Game Debate #139: Sonic the Hedgehog 3

[Reed Rothchild | 9,523]

[TDIRunner | 2,735]

It's not as good as Sonic 2, but it's still a fun game.  Attaching it to Sonic & Knuckles improves it in my opinion, but I'm not sure if that should be part of the rating.  Overall, I enjoyed this game, but not enough to ever get through the entire game.  

[AverageOliver98 | 719]

One of the best Genesis/Mega Drive games and easily my favorite 'stand alone' Sonic game (Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined is superior, but I think S&K on its own is weaker then 3) 

[Webhead123 | 675]

I feel like I'm not quite qualified enough to rate this one. I've played it a few times but never with a great deal of seriousness to actually get past the first 2 worlds or so. Part of that is probably due to it being a title I never owned, part due to it having to compete with Sonic 2 for attention and part being lost in a sea of other, lesser-known Genesis titles that I've focused on experiencing. From what I have played, it seems to be a respectable entry in the series. The graphics and music are very nice. I'm sure it's a great game...I just haven't spent that much time with it.

[PekoponTAS | 171]

I'm not a big fan of Sonic 3, though I don't hate it either. I actually prefer playing Sonic 3 by itself rather than with the S&K cart attached, as the Sonic 3 portion of the game has all of the good levels. Even the carnival area becomes incredibly fun once you've learned the quickest paths. Sonic 3 is also the most visually stunning of the three, and looks gorgeous to this day. If we're talking Sonic 3 and Knuckles, I prefer playing the game as Knuckles so I don't have to do blue spheres to see the end of the story.

Even still, I rated the game a 4 as I still think it's the worst of the original three games. I'll play through Sonic 3 if I'm doing a marathon of the trilogy, but I'll never play it in any other context. While I think Sonic 1 is better than Super Mario World, Sonic 3 is certainly no Yoshi's Island.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

Oh wait, oops, I thought this was for the original Sonic the Hedgehog for some reason, my bad, haha. Was evidently not paying attention. I'd actually go with an 8 for Sonic 3, the OG Sonic is what I'd give a 7. If we're counting S3&K as one game though, that bumps it up to a 9 for me.

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

I gave Sonic 3 an 8/10. It's great fun and I love exploring the different paths of the levels. Oh and the music is some of the best on the Genesis. A bit short, making the save feature seem weird on a game you can defeat in about an hour. The elemental shields are super fun to play around with and a huge improvement on the simple shield. That all being said, sonic3&k is a big fat 10/10 for me. The length, level design, pacing, sound, music, characters, and Saturday morning cartoon storyline is just incredible. 

[twiztor | 850]

Knuckles is my favorite character of the Sonic-verse, so his introduction here was a big deal for me. the S&K add-on really makes the game complete and a lot of fun. i prefer Sonic 2 to this, but i believe that to be familiarity as i played it as a kid. but Sonic 3 looks better, sounds better, and is more grand in scope, so objectively is probably the better game.

i'm rating it a 7. 

[DarkTone | 984]

7.

[DefaultGen | 5,402]

8, but holy moly is it one of the most unfinished games of all time. Only 4 zones then the game just randomly ends here?

Sonic 3 & Knuckles I'd say is one of the best platformers ever.

[Sumez | 2,950]

Probably not realistically more than an 8, but what the hell I absolutely love everything about Sonic 3. Playing it is just pure bliss, and that's gotta count for something. 

[GPX | 1,369]

This game is interesting to me in various ways.

As a gamer, I was a huge Sonic fan. Played the original Sonic until full completion. Loved it to bits, with the graphics and sounds quite revolutionary for its time. Then I got busy with studies and missed the later Sonic sequels on the Megadrive. So I’ve never played Sonic 3 even until now. I’ll definitely give it a go sometime later though.

As a collector, I started getting back to buying Megadrive games some 12 years ago, and have bought all the Sonic games on the Megadrive. As far as I can tell, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are the only 2 gaming carts from the 16-bit era, that you can combine to make it a new experience. Some interesting trivia I thought worth sharing.

[sp1nz | 612]

I loved playing through this one time and time again as a child. It's the perfect length for a quick playthrough but also feels too short every time (that's what Sonic 3 & Knuckles is for though and that's one of my favorite games).

9/10

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

I never gave it a real shot beyond a couple of minutes on an emulator but I'm kind of interested.  I'm sure it's good but it released the same year I sold my Genesis to buy my first guitar.  No ragerts.

[Gloves | 11,777]

Never played it, probably never will.

[AstralSoul | 502]

Love it, aside from Mania, this is my favorite Sonic game! Easy 10/10 for me. Yes I'm aware it's technically "half a game" but even without S&K it's a great game and I'd say it's only real downside is that it's relatively short and easy at least compared to other Sonic games.

[Brickman | 3,983]

An easy 8 maybe closer to 9 but I settled on 8. Had this as a kid and absolutely loved it. I never did get around to playing the knuckles add on but have always heard it was great.

Great level variety and solid platforming. It’s easier than the first two but it’s a lot of fun still.

Im actually surprised at some of the lower scores. Unless they’re just a troll vote because it isn’t Mario 

[RH | 4,903]

Sonic Triple Trouble is peak Game Gear at it’s finest.

I doubt we’ll ever rate that or any Game Gear game so I’ll just post that here since it is the GGs equivalent of Sonic 3.

[fox | 1,667]

Jam jam here comes the man hot damn

[CMR | 519]

If anyone needs help with the barrels in Carnival Night, I'm here for you.  8/10 with S&K.

[Sumez | 2,950]

5 hours ago, Brickman said:

An easy 8 maybe closer to 9 but I settled on 8. Had this as a kid and absolutely loved it. I never did get around to playing the knuckles add on but have always heard it was great.

Playing S3 without K in any year after S&K has been released is just completely nuts

I do remember playing the original game at my cousin's place before he got S&K, but we basically never looked back after that. It's so obvious the two were always meants to be a single big game, and the way the stages tie into eachother is really brilliant. S3&K is one of my favourite examples of silent storytelling in video games.

Also Doomsday zone is one of the most satisfying ways to end a game as a reward for going all the way. The blue sphere stages that you start getting in the second half of the game if you already got all the 7 chaos emeralds are some of my favourites.

[Sumez | 2,950]

9 hours ago, GPX said:

As far as I can tell, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are the only 2 gaming carts from the 16-bit era, that you can combine to make it a new experience

Well, there's Sonic 2 + S&K too  

[Brickman | 3,983]

4 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Playing S3 without K in any year after S&K has been released is just completely nuts

I do remember playing the original game at my cousin's place before he got S&K, but we basically never looked back after that. It's so obvious the two were always meants to be a single big game, and the way the stages tie into eachother is really brilliant. S3&K is one of my favourite examples of silent storytelling in video games.

Also Doomsday zone is one of the most satisfying ways to end a game as a reward for going all the way. The blue sphere stages that you start getting in the second half of the game if you already got all the 7 chaos emeralds are some of my favourites.

I got Sonic 3 around release date and by the time Sonic & knuckles came around I had just gotten a SNES and then DKC shortly after that, so there was no going back haha.

I have the Sonic collection on GC so I’ll have to give it a go. Sounds great from your description.

 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:09 PM, RH said:

Sonic Triple Trouble is peak Game Gear at it’s finest.

I doubt we’ll ever rate that or any Game Gear game so I’ll just post that here since it is the GGs equivalent of Sonic 3.

I absolutely loved triple trouble. It's on the Sonic Gems collection for GC. I must say that it's an experience best left for handheld though.

[RH | 4,903]

25 minutes ago, Kguillemette said:

I absolutely loved triple trouble. It's on the Sonic Gems collection for GC. I must say that it's an experience best left for handheld though.

I think all of the GG games are.  The screen had such a low resolution, it was kind of tough to make any really great game beyond a puzzler.  I mean, I know the Game Boy wasn't much different, but the screen tech was so different, the GG had a lot of hurdles.

To replay my old childhood favorites was largely why I got an Analogue Pocket.  I can play GB games on anything, but I've been hunting a GG replacement for ages and I never could pull the trigger on a consolized GG and I'm just not happy with most of screen mods.  Anyway, I'll definitely be returning to STH:TT and the other Sonic games, but TT was my favorite!  For what it was, it was a beautiful game.