Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (Sonic 3) is a 2D Platformer released by Sega and it was released in February 1994 for the Sega Genesis.

The game came after Sonic The Hedgehog 2.

Story
After Sonic 2. Sonic and tails fin out about a island called "Angel island" that has fallen to the ocean surface, they check it out and encounter Knuckles, who steals all of Sonic's chaos emeralds, this was in a plan from Dr. Robotnick, that told Knuckles that Sonic is evil, now Sonic needs to get all of the emeralds and restore Angel Island.

Gameplay
It is the same gameplay as the first 2 Genesis games but with more changes, for one there is a "insta-Shield" once jumping twice you perform a Insta-Shield, which can be useful in boss fights, another thing to is that theirs act transitions, these usually happen in acts 1 and 2, and it makes the game more story driven and having a smooth transition to the next one, while the other games just faded to black and just sent you to the next act or zone.

A new character named Knuckles, a red echidna that protects the "Master Emerald" (later used in future games), in Sonic 3 he is a antagonist, but in Sonic & Knuckles, he joins Sonic and play-able in that game. The way to get Special Stages in this game is vastly different then the other games, scattered in the zones are "Big Rings", once jumped in your transported to a "3D" terrian, filled with red and blue spheres, you are tasked to collect the amount of spheres, once your done that, you get your chaos emerald, collect and 7 and you earn "Super Sonic" but after completing Sonic 3 and getting all emeralds, you get transported to the "Hidden Palace" where there are 7 more emeralds called master emeralds, once getting all those you earn "Hyper Sonic" and much more powerful version of "Super Sonic".

Zones
These are the zones that appear in the game.




 * Angel Island: A island that Knuckles lives, it later gets burned.
 * Hydro City Zone: It is a underground ruin that takes place in water and ground
 * Marble Garden Zone: A large zone that has spin tops, a way to traverse through the zone.
 * Carnival Night Zone: a carnival setting where there are bumpers, balloons and pinball launchers
 * Ice Cap Zone: A snow/cave zone where you slide down a snowboard (at the beginning)
 * Launch Base Zone: The "Last" zone in the game, where you fight against the "Big Arm"

Competition Zones


 * Azure Lake
 * Balloon Park
 * Chrome Gadget
 * Desert Palace

Power Ups
Some of the monitors return from Sonic 2, but there are some new monitors, specifically elemental shields.


 * Ring Monitor: After breaking you get 10 rings.
 * Shield Monitor: You can take a hit but after that you get damage.
 * Power Sneakers: Allows you to run faster.
 * Invincible Monitor: You can kill any badnick and you can run on spikes, but you can't breath in water.
 * Fire Shield: You can survive in fire and you can charge in after you jump.
 * Water Shield: You can breath in water and you can rapidly bounce.
 * Electric Shield: You can use it to grab rings farther away and you can double jump.
 * Slow Down Shoes: These are only in the competition mode, but you slow down

Success
The game was received positively with critics and fans, but was criticized for being short, this was because Sega visioned both Sonic 3 and Knuckles where planned to be in one, but was scrapped since they couldn't fit all the game on a cartridge, so both games where splitted into two, but if you combine the 2 games you get the full experience, an the story gets fully connected.

The first re-release of the game was on "Sonic Jam" in 1997, it was featured in the 4 games in the game, with easy, original and hard modes, it was in "Sonic Mega Collection" and "Sonic Mega Collection Plus" both in 2002 and 2004, it was on the Wii Virtual console and on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 store, it was on the Ds collection "Sonic Classic Collection" and it was last featured on "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection", and it was released on Steam in 2012, in 2021, Sega announced "Sonic Origins" a compilation that compiles Sonic 1, Sonic 2, CD and Sonic 3, which makes it the newest re-release in over 8+ years, the game is coming out in 2022. The reason the game hasn't gotten any future re-releases is that the involvement with Micheal Jackson, Micheal Jackson loved Sonic 2 and got invited to the Sega HQ, he got to tour the office and was allowed to use his music in Sonic 3, however when he heard his music, he hated the sound coming out of the Genesis and dropped put of the game, but his music was still in the game. When the game was released on the PC in 1997, newly composed music was made for the game, the games changed music was IceCap Zone, Carnival Night Zone and Launch Base Zone, supposedly MJ's music wasn't allowed since he owned them, similar to Sonic 1

and Sonic 2, those were composed by Dreams Come True.

Trivia

 * This is the first main-line Sonic game to have a new Sonic sprite.


 * The game was released on Groundhogs Day, which in marketing they called it "Hedgehog Day".
 * Hidden Palace was originally a cut zone in Sonic 2, but returned in Sonic 3 but with a new look.
 * This is the first Genesis game to have Save Files, but it was introduced in Sonic CD.




 * A prototype of the game was found on November 2019, by TCRF (The Cutting Room Floor) and Hidden Palace, the prototype date was "November 3rd 1993".
 * That same prototype had a "Drop Dash" feature, the idea was later used in "Sonic Mania".

Fundamental Flaws

 * Just before Knuckles presses the button that leads you in Hydro City zone, jump at the last second and you will land on the left grass piece, this can be used to hear the extended version of Knuckle's theme.
 * In Angel Island Act 2 if someone get stuck in the last tunnel the graphics will glitch.

Walkthrough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhExIWa0R-4