Sonic the Hedgehog 3

"The greatest Sonic game ever made when combined with Sonic and Knuckles!"

Introduction
Sonic is a blue hedgehog who has saved nature in his past two adventures. Again, he must stop Dr. Robotnik from harming nature again, with his Death Egg broken down. Sonic's buddy, Tails, is also ready for action, with his new flying powers makes him better than ever. Knuckles, the guardian of the island, keeps interfering with Sonic and Tails. This is the third game for the Genesis, but if you lock this on with Sonic and Knuckles, you get the greatest Sonic/Sega game ever made.

Story
After the Death Egg scene from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic and Tails took their plane to the floating island. Sonic jumped off the plane, turned into Super Sonic, and went into the island. Knuckles popped out of the ground, and caused Sonic to lose all of his emeralds, and Knuckles took all 7 of them, bringing them to Dr. Robotnik. If you have Sonic and Knuckles hooked in, Knuckles will have a few nasty surprises in the game.

GamePlay: 10/10
This does have a good game play, but better and longer once you lock on Sonic and Knuckles. Collecting the stolen Chaos Emeralds affects the ending a little bit, giving you Super Sonic if you play as Sonic. With Sonic and Knuckles locked on, you can have Knuckles play in the levels of Sonic 3, explore what Sonic and Tails couldn't reach, have Tails play the Sonic and Knuckles levels, Super Emeralds in the Sonic and Knuckles levels, and your gift for collecting all 7 are Hyper Sonic or Knuckles or Super Tails, but you need the Chaos Emeralds first. This game is 2-D, but there are 3-D special stages behind every giant ring where you can obtain an emerald, but watching out for the red spheres as you collect the blue ones. The difficulty rating is Normal/Easy, but could be overboard if this is your first time in the Sonic series.

And, if you have 2 controllers, you can do a Sonic and Tails together file and go through the levels together. But the bad part is each character does not have his/her own separate half of the screen, so Tails could get lost real easily, but he will fly back to Sonic. In 2 player Coop, Tails has unlimited lives and will not lose a life no matter how many times he gets hit, and he can't break open boxes, and when he collects rings, they count for Sonic.

Or you can do a competition with 2 players. Each player picks Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, and they have a race in any of the 5 competition levels.

Graphics: 10/10
These graphics are awesome, combined to Sonic and Knuckles or not! The graphics are colorful and easy to see, and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have been designed good. The Special Stages are very colorful and have been designed very well. Enemies have been designed good, and so has Robotnik and his inventions. The backgrounds have also been designed good too.

Sound Effects: 10/10
The sound effects are good in this game. Sonic has a good sound effect when he jumps, and Tails has nice flying sound effects. I also love the sound effects of Robotnik's inventions blowing up. In Special Stages, I like the sound of when you collect the Spheres.

Music: 10/10
The music in this game rocks! I love the level music for Carnival Night and Ice Cap. And when Sonic and Knuckles is locked on, the music of Lava Reef, Death Egg, and The Flying Battery are awesome. Even the competition music is nice too.

Controls: 9/10
These controls are easy to handle with. Except for the spin dash, where you hold down, keep tapping A to speed up, and then let go of down. If you have a turbo controller and are using the turbo buttons, you're making the controls as if this game needed to be rushed through.

Replayabilty: 10/10
It's fun replaying this game again! When you beat the game, you can go back and replay the game to collect all the Emeralds if you didn't, get better at the game, or explore other areas in any level, or try to beat the game with a different character.

Rent or Buy?
BUY THIS GAME! YOU WILL LOVE IT! Also, when you go out to get this game, get Sonic and Knuckles if you don't have it, so you can attach this to Sonic and Knuckles, and make this game even better. Also, you can get this game in Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube, or the Sonic and Knuckles Collection for the computer.

Overall: 10/10
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is one of the best Sega games, but even better when locked on to Sonic and Knuckles. From Sonic 3 alone, so-so music, nice sound effects, good graphics, awesome game play, an all around story, and much more.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/03, Updated 12/05/03