Sonic the Hedgehog 3

"You don't need Sonic & Knuckles to enjoy this game."

In 1994, it was already clear that Sega had managed to create a mascot that had the attitude that the company needed to survive. Their mascot was much faster than anything the gaming industry had seen in platform games, and everyone seemed to love him. Of course I'm talking about Sonic The Hedgehog. This is Sonic's third game on the Sega Mega Drive. If this game would have been a flop, then I doubt that Sega would have survived so long in the console war as they did.

The first thing that has been added in this game that the previous Sonic games didn't have is a save feature. This allows you to turn of the system when you think you have had enough and then start from the stage you where on the last time you played the game when you start your Mega Drive the next time. When you have beat the game once, you can select which stage you want to start on this save file.

The game takes places right after the ending of Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Sonic and Tails found a flying island right after they destroyed the Death Egg and decided to explore the island. Since he had collected all the seven Chaos Emeralds in the previous game, he turns into Super Sonic as soon as he reaches this mysterious island. After just a few seconds, he bumps into an Echidna and drops all the chaos emeralds. The Echidna picks up all the Chaos Emeralds and runs away. Now Sonic and Tails have to search the whole island to once again find all the Chaos Emeralds, and in some way they also runs into Dr Robotnik (now known as Dr Eggman in the whole world, his name has always been Dr Eggman in Japan).

As you might have guessed, this Echidna that stole the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic is no other than Knuckles the Echidna, one of the most popular characters in the series except for Sonic. In this game, we don't get to know that much about Knuckles. All we get to know is that he had joined forces with Dr Robotnik and wants Sonic to get out of his island. Knuckles will show up once in almost every zone to make things more difficult for our two heroes.

Once again Dr Robotnik have left many different robots on each stage, and our heroes can turn them back to the animals they used to be if Sonic or Tails jump on them. Each stage is also full of rings that allows our heroes to take one hit from the enemies. When Sonic or Tails takes one hit, they will drop all their rings and the rings will be all over the stage. It's possible to pick them up again so you can take another hit.

The game has a total of 6 zones, and each stage are split in 2 acts. But in this game you don't have to reach a goal in any of the acts, since every first act has a mini-boss and every second act has a duel with Dr Robotnik. Every zone is much bigger than what they were in the previous Sonic games, and there are more alternative paths to take.

Just like in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, you can in this game choose if you want to play as Sonic & Tails, or just one of them. Sonic have gained a few abilities in this game. He can now destroy even more power boxes, which now gives him a few different abilities. The fire box for example, allows Sonic to throw himself in the air and he's now also resistance to fire attacks. Then there's a lighting box which makes the rings head to Sonic right away, he's resistance to electricity and can double jump. The last new power up is the water bubble, which allows Sonic to bounce, he's now resistance to water attacks and can't run out of oxygen while he wears that bubble.

But Sonic is not the only one who has gained a few abilities, his sidekick Tails have also learned a few new things. For example the player who plays as Tails can now fly where ever he wants to. Tails can even pick up Sonic and fly away with him for a short while, which also allows Sonic to reach new places. Sonic's big disadvantage is that he moves slower underwater and can't swim. But tails on the other hand knows how to swim, so playing as Tails makes the game very different from playing as Sonic in many ways.

Another thing that has been changed in this game is the bonus stages. You reach them by jumping into big yellow rings that are hidden all over stage, so you might want to take the time to explore the whole act. The point in the bonus stages is to collect as many blue balls as possible, once you have touched a blue ball it will turn red and if you touch a red ball you will be teleported back to the regular stage. You will get an Chaos Emerald if you managed to collect all the blue balls on the stage. If you also manages to get 50 rings, you will get an continue.

If you and a friend don't want to play through the whole game then perhaps the time attack mode. Knuckles is also playable in this mode. Here you can race either another player or an AI controlled opponent on five different tracks, which are all special made for this mode. You can also try to beat your previous time that it took you to finish each stage.

I think that while Sonic 3 isn't an finished game, it doesn't stop it from having many kick ass zones in it. Personally I love all six zones in this game and thinks it's a great game to play over and over again. However since there are just six stages, I don't understand what the point is about the save system. Then you can just skip one stage that you don't like after you beat the game once and then you don't get the satisfaction when you have reached your favourite stage just like you did in the previous Sonic games. But if ignore that, then you have a game that is just as fantastic as the previous Sonic The Hedgehog games on the Sega Mega Drive.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/07