| Game Information |
| Title: |
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 |
|
| Year Released: |
1994 |
| Version Reviews: |
USA |
| Genre: |
Platform |
| Max Players: |
2 |
| Game Difficulty: |
Easy
|
| Difficulty Options: |
No
|
| Introduction |
| After Sonic 2, it was hard to imagine what could be done to make the next game even better. But low and behold, Sega did it, releasing Sonic 3 in early 1994. Better graphics, better music, bigger levels, better 2-player vs., and perhaps one of the best features: the ability to save your game.<br><br>
The save game feature is a great addition since: a) the levels are so big that it having to start from the beginning when you want to continue playing would be a pain; b) when locked on to Sonic & Knuckles, the game is absolutely humongous. Sonic 3 (or Sonic 3 & Knuckles), is by far my favourite game of all time. |
| Gameplay |
| The game takes place immediately after Sonic 2. Sonic and Tails are flying on their biplane towards Angel Island for a vacation after defeating Robotnik. They meet Knuckles, sole resident and guardian of Angel Island, who steals the Chaos emeralds, convinced Sonic is the enemy. From that point on, it's run-and jump Sonic action through six enormous levels with some new twists. Sonic can now swing from vines (which are already swinging) and slide down rope slides. Sonic also gets an Insta-Shield, where pressing the jump button after jumping off the ground (I call it FLOAT8 jumping), gives Sonic a split second of protection from hard-to-kill enemies. There are now 3 different specialized shields instead of one basic shield. Now, instead of having one shield that only protects you from one hit, there are three that do that as well as give you an extra ability. The Fire Shield protects you from fire and lava, and double jumping turns Sonic into aflaming fireball that shoots across the screen. The Bubble Shield allows Sonic to breath underwater indefinately, and double jumping allows Sonic to bounce; the higher Sonic is when the jump button is pressed again, the higher he will bounce. The Electric Shield protects Sonic from electrical sources, acts as a magnet which attracts rings, and allows Sonic to jump twice as high by double jumping. Some of the shields deflect enemy projectiles.<br><br>
Also new is the ability of a human controlled Tails to airlift Sonic onto platform that he cannot reach on his own. This comes in very handy, and makes the game more involving for the second player. Playing the game as tails is a bit different than playing as Sonic. Tails cannot use the double jump features of the shields, nor does he have the Insta-Shield. However, double jumping with Tails causes him to become airborn, so he can fly for a short period to higher platforms. Underwater, it causes Tails to doggie paddle.<br><br>
The game is very diverse and there is a lot to do and find in each of the levels, which are insanely huge Some are so huge, like Carnival Nights Zone Act 1 are so big, that it's soetimes hard to finish the level without running out of time. The giant gold rings from the end of the levels in Sonic 1 are back. If you find their hiding place, you can jump through them to be taken to the "Blue Sphere" bonus round, where you are running (in 3D) on a giant globe collecting blue spheres and avoiding the red ones. Collecting all the blue spheres give you one chaos emerald. All the emeralds turn you into Super Sonic. The two-player versus mode is back, but done much better than in Sonic 2, with five unique courses that run around a cylinder. The game is also faster than Sonic 2, which is always a good thing, but is also a bit too easy. It's not unusual to finish Act 1 of Zone 1 with 2 continues, 2 extra lives and over 100,000 points if you get Perfect in the 2 bonus levels hidden in the first Act. |
| Graphics |
| The graphics in Sonic 3 are a big improvement over Sonic 2 and are top notch. The title screen introduction is pretty fantastic. Sonic's sprite is redrawn, giving his head more depth and making it less of a perfect circle. The levels are amazingly detailed and colourful to the point of making first generation Genesis games look incredibly terrible. The backgrounds and foregrounds have multiple levels of parallax scrolling, giving a surreal sense of depth. Sometimes it makes you wonder how a system like the Genesis was able to do something do visually amazing. The Blue Sphere level keeps the 3D aspect of the 3D chute bonus level from Sonic 2, but but Sonic onto a giant globe on which he runs and collects blue spheres while avoiding the red ones. Though the Genesis is not capable of true 3D scrolling that SNES is, the bonus level will make you wonder how they did it. Sonic also has new animations, including flipping and spinning through the air, standing too close to an edge, and waiting for you to move. The animations are so well done that you may find yourself using the slow motion cheat to watch his spinning and flipping animations frame-by-frame.<br><br>
The graphics of the Competition levels are also excellent. Sonic, tails, and Kuckles' sprites are smaller than in the regualr game, but are still very details and very well animated. The layout of the levels allows the level to loop back on itself so that you can see your opponent on your screen on a different part of the course. This was another wonderful and fascinating design element in the game. |
| Sound & Music |
| The sound effects are all classic Sonic fare. All the rings, bounces, hits and everything else from Sonic 1 and 2 are back, with a slew of new sounds.<br><br>
The music is nothing short of brilliant. Actually, it is brilliant; probably the best sounding stuff on the Genesis (along with Sonic & Knuckles), a system known for it's weak tinny sound processor. Not only are the tunes catchy, but they sound good. Steel drums sound like steel druims. a recorder/flute sounds like a recorder/flute. The soundtrack for Sonic 3 is truly withy of an OST CD soundtrack. Rumours have persisted from years that Michael Jackson composed some, if not all of the music for Sonic 3, but then was removed because of the scandals at the time. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbVM-l2Oku4"> After watching this</a>, it's evident that either Jackson DID write some of the music for the game, or that the game's music was heavily influenced by some of MJ's tunes. Whatever the case, the music is outstanding and something you could listen to repeatedly. There is not one bad tune in this game. |
| Controls |
| The controls are as good as they've ever been in a Sonic game. Sonic is incredibly responsive, letting you time the perfect jump onto a platform or time the perfect turn in the Blue Sphere level. Each shield is easy to use, and controlling Sonic through half a loop and then running upside down is just a matter of pushing in the direction that he started running in. Each level has items that Sonic can interact with, such as the swings in Angel Island Zone, the spinning tops in Marble Gardens Zone, the giant wheels and connons in Carnival Nights Zone, among others. Some items need some figuring out, like the spinning wheels in Carnival Nights Zone, but it's not hard to figure out how to get the most out of each item. |
| Reply Value |
| With the size of the levels, it a sure bet that you will need to play through the game many times in order to find everything in each level. It is impossible to find everything in a level in one pass through. That, along with the music and graphics will keep you coming back. Plus the Competition tracks and expanded abilities of Tails makes the two-player game much more fun. The game is a bit on the easy side, but the size of the game makes up for that. |
| Final Scores |
| Gameplay: |
10 |
| Graphics: |
10 |
| Sound: |
10 |
| Controls: |
10 |
| Replay Value: |
10 |
| Conclusion |
| After 13 years of having this game, I still play it through every now and then. It's huge, has amazing graphics and sounds, and is a dream to control. Anyone with a Genesis needs to have this game. The only thing that could have made this game more perfect would be if the Sonic & Knuckles levels had not been removed, though that might have made the game too overwhelming as this game is huge to begin with. Any fan of platform games has a sure hit with Sonic 3. Straight 10's across the board even though the game is a bit on the easy side, though it's not as easy the first time you play as it is the 50th time either! |
| Screenshots / Images |
Sorry, there are no more screenshots/images for this game.
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