The popularity of the now solidified SEGA mascot has just reached sky high. Sonic 2 was a massive hit and the follow up, Sonic Spinball, did fairly well despite being a game that deviated from the now traditional style Sonic platformer. SEGA continue their flagship series and release Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 represents the pinnacle of Sonic Mega Drive/Genesis evolution. It came whilst the Sonic craze was still in momentum and became a major success. The game introduced the character of Knuckles the Echidna who went on to become of the series most popular characters and even had a game of his own but that is a different subject entirely.

Whilst being an excellent title, Sonic 3 did leave a little bewildered. It only had half the levels the previous game had, and the story line did not have that happy Sonic ending that fans had became accustomed to. It seemed as though it was only half a game but what Sonic fans did not know at the time it was...

STORY

Dr Robotnik, after being defeated by Sonic and Tails, crashes down onto a floating island in his Death Egg. The floating island is actually Angel Island, a mysterious place of legend and secrets. The crash of the Death Egg makes it sink slowly into the ocean.

Sonic and Tails approach the scene to finish off the Death Egg but Robotnik has tricked the islands defender and protector into believing that the heroes are the villains. Knuckles is the only living descendant of an ancient civilisation that mysteriously disappeared leaving behind many secrets and mystical powers.

Knuckles intercepts Sonic and knocks the Chaos Emeralds clean out of his possession.

Sonic and Tails are kept busy by the new red fiend whilst Robotnik repairs his orbital base...

GAMEPLAY

Sonic 3 sticks with the traditional Sonic platform formula. Progress from left, finish right with rings, special items, bad guys in the form of robots in a time limit of 10 minutes per act with finding the Chaos Emeralds a pretty important thing to do along the way. Level designs in all the Sonic games were of a higher standard than any other platformer and Sonic Team upped the stakes further with Sonic 3. However people playing the game will notice certain oddities. There will be areas that are not accessible to either Sonic or Tails and there is a very good explanation for that.

Both Sonic and Tails are playable again in this adventure. Either on their own or as in Sonic 2 with both characters on screen at the same time with Tails copying everything that Sonic does. Character selection is made via the game select screen (see saves) by pressing up or down.

Controls remain the same for both characters; D-Pad moves characters left to right, up and down for crouching, looking up and scrolling the screen when stationary and buttons A, B and C are jump. Both characters are still able to roll by pressing down when running and are still able to perform the Spin Dash move by holding down and repeatedly pressing the jump buttons to rev up.

Sonic and Tails now each have an additional signature move.

Sonic has his new Instra-Shield. By pressing jump and then jump again whilst in mid jump a small flash of energy will surround Sonic for an instant. This protects him for a split second and increases your damage radius. You can only perform this once per jump. Perfecting this will help greatly when attacking certain Badniks and Robotnik himself.

Tails is able to both fly and swim. This is also done by jumping whilst in mid jump. Repeatedly press for Tails to get some altitude. Do this in water to swim in combination with the D-Pad to move.

Special Items

Sonic's Instra Shield	Tails Flying	Tails Swimming

The biggest advantage is that a second player controlling Tails from a pad in port 2 can now assist Sonic in reaching greater heights and routes through an act finding extra special items and rings. Hover Tails over Sonic and have Sonic jump for him to hold on. Winching Sonic does reduce the amount of time that you are able to stay in the air but tap all the buttons rapidly and you can get pretty high. When Tails gets tired he will head towards the ground.

Special Items

	Ring - gives 10 rings
	Invincibility - makes Sonic or Tails invincible for a short period. Sonic can still die though by being crushed, drowned or by falling off the screen.
	Speed boots - gives a speed boost for a short amount of time.
	Extra life.
	Extra life.
	Take a hit.
	Lampposts - these act as both restart points and access to the Bonus Round (decribed below). Simply run past them to activate.
	These are hidden in each act and are the ticket to the Special Stages (described below).

In addition to the now recurring special items available for collection throughout each act there are 3 different types of shield which have specific properties to them. These shields work in conjunction with the environments in some of the zones. Sonic can only use the shields to their full advantage by performing the Instra-Shield move. All shields protect each character from 1 hit also.

Special Shields

	Aqua/Water shield surrounds Sonic and Tails with a water barrier. With this you will not drown should you go underwater and it deflects some underwater projectiles. Sonic can become a bubble when a double jump is performed allowing for higher and more rapid jumps.
	Fire/Flame Shield surrounds Sonic or Tails with a rotating circle of flames. When used Sonic will turn into a fireball blazing across the screen. This shield protects you from fire balls and lava. Should you go in any water your flame is instantly out.
	Electrical/Magnetic shield adsorbs electrical power that is sent towards you such as discharges. It magnetically attracts any rings you pass by and allows Sonic to perform a higher double jump. This is deactivated should you go in any water.

Each zone has 2 acts with a boss fight at the end of each. An act is now massive in comparison to Sonic 2. Several different routes can be taken and more to find with Tails assisting you with air lifts.

At the end of Act 1 is some supped-up Badnik which when defeated the familiar Sonic sign will fall from the air. This can be deflected about the screen by jumping at it. Apart from the 100 points each hit gives there are certain places on the floor that if touched by the sign will make a special item monitor pop up. The next act is then played from where you are actually standing rather than running of the screen.

shot: Monitor POP

Act 2 is a confrontation with Robotnik. The end of the zone is represented by destroying the capsule and releasing the wildlife. There will be a brief cut scene before moving to the next zone.

There are a total of 6 zones in the game. Click on any of the names for more info.

THE ZONES | SCREENSHOTS

The Zones

Angel Island Zone	Hydrocity Zone	Marble Garden Zone
Carnival Night Zone	Icecap Zone	Launch Base Zone
Click on a name for more info...

The most welcome feature of Sonic 3 is the ability to save your progress of each game. There are 6 slots available from when you press start on the title screen including an option for no save. The saved game keeps a record of your lives, continues, completed zones and Chaos Emeralds collected.

In Sonic 3, Chaos Emeralds are again collected in Special Stages. There is also a separate Bonus Round. Both are accessible through the normal play of each act.

Bonus Round

The Bonus Round is entered via the star lampposts as in Sonic 2. Activate one these by running past them and should you have 50 rings or more a circle of starts will begin rotating around it. Jump inside them to be transported.

Simply put it is a shaft with a Gumball machine inside which dispenses some of the special items found during normal play. At the start you bounce off a set of springs to the top. Springs line the walls at both sides of you. Each time you use a spring it disappears. To trigger mechanism all you must do is stay above the dispenser by either bouncing off the springs or solid gumballs. Each time a ball is released the unit moves down the shaft to the nearest spring on the wall. This gets more difficult to activate the further towards the bottom of the shaft you get. When you fall out the shaft you will exit. The gumballs yield the following rewards.

Bonus Round

	empty / transparent ball - nothing.
	No reward but you can bounce off these. Aim just right and you can bounce back above the dispenser.
	Gives 10 rings.
	Aqua Sheild
	Fire Sheild
	Electric Sheild
	Extra Life
	Reinstates the springs at the bottom of the shaft only sending you up high.

Special Stages

Entrance to the Special Stages is through the giant rings. There are normally at least 3 in each act and are hidden typically inside walls. The Special Stages are almost worthy of a game on their own....They are chequered globes populated with blue balls, red balls, rings and bumper balls. Your goal is to collect all of the blue balls on the grid. Touching a red ball will result in an instant exit from the stage. The bumpers will bounce you backwards by about one square which tends to happen only at the worst of times.

Special Stages

The stage starts when you begin moving forwards about a second or two after entering. You change your direction by pressing either LEFT or RIGHT as you approach a corner on any of the squares on the surface. The floor will rotate around you. You can also jump for the distance of one ball.

The stage ends when all of the blue balls have been collected. The number you have left remaining to collect is shown in the top left hand side of the screen. Your reward will be a sparkly Chaos Emerald.

Collecting rings will earn you points and a continue credit for every 50 rings collected.

A perfect can be achieved by collecting all of the rings possible in the stage for a reward of 50.000 points. This number varies, some rings are free for collection on the globe however the majority of them are locked inside of the red balls. To release them approach a field of blue balls however go around the perimeter of the collection. Upon collection of the last blue ball the red balls behind you and those inside of the group will become rings.

Super Sonic

Sonic 3 has 7 Chaos Emeralds to collect. Upon collection of all of these you will then have the ability to again transform into Super Sonic. As his royal goldness you have double your speed, acceleration, are invincible and can jump twice as high. Similar to Sonic 2 your Super Sonic mode is activated when you perform a double jump with 50+ rings. For each second that you are Super Sonic a ring is deducted. Once you have collected all of the Chaos Emeralds the giant rings for entrance to the Special Stages will be worth 50 a useful rings each. If you are playing as Tails you are out of luck as he remains his old self.

Collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds will have a slight effect of the ending of the game.

Competition Modes

Sonic 2 introduced the concept of slit screen 2 player action. Sonic 3 improves on this greatly. There are 3 of play, another playable character and new levels and a marked improvement in the graphics. All these are accessed through Competition on the title screen.

For Sonic 3, 5 mini levels have been specifically designed for competition.

Competition Mode Zones

Azure Lake	Endless Mine
Balloon Park	Chrome Gadget
Desert Palace

• Time Attack - single player race against the clock. Your time is added to a leaderboard.
• Grand Prix - plays through each of the levels against the clock or another player.
• Match Race - a race on a stage of your choice against a second player or the clock.

For competition modes Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are available for selection. Some characters are better suited for some levels than others. Sonic has his obvious speed ability, Tails with his flight and Knuckles has better breaking and acceleration abilities.

If special items are turned on they will rotate as icons in a static position in the courses. Special item activation is via the monitor icons initial competition screen. A monitor with a cross turns items off and a monitor on their own allows all items. They equate to the following:

• red trainers - temporary speed boost
• blue trainers - temporary slow down
• banana - drops a banana on the floor which causes who ever runs on it to loose control
• ring - protects from one hit
• spheres - sends a drone across the level to intercept your opponent

All stats relating to competition modes are stored in the back up ram on the cartridge on a leader board of top 5.

CHEATS AND TIPS

Zone Select

Probably the trickiest Sonic cheat to do but it can be done. When the games fires up, as the SEGA logo fades and Sonic begins leaping at you; quickly press Up, Up, Down, Down, Up, Up, Up, Up. You should hear a ring sound and underneath Competition option should be Sound Test. Choose this for the zone select screen.

Super Sonic

On the level select screen play tunes 02, 04, 05, 06. A Chaos Emerald sound will play. Start the game, collect 50 rings, do a double jump and you are Super Sonic.

Chaos Emeralds Early

At the Zone Select screen highlight Special Stage 2 and press START. Upon earning the Chaos Emerald the game will start in either Angel Island or the zone where you came. Pause the game and press A to return to the Zone Select screen. Play another Special Stage until all of the Chaos Emeralds have been collected. Alternatively use the Super Sonic Cheat.

Extra Special Stage/Chaos Emerald

On the Zone/Level Select Screen, play tunes 01 and 0F. Highlight "Special Stage 2". Hold A and press Start. A Special Stage that is not part of the usual game is played. The extra Chaos Emerald does nothing.

Alternatively, On the level select screen play tunes 1, 3, 5, 7 and there will be a ring sound. Highlight "Special Stage 2" hold A and press start.

Easy Points In Launch Base Zone (Extra Lives)

Move Sonic into the alarms on the floor. Remain inside revving for a Spin Dash. The enemies will come down and eventually be worth 10,000 points each. Every 50,000 will earn an extra life.

Debug Mode

Highlight an act on the zone select screen. Hold down A and press start to activate debug mode.

During the game press B to select an item, A to toggle through the items and C to place an object in the level.

With game paused, A = Reset, B = Hold for slow motions, C = Advance one frame

Cycle through Animations

Whilst in Debug Mode press B+C to quickly cycle through Sonic or Tails' animations.

Alternate Angle Island Zone Act 2

The area Knuckles would play through in S+K is contained within the Sonic 3 cartridge and can be played / explored with the debug cheat.

Different Boss Music in Hydrocity Act 1

During the boss in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 stay under the water until the running out of air countdown starts. Then jump out the water and the music will be that from the bosses of Sonic and Knuckles. Spooky.

Play Any Act At Night

At the Zone / Level select screen, highlight an act hold down C and press Start. The act will play at night in the same manner as Carnival Night Zone Act 2.

Competiton Modes In Zone Select

Select 2P VS (item) 1 cycles through the competitions none stop.

---

ANGEL ISLAND ZONE

Angel Island is the quint essential tropical first stage of any Sonic game. The graphics at the start of this level are excellent. The lush jungle with waterfalls create an idyllic setting. Robotnik soon appears and sets the entire region on fire. The landscape gets scorched and the plant life smoulders away.

Robotnik plays hide and seek with the waterfall in the background moving in front and behind. When in front the is vulnerable but fires huge fireballs. The fire shield will provide full protection. When he first appears he will destroy the rope bridge.

Angel Island Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

HYDROCITY ZONE

Hydrocity is a cross between Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2 and Labyrinth Zone from the original Sonic. Lots of water but with loads of steep slopes allowing you to gain some incredible speeds. Plenty of moving platforms and loads of fans around to make you hover in the air. The rev-up treadmills are an excellent touch. Sonic stands on a small rotating platform and then is let off at speed. When you rocket down the side of a wall and glide across the top of the water is what Sonic is all about.

Robotnik is fought in a shallow depth of water. He creates a vortex which can suck Sonic up to his propellers. He then drops that will explode after a few seconds. A correctly timed jump onto their fountain will push you upwards in order to get a hit.

The aqua shield will allow for jumps high enough to land a hit.

Hydrocity Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

MARBLE GARDEN ZONE

Marble Garden comes across as a clean scrap yard. Loads of lethal contraptions litter the area. Spikes, swinging clubs, collapsing platforms as well as some lethal oil for you to drown in. Hovering spinning tops are used to glide across the floor and smash through platforms.

Your encounter with Robotnik this time is in the air. Tails must carry you through the battle. He must be attacked without touching his drill.

Marble Garden Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

CARNIVAL NIGHT ZONE

One of the more irritating and perilous zones is set against a glitzy backdrop that is not a casino. Plenty of bumpers, wheels and springs adorn the zone and cannons that blast Sonic/Tails about the place. Some great speed can be had when spiralling down twisty slides!

Mid-way Knuckles appears and turns off the lights making the level dark and dingy. You proceed underwater where balloons must be popped for that essential oxygen.

Robotnik has a particularly nasty invention on this level. He dumps a big metallic ball and generates an electric field around it which pulls you in. He must be attacked just after he drops his ball and when he lowers down to retrieve it.

Carnival Night Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

ICECAP ZONE

Sonic leaps onto a snow board and glides down a mountain to then make his way into a an ice cave. Moving blocks of ice are of particular danger and robotic penguins litter the floors. The drones protected by icicles can be defeated easily with the fire or magnetic shield.

Icicles pose a sharp threat. Sonic can easily be frozen by any of the gas ejections. Should Tails be on hand he sometimes breaks you out quickly enough as to not loose your rings.

Robotnik hovers and drops out a spiked platform. Plumes of freezing gas are emitted in sequence. When there the centre is clear jump on and score a hit. The fire shield will provide protection from the gas. Beware not to touch the spikes.

Icecap Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

LAUNCH BASE ZONE

Robotnik's Death Egg has finished repairs and is prepping for launch. Here is where it's going to happen. Launch Base has plenty of pipes, moving platforms, lasers and plenty of Robotnik’s mechanoid minions.

Getting closer to his Death Egg, his contraptions are now more elaborate. First he will take charge of a cannon. This will fire a ball from alternate slots on the wall beginning with the top. Use the lowering platform as leverage to reach.

After commandeering one of the docs pods Knuckles awaits. After trying to mow him down the launch of the rockets promptly take him out.

For the next encounter his machine is stacked in 3 sections each with lasers. A hit must be landed from above, however watch the mine that orbits his head.

For his final attack he outfits his pod with formidable defences. The huge claw will grab if wondering to close which his movement about the screen makes difficult to avoid and the spikes make it difficult to attack. Hits can be made face on as he moves off the screen diagonally. Perfecting the use of the Instra-Sheild will benefit greatly.

Launch Base Zone

Act 1	Act 1 Boss
Act 2	Act 2 Robotnik

EMULATOR COMPATIBILITY

Sonic 3 works perfectly with Kega Fusion, Gens and Gens32. You can download these from the Mega Drive/Genesis Emulators Page.

XBOX LIVE ARCADE VERSION

Achievements

Xbox Live Arcade Achievements

Achievement	Description	Gamer Points
Complete The Game	Finish the game.	25
Fast Freeze	Complete the Icecap Zone.	25
Complete Chaos	Collect all seven Chaos Emeralds.	25
Points III	Score 80,000 points.	25
Marble Finishes	Finish the Marble Garden Zone.	15
Wet Feet	Run across water.	15
Wet and Wild	Finish the Hydrocity Zone.	15
Points II	Score 40,000 points.	15
Chaotic	Collect a Chaos Emerald.	10
Half Way There...	Collect 50 rings.	10
Goodie Gumballs	Get a blue gumball.	10
Points I	Score 20,000 points.	10

• No cheats can be input since there is no access to the options screen.

PC VERSION

Sonic 3 was released as part of the Sonic & Knuckles Collection. Check out the Sonic & Knuckles Feature for more info.

SOUNDTRACK

You can download the soundtrack to the game in either FLAC or MP3 format on the Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Soundtrack page.

MISC INFO

• The majority of the music for the (then) upcoming Sonic & Knuckles is contained within the Sonic 3 cartridge and freely accessible using the Sound Test.
• Super Tails: There is a very crude method for Super Tails by using one of the S Monitors in Debug mode. However, there are no proper sprites for him and will be a corrupt block 80% of the time.
• Random Starting Location Glitch: With the level select cheat enabled, whilst playing any act, activate a lampost. Pause the game and press A to return to the zone select screen. Select an act. The title card will not change from the zone you just came from and you will be played somewhere random in that act possibly crashing the game.
• Debug Mode With Special Stage Glitch: When in Debug Mode switch to an object of your choice. Locate a Special Stage Ring. Hover inside it and press B twice quickly. When the Special Stage is over Sonic will remain as the object and does not revert back to his hedgehog self. Note this may crash the game.

Related

Sonic Jam Feature

---