Sonic the Hedgehog 3 facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sonic the Hedgehog 3 |
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| Developer(s) | Sega Technical Institute |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Director(s) | Hirokazu Yasuhara |
| Producer(s) | Yuji Naka |
| Designer(s) |
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Brad Buxer
Sega Sound Team
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| Series | Sonic the Hedgehog |
| Platform(s) | Sega Genesis, Windows |
| Release date(s) | Sega Genesis
Windows
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| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform game developed and published by Sega for the Genesis. Like previous Sonic games, players traverse side-scrolling levels while collecting rings and defeating enemies. They control Sonic and Tails, who attempt to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds to stop the evil Doctor Robotnik from relaunching his space station, the Death Egg, after it crash-lands on a mysterious floating island. Sonic 3 introduces Knuckles the Echidna, the island guardian, who lays traps for Sonic and Tails.
Development began in January 1993 by Sega Technical Institute in California, shortly after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It was initially developed as an isometric game similar to what would eventually become Sonic 3D Blast (1996), but became a conventional 2D platform game due to time constraints. Sonic 3 was developed simultaneously with Sonic & Knuckles; they were planned as a single game until time constraints and cartridge costs forced the developers to split it. The Sonic 3 cartridge can be attached to an adapter on the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, creating a combined game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The pop musician Michael Jackson composed portions of the soundtrack, but left the project and went uncredited; his music was replaced in some rereleases.
Sonic 3 was released in North America and Europe in February 1994, and in Japan in May. As with its predecessors, it was a critical and commercial success, with critics seeing it as an improvement over previous installments. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles sold a combined four million copies worldwide, placing them among the bestselling Genesis games. They have been rereleased in various Sega and Sonic compilations.
Gameplay
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 2D side-scrolling platformer. As with Sonic the Hedgehog 2, players can control Sonic, Tails, or both simultaneously. In the former choice, players control Sonic while Tails runs along beside him; a second player can join at any time and control Tails separately. Sonic 3 adds the ability for Tails to fly for a short time by spinning his twin tails like a helicopter rotor; when he tires, he falls. Unlike Sonic, Tails can also swim underwater.
Sonic 3 takes place over six zones, each divided into two acts. Levels are populated with "badniks", robots created by the villain, Dr. Robotnik; Sonic and Tails can defeat them by jumping on them or using the "spin dash" attack, which also gives the character a speed boost. The levels include obstacles and other features such as vertical loops, corkscrews, breakable walls, spikes, water that the player can drown in, and bottomless pits. There is a miniboss fight with one of Robotnik's large, powerful robots at the end of the first act of each level and a boss fight with Robotnik at the end of the second. Reaching a new level saves the game to one of six save slots.
As with previous Sonic games, Sonic 3 uses rings, scattered throughout the levels, as a health system; when the player is attacked without rings, is crushed, falls off-screen, drowns, or exceeds the act's ten-minute limit, they lose a life and return to the most recently passed checkpoint. Dying with zero lives gives the player a game over. The levels also include power-ups in television monitors that, when hit, grant the character an extra life, temporary invincibility to most hazards, a number of rings, a shield that allows them to breathe underwater, a shield that allows them to withstand fire from enemy projectiles, or a shield that attracts nearby rings.
Sonic 3 contains two types of "special stages". When the player collects at least 50 rings and passes a checkpoint, they can warp to the first type, which involves bouncing up a gumball machine-like corridor to earn power-ups by hitting a switch. Both sides of the corridor are lined with flippers, which disappear when the character bounces on them, and the switch drops when both flippers supporting it are removed. The corridor's floor contains a bounce pad, which also disappears after one use; falling afterwards causes the player to leave the stage with the most recent power-up collected.
The second type, triggered by entering giant rings found in secret passages, involves running around a 3D map and passing through all of a number of blue spheres arranged in patterns. Passing through a blue sphere turns it red, and touching a red sphere causes the player to leave the stage, unless the player has just completed a cycle around an arrangement of blue spheres, in which case all of these spheres turn to harmless rings. Removing all of the blue spheres gives the player a Chaos Emerald; if Sonic (not Tails) collects all seven, he unlocks the ability to become Super Sonic, which makes him invincible to most obstacles. Failing to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds triggers a post-credits scene in which Robotnik and Knuckles taunt the player.
Sonic 3 includes a competitive mode: two players, controlling Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, race through one or all of five stages that do not appear in the main game. In these same stages, a single player can compete against the clock in time attacks.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were planned as single game, but were released separately due to time constraints and cartridge size limitations. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge features a "lock-on" adapter that allows other Genesis cartridges to be attached. Connecting the Sonic 3 cartridge creates a combined game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The lock-on function is available in most rereleases.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles allows the player to play Sonic 3 levels as Knuckles or Sonic & Knuckles levels as Tails, or both Sonic and Tails. Other new features are the ability to collect Super Emeralds, unlocking new "Hyper" forms for Sonic and Knuckles and a "Super" form for Tails; improved save options; access to areas that Sonic or Tails could not previously access; altered boss forms; and an additional ending that shows Sonic returning the Master Emerald to Angel Island.
Plot
After Sonic and Tails defeat Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Robotnik's space station, the Death Egg, crash-lands on the floating Angel Island. There, Robotnik meets Knuckles the Echidna, the last member of an ancient echidna civilization that once inhabited the island. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, which grants the island its levitation power and has an equal power level of the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik dupes Knuckles into believing Sonic is trying to steal the Master Emerald, turning the two against each other while he repairs the Death Egg.
Sonic and Tails approach Angel Island in their biplane, the Tornado. Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into Super Sonic, but Knuckles ambushes him and steals the emeralds. Sonic and Tails travel the island hindered by Knuckles and Robotnik. At the Launch Base, where the Death Egg is under repair, Sonic and Tails fight Knuckles, but the Death Egg relaunches. On a platform attached to the Death Egg, they defeat Robotnik, causing the Death Egg to crash-land on Angel Island again. The story resumes in Sonic & Knuckles.
Development
Like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was developed in California by Sega Technical Institute (STI). After the completion of Sonic 2, STI split into two teams: one comprised Japanese developers, who worked on Sonic 3, and the other Americans, who worked on Sonic Spinball. Yuji Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara were the primary creators of the Sonic 3 design document and project schedule. Naka selected the majority of the team, while STI director Roger Hector oversaw development, and Pamela Kelly led the marketing for Sega.
Development began in January 1993, with a deadline of February 1994, when Sega and McDonald's would launch a major promotional campaign in America. Initially, the team used the new Sega Virtua Processor chip, allowing for 3D graphics. They created a prototype with isometric graphics with the working title Sonic 3D; the original special stage featured a polygonal Sonic in a figure eight-shaped stage. When it became apparent that the chip would not be finished by 1994, Sonic 3 was restarted as a more conventional 2D platform game. The isometric concept was eventually used for Sonic 3D Blast in 1996.
According to Naka, the team felt that they needed a deeper story to expand the world of Sonic, which "made the project huge"; the levels are triple the size of those in Sonic 2. Many elements were conceived during the development of Sonic 2 but deferred to Sonic 3. Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were originally planned as a single game. However, time was limited and the manufacturing costs of a 34-megabit cartridge with NVRAM would have been prohibitively expensive. Due to the game's scope and the Sega's commitment to the start date of the McDonald's Happy Meal promotion and corresponding TV ad campaign, the team reluctantly split it in half, allowing more time to develop the second part and splitting the cost between two cartridges. The Sonic & Knuckles cartridge's lock-on technology was created, named and implemented so Sonic 3 could be experienced as intended.
Sonic 3 features the debut of Sonic's rival, Knuckles the Echidna. Many designs for the character were considered; for the final design, Takashi Yuda chose the kind of animal, and Pamela Kelly chose the name. Yuda envisioned him as a supporting character for Sonic, and felt he would make a good playable character. Whereas Sonic symbolizes speed, Knuckles symbolizes power, and the emphasis of the character was to break walls. His shoe coloration was inspired by Jamaica's flag. The original name for the character was "Dreds", referring to his dreadlocks. The design was tested with focus groups of American children.
Hector said Sonic 3 had a troubled development. He recalled having to prevent the rest of Sega from bothering the team while simultaneously making sure the game would be finished in time. Additionally, Hector struggled to balance resources between Sonic 3 and other projects, Naka was sometimes seen as a harsh leader, and STI staff not on the Sonic 3 team became jealous of the priority given to the game.
Release
Sonic 3 was released in North America on February 2, 1994 (Groundhog Day), in Europe on February 24, and in Japan on May 27. Sega spent $20 million marketing it in the United States. To promote the European release, the British band Right Said Fred adapted their song "Wonderman" to include references to Sonic. The song was used in Sonic 3 advertisements and released as a single, which charted in the UK at number 55. A single-cartridge version of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition, was canceled. A ROM image of this version was leaked online in 2008.
Ports and rereleases
Sonic 3 is included in the compilations Sonic Jam (1997) for the Sega Saturn, Sonic & Knuckles Collection (1997) and Sonic & Garfield Pack (1999) for Windows, Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the GameCube, Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows, Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and Sonic Classic Collection (2010) for the Nintendo DS. The Sonic Jam version introduces "remix" options: "Normal" mode alters the layout of rings and hazards, and "Easy" mode removes certain acts.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released for the Wii Virtual Console in September 2007 and Xbox Live Arcade on June 10, 2009. The Xbox version was developed by Backbone Entertainment and has enhanced graphics for high-definition, online leaderboards, support for multiplayer via split screen and Xbox Live, and a new saving system that allows progress to be saved anywhere during play. A PC version was released via Steam in January 2011, as Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Sonic 3 was not included in the Sega Genesis Mini (2019), a dedicated console containing 40 Genesis games. AtGames, which was briefly involved with the console's development, said the exclusion was due to licensing problems with the soundtrack. In 2014, independent developers Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley proposed a remaster of Sonic 3 & Knuckles for iOS and Android, developed using Whitehead's Retro Engine, to Sega, similar to their remasters of previous Sonic games. Despite fan enthusiasm, Sega did not develop the project. Thomley speculated that this was due to legal problems regarding the music.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles has been re-released for the first time since 2011 as part of the Sonic Origins compilation in 2022. The Origins version is a new remaster running on the Retro Engine, and was developed by Simon Thomley of Headcannon, who previously worked on Sonic Mania and remastered versions of other Genesis Sonic games. Since Sega was unable to use the original soundtrack, Senoue was brought on to produce rearrangements of the MIDI music featured in Sonic & Knuckles Collection using the original Genesis sound chip.
Legacy
Sonic 3 was the first appearance of Knuckles the Echidna, who featured prominently in later Sonic games. Sonic the Comic (UK) and the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic (US) published adaptations of the game.
For Sonic's 20th anniversary, Sega released Sonic Generations, a game that remade aspects of various past games from the franchise. The Nintendo 3DS version features a remake of the final boss, "Big Arms", and re-arranged version of the "Game Over" theme. The Angel Island and Hydrocity levels were included in remixed form in Sonic Mania (2017).
See also
In Spanish: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 para niños
