Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The European cover of Sonic 3
Developer(s)	Sonic Team Sega Technical Institute
Publisher(s)	Sega
Designer(s)	Takashi Thomas Yuda (character design), Hirokazu Yasuhara (lead designer), Yuji Naka (programming)
Composer(s)	Michael Jackson
Platform(s)	Sega Genesis Compilations: Saturn, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Release	February 2, 1994 February 24 1994 May 27, 1994
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ3, Sonikku za Hejjihoggu Surī), often abbreviated and officially known in Europe as Sonic 3, is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Sega Genesis. It was developed by Sonic Team in collaboration with Sega Technical Institute, and was published by Sega. The game debuted worldwide in the first half of 1994.

The game is closely tied to its sequel Sonic & Knuckles, as the two games were originally one until time constraints and cartridge costs forced the game to be split into two interlocking parts. Combined, both games have sold over 4 million copies.

Storyline

File:Sonic3.png

Sonic 3 title screen.

In the Sonic chronology, Sonic 3's storyline commences shortly after the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Dr. Robotnik's space station, the Death Egg, has fallen out of orbit after his mech suit exploded in his final showdown with Sonic, causing critical damage to the ship.

However, instead of impacting the planet, the Death Egg crash-landed on Angel Island, a mystical floating landmass that had previously been reputed only by legend to exist. As Dr. Robotnik repairs the ship he meets up with the Island’s sole inhabitant, Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles is the last surviving member of an ancient civilization, whose ruins and relics are scattered throughout the island. He is also the guardian of a set of Chaos Emeralds, jewels that grant the island its levitation powers.

Knowing Sonic and Tails will try to track him down, and realizing he can use the Chaos Emeralds to power the ship, Robotnik tricks Knuckles into believing Sonic is trying to steal his Emeralds, and he's come to help him. Shortly after, Super Sonic and Tails land on Angel Island in their bi-plane, the Tornado, in search of Robotnik. No sooner than they have arrived, Knuckles ambushes Sonic from underground with such force, he knocks the Chaos Emeralds from him, returning him to normal. Stunned, Sonic can only watch as Knuckles steals the Emeralds and disappears inland. Once recovered, Sonic and Tails set off in a race against time to stop Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik and the re-launch of the Death Egg.

Gameplay

Changes

Based on a faster, more flexible game engine that was modified and adapted from the Sonic 2 game-engine [1], Sonic 3 included more scope than any other game in the series to date: The play fields were three times larger than previous games, with multiple paths for different characters (each character would play the same level, but their particular abilities, e.g. flying/gliding/wall-climbing, would allow them to access certain paths, or preclude and restrict paths if they lacked the abilities). Also, there were more environmental elements with which to interact, faster maximum speeds, more end-of-level bosses, and more set pieces, all without any of the framerate issues that plagued certain parts of Sonic 2.

The game introduced many staples to the series, such as an increasedly story-driven game, multiple shield types, several musical idents and themes used in most subsequent games, and introduced Jun Senoue to the series, who would later become sound director of the 3D Sonic games, lending them their signature rock-inspired soundtracks.

Each stage seamlessly connects to the next, via continuation or a cutscene, to convey spatial relation between the levels and add interest and special-effects. This helps the game convey the sense of existing in a real geographical location, as opposed to separate, disconnected zones. With these transitions between the levels, the game developer expanded the idea initiated in the 8-bit version of Sonic 1. Knuckles has also become a firm fan favorite, alternating roles between rival, antagonist, and partner.

Overview of play

Hydrocity Zone.

In single player mode, the player can choose to play solo, as either Sonic or Tails, or as a team, controlling Sonic, with the AI or a second player controlling Tails, which is the default configuration (a second player may take control of Tails by simply using a controller plugged into port 2). The object of the game is to progress through six zones, each comprised of two acts, an act 1 robotic mid-boss, and an act 2 main boss, piloted by Robotnik. In order to completely finish the game, seven Chaos Emeralds must also be collected from the special stages.

The gameplay builds on the formula laid down in Sonic 2. Sonic and Tails are now equipped with special moves that are activated by pressing the jump button a second time while in mid air. Tails will fly if he’s out of water, or swim if he’s in water, both for a limited amount of time. In a team game, a second player can use Tails to "airlift" Sonic for a short amount of time. This technique is essential for beating the Marble Garden boss; the flight time is limited normally, but during this boss fight it is not, nor is it manually triggered. If Sonic has no shield equipped, he will generate an Insta-shield by tapping any controller button twice, giving him a split second burst of protection from projectiles and increasing Sonic's attack radius. Tails retains his ability to fly regardless of whether or not he has a shield.

Power Ups

Instead of a single shield power-up, there are now three elemental shields, each with special abilities that can be used only by Sonic:

• Lightning Shield: Absorbs all electric and charge-based attacks, and will draw in any rings near to the player. Sonic can generate a charge jump; a double jump, which acts like a mid-air normal jump. This shield shorts out upon contact with water, or any damage taken. This is the predecessor of Sonic Adventure's magnetic shield, which has the same effect without the resistance to electricity and the Double-Jump move.
• Flame Shield: Absorbs all fire-based attacks, and allows the player to walk on lava or fire without taking damage. Sonic can generate a blast jump: a fast, near horizontal dive across the screen as a fireball. This shield extinguishes upon contact with water, or any damage taken. This is the predecessor of Shadow the Hedgehog's heat barrier. The blast jump is a lot like Sonic's Jump Dash move from the Sonic Advance series and the Homing Attack used in all 3D Sonic titles from Sonic Adventure onwards (though it does not home in on enemies, and can't link attacks together consecutively like the Homing Attack can).
• Water Shield: Being the only shield that sustains itself underwater, it allows the player to breathe freely underwater (i.e. it eliminates the defaultly imposed time-limit before drowning). Sonic can use it to generate a bounce jump; the closer Sonic is to the ground when he makes the second jump, the higher he bounces. This shield pops with any damage taken. The bouncing move is very similar to the one Sonic gains from the Bounce Bracelet from Sonic Adventure 2.

All three shields have the ability to deflect small projectiles, such as the shots from badniks in Hydrocity Zone and Marble Garden Zone.

Zones

Levels

There are 6 levels in Sonic 3, each made up of two acts. They are:

File:Sonic3 IceCap.png

Ice Cap Zone.

1. Angel Island Zone: A tranquil jungle island. Sonic arrives by transforming into Super Sonic (in a cutscene), he collides into a trap Knuckles lays out and loses all Seven chaos emeralds which Knuckles steals whilst Sonic recovers. When playing as tails, you are instantly placed on the island. The first Act takes place in the plush, green jungle. However, a the end of the first Act, the island is set ablaze by Dr. Robotnik, leaving the second Act to take place in the burning remnants. Knuckles the island guardian makes his first appearance here, as he recovers the emeralds from Sonic and runs off immediately after they land on the shore.
2. Hydrocity Zone: The flooded remains of an ancient city, the first act reflecting a Medival style, the second act resembling something like Atlantis. Both Sonic and Tails fall into the city as a result of Knuckles destroying the bridge in the post-Angel Island boss cutscene. The first stage takes place mostly underwater. The second stage, whilst featuring large underwater areas, mainly takes place on water slides and tubes above the surface.
3. Marble Garden Zone: The marble ruins of an ancient civilization. Both Sonic and Tails arrive in the zone by falling (like in the beginning of Hydrocity) after an explosion causes water streams to propel the protagonist high into the Sky. Marble Garden is the only zone in Sonic 3 with no water in it and it highly resembles the Marble Zone in the first Sonic game. Dr. Robotnik uses his mobile vehicle to drill through the surface of this stage, causing massive earthquakes in the process that Sonic must outrun in a timely fashion.
4. Carnival Night Zone: Tails drops Sonic into a playful carnival filled with balloons, pinball bumpers, and cannons to launch from, similar to Casino Night Zone in Sonic 2, although there are no slot machines. At times during the 2nd act, you are underwater, and the air bubbles that aid your survival appear from burst balloons. You encounter Knuckles twice, once, he shuts off the Zone's power (which you have to turn back on later), and then the second time to affect the direction of the warp tubes so that they carry you up to face Robotnik.
5. Ice Cap Zone: Sonic is shot from a cannon in post Carnival Night boss cutscene and lands on a snowboard in the snowy mountains, you can press the jump buttons to get air time on the snowboard, there's also a maximum of 50 rings to be collected, however, 40 of the rings are collected automatically if you do nothing whilst on the snowboard. The snowboarding cutscene does not play if you are playing as Tails. The first act takes place mostly underground inside an ice-cold cavern, while the second act brings Sonic back to Ice Cap's powder-snow surface, you spend a small amount of the zone in caverns beneath the surface in this level aswell, go far enough down though and there is water, in which you lose a life if you jump into.
6. Launch Base Zone: Dr. Robotnik's launch site that was built for re-launching the sunken Death Egg, with spinning elevators for facilitation of travel and alarms to keep out intruders. Both Sonic and Tails are shot through a snowy tube post Ice Cap boss in the cutscene and appear on the slightly snowy surface of the Launch Base. The first act takes place in an outlying series of towers, whilst the second takes place mainly amoungst the fuelling cables for the Death Eggs launch jets (indicating how the player is getting closer to the target). A part of the level is also played underwater. There are 3 bosses at the end of the 2nd act, all of which have to be played in one go. The final two bosses occur on a small stage of the Launch Base itself where Robotnik attempts to stop you in two machines, the first one requiring nine hits for takedown (4 hits for the first part, 4 for the second part and 1 to complete the machine). The final boss is tricky, you are up against Robotnik in a capsule that has spikes on top and arms that grab you and can make you lose rings or a life, this boss requires strategy.

Special Stages

1 of many Blue Sphere Special Stage in Sonic 3.

As in previous Sonic games, Star posts are scattered throughout each act to save the player's progress. Furthermore, if Sonic has collected at least 50 rings and he hits a check point, a bright halo of stars will float above it, which Sonic can then jump through to access a bonus stage based on a gumball machine. The sides of a shaft are lined with one-time-use bumpers, which propel Sonic upwards. Each time he passes the slot of the gumball machine, it releases a ball which Sonic can then grab. Bonuses include shields, rings, lives, bumpers, empty balls, and a one use set of springs at the bottom of the shaft. The stage ends when Sonic falls out of the bottom of the shaft. Note that star posts in Sonic 3 are used to enter bonus stages this time instead of Emerald stages, as in Sonic 2. The Emerald stages are once again entered by jumping through a large golden ring, as they were in Sonic the Hedgehog. Contrary to the original Sonic the Hedgehog, these rings are hidden in the scenery, and multiple can be found in each act. In addition, the player is not required to collect any amount of rings to enter the emerald stage. Each special stage is based on a 3-dimensional, checkered sphere (topologically a torus, as its surface is a square with the edges wrapping around) of which only a small surface portion is visible at any given time. The surface of this sphere is covered in blue, red, and white with red star spheres, and rings. Sonic runs across the surface, following the edges of the chequer squares. At each corner, he can turn left, right, or carry on straight. The aim is to collect all the blue spheres, whilst avoiding the red spheres, which result in instant failure (the blue spheres are replaced with red ones as they're collected, except when the ring trick below is performed). White spheres bounce Sonic backwards. If only the perimeter of a rectangle of blue spheres is collected leaving blue spheres on the inside (meaning the rectangle must have dimensions of at least 3x3), all of the spheres in that rectangle turn into rings. Earning 50 rings grants the player a continue. Collecting all the possible rings in a stage results in a perfect clear, which adds 50,000 points to the total score, worth an extra life. Also, as time elapses in these stages, the tempo of the music will increase, and Sonic will also start moving faster, making him more difficult to control over time and increasing the risk of accidentally contacting a red sphere. The stage ends when all the blue spheres are collected, a feat that results in the player being awarded with a Chaos Emerald. However, if a red sphere is touched, the player loses their chance to obtain chaos emerald, and the special-stage is terminated with the player retaining their existing score. There are 7 stages, one for each Emerald. When all Emeralds are collected, Sonic can become Super Sonic by collecting 50 rings and performing a double jump without a shield. At this point, any additional giant rings found will add 50 rings to the player's total, instead of starting a special stage.

Multiplayer

Sonic 3 retained head-to-head racing introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, although instead of using levels from the single player game with interlaced graphics, five entirely new tracks, as well as special character sprites, were created for competitions and Knuckles was added as a selectable character, albeit without his gliding and climbing abilities which were not unveiled until Sonic & Knuckles (despite the presence of multiplayer sprites). Players can select to play a Grand Prix of all five tracks, a single track to race on, or race the clock in time trial mode.

The five tracks (the first letters of which make up the sequence A, B, C, D and E) are:

1. Azure Lake: A short but speedy course along the waters of Azure Lake. This track is the fastest among the five multiplayer stages, and can be completed in well under 20 seconds.
2. Balloon Park: A bouncy stage similar to Carnival Night with a loop and several bumpers and balloons to get ahead. A well known bug in the loop can enable the player to skip large parts of each lap.
3. Chrome Gadget: A tour through a Death Egg like maze filled with platforms and force fields. If a racer touches the bottom of a platform, he dies.
4. Desert Palace: This desert ruin takes the player through high speed loops and over quicksand bridges. However, should a racer start spinning in the loop too early, he will be hurled back at high speed to the beginning of the track. The loop was fixed in Sonic Mega Collection, and doesn't bounce you back.
5. Endless Mine: The longest of the five stages, situated in an abandoned mine cave. Endless Mine poses no real dangers to the racers, but requires some well timed jumps and speed stops to complete the stage in a competent fashion.

Reception

Although Sonic 3 did not perform as well as Sonic 2 in terms of sales, the game was almost universally well-received by fans and critics alike, scoring in the high 80% range. The general consensus amongst fans is that the "true" Sonic 3 (Sonic 3 & Knuckles) along with Sonic CD are the main candidates for best 2D Sonic game. Sonic 3 & Knuckles was the last 2D Sonic game in the main series until Sonic Advance, 7 years later.

Sonic 3 received criticism for a particular puzzle in Act 2 of Carnival Night Zone with the infamous barrel. At the time, puzzles generally weren't a part of Sonic titles, and the seemingly unsolvable puzzle involved a rather unconventional and unintuitive solution, where the player had to alternatively press up and down on the D-pad, without any visual cues to do so. This has caused tremendous frustration in many fans, especially since at first glance, it appears to be an error in level design. A later level in the following game, Sonic & Knuckles, Act 2 of Sandopolis, would receive similar criticisms.

Technical specifications

The game's title screen featured a pseudo-3D render of Sonic jumping out of the screen, a relatively advanced technique for the Genesis to pull off. This technique was incrementally improved on in both Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3D Blast

According to several sources, including the official Japanese strategy guide for Sonic Jam (written by members Sonic Team), Sonic 3 originally began as a top-down, isometric game, similar to what would eventually become Sonic 3D Blast. This concept was abandoned early into development, after the team did not want to change the Sonic formula too radically for a sequel.

File:Sonic3 SaveScreen.png

Sonic 3 save options.

Sonic 3 was the second Sonic game to save game progress (after Sonic CD), and would be the only cartridge-based Sonic game to do so until Sonic Pocket Adventure.

The cartridge has a small amount of non-volatile RAM built into it, in the form of a Ramtron FM1208S-200CC CMOS module. This allows the player to save game progress. Depending on whether Sonic the Hedgehog 3 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles was being played, the game-save options will differ. Sonic 3 & Knuckles has 8 save slots instead of 6, and saves the number of lives and continues gained, as well as progress. Regardless of the game being played, all the save data is stored in the Sonic 3 cartridge.

Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were originally planned to be one game. However, as time constraints and the manufacturing costs of a 32 megabit cartridge with NVRAM would have pushed the price far too high, the decision was taken to split the game in half, giving the developers more time to finish the second part, and splitting the high cost between two cartridges.

The second half of the game, Sonic & Knuckles, was released worldwide in the second half of 1994. Sonic & Knuckles is known as a lock-on cartridge: There is a slot built on top, which Sonic 3 can be inserted into, forming the 32 megabit game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Yuji Naka, the game's programmer and co-producer confirmed that this game is what Sonic 3 was originally intended to be.

Because the two games were originally one, and designed in tandem, a lot of extra data from Sonic & Knuckles is still present on the Sonic 3 cartridge. Several pieces of music and three unplayable levels from Sonic & Knuckles are listed on the level select and sound test screen, including Mushroom Valley, an early name for Mushroom Hill. In addition, by utilizing a glitch during certain stages, the Sonic & Knuckles miniboss theme can be heard in Sonic 3. Further evidence of the incomplete state of Sonic 3 can be found on the Zone Select screen in the images which represent each zone - they are the same as those in the Zone Select screen from Sonic 2.

When plugged together, the data from Sonic 3 is appended to the data from Sonic & Knuckles, as the two were designed to work together and correctly reference each other. In contrast, Knuckles in Sonic 2 works by patching the original Sonic 2 ROM.

Release

Sonic 3 was released in the US on February 2, 1994, dubbed "Hedgehog Day", a reference to Groundhog Day. Toys "R" Us rewarded preorders with the limited edition CD, Sonic Boom, containing music from and inspired by Sonic CD and Sonic Spinball.

Re-releases

Sonic 3 has subsequently been re-released several times, first in 1997 for the Sega Saturn as part of the compilation game Sonic Jam. In 2002, it was part of the Sonic Mega Collection for GameCube, in 2004, as part of the Sonic Mega Collection Plus on PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows for PC. An earlier Microsoft Windows running PC port was also released as part of the Sonic and Knuckles Collection. All versions are faithful ports, apart from this specific PC version featuring different music for any songs that simultaneously use music and voices (MIDI and PCM), like Ice Cap and Launch Base. This was a technical limitation: to play these songs using the proper "drum" sounds, which were voices and other sound effects, would have required the sound card to simultaneously use MIDI and Wave output, a feature not available on all sound cards at the time. Plans have not been established to release this game or Sonic & Knuckles on the Virtual Console.

Music Controversy

Originally, Sega hired Michael Jackson to compose the music for Sonic 3. When news broke out of a scandal involving Jackson and allegations of child pedophilia, Sega dropped the deal, although his song writing team still composed the soundtrack (who appear in the credits). There are notable similarities between the music recorded for Sonic 3 and music from Jackson's previous recorded tracks from the Dangerous album, and a track from the later released HIStory album. A collective research analysis at the Sonic research and reverse-engineering community Sonic Cult offers more insight on the similarities of the subject.

Credits

• Executive Producer: Hayao Nakayama
• Project Managers: Hisashi Suzuki, Shinobu Toyoda, Masaharu Yoshii
• Producer: Yuji Naka
• Director: Hirokazu Yasuhara
• Lead Game Designer: Hirokazu Yasuhara
• Senior Game Designers: Hisayoshi Yoshida, Takashi Iizuka
• Lead Programmer: Yuji Naka
• Senior Programmers: Hiroshi Nikaidoh, Masanobu Yamamoto
• Character Designer: Takashi Thomas Yuda
• CG Artist: Kunitake Aoki
• Animator: Takashi Thomas Yuda
• Enemy Artist: Satoshi Yokokawa
• Scene Artists: Kunitake Aoki, Chie Yoshida, Tsuneko Aoki, Shigeru Okada, Takashi Thomas Yuda, Satoshi Yokokawa
• Art Assistant: Osamu Ohashi
• Music Composers: Brad Buxer, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby III, Scirocco And Michael Jackson (Without acreditation)
• Sega Sound Team: Bo, Sachio Ogawa, Milpo, Masaru Setsumaru, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomonori Sawada, Masayuki Nagao, Jun Senoue
• Sound Project Coordinator: Hisaki Nimiya
• Marketing: Pamela Kelly
• Executive Management: Shouichirou Irimajiri, Tom Kalinske
• Executive Coordinators: Mamoru Shigeta, Tomio Takami, Diane A. Fornasier, Roger Hector, Takaharu Utsunomiya
• Sound Special Thanks: Mayumi Nina Sakazaki (MRM), Cube Corp., Opus Corp., Masanori Nakayama (Studio Who), Howard Drossin
• Special Thanks: Deborah McCracken, Emi Kawamura, Jina Ishiwatari

External links

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 at MobyGames
• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 page at The GHZ
• Sonic 3 at IMDb
• WikiKnowledge - Wiki based guide to the game
• Critical reception of Sonic 3