Sonic The Hedgehog

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sorry guys, Ice Cap and Lava Reef are both missing from the game. The S3&K tracks are Angel Island, Hydrocity, Marble Garden, Mushroom Hill, Flying Battery, and Death Egg.

It's pretty annoying since I wanted Lava Reef for Crisis City.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I was tired of continuously studying for exams non-stop, and I decided to play some Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I got all the way up to Flying Battery Zone before getting tired and deciding to call it a night. Out of curiosity, though, I was wondering which stages were originally only in Sonic 3, and which ones were in Sonic & Knuckles. I know that both games were originally meant to be 1 larger game, but due to certain circumstances which I'm not too familiar with, Sega had them released separately (though, I remember that the S&K cartridge had a slot that allowed you to attach Sonic 3 to it). However for some reason whenever I try to look it up I only see a list of stages for Sonic 3 and Knuckles together. I can't seem to find the cut-off for what belonged in Sonic 3 by itself (obviously the rest of the stages after that point would belong to Sonic and Knuckles by itself).

Oh well, I just wanted to know that for a fun bit of trivia. As far as I'm concerned the whole thing is Sonic 3, with the 2 games together that were originally supposed to 1 big game anyways.

In terms of quality I think I like the stages so far just as much as Sonic 2, and I loved Sonic 2's stages to death (except for maybe Hill Top Zone, which I thought was kind of boring compared to the other zones in the game).

[gunswordfist]

Sonic 3 ends at Launchpad Zone or whatever the fuck it's called and of course Knuckles begins at Mushroom Hill Zone.

They got seperated because Sonic Team ran out of time so they added the rest of the levels later with Sonic & Knuckles being able to be locked on.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, Sonic 3 ends at Launch Base Zone, and Sonic & Knuckles begins at Mushroom Hill.

Interesting trivia about the game; there are two stories in S3&K. The first is Sonic & Tails arriving on Angel Island to stop the Death Egg that goes all the way up to Doomsday Zone and the second is the remaining Robotnik robots reeking havoc on the island and Knuckles goes off to stop them while being helped by Sonic. This one also starts at Angel Island and ends at Sky Sanctuary (there are even graphic differences like Angel Island Zone floating like at the end of the Sonic half, and the Death Egg gone from Launch Base Zone, Lava Reef Zone, and Sky Sanctuary Zone.

Not all that important, but I always thought that was neat.

[gunswordfist]

Interesting. I thought the story was all about Knuckles being tricked into trying to kill Sonic & Tails while Robotnik is trying to take all the emeralds during all of that.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, I used to think that too. There are some clues in the different post credit endings in each game, as well as Mecha Sonic not actually exploding when Sonic & Tails beat him in Sonic's half. Also the Master Emerald can't be on the Death Egg and used by Mecha Sonic in Sky Sanctuary at the same time.

It's pretty clever how they did it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I do like and appreciate how Sonic 3, unlike the first 2 games, tries to tell a story this time around through its limited technology by using visual cues and various animations to portray the character's personalities and actions. You do generally get the idea that Knuckles is a mischievous character of sorts when you initially meet him, what with him springing various traps on Sonic and Tails at different times throughout the game and laughing about it.

Out of curiosity, how do the chaos emeralds work in this game, again? I forgot all about what you need to do to unlock the Super Sonic/Hyper Sonic transformation. Cumulatively, I ended up collecting 4 chaos emeralds up to Flying Battery Zone. I had 3 by Mushroom Hill, but then when I went into that hidden emerald area after Knuckles left it unguarded, I lost all 3 of them but got to go through a mini-game challenge which got me a super emerald in return. Then later in the same level I did a challenge which got me another chaos emerald, though on the screen where it shows your score results after the mini-game, that was the only emerald that showed up as the other 3 stayed behind in that hidden area. So....I don't get it. Does it still count that I got those, or does it just count as me having 1 super emerald now? Also, do I automatically unlock the Super Sonic transformation when I collect 7 chaos emeralds, or is there something else that I have to do before I can unlock it?

[Spark Of Spirit]

You collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic 3 half and the 7 Super Emeralds in the Sonic & Knuckles half. If you just get 7 emeralds, you only get Super Sonic, but if you get all 14 you get Hyper Sonic AKA when will Sonic Team realize they haven't used him since this game?

Hyper Sonic is faster and using his insta-shield will kill every enemy on the screen.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I always thought that using Hyper Sonic in a modern HD Sonic game might run the risk of causing some people seizures depending on how Sonic Team would handle that matter graphically, what with him flashing through a cycle of 7 different colors in the span of about a second.

[Foggle]

I always thought that using Hyper Sonic in a modern HD Sonic game might run the risk of causing some people seizures depending on how Sonic Team would handle that matter graphically, what with him flashing through a cycle of 7 different colors in the span of about a second.

That would be AWESOME.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Ultimate Color Blaster, indeed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

After I beat Sonic 3 and Knuckles, the only classic 2D game that I'll have left is Sonic CD. After that I'll try and get Sonic Adventure via XBLA, since I don't care what anyone else says and I still think its a really good game. I'll also try to get Sonic Generations for Christmas. And I still have yet to play Sonic 4 Episode 1, so I'll try to get to that as well.

[Spark Of Spirit]

If you're interested, Sonic CD is on XBLA in December and it has a bunch of new features like playable Tails. I have my points saved up for that.

Also, any bashing of the XBLA SA seems weird to me since it's locked at 60fps and runs way better than the Gamecube version. The only negative being that I don't like the "improved" graphics of the GC version much.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I'll probably just get it for XBLA.

I'd also liked to have been able to get SA2 via XBLA, but I guess they probably won't put that up for DL since I doubt that SA really did that well being how much people say it has aged. Either way, though, I still plan on getting a good dose of 3D Sonic with both that and Generations.

[GaryPotter]

It'll be neat finally playing it with the original OST.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles is far better in every way though. I don't know where gamers get the idea that Sonic CD is the best.