Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a video game that consists of 5 releases

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Play as Sonic or Tails to defeat the forces of Doctor Robotnik once again.

Overview

After taking a year break, SonicTeam was back with a vengeance with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994. Much like the improvements of Sonic 2 over Sonic 1, Sonic 3 offers more content, more moves, and a new character - Knuckles the Echidna. There was so much new content that there was not enough time to finish it all in time for the game's release deadline; a large portion had to be cut and repackaged as Sonic & Knuckles later on in the same year.

Like all Sonic games, the premise still remains the same: Get to the end of the level as quickly as possible while grabbing as many rings and destroying as many enemies as you can. Like Sonic 2, each world consists of two acts - the new twist being that act 1 ends on a "mini-boss", with act 2 ending with a typical encounter with the dastardly Doctor Eggman (aka Robotnik). Acts 1 and 2 also appear to be directly joined, now - rather than an Act ending, fading to black, and the next Act starting, Act 2 starts directly where Act 1 leaves off with no transition to speak of.

On the new moves front, Sonic now gains the ability to have various double jump moves depending on which of the three (new) elemental-based shields he has equipped. For example, if you do not have a shield and you double jump as Sonic, you will utilize the "InstaShield" maneuver, which extends Sonic's radius of attack for a split second. If you double jump while holding the magnetic lightning shield, Sonic will gain extra jump height. If you double jump while holding a flame shield, Sonic will execute a flaming mid-air dash in the direction you are facing. If you do the same with a Bubble shield, Sonic will do a bounce attack. Previously, in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the player saw Tails fly but could never physically control his flight; Sonic 3 rectifies this, giving the player full control over Tails' flying abilities, allowing him to fly to new locations Sonic cannot reach. Tails can now also team up with Sonic to airlift him to these same locations.

Finally, due to the sheer size of the game and its massive levels (some of the largest in the franchise's history), Sonic 3 is the first Genesis Sonic game to implement SRAM for save game data.

Plot

While taking a much needed rest and vacation with Sonic after destroying the Death Egg, Tails begins to detect odd energy readings on a jewel radar he had been tinkering with. The strangest part being it were recieving these energy readings from the middle of the ocean - a location in which there were no islands or land to speak of, and the type of energy it was picking up was characterized by a Chaos Emerald; but it would have to be a Chaos Emerald larger than any they had ever previously encountered.

On the other side of the beach, Sonic the Hedgehog discovers a strange type of ring he's never seen before. Being oddly well-versed in ancient civilizations for a Hedgehog, he recalls a story he once heard of a society, favored by the Gods, who were given a giant stone of great power as a gift. This stone of power became a focal point of the civilization's culture, but as is always the case, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It was not long until arguments broke out over who got to use the stone of power for what - arguments turned to wars, wars turned to bloodshed. This angered the Gods greatly, and from within the stone of power, a terrible force was unleashed that obliterated the civilization overnight. The island containing the civilization was banished to the sky as "Angel Island", and a lone guardian was posted to protect the stone to ensure nobody could ever misuse its powers again. Sonic and Tails, both excited by the prospect of a new adventure, set off in the direction of the mysterious energy readings.

What they discover is the remains of the Death Egg had, after plummeting out of the sky, landed on Angel Island - its incredible weight crashing down and sinking the island to sea level once again. Fearing Doctor Eggman is seeking the Stone of Power for to revitalize the Death Egg, Sonic and Tails cautiously approach the mysterious island...

Levels

Angel Island Zone

Hydrocity Zone
Marble Garden Zone
Carnival Night Zone
IceCap Zone
Launch Base Zone

Soundtrack

Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 composer Masato Nakamura is nowhere to be found in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. His replacements are a number of different people, most notably members from Michael Jackson's personal sound production team (Brad Buxer, Doug Grisby III, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross and Geoff Grace). Early in the game's development cycle Sega had struck a deal with Jackson to lend his talents to the game's soundtrack, but Sega downplayed his involvement when Michael became entangled in the molestation controversy. The remaining tracks in the game that were not composed by Michael Jackson's sound team were done by American composer Howard Drossin and Japanese composer Jun Senoue.

Development History

After Sonic the Hedgehog 2 went on to become even more successful than the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega of Japan invited Yuji Naka and SonicTeam back to the land of the rising sun to begin work on Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Meanwhile, Sega Technical Institute in America began work on Sonic Spinball. Originally, SonicTeam wanted Sonic 3 to play off of the idea of being 3-Dimensional; an early gameplay test considered making the entire game in top-down, seen from an isometric view. Worried they would be changing the game too dramatically, they scrapped this concept and went back to making Sonic 3 a traditional side-scrolling Sonic game.

Like Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, an internal character design contest was held for the new character in Sonic 3. Winning this round was Takashi "Thomas" Yuda, for his Knuckles the Echidna design.

Trivia

Sega proposed a merchandising deal with shoe manufacturer Nike. Eventually, the deal fell through before the game hit shelves.

Yuji Naka once again took inspiration from his favorite anime, Dragon Ball Z; the 3D Bonus Stages in this game were inspired by King Kai's miniture planet at the end of Snake Way.
A number of tracks in this game, no doubt in relation to a certain American Pop-Star's involvement with music production, resemble Michael Jackson songs.
Though the concept of an isometric Sonic game was scrapped for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Travelers Tales later revisited the concept in the form of Sonic 3D Blast.
Originally, Knuckles the Echidna was supposed to be green in color. After some focus testing, it was decided that red was a better color.

Credits

Executive Producer

Hayao Nakayama

Project Manager

Hisashi Suzuki
Shinobu Toyoda
Masaharu Yoshii

Producer

Yuji Naka

Director

Hirokazu Yasuhara

Lead Game Designer

Hirokazu Yasuhara

Senior Game Designers

Hisashi Yoshida
Takashi Iizuka

Lead Programmer

Yuji Naka

Senior Programmers

Hiroshi Nikaidoh
Masanobu Yamamoto

Character Designer

Takashi Yuda

CG Artist

Kunitake Aoki

Animator

Takashi Yuda

Enemy Artist

Satoshi Yokokawa

Scene Artists

Kunitake Aoki
Chie Yoshida
Tsuneko Aoki
Shigeru Okada
Takashi Yuda
Satoshi Yokokawa

Art Assistant

Osamu Ohashi

Music Composer

Brad Buxer
Bobby Brooks
Darryl Ross
Geoff Grace
Doug Grigsby III
Charles Jones

SEGA Sound Team

Tokuhiko Uwabo
Sachio Ogawa
"Milpo"
Masaru Setsumaru
Tatsuyuki Maeda
Tomonori Sawada
Masayuki Nagao
Jun Senoue

Sound Project Coordinator

Hisaki Nimiya

General Information Edit

Game Name	Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Platform(s)	Genesis Wii Shop
Publisher(s)	Sega
Developer(s)	Sonic Team Sega Technical Institute
Genres	Add a new genre Action Adventure Platformer
Themes	Add a new theme
Original US Release	Feb. 2, 1994 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
Aliases	Sonic 3