With Sonic CD safely tucked away on another system, the inevitability that was Sonic 3 could focus primarily on being a sequel to 2, and would pave the way for the series going forward, in a way that would quietly foreshadow the series’ jump to 3D on the Dreamcast. Of course, the devs had no idea of why that would be when the project began. Sonic 3 was envisioned as a new game that would do everything Sonic 2 did, except even better. It would give the player new ways to approach the game, with the playability of both Tails and newcomer Knuckles, allowing everyone to choose their preferred method of gameplay. It would be even more expansive, with fifteen zones to trump the number from last game, maybe even having enough levels to warrant a then rare save feature. And then the game got Christmas rushed, and they were forced to release a half-finished game. In a day without patches and DLC, this would basically be a death sentence for the game, which had a measly six zones ready for the accelerated holiday release. But this was 90s Sega, the company for whom ambition had no bounds. So they proceeded to cobble together a solution unlike any seen before in a video game…

…By which I mean they invented a special game cartridge that another cartridge could be physically inserted into, called the new game Sonic & Knuckles, and allowed you to play their original vision if you mashed Sonic 3 into the slot. I had this thing as a child, and yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. But it also worked. Combining the two cartridges led to the new, complete game, forever to be dubbed Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The & Knuckles cartridge also had some amusing backwards compatibility with Sonic 1 and 2, allowing you to play the second game as Knuckles, or unlocking hundreds of levels in the Blue Spheres minigame, if you wanted to experiment. To my knowledge, this technology would be solely limited to this one game, as I’ve been unable to find other Sega titles built this way. Most digital releases today come with a menu option to play the games in lock-on mode, so that you have the choice of playing just Sonic 3’s levels and seeing its final boss, who vanishes completely if you play the complete title. While some might be tempted to discuss Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as different games, I really don’t see a reason to, given that they were developed to be one and the same (and still can be, with enough elbow grease). They also largely come from the same school of design philosophy, outside of some odd hiccups like 3’s Bubble Shield being rendered useless by the complete dearth of water levels in & Knuckles.

The name of the game in Sonic 3&K is spectacle. The development team is now much more comfortable building around Sonic’s movement (even if there’s still some rarely seen hiccups), and this allows them to build on not just his movement options, but what can be done with those options on a visual level. Just as the loop in Green Hill Zone once wowed players with the surprise of Sonic running upside down, this game would feature more impressive equivalents, such as running on water in Hydrocity Zone and the snowboarding segment of Ice Cap Zone. This is accompanied by stunning visuals in levels such as Lava Reef Zone and Sky Sanctuary, and a soundtrack composed by Michael Jackson to enhance the entire experience. Sega knew for sure who their mascot was forever going to be at this point, and they fully invested into wowing audiences with Sonic in a way that few other franchises could match in that day and age.

Spectacle might catch the buyer’s eye, but it wasn’t enough to justify a purchase if the game was just more levels of Sonic 2. Which is why Sega took a risk in introducing new playable characters to the series this early. Tails had seen limited playability as Player 2 in the previous game, but here, he becomes a hero all his own, using the humorous flight animation from the previous game as his primary mechanic. They also introduced the new character of Knuckles, who moved a bit slower, but could navigate air space much more quickly than Sonic or Tails using his gliding and wall climbing abilities. New characters are always a risk, as you have to consider the possibility that new players will dislike the gameplay of the newcomers, or that they’ll be too attached to the existing protagonist to connect with their newer options. Just look at the mixed reception to characters like Nero in Devil May Cry 4 or Viola in Bayonetta 3 for proof that this is a constant concern. However, Sonic 3&K recognized this as an issue, how could they not, given that they would have you playing as somebody other than their company’s mascot in his own game? To prepare for this, they gave Knuckles a slightly different version of the game, meaning that the player chose who they wanted to play as when starting a file, and stuck to their choice until completing the game. This had the benefit of ensuring players wouldn’t feel they were forced off of Sonic and onto his more abrasive counterpart against their will, while also providing the game with replayability beyond the usual goal of mastering the game. Knuckles’ unique mechanics, harder versions of bosses, and alternate routes only accessible through walls he could destroy with his glide, meant that playing as him was an optional, but truly different experience; this divergence would complete when Knuckles was revealed to have a completely different final level and boss than Sonic did.

The foresight to balance out its two leads in this way would be the game’s second biggest strength. Its first was the marriage of methodologies and gameplay speeds that had been split apart in Sonic 2 and CD. Speed was essential to the game now, and staying on the higher routes for more speed was still ideal, just like in Sonic 2, but special stages containing chaos emeralds were handled in a very different fashion than they had been previously. Instead of reaching a certain point with enough rings, players accessed these stages by locating special portals hidden away in each level. While these ultimately encouraged exploration, many of them were in places that required preexisting momentum in order to reach, and it was possible to find several of them in each level. This allowed for players to potentially collect all the emeralds in a mere 3-5 levels, then fully invest into speeding through everything else. Furthermore, the difficulty curves from the two games that made up 3&K had been maintained, meaning that there was a drastic difficulty drop at the game’s halfway point, Mushroom Hill. Many cite this decrease in difficulty as a failing of the game, but I think it’s brilliant. Placing the easier level at the game’s halfway point, and putting a whopping four special stage portals there, allows the perfect opportunity for players to reorient themselves and collect any missed emeralds before going back into the more challenging sections that would follow. It also had the benefit of possessing the easiest portals to find in the game, meaning that if a good player did collect all the emeralds in the Sonic 3 half, they could find out the secret that was hidden in these portals post-emerald collection that much more easily. Finally, these special stages were no longer the Sonic 2 half-pipe, nor the awkward 3D racetracks of CD. Instead, they were Blue Spheres.

Blue Spheres was the perfect way to merge the two styles of speed and exploration. The goal was, in a minigame with fast movement that could only turn at certain points, to touch every blue sphere in a looping maze without running into a red sphere. This emulated the exploratory focus of CD through the maze of red spheres, while focusing on speed because the minigame would get progressively, uncontrollably faster the longer a player spent in it, making it essential to complete course as quickly as possible. While ultimately a small part of the game, this represents one of the few times the franchise would successfully balance out its two goals. This combination would also make it into the central gameplay for one perfect level, Sandopolis Act 2.

This particular level is unpopular amongst casual fans of the series, and I can understand why. It’s inherently slower than the other levels of the game, the infinitely spawning ghosts are a constant annoyance, and it brings back some of the puzzle mechanics from the first game’s Marble Zone.             

But it uses these mechanics in a completely different way, and much more intelligently. The ghosts spawn infinitely as the level gets darker, and Sonic/Knuckles can light up the level to eliminate the ghosts by activating switches scattered throughout the level, some of which are hidden behind timed door puzzles that challenge the player to press a second type of switch and run through the door before it seals again. This creates a constant tension in the level: as the lights dim, more ghosts spawn, and once the level is fully dark, the ghosts become aggressive and attack. The only solution is to make it to the next light switch to temporarily banish the ghosts. This creates the perfect union between the first game’s slower segments and Sonic’s speed, by creating a timed threat that will never hit you if you can make it to the next switch fast enough, but putting these switches behind easy puzzles that become stressful when accompanied by the visual timer of the ghosts. It’s a balancing act that makes speed central to the puzzles, asking the player to complete them and speed through sections as quickly as possible to banish the ghosts with the next switch, at which point the player is given a moment to catch their breath before resuming their mad dash to the next switch. And while the ghosts may be a constant threat, it is very possible to optimize the level and complete it without them ever actually attacking. I’m glad that it’s a one level gimmick, because a full game of this would be tiring, but this mechanic combines the gameplay of Sonic 2 and CD better than any other level in the Genesis era games could manage.

With all the pieces in place, Sonic 3&K would finally become the amazing game that the hedgehog had always promised to his fans. The gameplay was the culmination of everything the previous three titles had been building up, the presentation/music/visuals were all excellent, there were new ways to play while maintaining the comfortable experience fans of the growing series had come to expect, and the scale and scope of the project had expanded to the limits of what a Genesis platformer could offer. Little touches like the addition of Act 1 minibosses, transition scenes showing how the characters move from zone to zone, and a more coherent story all ensured this would truly be an experience to remember. And as for that story? It capitalizes on the same thing that first sold Sonic as a character: the ability to identify his personality and emotions at a glance. There is no dialogue in this game; just animations that communicate feelings and relationships through well-made sprite work. And that proves to be all it needs, even now that the series’ cast has expanded past the two characters in the original game. Compared to its predecessors, this was the definitive Sonic experience, outclassing the likes of both 2 and CD, both of which had already left the original title in the dust. It was not the last Sonic title on the Genesis, but it would be the last mainline title until the release of the Dreamcast, and I cannot imagine a better way for the main series to have gracefully exited that console generation.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles represented the best things about Sega at the time: their ability to create a strong gaming experiences, their understanding of what they had and how to make that work, and their raw ambition. What other company would invent a brand-new form of hardware just to make one game function? Sonic the Hedgehog was now a series with an established base, and the franchise would continue to branch out and grow in the years to come. The ambition that it took to make Sonic 3&K work though? That was going to stick around, as Sonic’s next mainline outing would be perhaps his most ambitious project ever. But before we get to that, we need to remember that Sonic is a mascot, and that he was now surrounded by a core supporting cast in Eggman, Tails, Amy, Metal Sonic, & Knuckles. And there is one inevitable fate such a video game character would experience at this stage in a growing franchise’s lifespan…