Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 2D side-scrolling platformer. As with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, players control Sonic while Tails runs along beside him; a second player can join at any time and control Tails separately. Players may also play as Sonic or Tails alone. Sonic 3 takes place over six zones, 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. 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. Reaching a new level saves the game to one of six save slots. As with previous Sonic games, Sonic 3 uses golden 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, 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. which involves bouncing up a gumball machine-like corridor to earn power-ups by hitting a switch. Both sides of the corridor are lined with flippers, which disappear when the character bounces on them, and the switch drops when both flippers supporting it are removed. The corridor's floor contains a bounce pad, which also disappears after one use; falling afterwards causes the player to leave the stage with the most recent power-up collected. The second type, triggered by entering giant rings found in secret passages, involves running around a 3D map and passing through all of a number of blue spheres arranged in patterns. Passing through a blue sphere turns it red, and touching a red sphere causes the player to leave the stage, unless the player has just completed a cycle around an arrangement of blue spheres, in which case all of these spheres turn to harmless rings. Removing all of the blue spheres gives the player a Chaos Emerald; if Sonic (not Tails) collects all seven, he unlocks the ability to become Super Sonic, which makes him invincible to most obstacles. Failing to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds triggers a post-credits scene in which Robotnik and Knuckles taunt the player. Sonic 3 includes a competitive mode: two players, controlling Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, race through one or all of five stages that do not appear in the main game. In these same stages, a single player can compete against the clock in time attacks. Sonic 3 & Knuckles Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were planned as a single game, but were released separately due to time constraints caused by a McDonald's promotion and cartridge size limitations. Other new features are the ability to collect Super Emeralds, unlocking new "Hyper" forms for Sonic and Knuckles and a "Super" form for Tails; improved save options; access to areas that Sonic or Tails could not previously access; altered boss forms; and an additional ending that shows Sonic returning the Master Emerald to Angel Island. ==Plot==

After Sonic and Tails defeat Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Robotnik's space station, the Death Egg, crash-lands on the floating Angel Island. The impact from the Death Egg's crash causes the island to fall into the ocean. There, Robotnik meets Knuckles the Echidna, the last member of an ancient echidna civilization that once inhabited the island. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, which grants the island its levitation power and has an equal power level of the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik dupes Knuckles into believing Sonic is trying to steal the Master Emerald, and that the launch base is Sonic's base, turning the two against each other while he repairs the Death Egg. Sonic and Tails approach Angel Island in their biplane, the Tornado. Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic, but Knuckles ambushes him and steals the emeralds. ==Development==

Like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was developed in California by Sega Technical Institute (STI). After the completion of Sonic 2, the producer, Yuji Naka, refused to develop another Sonic game with the Americans. STI split into two teams: one composed of Japanese developers, who worked on Sonic 3, and the other Americans, who worked on Sonic Spinball. Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara were the primary creators of the Sonic 3 design document and project schedule. Naka selected the majority of the team, while the STI director, Roger Hector, oversaw development and Pamela Kelly led the marketing. The designer Takashi Iizuka said the chip was an experiment to see if Sonic could work in 3D, and was abandoned due to its low polygon count. The isometric concept was eventually used for Sonic 3D Blast in 1996. According to Naka, the team wanted a deeper story to expand the Sonic world, which greatly expanded the project size. Additional bosses, different musical arrangements and graphics were used to distinguish act 1 and 2 of each stage. with NVRAM would have been prohibitively expensive. the team reluctantly split it in half, The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge's lock-on technology was created, named and implemented so Sonic 3 could be experienced as intended. Among other features, it allowed the developers to keep the paths designed for Knuckles in Sonic 3, which were inaccessible on the standalone cartridge. for the final design, Takashi Yuda chose the kind of animal, and Pamela Kelly chose the name. Yuda envisioned him as a supporting character for Sonic, and felt he would make a good playable character. Whereas Sonic symbolizes speed, Knuckles symbolizes power, His shoe coloration was inspired by the flag of Jamaica. The design was tested with focus groups of American children. Fans speculated about similarities to Jackson's music, but his involvement was not known until Hector mentioned it in an interview in 2005. and had collaborated with Sega on the 1990 arcade game Moonwalker. They developed fully fledged tracks, with extensive samples of Jackson beatboxing, to be adapted for the Genesis. According to Naka, the development team were given a helicopter tour of Jackson's home, Neverland Ranch. During the development, allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson emerged. Buxer said the team received no instruction to halt work and sent the finished soundtrack to Sega in mid-1993. According to Buxer, Grigsby and Jones, their music remained in the game. An anonymous source involved in development also told GameTrailers that Jackson's contributions, such as the Carnival Night Zone theme, remained. The Sonic 3 credits music became the basis for Jackson's 1996 single "Stranger in Moscow". Senior Sega staff, including Sega of America's president Tom Kalinske, said that any involvement of Jackson was arranged without their knowledge, and that no formal agreements were made. In 2013, Hector said that any similarities to Jackson's music in Sonic 3 were unintentional. Some Sonic 3 tracks were replaced in the Windows port Sonic & Knuckles Collection, as well as the remaster included in the 2022 compilation Sonic Origins. In 2019, VG247 noted that Sonic 3 had been rereleased less frequently since Jackson's death in 2009 and speculated that this was due to legal problems with his estate. ==Release==

Sonic 3 was released in North America on February 2, 1994 (Groundhog Day), in Europe on February 24, and in Japan on May 27. To promote the European release, the British band Right Said Fred adapted their song "Wonderman" to include references to Sonic. The song was used in Sonic 3 advertisements and released as a single, which charted in the UK at number 55. A single-cartridge version of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition, was canceled. A ROM image of this version was leaked online in 2008. Ports and rereleases Sonic 3 is included in the compilations Sonic Jam (1997) for the Sega Saturn, Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997) for Windows, Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the GameCube, Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows, ''Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and Sonic Classic Collection (2010) for the Nintendo DS. The Sonic Jam'' version introduces "remix" options: "Normal" mode alters the layout of rings and hazards, and "Easy" mode removes certain acts. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released for the Wii Virtual Console in September 2007 and Xbox Live Arcade on June 10, 2009. The Xbox version was developed by Backbone Entertainment and has enhanced graphics for high-definition, online leaderboards, support for multiplayer via split screen and Xbox Live, and a new saving system that allows progress to be saved anywhere during play. Sonic 3 was not included in the Sega Genesis Mini (2019), a dedicated console containing 40 Genesis games. AtGames, which was briefly involved with the console's development, said the exclusion was due to licensing problems with the soundtrack. In 2014, independent developers Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley proposed a remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles for iOS and Android, developed using Whitehead's Retro Engine, to Sega, similar to their remasters of previous Sonic games. Despite fan enthusiasm, Sega did not develop the project. Thomley speculated that this was due to legal problems regarding the music. In 2022, Sonic 3 & Knuckles was rereleased for the first time since 2011 as part of the compilation Sonic Origins. The Origins version is a new remaster running on the Retro Engine, developed by Simon Thomley of Headcannon, who previously worked on Sonic Mania and remastered versions of other Genesis Sonic games. Origins adds features including widescreen support and, in the expanded version, Amy Rose as a playable character. Since Sega was unable to use the original Sonic 3 & Knuckles soundtrack, Senoue produced rearrangements of the MIDI music featured in Sonic & Knuckles Collection using the original Genesis sound chip. ==Reception==

In the United States, Sonic 3 was the top-selling Sega Genesis game in February 1994. It became one of the best-selling Genesis games, selling at least 1.02 million copies in the United States. Together, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles sold cartridges worldwide. Like its predecessors, Sonic 3 received critical acclaim. Critics generally felt Sonic 3 was the best game in the series so far. Andrew Humphreys of Hyper, who declared himself not a Sonic fan, said it was "undoubtedly" the best of the series, including the acclaimed but obscure Sonic CD, though he said he preferred Sonic 2 special stages by a small margin. Lionel Vilner of Génération 4 believed Sonic 3 offered more challenge than its predecessors. Some critics felt that Sonic 3 had innovated too little from previous Sonic games. Humphreys of Hyper saw only "a few new features" In 2014, GamesRadar ranked Sonic 3 & Knuckles as the seventh-best Genesis game. In 2013, Jeremy Parish of US Gamer ranked it eighth. ==Legacy==

Sonic 3 was the first appearance of Knuckles the Echidna, who featured prominently in later Sonic games. Sonic the Comic (UK) and the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic (US) published adaptations of Sonic 3. For Sonic 20th anniversary, Sega released Sonic Generations, which remakes elements of various Sonic games. The Nintendo 3DS version features a remake of the final boss and a rearranged version of the "Game Over" theme. The Hydrocity Zone level appears in the 2017 game Sonic Mania. Elements of the 2022 film Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were based on Sonic 3. ==Notes==