Title:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Genre:
2D Platformer

Platform:
Mega Drive/Genesis

Developer:
Sonic Team

Release Dates:
North America: 2/2/94
Europe: 2/94
Japan: 27/5/94

Memory:
6 save files

Players:
1-2

Zones:
6

Playable:
Sonic, Tails

Re-releases:
Sonic Jam (Sat)
Sonic & Knuckles Collection (PC)
Sonic Mega Collection (GCN)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (PC)

Other Pages:
Codes

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Intro:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 introduced a new character, Knuckles the Echidna. Instead of being playable, Knuckles popped up occasionally in the game to hinder your progress. Playing in a similar manner to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 allowed you to play as Sonic, Tails, or both together. Now, Tails could be made to fly by the player with a double tap to the jump button, and Sonic was given an 'insta sheild'.

Story:
After Sonic had destroyed the Death Egg at the end of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it began to fall to earth. However, in the path of the doomed station was an island that was somehow floating high in the sky, which cushioned it's landing and forced the island into the ocean below. The huge island caused a massive tidal wave, but did not sink into the sea. Instead, it remained at the surface. Eggman had survived, and proceeded to rebuild his station.

Tails' new creation, the jewel reader, suddenly started to get strong readings from the Chaos Emeralds that Sonic had brought back with him. Pondering whether this had anything to do with the huge tidal wave he'd seen earlier, Tails went to find Sonic.

Sonic was lying at the shoreline, relaxing. He noticed a ring wash up at the beach, a ring with strange markings on it. It reminded him of a legend he had heard about a mysterious civilisation when he was younger...

The legend told that thousands of years ago, a mighty yet peaceful civilisation existed, who lived in harmony with nature on a large continent. However, they seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving only artefacts and legend.

The story told that certain leaders of the civilisation desired a powerful source of energy they called the 'mighty stone'. Whilst attempting to steal the power for themselves, an accident resulted in them being completely wiped out, separating their land from the main continent. A god came from the sky and restored a part of the civilisation to the newly created island. It then threw the island into the sky along with the 'mighty stone', where it was never to be seen again.

Sonic felt his excitement grow... Another adventure was on the horizon! But Eggman was expecting Sonic... and had enlisted some support to topple him once and for all!

The Game:
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has a slightly different format to the last two games - Instead of having a boss every two or three acts, there is now a boss on every act. Bosses you fight on act 1 are sub-bosses, machines that are harder than your usual badnik to fight. Act 2 bosses are the obligatory fights with Eggman.

While there is nearly half the number of zones that were in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the levels in Sonic 3 are much longer. Tails also comes into his own as a character as he can now fly for short periods of time. This, along with some inspired level designs, allows players to reach other areas that Sonic alone could not reach. This adds a whole new level of play to the Sonic series, and doubles the game's life span.