Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Genesis / Mega Drive) Playthrough Part 1 (Sonic - Part 1)

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Published on July 24, 2015 8:56:12 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY7ai8mkMRs

Game:

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 56:10

244 views

1

Well, this was long overdue, but finally I got to it... and it took me almost four days trying to post it online.

Here's the first part of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles playthrough, where I play as Sonic. After putting a stop to Eggman's plans and presumably destroying the Death Egg, Sonic and Tails comes across a strange island where he is suddenly caught off-guard by Knuckles, who knocked the Super out of him (really)... and quickly grabs the Chaos Emeralds before escaping. Something's strange is going out here... well, here we go again! Sonic proceeds through the first three zones: Angel Island, Hydrocity, and Marble Garden.

Note that this is the Sonic 3 Complete version of the game, as indicated by the beginning as well as some of the music being from the original Sonic 3 instead of Sonic & Knuckles (or S3&K for that matter).

00:49 - Angel Island Zone Act 1
08:34 - Angel Island Zone Act 2
19:21 - Hydrocity Zone Act 1
26:31 - Hydrocity Zone Act 2
42:02 - Marble Garden Zone Act 1
47:46 - Marble Garden Zone Act 2

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Opinions:
In my opinion when together, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my personal favorite of the Sonic series. Alone, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are still really good, but you may be a little disappointed about the short length and are better off putting the two together. But still, the great classic gameplay from the first two games were kept as well as adding a bit more content to provide more variety.

The graphics of the game are pretty amazing with much more detail as well as great animation on the characters and backdrops, and even some of the 3D-style effects like Sonic on the title screen and the special stage still looks fairly impressive, especially given the hardware it's on..

The music in the game are quite good and memorable with Ice Cap, Launch Base, Flying Battery, and Sky Sanctuary's music being some of my personal favorites from this game. I also liked that the overall music variety as depending on the act of the zone, it changes the music a bit usually with different instruments, giving it sort of a different feel, while the main compositon of the zone music remains the same. Although for some of the tracks (the ones that were changed), I do prefer the original Sonic 3 version of the music over the later Sonic & Knuckles (or S3&K) one.

The gameplay is the same as the previous two games, but the levels here are much bigger and more expansive; it allows for a lot of branching paths to allow more exploration all around the zone for secrets like more items or big rings to enter the special stage. Also, each zone has their own mechanics that is exclusive to that level and prevents any of the zones feeling samey. Not only that, they added quite a bit to make it more interesting like each characters have their own abilities, the different types of shields that have their own effects, as well as different bonus stages on the lamppost, among other things. These additions to the gameplay provides more overall replay value and playability to the game. Add that with the ability to save your progress

The game's difficulty is a bit more challenging overall, compared to the earlier games. The level design is quite good so you have to be a bit more careful in certain spots, but that doesn't mean that you have to be slow all the time, there are a lot of spots where the speed still shines through and you can use that to your advantage to reach certain areas. A lot of the bosses do provide some challenge and are usually not very exploitable, though with a shield that is immune to the boss' attacks or when in Super/Hyper form, they can be.

The 2-player mode for this game is alright but disappointing. It is simply race through the short zone 5 times first. There are some powerups but it's nothing amazing. For me, It's okay entertainment for a little while, but I preferred Sonic 2's multiplayer over this one.

The Sonic 3 Complete version is the definitive version of the game to play as it fixes a lot of bugs and glitches from the original games, as well as it provides some customization options in-game like the change in music and change some portions of the level layout (ex: either a yellow spring or a life monitor in the beginning of Hydrocity Zone Act 2). For more possible customizations, go to this website: http://www.tiddles.org/s3c/customiser/. Regardless of which version you play, it still remains a blast to play even today.

Grade: A

Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: SEGA
Year: 1994
Platforms (according to Wikipedia): Sega Genesis, Microsoft Windows, Sega Saturn, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, Wii Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade

This is only for the sake of entertainment. No copyright infringement intended.

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