Sonic 3 is another great installment in the Sonic series.
Sonic 3 starts off pretty much straight after the ending of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After Sonic defeated Doctor Robotnik the Death Egg was knocked out of orbit, but instead of crash-landing in to earth it crash lands on a mysterious floating island called Angel Island, an island that had previously only being believed to have existed in legend. As Doctor Robotnik begins to repair the Death Egg, he meets up with Knuckles. Knuckles is the last surviving member of an ancient civilization of Echidnas that once inhabited the island. Knuckles is also the guardian of the Master Emerald, which grants the island the power to float.
Knowing Sonic and Tails will try to track him down, and realizing he can use the Master Emerald to power the Death Egg, Doctor Robotnik tricks Knuckles into believing Sonic is trying to steal his Emerald. Shortly after, Sonic and Tails in their bi-plane, the Tornado, travel to the island in search of Doctor Robotnik. As soon as they arrive Knuckles ambushes Sonic from underground with such force that he knocks the Chaos Emeralds from him. Stunned, Sonic can only watch as Knuckles steals the Emeralds and disappears inland. As Sonic and Tails travel through the island they encounter Knuckles multiple times.
In the Launch Base Zone, Sonic travels through to see Knuckles blow up the building they're in. They manage to escape the building and find Dr. Robotnik. After they defeat Robotnik, he leaves his Egg-O-Matic behind. Sonic travels in it, and finds Knuckles standing on top of a pole trying to prevent Sonic from continuing onwards. As the Death Egg launches off for the second time, it knocks Knuckles off the pole sending him plummeting to the ground. Sonic travels to a platform on the Death Egg, while Robotnik awaits them there. Sonic and Tails defeat Robotnik for the last time, and the Death Egg is seen falling and exploding.
The main game play of Sonic 3 is basically the same as in the previous titles, but builds off them. Sonic and Tails are now equipped with special moves that are activated by pressing the jump button a second time while in mid air. Tails will fly if he's out of water, or swim if he's in water, both for a limited amount of time. In a team game, a second player can use Tails to "airlift" Sonic for a short amount of time. Both characters can gain one of three elemental shields (fire, lightning, and water) which protects against damage from that element, with Sonic gaining an additional attack from each one. If Sonic has no shield equipped, he can generate an 'insta-shield', giving him a split second burst of protection from projectiles and increasing Sonic's attack radius.
Sonic 3 included more scope than any other game in the series to date: the play fields were three times larger than previous games, with multiple paths for different characters, more environmental elements with which to interact, faster maximum speeds, more end-of-level bosses, and more set pieces, all without any of the framerate issues that plagued certain parts of Sonic 2.
The game introduced many staples to the series, such as an increasingly story-driven game, multiple shield types, several musical indents and themes used in most subsequent games, and introduced Jun Senoue to the series, who would later become sound director of the 3D Sonic games, lending them their signature rock-inspired soundtracks.
As in previous Sonic games star posts are also scattered throughout each zone in Sonic 3 to act as checkpoints for if you die. If you collect fifty rings while passing through the checkpoints a ring of stars will appear above it, and if Sonic jumps through them it'll take him to a bonus stage. Most acts also contain multiple large golden rings which act as gateways to special stages, stages of which are played out on a three-dimensional, checkered torus of which only a small surface portion is visible at any given time.
Sonic 3 has a head-to-head, split-screen 2-player mode similar to the one in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. However, instead of using levels from the single player game, a set of short wrap-around tracks and scaled-down character sprites were created, in addition to making Knuckles a playable character. Players can select to play a Grand Prix of all five tracks, a single track to race on, or race the clock in time trial. The aim of all modes is to complete five laps of the track as quickly as possible.
One of the things I criticised most about Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is that both games lacked save features, well Sonic 3 includes a save feature. Because of the size of each of its zones Sonic 3 is significantly longer in length then the previous two titles, so saving was really necessary. The game saves whenever you game over, and you carry on your save from the beginning of whichever act you died on.
Sonic 3 is another great installment in the Sonic series. It builds off the previous titles in the series to offer players another great platforming experience. It isn't as good as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, but it is still a really good platform game regardless of this. If you don't already own it, get it.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.3/10