Sonic the Hedgehog was seen as Sega’s answer to Mario, and from what I recall it seemed that each side had a comparable number of fans. I remember arguments raging on the school yard over which cartoon character was better, and I’ve personally always been on the Mario side. That’s not to say that I’m not a fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, but I was very late to the party. While the second title is generally considered to be the fan favorite I’ve always had some issues with the level design. It simply was never as deep or rewarding as Super Mario World in my opinion, and to add insult to injury they were both released within the same general time frame. I honestly didn’t have much hope for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to transcend the issues from the previous release and I sat on playing it for a long while. I finally gave in and found this to be the best game in the entire franchise, and considering its reputation that’s saying a lot.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 takes place just after the finale of the previous game. Our two protagonists; Sonic and Tails, wind up on a mysterious island. Unfortunately Robotnik has also crashed here, and has recruited the help of Knuckles the Echidna who has lived here and protected the master emerald for years. Knuckles steals the chaos emeralds from Sonic, and it’s up to he and Tails to recover them and defeat Dr. Robotnik once more. It’s pretty typical fare for this series, but this installment deserves props for introducing a new antagonist to the universe. This release doesn’t make any radical departures from the established Sonic formula; you move from one end of a stage defeating enemies and gather rings all the while running as fast as possible. The focus may be on Sonic’s trademark speed and dashing abilities but the game still requires some intricate platforming, and it’s still a little sloppy to be honest. Sega dialed this back a little at least.
What’s nice is the fact that you can play as either Sonic or Tails again, but the two have varying abilities this time around. Tails can finally fly, and this ability proves frequently useful especially during the more difficult platforming sections. Of course Sonic is still the default way to play, but you can also opt to have Tails follow you around via A.I. controls. This serves a few purposes; any rings collected by your partner are added to your total, and they can also attack and damage enemies. While these two assists are pretty random (the artificial intelligence here is pretty bad) it still makes it worthwhile to bring Tails along. One of my previous complaints about this series is the lack of power-ups, and Sega has thankfully addressed this issue here. You can now get various shields based around different elements; the electricity barrier allows your character a double jump and attracts all nearby rings, bubble allows you to breathe underwater and bounce in the air, and the flame shield gives you the ability to thrust horizontally at enemies. These are extremely useful and often cleverly hidden in each stage. It’s the perfect way to reward exploration.
I’m very impressed with how much more work Sega put into the level designs in this installment. Previously you’d find most areas overfilled with auto-run areas where you’re constantly bouncing off of barriers, and the games basically played themselves. Not here. They’re more technical, but at the same time focus more on fighting enemies rather than platforming. This is a good thing because let’s face it; this was always one of Sonic’s weaknesses due to his sloppy and imprecise controls. Auto-play set pieces are still included here, but they’re very seldom and blend better into the level design. Despite fine tuning and fixing many of the previous problems Sonic 3 introduces one of its own, and it’s pretty significant. There are a few moments in the game that repeat infinitely until you reach the correct passage. The worst offender is Ice Cap Zone where I was actually stuck for a good twenty minutes trying to figure out why the stage kept repeating itself. It makes absolutely no sense, and this feature is a clear knock against the overall score. On the plus side Sega toned down their stage themes and made them less weird this time around.
The graphics have been significantly upgraded from part 2 and even the CD installment. This is the first time that Sega actually updated the character model for both Sonic and Tails, and their new sprites are very impressive and animated by 16-bit standards. The backgrounds generally feature more levels of parallax, and some of the animations pulled off with them are beyond what I thought the Genesis was capable of. Right from stage one you can see just how much extra work the developers put into the visuals and effects. The framerate also stays more constant than ever before. Overall I’m very happy with the updated engine and graphics in general. The soundtrack is also significantly better than in any of the previous Sonic games (sans CD). The opening stage’s theme, Angel Island, serves as a fantastic introduction to the game. The music is upbeat in a quirky way that perfectly fits the franchise. My favorite track overall though is that of Hydrocity Zone and it’s easily one of the best across the entire series. The rest of the music is good, except Carnival Zone’s theme which is an obvious rip off of Casino Night’s.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the absolute pinnacle of the franchise. This was never matched before, and likely never will be. Sonic Team was able to put aside their more annoying gameplay tendencies and really fine tune the level design in this case. The updated graphics, improved themes, and much better design make this a 16-bit classic and one of the best overall platformers of the era. Play it or else you’re missing out.
