Trivia
Due to time constraints, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 had to be released before it was completed. The extra material that was intended to be in this game became Sonic & Knuckles. By plugging Sonic the Hedgehog 3 into the top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge, you can play the full game as it was meant to be.
Michael Jackson, along with some of his musicians, was originally going to do the music, but when legal scandals broke out SEGA didn't want him involved anymore. The completed songs were used and Howard Drossin finished the soundtrack, later used in Sonic & Knuckles.
Some of his tracks are still in there. The Ice Cap Zone theme, when slowed down, sounds like Who is It, five seconds of the Carnival Night Zone theme resemble Jam, etc.
There is a rather lame excuse that Sega included in the manual to try and cover up the games many glitches. It states "Dont run to fast or you might fall into one of Eggman's traps". This is obviously referring to the infamous wall glitch in which if Sonic ran to fast and hit a wall he would get trapped in it with no way out. Pretty lame Sonic.
This is the first game in which the player is able to control Tails' flight ability. If there are two players, Tails can give Sonic a lift and carry him over short distances. He can also swin, though he cannot carry Sonic whilst doing so.
This game features the first appearance of Knuckles the Echidna, who became phenomenally popular, and in many fan circles is even more popular than Sonic himself. He went on to become as much a main character as Sonic, Tails and Eggman.
The first Sonic game to save your progress!
Contributed by
Robbb (130) on Aug 05, 2004.
Due to an extremely tight schedule, Sonic 3 was actually cut in half (it was planned to be at least twice as long). So the U.S. got only half of a game...where's the rest? In Sonic & Knuckles! Sega gave us Sonic & Knuckles to compensate for the lack of stages (and also to repair some VERY nasty bugs that cropped up in some of the Sonic 3 stages), and to also give us the rest of the game.
Want proof? If you manage to open up the Stage Select screen in Sonic 3, check out the names of some of the stages. Mushroom Valley? Flying Battery? Sandopolis? Aren't those all the names of various areas in Sonic & Knuckles? Hmmm....
