Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Logo of the game
Original title	ソ ニ ッ ク ・ ザ ・ ヘ ッ ジ ホ ッ グ 3
transcription	Sonikku za Hejjihoggu 3
Studio	Sonic Team Sega Technical Institute
Publisher	Sega
Senior Developer	Hayao Nakayama (Executive Producer) Yuji Naka (Producer) Hirokazu Yasuhara (Director)
composer	Hisaki Nimiya Jun Senoue Michael Jackson
Erstveröffent- lichung	Sega Mega Drive : February 2, 1994 February 24, 1994 May 27, 1994 Wii Shop Channel : August 21, 2007 February 7, 2007 February 10, 2007 Xbox Live Arcade : June 10, 2009 Steam : January 27, 2011
platform	Sega Mega Drive , Sega Saturn , Windows , Nintendo GameCube , PlayStation 2 , Xbox , Nintendo Wii , PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 , Nintendo DS
genre	Jump 'n' run
Game mode	Single player , multiplayer , co-op mode
control	Gamepad
medium	Cartridge , Nintendo eShop
language	English
Age rating	USK PEGI

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 ( jap. : ソニック·ザ·ヘッジホッグ3 , Hepburn : Sonikku za Hejjihoggu 3 ), only Sonic 3 is a 2D Jump 'n' Run - computer game , which by Sonic Team and Sega Technical Institute ( STI) and was first published by Sega in the USA on February 2, 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive . For this game, new skills, items and, for the first time, a memory function have been added, as well as the new character Knuckles the Echidna . The red ant urchin is initially a rival of Sonic and will be an ally in the fight against Dr. Robotnik.

It is the successor to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) and the predecessor to Sonic & Knuckles (1994). With the module of this game you can activate the game Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the lock-on cartridge from Sonic & Knuckles .

action

Even a few days after the latest events in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that saw Sonic Dr. Robotnik defeated on the Death Egg and thus brought it to a crash, the crashed Death Egg was not found anywhere or even seen. Sonic and his friends are wondering whether the ancient legend of the flying island of Angel Island could be true and whether the Death Egg crashed on it. Legend has it that the Chaos Emeralds came from there and after Tails built a radar device to detect Chaos Emerald energy, it actually senses other energy than the seven Chaos Emeralds in Sonic's possession.

With the double-decker airplane called Tornado , Sonic and Tails follow the signal and actually discover Angel Island from the legend, floating over the sea covered in clouds. Sonic is transformed with the seven Chaos Emeralds in Supersonic and just as he enters the island, make it a red echidna named Knuckles the Echidna , Sonic remove the seven Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Tails explore the island, but quickly realize that Dr. Robotnik has also locked the native animals in robots and capsules here. It turns out that Angel Island did indeed make the Death Egg crash mild, and Dr. Robotnik has been busy repairing the Death Egg here since the crash . He met Knuckles, the guardian of the island and the last living echidna, and told him that a hedgehog named Sonic and a fox named Tails were coming to steal the treasures Knuckles was guarding. Knuckles believes Dr. Robotnik, helps him repair the Death Egg and keeps Sonic and Tails up on their journey.

After a few adventures, Sonic and Tails arrive at the Launch Base Zone , where they find the Death Egg in a repaired state. You defeat Dr. Robotnik, who then lets the Death Egg take off frantically, regardless of Knuckles, who falls into the depths during the start-up process. After another fight against Dr. Robotnik and his Big Arm , the still unfinished Death Egg crashes somewhere on Angel Island just a short time after it was launched . The storyline continues seamlessly in Sonic & Knuckles .

Gameplay

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 , the player takes control of the blue hedgehog Sonic, who is accompanied by Tails every step of the way, in a side-scrolling 2D platformer. Alternatively, you can also set in the score selection menu to go on the adventure only with Sonic or only with Tails. The level design adapts to the dynamic, fast feel of the game with springs, loops and more. In addition to the control pad for movement, only one action button is required to jump. In jumping or rolling form, called Spin Attack , Sonic can defeat opponents or open item boxes in the form of monitors. If you let the character crouch down with the directional pad and then press and release the jump button, it can quickly dash forward with the Spin Attack from a standing position . If you press the jump button again while jumping, Sonic uses his new Insta-Shield ability , which makes him invulnerable for a split second, or Tails begins to fly in the air for a limited part or to swim underwater. If a second player takes control of Tails and flies in co-op mode, Sonic can hold onto Tails and fly with him. When touched, the golden rings can be collected; If the pawn takes damage, it loses the rings. If the character takes damage without having rings or falls into a deadly abyss, he loses an extra life, of which you have three at the start of the game. If you collect 100 rings, you get another extra life. An extra life, ten rings, a flame shield (protection from fire and lava, frontal attack when the jump button is in the air, goes out in the water), a water shield (unlimited breathing underwater) can also be installed on the monitors on whose screen the respective item is displayed , hit the ground and jump higher when jumping button), an electric shield (protection from electricity, attracts rings magnetically, goes out in the water), temporarily increased speed, temporary invulnerability or in the case of a Dr. Robotnik-Monitor's loss of damage should be included. Checkpoints in the form of lanterns mark the reset point in the event of a loss of life. Points are also collected in all actions, which in turn can give "continues" so that the game can continue despite the loss of all extra lives. Most opponents can be defeated with the Spin Attack, which scores points and frees the trapped animals.

American Sonic the Hedgehog 3 module in a Sega Nomad

The game consists of six zones ( Angel Island Zone , Hydrocity Zone , Marble Garden Zone , Carneval Night Zone , Ice Cap Zone and Launch Base Zone ) with two acts each, which can be defined as levels . Each zone has its own theme, appearance and variety of opponents. In the game, the two acts often differ from one another in terms of sound and graphics, for example because, unlike its predecessors, the surroundings no longer change abruptly after a loading screen, but are connected and so the next level can be played on without noticeable loading time. The transitions between the zones are thematically designed more or less sensibly and change for different reasons (e.g. Sonic falls into the Hydrocity Zone after completing the Angel Island Zone , from which he is flushed into the Marble Garden Zone and so on further). In addition, the acts are noticeably longer than their predecessors. At the end of every first act there is also a fight against one of Dr. Robotnik's machines, at the end of every second act against adversary Dr. Robotnik himself. The last zone ends with three boss fights in a row, last with the big arm , before the game ends with the credits. If the character activates a checkpoint with at least 50 rings, it can enter the bonus stage immediately above the checkpoint through a circle of stars , in which the character enters a chewing gum machine where there are rings, extra lives or the various protective shields to collect. Within all acts, large rings are hidden in remote locations, through which the character reaches the seven special stages , where one of the seven Chaos Emeralds in the game can be found by touching all blue balls in the Blue Spheres mini-game transformed into red balls. As soon as you have collected all seven Chaos Emeralds, Sonic, if he has at least 50 rings, can use the jump button to transform himself into Super Sonic in one jump . In this form the player is invulnerable, significantly faster and jumps higher, but the number of rings counts steadily backwards. As soon as all rings are used up, you transform back to Sonic. Even with all Chaos Emeralds, Tails has no metamorphosis.

For the first time in the Sonic series, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has a memory function. After the title screen you get to the game selection menu. The game can be started with or without saving. If you play on a save, the selected character, as well as the number of points, the number of lives and Chaos Emeralds are saved after each zone and the player can continue the game in a game over from this save. If a new zone is reached, the previous save status is automatically overwritten. When the game is completed, you can freely choose between the zones on this memory space and Chaos Emeralds that have not yet been collected can be collected.

In the multiplayer mode, the specially created Azure Lake Zone , Balloon Park Zone , Chrome Gadget Zone , Desert Palace Zone and Endless Mine Zone (first letters from A to E sorted) are available in split-screen format. The players take control of Sonic, Tails or Knuckles and the winner is whoever reaches the goal fastest within several rounds.

development

After the completion of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 , the Sega Technical Institute was divided into an American team, which started developing Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball , and a Japanese team, which was supposed to develop Sonic the Hedgehog 3 . After Sonic the Hedgehog 2 managed to improve the first part of the series in all respects, the goal when developing the third Sonic was to top this again. However, there were noticeable limits due to the storage capacity of the Sega Mega Drive game module, which is why you had to omit content in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or implement different zones into one another. It was therefore decided early in the development to split Sonic the Hedgehog 3 into two modules, one of them as a lock-on-cartridge , with which both modules could be combined, which should provide more content with twice the storage space. After all tests were positive, nothing stood in the way of the technology. Initially, the two games should be named Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Part I and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Part II , when they were released they were named Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles , both of which appeared in 1994. The actual, third big adventure of Sonic comes about when you plug the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 module onto the lock-on cartridge from Sonic & Knuckles .

The originally planned order of the zones was changed in the course of development, which sometimes makes explanations difficult. For example, at the end of the Flying Battery Zone , which was first implemented in Sonic & Knuckles instead of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 , Sonic pushes open a door that drops down with Sonic. Actually, the Ice Cap Zone should follow, where Sonic used this door as a snowboard at the beginning. Since the order has been changed, Sonic quickly finds a snowboard at the beginning of the Ice Cap Zone , which he then uses. The door with which Sonic crashes in Sonic & Knuckles at the end of the Flying Battery Zone disappears without a trace in the following Sandopolis Zone . Other zone transitions were also planned differently, but could be changed better.

The new character Knuckles the Echidna was designed by Takashi Yuda. It should represent less speed and more strength, which is why it can break walls. Before it got its final name Knuckles, it was called "Dreds" during the development phase.

Soundtrack

Michael Jackson was involved in the game's soundtrack but didn't want to be featured in the credits.

Another coup planned by Sega to attract even more attention with the new Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was the collaboration with the American musician Michael Jackson , one of the most famous celebrities of the time. The already designed soundtrack for the game, as heard in early prototype versions of the game, was partly discarded and due to the cooperation that came about, the composers of the game are converting works by Michael Jackson onto the 16-bit engine of the Sega Mega Drive, similarly like the 1990 release Michael Jackson's Moonwalker . When Michael Jackson heard the soundtracks himself for the first time, he was not satisfied with the quality of his songs in 16-bit sound and did not want to be named in the credits. In addition, Sega was not allowed to advertise that the game contained soundtracks by Michael Jackson. The already composed soundtracks, however, remained in the game: The ending theme is based on "Stranger in Moscow", part of the Carnival Night Zone track comes from "Jam", the music during the Azure Lake Zone multiplayer level provides the song "Black & White", elements from "Ghosts" and "Blood in the Dancefloor" appear in the Knuckles theme and in the Interboss soundtrack. The music of the Ice Cap Zone comes from the song "Hard Times" by the band The Jetzons , which was also designed by Michael Jackson's composer Brad Buxer, but was only released in 2008. These facts were rumors for years until they were officially confirmed by Sega's music department in 2016.

It is noticeable that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was not re-released nearly as often as its predecessor. It can be assumed that the soundtracks based on Michael Jackson's songs are one of the reasons for this. This is supported by the fact that the Sonic & Knuckles Collection , released in 1997, replaced the affected tracks with the prototype soundtracks. Otherwise, the new releases listed below contain the soundtracks, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was not for PlayStation Network , not for Nintendo eShop , not on smartphone operating systems such as iOS or Android , not in the Sega Ages series and not considered or published for the Sega Mega Drive Mini . Also in Sonic Generations , released in 2011 , which contains levels of the most famous Sonic games, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is omitted and after the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 passage, the game continues with the Sonic & Knuckles passage. The exact contract details in this regard are unknown, but should be defined in a complicated manner, which is why Sega often does not consider the third part for safety's sake.

A large number of composers and sound technicians from Sega were on hand to meet the special requirements and in some cases even to create a double soundtrack for the game. The credits include Hisaki Nimiya, Brad Buxer, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby III, Scirocco, Bo, Sachio Ogawa, Milpo, Masaru Setsumaru, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomonori Sawada, Masayuki Nagao and Jun Senoue. Jun Senoue, who founded his band Crush 40 in 1998 , worked for Sega for the first time and has since been an important part of the soundtracks of most Sonic games.

New releases and successors

New releases

In 1997 the Sonic & Knuckles Collection was released for the PC . This includes Sonic the Hedgehog 3 as well as the combined version Sonic 3 & Knuckles , but in any case has replaced the soundtracks composed by Michael Jackson with the original music of the prototype. In 1997 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was playable for the first time on the Sega-Saturn game Sonic Jam with a new easy mode, in which there are fewer opponents and more platforms. Also the Sonic Mega Collection (2002, Nintendo GameCube ), Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004, PlayStation 2 , Xbox , PC), Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (2009, PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360 ), Sonic PC Collection (2009, PC) , Sonic Classic Collection (2010, Nintendo DS ) and Sega Mega Drive Classics (2010, PC) contained this game. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was also offered again online in the Wii Shop Channel, Nintendo eShop , Xbox Live Arcade and on Steam (only as part of Sonic 3 & Knuckles ). The game has not yet been implemented for the mobile market.

successor

After Sonic the Hedgehog 3 still followed in 1994 Sonic & Knuckles . Numerous other Sonic games in the future dealt with platformer as well as other genres. Above all, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (2010), Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (2012) and Sonic Mania (2017) are viewed as successors to the classic Sega Mega Drive games.

reception

Meta-ratings Database Rating GameRankings 89% (SMD) 78% (360) Metacritic 79/100 (360) reviews publication Rating Computer and video games 94% Electronic Gaming Monthly 38/40 GamePro 19/20 Hyper Magazine 90% IGN 9/10 PALGN 7/10 Entertainment Weekly A + Generation 4 93% Mean Machines 94% Sega Magazine 95% Sega Power 90%

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 received mostly good to very good ratings. The increased playing time in the individual levels was praised, but this led to fewer zones and thus less variety.

The exact sales figures are uncertain, as Sega only published that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles together sold 4 million times on the Sega Mega Drive. The version on Xbox Live Arcade has been downloaded 203,000 times.

Web links

• Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on MobyGames
• Cheats for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (English)

References and comments

1. ↑ This game contains the game Sonic 3 & Knuckles .
2. ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Genesis . GameRankings . Retrieved February 7, 2012.
3. ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Xbox 360 . GameRankings. Accessed December 31, 2014.
4. ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Xbox 360 Reviews . Retrieved January 2, 2015.
5. ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly . In: Ziff Davis (Ed.): Electronic Gaming Monthly . No. 56, March 1994, p. 30.
6. ^ Dan Whitehead: SEGA Vintage Collection . June 17, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
7. ↑ The Unknown Gamer: ProReview: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 . In: IDG (Ed.): GamePro . No. 56, March 1994, pp. 42-44.
8. ^ Frank Provo: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review . September 12, 2007. Accessed December 31, 2014.
9. ^ Scans and Other Media - Hyper . Pp. 26-29. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
10. ↑ Lucas M. Thomas: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review . September 11, 2007. Accessed December 31, 2014.
11. ↑ Damien McFerran: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 . September 6, 2007. Accessed January 2, 2015.
12. ↑ Ghiggino: XBLA: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Review . PALGN. June 28, 2009. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
13. ^ Bob Strauss: Sonic CD ; Sonic chaos ; Sonic spinball ; Sonic 3 . In: Entertainment Weekly . February 11, 1994. Retrieved December 13, 2018.
14. ↑ Lionel Vilner: Sonic 3 J'en ai ... rêvé . In: Génération 4 . No. 64, March 1994, ISSN  1624-1088 , pp. 88-90.
15. ↑ Sonic 3: Golden Boy Is Back! . In: EMAP (Ed.): Mean Machines . No. 17, March 1994, pp. 44-49.
16. ↑ Sonic 3 . In: EMAP (ed.): Sega Magazine . No. 2, February 1994, pp. 87-88.
17. ↑ Sonic 3: Mega Drive Review . In: Future plc (ed.): Sega Power . March 1994, pp. 28-30.