Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform game developed and published by Sega for the Genesis. Like previous Sonic games, players traverse side-scrolling levels while collecting rings and defeating enemies.
They control Sonic and Tails, who attempt to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to stop the evil Doctor Robotnik from relaunching his space station, the Death Egg, after it crash-lands on a mysterious floating island. Sonic 3 introduces Knuckles the Echidna, the island guardian, who lays traps for Sonic and Tails.
Development began in January 1993 by Sega Technical Institute in California, shortly after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
It was initially developed as an isometric game similar to what would eventually become Sonic 3D Blast (1996), but became a conventional 2D platform game due to time constraints.
Sonic 3 was developed simultaneously with Sonic & Knuckles; they were planned as a single game until time constraints and cartridge costs forced the developers to split it.
The Sonic 3 cartridge can be attached to an adapter on the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, creating a combined game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
The pop musician Michael Jackson composed portions of the soundtrack, but left the project and went uncredited; his music was replaced in some rereleases.
Sonic 3 was released in North America and Europe in February 1994, and in Japan in May.
As with its predecessors, it was a critical and commercial success, with critics seeing it as an improvement over previous installments. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles sold a combined four million copies worldwide, placing them among the bestselling Genesis games.
They have been rereleased in various Sega and Sonic compilations.
Gameplay – Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 2D side-scrolling platformer.
As with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, players can control Sonic, Tails, or both simultaneously. In the former choice, players control Sonic while Tails runs along beside him; a second player can join at any time and control Tails separately.[1]
Sonic 3 adds the ability for Tails to fly for a short time by spinning his twin tails like a helicopter rotor.[1]
Unlike Sonic, Tails can also swim underwater.[2]
Sonic 3 takes place over six zones,[3] each divided into two acts. Levels are populated with “badniks”, robots created by the villain, Dr. Robotnik; Sonic and Tails can defeat them by jumping on them or using the “spin dash” attack, which also gives the character a speed boost.[2]
The levels include obstacles and other features such as vertical loops, corkscrews, breakable walls, spikes, water that the player can drown in, and bottomless pits.[4]
There is a miniboss fight with one of Robotnik’s large, powerful robots at the end of the first act of each level and a boss fight with Robotnik at the end of the second.[5]
Reaching a new level saves the game to one of six save slots.[6]
As with previous Sonic games, Sonic 3 uses rings, scattered throughout the levels, as a health system; when the player is attacked without rings, is crushed, falls off-screen, drowns, or exceeds the act’s ten-minute limit, they lose a life and return to the most recently passed checkpoint.
Dying with zero lives gives the player a game over.
The levels also include power-ups in television monitors that, when hit, grant the character an extra life, temporary invincibility to most hazards, a number of rings,[7] a shield that allows them to breathe underwater, a shield that allows them to withstand fire from enemy projectiles, or a shield that attracts nearby rings.[8]
Miniboss
Staff Roll (Unreleased)
Staff Roll
Marble Garden Zone Act 1
Endless Mine
