Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [50 FPS]
36Developed by Sonic Team/Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega of America in 1994.
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Foreword: A re-upload to take advantage of YouTube 60 FPS support!
I didn't get a Mega Drive until 1994, so the machine was already six years old by that point. I'd seen and played Sonic games before, but Sonic 3 was the first in the series that I actually owned. As far as I am concerned, this was the best of the 2D Sonic games released, beating out Sonic and Knuckles when it arrived eight months later. This was the Mega Drive at the top of it's game.
The game sticks to the tried and tested formula set by it's predecessors, but does them better!
The graphics are astounding, with multiple levels of parallax scrolling almost convincing you that the game in 3D at times; the water in the Hydrocity looks absolutely amazing, while the fiery jungle backdrop of Angel Island simply sizzles!
Once again, Sonic must retrieve Chaos Emeralds from bonus stages throughout the game. The bonus stage is accessed by locating giant gold rings hidden throughout each level and the objective is to collect all of the blue spheres without touching a red sphere; doing so will instantly exit the stage in failure.
As with previous game, Sonic can transform into Super Sonic once all the emeralds have been collected. However, this time, Sonic no longer automatically transforms: you still need fifty rings, but Super Sonic is triggered by performing a double jump. This means the player has the option to not use Super Sonic at all if he/she does not wish to, and also means that they can save the ability to use at the desired moment (usually during a boss fight).
Another new feature added to the game is active shielding. Although the previous games always a made shield available to Sonic, these simply protected him from a single point of damage. This time, there are multiple shields and each have special abilities. For example, the water shield encases Sonic in a bubble, allowing him to breathe underwater, as well as bouncing the bubble to increase the height of his jumps. The shields can make some of the boss fights trivial, especially the fire shield, which makes Sonic immune to fire damage and allows him to transform into a fast moving fireball.
The music in Sonic 3 is fantastic and, for me, is the best in the series. The number of remixes of Ice Cap Zone available on YouTube and the Internet speaks volumes.
Sonic 3 introduces Knuckles the Echidna to the franchise. To be fair, he simply acts as an annoyance during the single player game and can only be selected as a playable character in the multiplayer racing modes. Knuckles wouldn't come into his own until the next game was released, whereupon multiple areas in Sonic 3 become accessible when Knuckles is selected as the player's character.
On the subject of Sonic and Knuckles, I did find it strange at the time that the game was released so soon after Sonic 3. It turns out that the content from Sonic and Knuckles was meant to be included in Sonic 3, but prolonged development times and the cost of distributing a cartridge with enough memory to hold the entire game were prohibitive. Therefore, Sega split the game into two and released Sonic and Knuckles as a separate title, albeit that you could plug the Sonic 3 cartridge into the top of the Sonic and Knuckles game and experience the full package.
Sonic 3 might have cost a small fortune at £50, but you simply couldn't get a better gaming experience anywhere else.
#retrogaming