knuckles. However, copies of the game from the other regions were being unofficially shipped to Japanese markets, forcing Sega to abandon the concept and release the title on May 27, 1994.[13]

Achievements[]

These are the achievements which add to the player's Gamescore on the Xbox Live Arcade version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3:

Image Name Description Gamescore
Complete the Game Complete the Game Finish the game. 25
Fast Freeze Fast Freeze Complete the IceCap Zone. 25
Complete Chaos Complete Chaos Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds. 25
Points I Points I Score 20,000 points. 10
Points II Points II Score 40,000 points. 15
Points III Points III Score 80,000 points. 25
Marble Finishes Marble Finishes Finish the Marble Garden Zone. 15
Wet Feet Wet Feet Walk on Water. 15
Wet and Wild Wet and Wild Finish the Hydrocity Zone. 15
Chaos Emerald Chaotic Collect a Chaos Emerald. 10
Halfway there... Halfway there... Collect 50 rings. 10
Goodie Gumballs Goodie Gumballs Get a blue gumball. 10

Reception[]

 Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Score
GameRankings 89.00%[31]
78.33% (X360)[32]
Review scores
Publication Score
Computer and Video Games 94%[33]
Electronic Gaming Monthly 9.5/10[34]
GamePro 4.75/5[35]
GameSpot 8/10[36]
Hyper 90%[2]
IGN 9/10[37]
Mean Machines Sega 94%[38]
Nintendo Life 8/10[39]
Sega Power 90%[40]
Sega Magazine 95%[41]
Awards
Entity Award
Electronic Gaming Monthly Editors' Choice Platinum[34]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 received critical acclaim from fans and critics alike. The game holds a score of 89.00% at GameRankings based on five reviews.[31] It was felt to be the best Sonic game ever. All the reviews in the column to the right are for the original Sega Mega Drive version of the game unless otherwise specified.

Andrew Humphreys of Hyper, who declared himself to not be a Sonic fan, said that the game was undoubtedly one the best in the series along with Sonic the Hedgehog CD, though he said that he preferred the Special Stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 over the ones in this game.[2] Sega Magazine stated that the game was "far superior than Sonic 2 as a whole" and "a serious contender for the Best Platform Game Ever award".[41] Sega Power wrote that, despite their skepticism, they found Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to be "excellent" and easily "the most explorable and playable game in the series."[40] Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded the game their "Game of the Month" award[34] and later ranked the game at number 1 in "The EGM Hot 50," indicating that it received the highest average score out of any game they had reviewed that year. GamePro wrote that it "proves that you can teach an old hedgehog new and exciting tricks. Take that old Sonic magic, add fun new variations, and you have another spectacular game."[35]

The game has sold over 1.02 million copies in the United States as of December 2007.[42] Collectively, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles have sold an estimated 4 million copies.[17]

Re-releases[]

Image Title Platform Description
Sonic & Knuckles Collection NA front Sonic & Knuckles Collection PC Released alongside Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Blue Sphere in 1997.
Sonic Jam USA Cover Sonic Jam Sega Saturn Playable in the 1997 compilation, with the addition of 2 more difficulties, "Easy" and "Hard". The original difficulty mode is also present.
Sonic mega collection Sonic Mega Collection Nintendo GameCube Released in 2002.
Sonic Mega Collection plus Sonic Mega Collection Plus PlayStation 2/PC/Xbox Released in 2004.
Sonic Mega Collection Plus, Super Monkey Ball Deluxe 2 in 1 combo pack 2 in 1 combo pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus / Super Monkey Ball Deluxe Xbox Released in 2005.
SUGC boxart Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 Released in 2009.
SonicPCCollection Sonic PC Collection PC Released in only New Zealand and Australia in 2009. This compilation includes Sonic Mega Collection Plus, which features Sonic the Hedgehog.
SCC FRONT 12 2 lrg Sonic Classic Collection Nintendo DS Released in 2010.
Sonic-Origins-Cover Sonic Origins Xbox Series X and Series S/Xbox One/PlayStation 5/PlayStation 4/Nintendo Switch/PC (Steam/Epic Games Store) Released on 23 June 2022 to celebrate the Sonic series' 30th anniversary. In addition to a remaster version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, it's combined with a remaster version of Sonic & Knuckles. The compilation contains additional modes, new cutscenes, and Missions. Additionally, the game includes the Drop Dash for Sonic.
Sonic Origins Plus Sonic Origins Plus An expanded re-release of Sonic Origins. Now featuring Amy Rose as a playable character & all the Sonic Game Gear titles. Released on June 23, 2023 (exactly 1 year after the original version). Unlike Sonic Origins, Sonic Origins Plus was released physically & digitally.

Trivia[]

Kshoes1

The HUD is green due to palette interference from Knuckles' socks.

  • Originally, Knuckles was meant to wear green socks. However, he was forced to wear yellow socks in the cutscenes where he meets Sonic or Tails to avoid interference with the HUD's palette due to the Genesis/Mega Drive's hardware limitations (Knuckles' socks would have turned the HUD green; see the picture at the right). However, in Sonic & Knuckles (and Sonic 3 & Knuckles), his socks will appear green, but only when playing as him.
  • Just like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the original version of Sonic 3, as well as in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, has Dr Eggman's glasses replaced with empty black eyes in line with his appearance in the Western artworks. However, this was later corrected in Sonic Origins to give him blue glasses.
  • A glitch can occur in Marble Garden Zone where Tails (if he is AI controlled) can be left behind; if this occurs, he will not respawn and follow Sonic, and the second Act will not be able to be completed.
  • The first letters of the names of the race tracks in Multiplayer mode make up the sequence: A, B, C, D, and E (Azure Lake, Balloon Park, Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace and Endless Mine).
  • While Sonic and Tails have their respective "special abilities" in Competition mode, Knuckles does not have his glide/climb ability seen in Sonic & Knuckles. Instead, he uses Sonic's Insta-Shield ability (which is ineffective for Competition mode).
  • Some of the game's tunes/jingles (e.g. Game Over, Act Clear, etc.) are reused in Sonic 3D Blast.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 3's cartridge contains unused music tracks that appear in Sonic & Knuckles.
  • This is the only Sonic game that Michael Jackson was involved in (albeit in composing some of the soundtrack).
  • Marble Garden Zone is the only Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 not to feature water.
  • This is the first game in the franchise to feature boss fights at the end of both Acts in Zones.
  • Sonic The Hedgehog 3, along with Sonic & Knuckles initially carried the GA (General Audiences) rating via Sega's short-lived VRC (Videogame Rating Council) due to them predating the creation of the ESRB. Rereleases would retroactively change the rating to K-A (Kids to Adults) and E (For Everyone).
  • Like a few other titles in the series, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has the occasional bug in which a player can get stuck in the scenery. The English manuals also address this problem, but suggests that it is a deliberate "feature"; " a diabolical trap from which Sonic can not escape, and the player will have to reset the game."
  • According to the game's tester, Jay Pataki, the message "Get Blue Spheres" at the start of the game's Special Stage(s) originally said "Get Blue Balls". The text was changed after the mostly male staff believed that the original message unintentionally had sexual undertones.[citation needed]
  • The day of this game's North American release (February 2, 1994) was known as Hedgehog Day, a parody of Groundhog Day on February 2.
  • The music that plays when an Act is completed has been reused and remixed in many of the modern Sonic games.
  • This game is represented in the Nintendo 3DS version of Sonic Generations, where Big Arm appears as the Boss Gate of the Classic Era.
  • Surprisingly, when the player finishes a Zone in exactly 9 minutes and 59 seconds under the ten minute time limit, they earn a total of 100,000 points (and two lives), which is higher than the usual 50,000 points when completing a Zone's Act in less than fifty nine seconds.
  • A remix of the data select music can be heard in the museum in Sonic Jam. Another, more orchestrated remix can be heard while choosing cutscenes, viewing concept art from various Sonic games, choosing music, and viewing characters in Sonic Generations. Another remix of the data select music can be unlocked in Sonic Gems Collection to listen through the games museum mode, and the remix is called "Sonic 3 MegaD Mix" and also contains sound effects of the game.
  • Although Tails cannot carry Sonic underwater, the player can execute this with a second player: have both players make Sonic and Tails jump, and tap the second player's jump button rapidly. Tails should lift Sonic, but drift down due to the extra weight. However, as Tails clutches Sonic before drifting down, the player must jump while Tails swims upwards. Tails will clutch Sonic again, and the player can do this over and over until he/she has reached his/her height, but this is tricky, as Tails will drift down if not executed quickly enough.
  • The invincibility music for this game can be heard in a commercial for Progressive Insurance, where Sonic is frantically running around the store looking for the best insurance premium.
    • A sped-up version of the invincibility music from this game is used as the invincibility music for Sonic Drift 2.
  • In Angel Island Zone Act 1, if the player goes into the Special Stage after the minor boss sets fire to the jungle, the music for Act 2 will play for the rest of the Zone. This also happens in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
  • In the standalone version of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, waiting 47 minutes on the save file select screen will cause one or two sound channels to become louder for one loop. This does not occur in the lock-on version, so this may have been unintentional.
    • A similar glitch occurs with playing Flying Battery Zone's music in the standalone, but instead of the music getting louder, the "echo" gets more and more behind each time the song is looped.
  • The Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog 3 manual actually had the same Badnik names as the original North American manual, though later supplemental materials like the Japan-exclusive Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Official Guide Book and Sonic Tweet changed the names to follow the Japanese naming conventions of the Classic series. Despite more or less being a direct expansion, Sonic & Knuckles did not share the same Badnik names across seas.
    • The Japanese Sonic the Hedgehog 3 manual also told Knuckles' perspective, as he was knocked unconscious when the Death Egg hit, found the Emerald(s) to be missing from the pillar, and mistook the shape of the fallen Death Egg as a dragon's egg from a prophecy of dark times. This presumably made Knuckles easier to trick, as Eggman researched the island and confidently explained himself as a savior preventing the egg of doom from hatching. The 2013 mobile re-release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 instead shows Knuckles about to approach Eggman who is openly down on his luck, discarding that version of the story.
  • While the storyline in Sonic & Knuckles Collection is a closer translation of the Japanese version, it had a few differing details. Besides changing Dr. Eggman back to Dr. Robotnik, it mentions earth, renames the Jewel Radar (ジュエルレーダー?) to the "Jewel Reader", and specified the reference to the kami (which can mean Gods or Japanese nature spirits) to a "sky god". The only known deity associated with the Emeralds would later turn out to be a water entity.
  • In the Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Mega Collection Plus manuals, it states that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released on "January 24, 1994". However, this is incorrect because it was actually released nine days after the said date for the North American release.
  • The final boss theme was remixed as the background music for Last Utopia Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure and Nocturne in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. A remix of the music also plays when Sonic and Tails encounter Metal Sonic in Dr. Eggman's base in the fifth episode of Sonic Mania Adventures, Metal Mayhem.
  • Takashi Iizuka considers Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles one game, as it was originally intended as such.[43]
Sonic3dragon

The artwork apparently depicting Super Sonic's battle with the dragon.

  • Interestingly, several concept and early promotional materials for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 depict or reference a dragon having been originally intended to play a central part in the game's plot:
    • In the "Guardian of the Floating Island" story from the Japanese manual for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Knuckles believes the Death Egg to be the egg of a legendary dragon, foretold to bring misfortune upon the island. Of note is that the story in the manual appears to have been written prior to the plot of Sonic & Knuckles being finalized, as the story also refers to Knuckles as the guardian of the Chaos Emerald, as opposed to the Master Emerald.
    • In a piece of concept artwork depicting a rough layout for Mushroom Hill Zone, a mural of a dragon can be seen hidden underground.
    • In an advertisement for Sonic & Knuckles, a piece of concept artwork can briefly be seen, albeit from a distance, and in low quality. The art appears to depict Super Sonic battling a dragon in space, suggesting the Doomsday Zone final battle was originally going to be very different.

Videos[]


References[]

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  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Humphreys, Andrew (March 1994). "Review: Sonic 3". Hyper (4): 26-29. Archived from the original.
  3. Virtual Console, page 4 (Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on March 5, 2018.
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  43. Game Informer (July 12, 2022). Sonic Frontiers: 123 Rapid-Fire Questions With Takashi Iizuka. YouTube. Retrieved on July 13, 2022.

External links[]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Main article (Sonic 3 & Knuckles) · Staff · Manuals · Glitches · Beta elements · Gallery · Pre-releases (November 3, 1993)
Sonic the Hedgehog console mainline games

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