Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Wrongly Forgotten Sequel #3
Type of Game
Best sequel of the world ? No. Best half-sequel ? Definitely !
Release date on our machines
February 1994, Alain Souchon wins a Victoire de la Musique award. You're welcome for your general knowledge.
Developer
The unstoppable Sonic Team, you bet!
Publisher
SEGA Enterprises Ltd. Sometimes I wonder why it's worth mentioning.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 : available on Steam, Switch, PlayStation 5 et Xbox Series, all in the Sonic Origins compilation.
I loved Sonic 1, I absolutely adored Sonic 2, darting on Sonic 3 was just a no-brainer, wasn't it? So why didn't I do it? What the hell was I thinking in 1994, missing out on so many Mega Drive hits, when the computer wouldn't arrive at home until a year later? What's that? Playing outside? Socializing? Of course I would! But I still had a good four hours a day to warm up the console, even more during the weekends. Goodbye Streets or Rage 3, Phantasy Star IV and Urban Strike. Above all, I have a problem with certain sequels that I can't explain. I may have spent weeks on one or two previous opuses, but I don't often actually pick up the next one(s). This applies not only to Sonic (for which I've also worked on a few Master System and Game Gear versions), but also to Command & Conquer or Age of Empires (nothing to do with 1994 for that matter). And in the case of Sonic 3, I realized years later that I'd missed out on quite an adventure. You can't play everything, but shut up about false excuses, really.
Cursed Year
Half Suite, but a big piece nonetheless
If I'd discovered this game when it first came out, what would it have been like? Come on, let's switch on the nineties kid gamer mode, and fire up the mental Mega Drive (a YouTube video from 2018, where a guy played the game for me, in truth). The evil Robotnik is still after biodiversity! Isn't he tired of being beaten up, this egomaniacal (should I say Eggmaniacal? HAHA) capitalist moron! Where does he get all that money to build his bases and machines, that one? A fusion of Trump and Musk, this guy. What's more, he manages to convince a certain Knuckles (a pink echidna with big, bold fists) that Sonic is the real villain of the story. Okay, not a very smart fellow. At the same time, an egg-laying mammal was off to a bad start. Still, at the time, I thought Knuckles was a classy character. I'd already come across his face in Sonic Triple Trouble, on Sega's super (trans)portable console, around the same time as the release of Sonic 3 on home consoles. Good thing he turns nice in the end, eh!
I'll start by exploring the scenery for once. There's nothing to complain about: we're served up the same recipe that worked before, only prettier; you can feel the extra finesse in the textures compared to the second game, even if it's not immediately obvious either. In the first zone, bam, you're back to the lush green meadows of the past, a tradition established since the blue hedgehog's debut in 1991. Hydro City, then: a boosted version of Chemical Plant, eh? With high-speed curves on two planes and flooded sections. Marble Garden and Marble Zone from Sonic 1, almost the same, but different too. You can trust me, I'm seeing it all for the first time. Then it's on to Carnival Night, which plays its role as the Las Vegas stage to perfection, although Casino Night remains unchallenged for me. I used to send Sonic endlessly through the giant lotteries, hoping to get as many rings as possible!
Who hasn't been hooked on this feature, seriously? As for the industrial vibe that emanates from Launch Base, it reminds me too much of Oil Ocean, my favorite zone in Sonic 2. So cool! So, is there anything really new or not? Absolutely, with Ice Cap; the license finally has its own snow level, yaaaay! So even if all of this kicks ass, it may lack a little charm in terms of overall atmosphere. It's hard to say, especially when you're discovering the game so long after its birth. What's more, the special stages used to collect the magic emeralds didn't strike me as very inspired, compared to the hellish half-pipes of the 2nd (and even compared to the electronic acid trip of the 1st). Less frenetic, more conventional, less stressful too. The only positive point is that AI-controlled Tails no longer eats all the bombs like a dummy, thank you very much.
Well, there are only seven zones in this version. A bit limited. But just when you start complaining about this very restricted content, Sonic & Knuckles hits store shelves! Admittedly, this forced people to spend the equivalent of a new game, but it could be chained to the 3rd without transition, like an extension. A completely new concept for me. Well, more than new, given that my first DLC ever must relate to Total Annihilation. But it goes even further than a simple add-on! Thanks to Lock-On technology, which allows you to insert a cartridge over the most recent one, you can play as Knuckles in Sonic 3, but also in Sonic 2! Come on, let's soar over factories and scale fortress walls with the world's most stylish echidna (the world's only living echidna, rather, sob).
It would have driven me crazy to discover this at the time. How many other games have benefited from this Lock-On concept? I've never seen this piece of plastic anywhere. Come to think of it, why didn't I just write a text about Sonic & Knuckles directly? Good point. Maybe I could recycle the idea into an other article, kind of like how SEGA sold the thing for the price of a full game. That said, for Sandopolis alone, with its tons of sand filling the screen and ghosts getting bigger as you progress, Sonic & Knuckles deserves to have existed. People often think of the two games as one big blockbuster that ends the first Sonic era on a high note. And in no way foreshadows his future decline. I'll admit that right now, I'm feeling a bit annoyed that I'm no longer ten years old (yeah, I say that every five minutes, so what?).
Rumors and casting changes
Come ooooon, a new album of supercharged melodies by Masato Nakamura, right? Oh no, the guy didn't work on Sonic 3 (or the next half). As far as I'm concerned, it's a bit of a letdown. I rather recognized the grungy metallic arrangements of Sonic Spinball than the unstoppable hits I'd come to cherish (evident on Marble Garden, for example). Although the appearance of musical variants between Zones 1 and 2 ranks among the very good ideas, I'm less appreciative of the work done by the newcomers. No disrespect to them, but it sounds more showy, less blended into the landscape, more Fox News in winter than Mount Fuji in spring. Would I have loved it just as much as the previous OSTs, if these tracks had been embedded in my brain when I was nine? Well, yes, and I'm going to stop asking that question in every other game. I'm going to try anyway. At the top of the range, I'd still keep Angel Island, which fulfills its role as a cute first-level ditty. OK, it doesn't carry the crazy energy provided by Emerald Hill, but it's still okay. Carnival Night? Sounds too much like a Pinder circus to me. And what's with all the screaming on Launch Base? Is Knuckles whining or something? I don't get it. As for that piece of junk chasing us during the invincibility phases... argh! Awful! And wasn't there an anecdote about Michael Jackson, who should have composed some songs, but didn't? Ah well, maybe he's the one you hear raging in Launch Base, actually.
Good marvels come in threes
My alter ego, stuck in the 90s, isn't going to lie to his slightly more mature self of today. If I'd got my hands on it in 1994, Sonic 3 would have been one of my favorite games, and the 2 would have lived in its shadow, like a vulgar outdated ancestor (not really rightly so, poor thing).
The new ways of shattering enemies, the renewed jumping techniques, the even more convoluted springboards and springs, the level design that's twice as impeccable, the three different types of shields, the Hyper Sonic transformation (even above Super Saiyan Sonic God Super Saiyan, although it doesn't change the concept too much), this game in no way usurps its legendary status. Every little pixel seems to have shifted up a gear, reaching a new level of dynamism and fluidity. The Sonic method mastered from start to finish. At least I think so, I've never touched it myself. But really, I need to add a fantasy timeline to all those I've already imagined. A world where I keep adding to my Mega Drive game library until I'm well into 1995, instead of settling for three or four things that people lend me, like Mr. Nutz or The Lion King. It's going to cost a lot in time travel, all that.