Sonic The Hedgehog 3

IceDigger

Founder
Staff member
Who doesnt like this game?  Awesome gameplay, awesome speed, awesome music (icecap zone), awesome hedgehog!
 
Oooh, Sonic 3... one of my fav Genny games! It was a great graphical evolution in characters and backgrounds -take a look at parallax scrolling in Icecap zone- and Sonic had new shields and moves, there were two types of bonus stages (one of them in nice 3D) and its sound was also very good: the typical sounds everyone knows and many good songs (yeah, Icecap and also the extro music).

Knuckles acted as a funny bad guy -well, not so bad- and this time Tails was there to help you, wich was great after having suffered his role in Sonic 2
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and the gameplay was a bit different to Sonic 2 because this time you could control Sonic all the time, hehe. Ah, and there was a competition mode with split screen that was very cool -countless hours of gaming with a friend- :
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: Sonic 3 was longer than the previous Genesis Sonic games, so it had a save feature and you could replay any stage after having finished the game.

To sum up, it was a great game buuuuuuut WTF was Sonic & Knuckles? When you perform the debug mode trick (up up down down up up up up) you can see a menu with many stages that can't be selected... hmmm... it seems that the game was split in two and as a result of that S&N was born (with the worst stages, I guess).

A great game but I don't know if its superior to Sonic CD...
 
pretty nice graphically and the stages are REALLY big

kinda short though, cured by the addition of sonic and knuckles, but that made for a total of like a 90+$ cart back when it was released.

the only sonic game i ever really liked was the first one
 
I agree with you. The original Sonic was split into more substages and made the overall feel of each level more lasting and entertaining. The design in the original put more emphasis on gameplay rather than making it a nonstop dash towards the finish line. And to top it off, the music was better too.
 
i think my amiabilty towards the first sonic games comes from having fond and nostalgic memories of playing it when it first cam out, whereas sonic 3 came out when i was a freshman in highschool and was starting to loose my interest in video games (a phase that only lasted 2 or 3 years btw.)

also those bonus stages

those pure acid teslating background bonus stages, way better than the 3d collect blue sphere thing (though i really like that too, i guess i just find it to jarring on my nerves when i'm down to the last 4 spheres and that damn rodent just keeps moving faster and faster) and infinantly better than that awful halfpipe
 
I hated sonic 3.. er.. What am I saying!!!  
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 I loved all the sonic games.. Sonic 3 was pure enjoyment from beginning to end.. Add on sonic and knuckles and it's twice as long.. Super Super sonic anyone??.. (no that's not a typo)..
 
Pretty good game, I sure did like the design of picking which level rather than starting on level 1 all the time like the past 2. Multiplayer wasn't HALF as good in my mind tho, sonic 2 had longer, better stages-Sonic 3 had a loop or something, then the lap was over and you did it again. Lacked in multiplayer but everything else was great.

---Ammut
 
Sonic 3 is a fantastic game, but it isn´t until you connect it with Sonic and Knuckles you get that total feel. Its long and has loads of secrets. (completed everything! including doomsday zone  
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). The two-player mode is very fun to. Sonic R in 2d. I really wished they would have made a 2D Sonic game on Saturn. I think the original sonic games are better than the new 3d ones. (Sonic Adventure and those...). I guess a 3d Sonic game would have suited the Saturn very well...
 
This game is really good!

Great graphics, sound, and the allways-good-sonic-playability!

The best sonic games of all time are Sonic 1 and Sonic 3.
 
I thought Sonic 3 was one of the weakest of the series. Far inferior to Sonic 2.

The game was rushed out for christmas and it shows. What some people call long levels I call meandering unfocussed levels. What some people call an innovative shield system I call a poorly implimented gimmick that had no impact on gameplay.

Sonic 2 was a game that built upon the original in an intelligent way. It shortened the levels and number of acts per zone to make space for far more variety in environments. There are far, far more zones in Sonic 2 than any of the other games. The build up to the final bosses is brilliant. You take off into space. Your expecting something big and thats what you get. Two really tricky bosses that aren't a pushover. Sonic 3's last boss only took me 2 goes and with saving between levels it didn't matter if I lost anyway, I could just have another go.

Sonic 3 for me has all the features that led to the downfall of the series. It turned away from slick, varied, arcade gameplay and turned it into a dull adventure game where winning and losing didn't make a difference. Sonic Team need to dump all the expansive levels, extra characters and collect-em-up subplots with Sonic Adventure 3(if thats the title) and get back to the things that made Sonic, Sonic2 and Sonic CD slick, polished, varied and brilliant.
 
Originally posted by Molloy@Jan. 05 2003, 10:13 am

I thought Sonic 3 was one of the weakest of the series. Far inferior to Sonic 2.

The game was rushed out for christmas and it shows. What some people call long levels I call meandering unfocussed levels. What some people call an innovative shield system I call a poorly implimented gimmick that had no impact on gameplay.

Sonic 2 was a game that built upon the original in an intelligent way. It shortened the levels and number of acts per zone to make space for far more variety in environments. There are far, far more zones in Sonic 2 than any of the other games. The build up to the final bosses is brilliant. You take off into space. Your expecting something big and thats what you get. Two really tricky bosses that aren't a pushover. Sonic 3's last boss only took me 2 goes and with saving between levels it didn't matter if I lost anyway, I could just have another go.

Sonic 3 for me has all the features that led to the downfall of the series. It turned away from slick, varied, arcade gameplay and turned it into a dull adventure game where winning and losing didn't make a difference. Sonic Team need to dump all the expansive levels, extra characters and collect-em-up subplots with Sonic Adventure 3(if thats the title) and get back to the things that made Sonic, Sonic2 and Sonic CD slick, polished, varied and brilliant.

I highly agree... Sonic 2 was great... 3 just didn't feel like Sonic anymore.
 
Sonic 3 had its perks. A much more developed storyline (especially with S&K add on) The character designs were alot wprse and seemed a bit smaller.

Overall the gameplay wasnt as cool as 2 but offered some cool innovations like the split second shield and the other shields.

I think that Sonic Adventure 2 is gearing more to the way things were done in the oldschool, but adding a rougher tougher edge to it. Gameplay and attitude still intact
 
good game.....but i have many questions.......

If the game takes place RIGHT AFTER sonic 2, WHY did the tornado have the massive booster rocket under the plane.....if you look at the sonic 2 ending....it's not there.......it was only added to catch up to eggman before death egg.......

er....why was knuckles given diffrent colour boots....as a bad guy he had yellow...and as a playable chara he wore green.....

k...so not that many...but hey!
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OH and.......2 more things........SegaSaturnDDR...Tails NEVER when hyper, only super...

and Jaded God.....you say the last to boses in sonic 2 are 'really tricky bosses that aren't a pushover.'

i can beat the death egg in undr 1 min!!!!!and i can provide screen shots too!!!! (if i was any good with my tv in thingy id video it for ya!)
 
To sum up, it was a great game buuuuuuut WTF was Sonic & Knuckles? When you perform the debug mode trick (up up down down up up up up) you can see a menu with many stages that can't be selected... hmmm... it seems that the game was split in two and as a result of that S&N was born (with the worst stages, I guess).

Lock them together, ONLY way to pay the games.

I thought Sonic 3 was one of the weakest of the series. Far inferior to Sonic 2.

The game was rushed out for christmas and it shows. What some people call long levels I call meandering unfocussed levels. What some people call an innovative shield system I call a poorly implimented gimmick that had no impact on gameplay.

Sonic 2 was a game that built upon the original in an intelligent way. It shortened the levels and number of acts per zone to make space for far more variety in environments. There are far, far more zones in Sonic 2 than any of the other games. The build up to the final bosses is brilliant. You take off into space. Your expecting something big and thats what you get. Two really tricky bosses that aren't a pushover. Sonic 3's last boss only took me 2 goes and with saving between levels it didn't matter if I lost anyway, I could just have another go.

Sonic 3 for me has all the features that led to the downfall of the series. It turned away from slick, varied, arcade gameplay and turned it into a dull adventure game where winning and losing didn't make a difference. Sonic Team need to dump all the expansive levels, extra characters and collect-em-up subplots with Sonic Adventure 3(if thats the title) and get back to the things that made Sonic, Sonic2 and Sonic CD slick, polished, varied and brilliant.

I believe you are wrong on so many levels. Sonic 3 enhanced game play and provided the player with ‘tools’ to make the quest faster, and FAR more interesting to EXPERIANCED players. The level’s were FINALY long enough to hold some depth and replay value, the plot EXISTED and made the game slightly more interesting then “I gotta go get Eggman.” Plug someone that has some decent Sonic skills into the player two port and you have the opportunity for some tight teamwork play. Also, the separation of the games was pure genius for Sega of America, because it allowed them to get more of a profit then would have been made if the game had been released like it had been in Japan as a single cart (meaning when I refer to Sonic 3, I mean S&K as well, because S&K IS Sonic 3). Sonic 2 was supposed to be Sonic 3, but the engine wasn’t far enough along to push the game the way Yuji Naka intended, which is the main reason we see zone similarities between Sonic 2 beta and Sonic 3. To make it short:

Sonic 3 is Sonic 2 done right, period.

Sonic 2 was nothing more then Sonic 1 with a faster engine and one new power up for Sonic, and a bonus that made stages stupid retard fast if you got all of the chaos emeralds. Tails was completely worthless in Sonic 2 because he couldn’t do anything useful, and was an extreme nuisance in the Chaos bonus stages. The challenge in later Chaos stages focused more on “What is Tails guna do?” as apposed to “What am I guna do?” If you get a damn good player 2 for Sonic 3, it is “what are we going to do?”

Now, let us look at how tools in Sonic 3 focus on making game play more interesting. The Magnetic shield serves as a duel purpose, as do all of the shields in the game (well, some more purposes then others). You can use it to boost yourself higher, and to pickup more rings just by flying by. Doesn’t seem like much, right? To the person who doesn’t think about it (that would be you, Molloy), the Magnetic shield can only be used to boost yourself straight up, and to pickup billions of rings without thinking about it. I know you think this, because anyone who thinks Sonic 3 sucks always over looks the depth of the tools, and the new length of the game play. If you are moving at a fast run and need to make a jump onto a far ledge, it can be done with a magnetic shield. It can also be used to save your “too fast ass” from an obstacle, such as spikes on the ground or a spring you don’t wana hit. Then there is the Super Sonic + effect, which picks up rings while you zoom around as SS/HS. See, in Sonic 2 being SS wasn’t a problem, as 50 rings was nearly enough to get you to the end of ANY of those short ass stages, but in Sonic 3 you are faced with a different problem. This problem is that the stages are still long, at most will require at LEAST 2mins to clear, even as SS/HS from beginning to end. That means you have to worry about two things as SS/HS: Being squashed because you ass is to fast or flying off a cliff because you ass is to fast. You are suddenly presented with this facade that you are invisible, when really you are not; it has just altered the rules into which you can die. You get invincibility against enemy hits and basic obstacles, but you are presented with this massive speed increase, an increase which comes with a big responsibility: You better know what’s coming up already. SQUASH, WAAAAH, your fast ass is dead. So, while you are worrying about being fast, you can’t afford to think about jumping for rings, etc, as much as possible, so magnetic shield saves SS/HS from running out.

Now for the water shield, what most will consider the most worthless shield ever devised. Lets face it, breathing underwater is handy, and the benefits are obvious, so when you have that shield, your focus changes from breathing underwater to worrying about losing that shield, because in a few rare locations, you need that shield to get through (one notable one was with Knuckles in the Carnival Nights Zone). Sonic also gets the added ability of bouncing onto enemies from above in a semi-controllable manner. You can also use this ability and bounce while running, and get a slightly higher height then you would with normal bouncing. This shield’s short come is obviously the fact that its special attack isn’t so much a special attack so much as just a faster way to kill stuff the normal way, but you do get protection against all/most projectile attacks.

Now the fire shield, a shield with a different set of fun from the Magnetic shield. You can walk on lava, avoid fire attacks, ram into enemies head on, it is simple and easier to understand. Its advantages are often its greatest disadvantages though. If you get hit by a most projectiles or an obstacle in an inconvenient place, then you are screwed. Gotta pay attention, that requires focusing on what you are doing ‘when you are doing it’.

Sonic 3 has more of the basic fundamentals that made Sonic games so popular in the first place: Speed, attitude, game play, and strategy. If your concentration fails at anyone time in Sonic 3, you are dead, just like all of the Sonic games before it except with the added twist that you have tools, a powerful ally in Tails, longer level’s, unexpected obstacles (such as Knuckles or the E-xxx robot), and game play that will make even the most seasoned gamer fall to their knees begging for mercy.

Sonic 3 has undoubtedly the most surprising and unexpected ending boss of all of the Sonic games, and unless you have been spoiled to it, you absolutely will shit your pants the first time you are tossed into the “Doomsday Zone.” I sure as hell did! Let me tell you my story!

I had played through Sonic 3 before when I rented it from a store, not hard, but pretty fun. Played through Sonic and Knuckles several times as both Sonic and Knuckles...but here is the catch: “I never got the 4th Chaos Emerald in S&K” Why? Because I was too stupid to follow through on the stage... but I figured that out on my own eventually. So here I am, playing with Sonic + Tails and beating Eggman’s Laser. Woohoo! I beat it; I can finally say I beat Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Then it happened...

Music plays...

I was at my friend David’s house, and I had my new Sega Nomad hooked up to his mini TV. And at the tender age of 12, in front of his mom, I shout two words: “Holy shit.” His mom doesn’t say anything, but David comes running and watches be embark on the most challenging stage in any platform game ever.

Stage name: Doomsday Zone

And with 26 lives and 3 continues behind me, I used them all... and I got that Master Emerald back, with no lives left. No single moment in my life was more memorable then that, because I’ve didn’t realize it at the time, but I did something few people can do. I beat that damn stage, and it is still a challenge every time I play it. You see, anyone can beat Sonic 1, or Super Mario Bros., but.. it takes balls and brains to beat Sonic 3. Not just anyone can do it, but I can.

Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were both let downs for me, although SA2 renewed my faith in Sonic Team. I await the day, I can site down, and shit my pants again. Only Sonic 3 did that for me. It’s the games that truly surprise you that make for the most interesting and enjoyable experience.

Sonic 1, awesome ground breaking

Sonic 2, more of the same old

Sonic 3 Surprised me, and the entire world.

Only three games have ever surprised me:

Sonic 3

Tales of Phantasia

Grandia 2

Each gave me something unexpected:

Sonic 3: The mother of all plat formers, the ending of a lifetime

Tales of Phantasia: The sickest and more sadistic ending to any game.

Grandia 2: Battle engine that just wouldn’t stop.

Thank you for reminding me why I love Sonic 3, Molloy.

Oh, I’m not done owning you yet, don’t think my two page essay is finished.

Sonic 3 for me has all the features that led to the downfall of the series. It turned away from slick, varied, arcade gameplay and turned it into a dull adventure game where winning and losing didn't make a difference. Sonic Team need to dump all the expansive levels, extra characters and collect-em-up subplots with Sonic Adventure 3(if thats the title) and get back to the things that made Sonic, Sonic2 and Sonic CD slick, polished, varied and brilliant.

You didn’t play the game, did you? The fact that each character has locations in nearly every stage that only that character can access adds quite a bit of depth to the game. What Sonic Team’s downfall was is simple: Getting out of the groove. Sonic Team did not produce a new Sonic game for the Saturn, they paid for it in Sonic Adventure 1. Sonic Adventure 2 almost brought the series back, but it suffered from one thing overall: “Too little Sonic, not enough game time.” Sonic Team doesn’t need to do away with the multi character format, they need to look at where it was done right: Sonic 3, and create a game where all characters can play through all stages and each can find different area’s that only THEY can find. Sonic Hero’s seems to be plotted to do just that, as from what is known it will only feature Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Sonic Team is also releasing the game on every major platform (PS2, GC, Xbox) and is gearing up the new anime “Sonic X” to do something they have never done before: Take over Japan. Sega has never had any real hold on the Japanese market outside of arcades, and Sonic has never held anything other then basic popularity. It has NEVER seen the success it has in the states, and Yuji Naka obviously isn’t satisfied with massive US pop culture success. Yuji wants Japan, it wants Sonic to be the next Pokemon, and Sonic Hero’s will, combined with a new anime with ‘direct influence’ from Sonic Team will defiantly be worth paying attention to. Sonic Team is out to take over, and over the next year we’ll see if they do. Sonic X has started airing in Japan, and it will certainly be more interesting then the first Sonic anime, and it will be the first animated portrayal of Sonic as Sonic Team envisioned him.

You, Molloy, are a poser. You couldn’t handle Sonic 3 and you can’t admit that. Why do I know this? I’ve met your kind before, that’s how. Everyone winy ass bitch I’ve ran into that says Sonic 3 sucks thinks the same thing and it boils down to this:

You punk bitch ass can’t handle complex game play mechanics.

Go cry to your Genesis/Mega Drive and come back when you’ve put yourself through the HELL of beating Doomsday Zone.

*edit* AFTER almost TWO years, I finally can edit this post, and not get garbage! Sweet!
 
Crap.. I can't even.. edit that post.. to fix my oversight/formatting errors.

I hope I don’t crash the forum! O_O

(Weird and crazy things happen if I press edit.)
 
Long and good I might add. He didn't just let out his opinion, but did something that not many people are capable of (including me
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): he named reasons that can't be tilted easily. If you could make a doctor in VideoGaming, this "essay" would definetly be a good start.

I mean, dude, you friggin analyzed the whole game. That takes time and guts. I salute you.
 
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