[h1][b]*New* Sonic 1+2 featuring Two-Tailed Fox from the Fallout series + Death Star's Fury by Sega Sound Team, Michael Jackson ft. Brad Buxer x Dragon Ball Z Super Ultra Deluxe[/b] [i][u]&Knuckles[/u][/i][/h1]
[u][b]Journal:[/b][/u]
Sonic 3 introduces cool powerups like the Fire Dash, Double Jump, Ground Pound, etc. along with elemental effects to the pre-existing shields, taking the physics exploration to the next level while not being tied to a permanent movement modifier, has an SRAM module in the cartridge to save your game progress that they nailed right in their first implementation, has multiple playable characters with unique ways to interact with the levels, and is also the world's first game to have a physical DLC that transformed it into a complete experience.
Sonic has been praised for its simplicity. In Sonic 1, they had all face buttons make you Jump and that was pretty much it. In Sonic 2 and CD, they still had 1 button do everything but utilized the Dpad along with it for new actions present in the sequel like Spindash and Peelout. In Sonic 3 you had to; press it to jump, hold down and spam it to charge a spindash, hold up and spam it to charge a peelout, press it while in the air to trigger the respective elemental shield's power, press it while in the air without having any shield to trigger Super Sonic, press it while in the air to trigger Tails' or Knuckles' power (or turns you Super if you have more than 50 rings), and pressing it while in the air as Tails or Knuckles while having an elemental shield doesn't trigger the shield's power and only it's passive effects... Yuji Naka took this broken philosophy all the way up to Balloon Neverland even though at that point most people were used to playing platformers with 4 distinct face buttons for different functions. But due to playing Generations though, I instinctively held X for charging spin regardless. (X,A,B being A,B,C respectively)
Michael Jackson seemed to be an upgrade over Masato Nakamura to make pop music into chiptunes, but they sure didn't see whatever it is that was to come following it. Carnival Night Zone's song is out beaten by Mystic Cave for that circus music feel with its leitmotif, so I'm convinced that Nakamura wasn't replaced for 3 or anything as his tracks stand way higher than MJ's. Overall, apart from Carnival Night, all of his tracks feel very R&B/Soul and are a nice contrast to the more playful themes from Sonic 3 like Angel Island and Hydrocity. But no one is going to particularly miss these tracks since they are mostly just samples from some of Brad and Michael's previous works and because the rest of the Japanese tracks are great too if only made better in Sonic Mania's remixes.
I never got stuck in Sonic 3 until the Barrel of Doom in Carnival Zone. The clown music playing over and over again as I tried jumping on it made me feel insecure. I brought up the Steam Overlay, and right there in the [i]Recommended Guides section[/i], was the Barrel's image as the icon, and all I had to do was press Up and Down to swing it. The whole sensation could've been avoided if you weren't given positive reinforcement upon jumping (the barrel shouldn't have bounced) while Tails could have [b]looked up and down[/b] to show us what needed to be done but instead, he didn't do anything in the way of guiding the player when I needed it the most.
I unknowingly kept trying to activate Super Sonic after zone 7 because I didn't know that the cutscene in Mushroom Hill made me relinquish my chaos emeralds. So I never played as SS in S3 and went straight into Hyper Sonic once I unlocked it, though I was still enjoying SS in Mania at the same time. I guess it's designed that way so that people who already unlocked SS in the first part would be forced to play without SS in the [i]&Knuckles[/i] stages, otherwise, those levels would have been remembered as the stuff you flew past if they had just locked-on and continued (which you could've still done if you never entered the secret room). Hyper Sonic goes gamer RGB (at least following Genesis color palette) and gives him a blink/dash ability, yet again triggered with the same face button... so it's good that Mania forced transformations to the Y button so as to not interfere with every other mechanic tied to 'Jump'.
[b][u]Knuckles Playthrough:[/u][/b]
I didn't play as Tails in Sonic 3 because there's nothing different compared to playing Sonic apart from making the game easier (which I didn't need since I had [b]Rewind[/b] on my fingertips) but playing as Knuckles is touted as the ultimate [i]'alternate playmode'.[/i] It is the next logical thing to try out after unlocking Hyper Sonic. Levels are slightly different, paths designed just for him to go through, and all the bosses have a robot sprite instead of Eggman denoting that this is happening alongside Sonic's adventure and Eggman has set up these robots to fight Knuckles as he is attending to Sonic. But unlike the GTA IV DLC, you never see the parts where Sonic and Knuckles' paths collide, along with further inconsistencies in the Master Emrald's story but I guess it's foreshadowing a franchise full of inconsistencies...
Also apparently Knuckles can break anything in his way by walking into it and doesn’t need to spindash like sonic. Even though I didn't like the Spinning Top gimmick among other things (and they brought that back in Generations' Sky Sanctuary level for some reason), Marble Garden Zone is way better to explore as Knuckles due to having extra unreachable paths with Big Rings times three that I was able to get in the very same run.
Super Knuckles is underwhelming compared to Sonic. His sprite just flashes white and just gives zero-traction physics like Super Sonic but it doesn't feel as power-trippy as Super Sonic. Hyper Knuckles (and Hyper Tails) on the other hand have perks so visually and mechanically superior that they are considered not canon.
Got stuck as Knuckles in Sandopolis during the part where you were supposed to keep the lever in place with the rock (that's because the trails of the platform were covered by the sand… so I didn't remember whether that was a movable block or not), which made it less fun compared to Marble Garden even though both were supposed to be labyrinths.
[b][u]Zones:[/u][/b]
The game Sonic Mania derived most of its zones from, as they thought most people would consider them as fresh ideas even today since many hadn't played this back in the day or have not been able to play it because Steam was the only place Sega put out this ROM on. Even though the idea for each act to have its own theme started in Sonic CD, it makes more sense here as you would be actually listening to all of it in 1 playthrough.
[u]My Favorite Zones and Themes:[/u]
Flying Battery, Angel Island, Lava Reef, Hydrocity, Data Select, Staff Roll, The Doomsday Zone (for that climactic tension in the music), Icecap Zone (just the theme), and Blue Spheres (by far the only consistently decent special stage even though it has an input lag issue)
You needn't wait for Sonic Origins. 'Sonic 3 Complete' mod is available in the Steam Workshop. Or you can try Sonic 3 A.I.R. legally cause the ROM files are available to access in the local folder of the Sega Genesis Collection for you to patch it.
