Sonc the Hedgehog 3

After the initial success of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, SEGA created the stunning Sonic 2. Continuing with this massive franchise, SEGA decided to follow Sonic 2 up with a predictably titled Sonic 3. Many fans were ultimately disappointed with Sonic 3 as it kept to the same style, format and gameplay as previous iterations of the franchise and did nothing to move the series forward – unlike Nintendo with Super Mario World.

The same general premise is applied to Sonic 3 as with the previous Sonic titles: press right and jump over everything; although this has been slightly tweaked, as there’s now various places where the player has to press left and go back on themselves a touch and there are far more obstacles to jump over, along with new “boxes,” as well. The new additions include a fire box and the water box, which will allow Sonic so be invincible to fire and not drown underwater, respectively.

Along with these new additions comes a new enemy: Knuckles. This red echidna is able to glide along the world and does his best to cause as much trouble to Sonic and his trusty partner Tails as well as the renamed Dr Eggman. Unfortunately, Sonic has no direct contact with Knuckles and he is more of a token gesture of an enemy than someone of relevance.

The general level design has stayed the same, with only two levels per Zone on the whole, but inside of each level there hasn't been a noticeable change. Sonic looks entirely different to Sonic 2, and the graphics on the whole have all been changed. This causes divides in the Sonic community as many feel that the previous graphics were better, and I, too, believe that Sonic looks out of place and although the graphics are vibrant and well drawn, still aren’t as good as the style of previous iterations of the series.

However, with all that aside, the new additions to the game make it fun and now at the end of each level instead of just running through the finish line, the player will get the option to play around with the spinning “Level Complete” sign. By playing, Sonic is able to gain more points and also depending when it lands Sonic is also able to get a box of Rings, and varying boxes from the Fire Box, to the Eggman Box. This little change is a great addition as it makes the game feel different from its previous titles.

Additionally, one massive change is the save system. Unlike in all of the previous Sonic games, Sonic 3 features some form of automatic saving and has Save Files as well. After each level has been completed the game autosaves so that the player needn’t start from the beginning again, but can if they want to. This is a great addition at the time, considering The Legend of Zelda had been saving games seven years earlier.

There’s also another change to the Special Stage zone: this is still 3D such as with Sonic 2; however, instead of collecting Rings and coming to the end of a race Sonic has to run around the Special Stage world, avoiding the Red Balls and only getting the Blue ones. After collecting all of the Blue Balls the Chaos Emerald will appear. This Special Stage is no longer found above the in-game save points either, they are hidden away in the scenery of the level and are a flash back to Sonic 1 when a player finished with over 50 Rings, there was a giant Ring. This Giant Ring is back and is often the entire size of the hidden area.

Final Verdict - 8/10

Sonic 3 is a must-have for all Sonic 2D fans as it follows the same winning formula; however, it’s probably the worst of the 3 games solely because it’s not trying to do anything new. There are a few new and beneficial additions to the title, yet on the whole, it feels a little tired. This game is best experienced as Knuckles with Sonic 3 put ontop of Sonic and Knuckles; unfortunately, this game still doesn’t exist on the Virtual Console yet, but we may experience it one day.