Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Three

Chapter 3 Act 1: The End of an Era

The years of 1992 and 93 were ones of lucrative successes for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was at the height of his popularity. There were not one, but two Sonic cartoons in circulation. There were Sonic T-shirts, coloring books…freakin’ Pez dispensers of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was one of the most popular videogame series at the time, if not the most popular. Naturally a Sonic 3 was being prepared behind the scenes and Sega would attempt to make it their biggest Sonic game yet, even employing Michael Jackson to lend his talents to the soundtrack. While this collaboration was never finished, his influence on the game’s music is still very apparent. The game and the project was so ambitious that it had to be split into two parts, with the second half of the story to come at some later date. However, in early 1994, we finally got Sonic 3.



Unfortunately for Sonic 3, its release date came at an awkward time. Nintendo was beginning to regain its footing by 1994, having one of the best years that console ever had and following the commercial disaster that was the Sega CD, Sega now had to scramble to try to regain its strong lead and thus do I think Sonic 3 was hastily rushed to store shelves. To add further fuel to the fire Sega failed to outright state that this was a part of a two part series and reaching the end of the game forced a lot of gamers, including myself to scratch their heads thinking “That was it?” The game was pretty short with a cliff hanger ending this side of Halo 2. As a result this game was not as critically well received as previous games.


But that doesn’t mean that Sonic 3 was a terrible game by any means. The original idea the team had for the game was to design a 3D sonic game but that idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of another traditional side scrolling adventure. In order to avoid rehashing the same game as the 3 that came before it, Sonic 3 attempted to create a little more back-story for the game than previous ones. Picking up immediately where Sonic 2 left off Dr. Robotnik’s Death Egg crash-lands on the Angel Island where a legendary Master Emerald is being held. Sonic and Tails fly off towards him in pursuit. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic in a strange bit of continuity for a side scroller before he is stopped dead in his tracks by a new character, Knuckles the Echidna who quickly nabs your Chaos Emeralds you worked so hard to get in part 2. (Or at least I worked hard to get, most other gamers likely had a life and didn’t bother collecting them all or they used a Game Genie to get Super Sonic in which case you suck.) Anyway, putting the fact that Knuckles somehow stopping Sonic in his tracks with one blow makes no sense at all, this was still a really memorable way to introduce a new character and Knuckles quickly became accepted into the Sonic universe and was an instant success.

Knuckles pre Sonic Adventure. Bad rap song not included.

Sonic 3 was fun right from the start. As soon as I began zipping through Angel Island I could see that this game was easily on par with past Sonic games and the graphics were jaw dropping for a Genesis game at the time and still is one of the most gorgeous 2D plat formers today. Every sprite got an updated look that looked even better than Sonic CD in some ways. A lot of gameplay additions were made as well. Sonic now had several shields in addition to the usual one and that protected you from different elements. A fire one that allowed you to walk over lava, a lightning shield that allowed protection from thunder or shocks and had an added benefit of attracting any nearby rings to you and a water bubble that offered unlimited breathing underwater. The bonus stages were redesigned in what I felt were my most favorite style and even Tails got an upgrade as now you can fly anytime you want to add a different dynamic to gameplay when playing as Sonic. Acts were still limited to 2, but this time each act had a different look to it and even a remix of the act’s music played to accompany it. Sonic 3 had the best soundtrack of any Sonic game in my opinion up to that point and still does. It was a fantastic game that sadly had the major flaw of being too short. That would be fixed with the release of….

Later that same year, Sega would finally release Sonic and Knuckles and the conclusion to Sonic 3. This game came out just in time for my birthday and I rushed to my room instantly to start it up. If Sonic and Knuckles had any failing is that it was essentially more of the same since technically it is part of the same game that Sonic 3 was supposed to be. However this addition did have a few added benefits. For one thing the popular character of Knuckles was now playable. Knuckles had become an instant fan favorite and being able to play as him was a nice boost to the game. He could also access areas that Sonic could not by climbing or punching his way through areas and making new pathways. Of course the true strength of Sonic and Knuckles came in the form of Lock-On Technology.



In what could be considered one of the coolest things like, ever at the time putting a copy of Sonic 3 on top of a specially designed cartridge for S&K gave you Sonic 3 and Knuckles which allows you to play Sonic 3 and go straight into S&K without interruption. This also unlocked Tails as a playable character for the game and gave you access to the true ending for S&K. Even more odd was sticking a copy of Sonic 2 would mod the game and allow you play as Knuckles in that game for even more awesomeness. Sadly, this is only possible by actually playing a Genesis cart of the game or downloading a ROM as any subsequent Sonic 2 or Sonic and Knuckles re-releases do not allow you to play this.


Well, for the fifth time I took down Dr. Robotnik (or Metal Sonic if you were Knuckles) and had a blast, only this time it just didn’t seem quite as fun. Sonic 3 and Knuckles didn’t feel quite as good as the other games to me. Stages seemed designed to trap the player and based more on speed and memorization than exploring. But most of all the stages were too long. Some stages could run anywhere from 6-7 minutes and by the second act of a lot of them I was ready for it to end already. It was clear that while Sonic was still fun, the series was starting to lose some of it’s magic and by the end of 1994 I was more into my Super Nintendo than my Sega Genesis. The Golden Age of Sonic had finally come to a close.

Chapter 3 Act 2: Where In the World Is Sonic the Hedgehog?

Sonic the Hedgehog had 5 main titles as well as a slew of spin offs and Game Gear ports. Even the character of Knuckles got a game for the much maligned 32X another awful add on idea that Sega had apparently learning nothing of the lessons of the Sega CD. Even less people bought that and it remained on the market for barely a year if that even. Not even Sonic could save a console anymore and people were just starting to get sick of Sega while on the Nintendo front they had one of their biggest years ever in 1994, ending with the release of Donkey Kong Country which blew anything the Genesis had graphically out of the water. By 1995 the Sega Genesis had seemed like an old dog that was desperately needing to be put out to pasture. Sega would give disc based gaming another try as it was obviously the direction gaming was headed but this time they had to do it right. The Sega CD flopped because they failed to make a game that really showcased the power of the hardware with a fun likeable character in an eye catching game. Their Sega Saturn would launch later that same year and did they manage to do that? Well….sorta.

Sega had to really rush the Saturn out there before they were really ready to do so. They were quickly falling behind and they had to get their system out first before the Sony Playstation. As a result the Sega Saturn released months before it was supposed to and it was the Sega CD all over again. While at least they didn’t have bad FMV games, the US Saturn was filled with nothing anyone wanted to play or games that were also available on other platforms. As a result the Sega Saturn was fast becoming another Sega CD or 32X in the long line of failed consoles. Sega just couldn’t find a way to duplicate the success that the Genesis did. However, the Saturn was flying off of the shelves in Japan. Great classic original games were selling like hotcakes but the US Saturn still sat collecting dust on store shelves. So did Sega finally address this issue and start importing some of these original titles?

Well, what do you think?

Sega president Tom Kalinske at the time felt that 3D gaming was the way to go and that 2D was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Saturn’s greatest strength was in processing 2D graphics and couldn’t handle 3D as well as its rival the Playstation or later the Nintendo 64. As a result a lot of really lousy slow loading poop was released for the thing instead of what everyone really wanted, a 32 Bit 2D Sonic game in all of its glory.

Well, we didn’t get that. We got Nights.

To be fair, Nights wasn’t a terrible game by any means, but unfortunately Sega was an enemy of its own successes as many shunned it because well, it wasn’t Sonic. And that’s what we all really wanted to see. Sega had really been banking on Nights being the commercial success that Sonic was and tried to get us to buy into a new mascot for the Saturn and repeat the success of the Genesis. That never happened. By the time Sega finally came crawling back to Sonic in late 96 with Sonic 3D Blast an awful game that wasn’t even designed by the Sonic Team themselves (they were too busy with Nights) it was too late. Nintendo had unveiled their Nintendo 64 and Mario’s long silence was ended and he came back with a vengeance in the form of Mario 64. Sonic was for all intents and purposes, finished. There wouldn’t be another Sonic game proper for almost four years. Even my interest in Sonic the Hedgehog was over. I watched as I played lousy racing games like Sonic R and just laughed at Sega’s ineptitude and stupidity. 1991 seemed like such a long time ago. Both Sonic and Sega needed some time to bounce back and recover and for once do things right.

Yes, just what Sonic needed in response to Mario 64; a slugglish, ugly slow moving fighting game.

Next Time: Sonic awakens from his long slumber and takes us for not one but two great adventures as a new generation of Sonic fans are born.