Moving at Mach 3!
Written: Dec 03 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Actually manages to improve upon it's great prequels
Cons: A bit short
The Bottom Line: Sonic 3 actually manages a tough task, in that it improves upon the excellent second game. If 16-Bit platformers are your thing, you'll love it.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Sega Genesis |
When you take into account just how many people owned, and still own, the first two Sonic games, I can't help but feel that Sonic The Hedgehog 3 was at least slightly a failure for Sega. While it may not be a failure in terms of quality, and it may not even have been an outright failure in terms of sales, but ask anyone to name their favourite Sonic, I'd say there is a better chance of them naming Sonic the Hedgehog or Sonic 2, mainly due to them recieving more exposure.
As I say, this isn't down to the actual quality of the game as such, it's probably more down to the fact that by the time Sonic 3 was released, most people already owned a Megadrive/Genesis, so it would have lost a lot of potential owners that it's prequels gained, due to the lack of Pack-in copies of the game being released. People who wanted Sonic 3 actually had to go out and buy it...there wasn't any way to just get landed with it as there was the first 2 titles.
When all is said and done, Sonic 3 is probably best known for being the debut of a certain Red Echidna named Knuckles. Knuckles has went on to garner a fanbase not all that much smaller in size than Sonic himself's, and thats quite an impressive fact given that he has only ever been granted 1 solo venture, and thats an uber-rare 32X game named Chaotix.
In terms of gameplay, Sonic 3 doesn't stray far from the path blazed by it's predecessors. The idea is to run, at top speed, from the left-hand side of the screen to the right, killing enemies by either jumping on them or rolling into them, and aiming to collect rings which are scattered about the stages. Collecting 100 rings grants you an extra life, and having any rings grants you a lifeline, in that if an enemy hits you, instead of dying, you just lose your rings. Every 3 stages or so you must fight a boss character, which is usually the nefarious Dr.Robotnik in some for of mechanical device.
However, Sega did add some features to spice up the third entry in the series, for a start, the natural change is in the bonus stages. In Sonic games, Bonus Stages play a more important part than you would think, in that to properly complete the game, you must 'complete' 7 Bonus stages, and collect 7 'Chaos Emeralds'. Doing so makes Sonic turn yellow and run really, really fast. It also grants you the game's proper ending, which is sadly very lame, even in its true incarnation.
While a lot of people are probably saying "it isn't like the plot matters", Sega actually took some very positive strides towards giving the Sonic plot some depth with this game, mainly in the form of Knuckles actually. You see, the plot picks up after the second game, where Sonic caused Robotnik's Space-Station the Death Egg to crash out of the sky, where it has landed upon the mysterious floating island known as Angel Island. As Sonic arrives to check things out, he is attacked by Knuckles, scattering the Chaos emeralds all over the island. You see, Robotnik has tricked Knuckles, the Island's protector, into believing Sonic is here to do harm to his 'Master Emerald', so Knuckles believes Sonic to be a foe, and has been duped into collecting the Emeralds for Robotnik before Sonic does.
Ok so it's hardly film-quality, but for a platform game in the Sonic series it was a pretty big step, and while it's hardly developed throughout the game, it's still better than we were used to up until this point.
In this game, bonus stages consist of pseudo-3D fields littered with Blue and Red Spheres. The idea is to run over the blue spheres and avoid the red ones, because do that and it's Bonus-Stage-Over. What makes this tougher is that once you run over blue spheres they turn red, so you have to be quite tactical. Hitting all the blue spheres grants you an emerald.
However, gameplay has seen additions with regards to the main single player mode as well. While the basic crux of the game is the same, Sonic's arsenal has been given an upgrade in the form of a double-jump which emits a shockwave of sorts that kills enemies, and Power-Shields. Power-Shields are like super-versions of the bubbles that you could collect in prior Sonic games. However, whereas these simply granted you an extra hit before you die, in Sonic 3 they actually add abilities to Sonic. There are 3 types, Electric, Water and Fire, and they all come with their own perks, from making Sonic magnetic to Rings, the ability to breath indefinitely underwater or transform into a lethal fireball.
Another neat addition is the 2-Player Co-op aspect of it. While you can point out that the second game allowed a second player to take control of Sonic's sidekick, Miles 'Tails' Prower, if they plugged in a second controller during the single player game. However, in that game it was more of a neat little bonus from Sega. In Sonic 3 it can actually boost the gameplay, because the 2nd player can make Tails fly and pick up Sonic, granting access to previously unreachable hidden areas.
Furthermore, Sega also added a save feature to the game which is in some ways great, because it means you don't have to sit through the game in it's entireity to complete it, but on the downside, It is only 6 stages(broken into around 3 'Acts' each though) in length, so this makes completing it a bit easier. However, to make up for this, the difficulty of the actual game seems to have been cranked up a bit from the second game, and expect a lot more frustration.
As with the previous game, there is a 2-Player competitive mode, but the truth is that it really isn't all that interesting, and most players will either stick to the single player game, do the co-op mode or simply play a more dedicated 2-Player game. While I appreciate Sega went to extra length to add life to the game...Sonic really doesn't suit versus style gameplay.
The game's also recieved a bit of a graphical upgrade from it's predecessor, and while it isn't a huge step, the characters do seem to have an improved number of frames of animation, and the stages are gorgeously detailed, even if many of them are rather reminiscent of previous games' stages.
Sound is an aspect Sonic titles have always shined in, with Sonic 3 being no exception. From the classic jump and ring-collect sound effects to the wonderfully catchy music, all of which is perfectly suited to the theme of the stage it plays with, Sonic 3 is, for lack of a better term, Sonically awesome.
Controlling the game is the same simplistic beauty that the series is known for. All of the buttons make Sonic jump, pressing it in mid-air causes the double-jump shockwave thing, as well as activating the fireball, and when stationary, holding Down on the d-pad and pressing any button makes Sonic spin around and launch forwards, a move known as the Spin-Dash. A system like this isn't exactly complex to pick up, and the response of it is perfect.
When all is said and done, while it may not have proven to be the astronomically proportioned Super-Hit that Sonic 2 was, there is still much to love about Sonic 3, and it's a great little platform game that improves upon its, already excellent, predecessor in many ways. While I wouldn't say it's the best platform game on the console, it certainly has to be in for consideration, and it's a very fun game that all fans of the series, as well as those who just love their 16-Bit platformers, will lap-up.
Sonic Related Reviews
Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Sega Genesis
Sonic The Hedgehog for Game Gear
Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast
Sonic Heroes for XBox
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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