Game Apologist - Sonic 3

hello there I'm Nick and this is the game apologist where we look for the good and bad hmm what we look for the good in bad hmm I can't I'm sorry I can't Sonic 3 is so far away from even coming close to being called a bad game so maybe it's time we switch things up a little bit welcome to unapologetic where we look for the good in good games and it's about time we talk about the best sonic game ever created Sonic 3 & Knuckles yes fellow sonic fans I can feel you rolling your giant merged eyeballs at me I'm one of those sonic fans the correct ones those who sing the praises of this title and declare it the very best of the entire series nay one of the greatest games ever made but I'm going to do my best to tell you why why this game has stuck with me and so many others after all these years even in an industry that's constantly evolving at a crazy pace why does this game matter so much to me you could dismiss this as nostalgia that certainly plays a part of it but I think there's more to it and if you haven't seen any of my prior Sonic videos or you don't know anything about Sonic games well watch my previous videos or better yet play the game because we're not gonna spend a whole lot of time explaining the basics and this will get very confusing very quickly if you don't understand the important relationship between jewelry and multicolored woodland critters and stylish Footwear but this is game apologist or a spin-off of game apologist so like every other game we cover or well some of the other games we cover before we get into the good we should look at the bad while I do believe this game is a masterpiece nothing is perfect so let's get into it now alright now that we have that out of the way let's get to the good stuff it's right here just pass this weird barrel we just hop on and uh yeah okay hang on hang on a second um okay nope that's okay okay all right seriously though do I jump the stupid jumping wooden I don't I don't what is this stupid barrel doing here this doesn't make any sense there's nowhere else in the rest understand alright fine the game is sprinkled with odd little mechanics and mechanisms that don't really serve much purpose this barrel being the most offensive culprit for the most part I don't see these are the negative they're just mostly useless as some of these can actually be kind of fun it goes back to those jungle gym and playground comparisons I was making in previous episodes and while this barrel is annoying some things do find issue with some other zones so instead of talking about it right now we're gonna wait till we talk about it when we cover that zone so let's just do this level by level cuz I have a lot to talk about with this game before we do that anything else bad we should mention up front well um multi players here wouldn't call it bad it's just nothing to write home about and I wish this rollercoaster theme was made into a proper level but that's all I really got I think you just racer something I I don't know man it's an afterthought and I'm not gonna waste my time talking about it the only other crap I could really talk about is well Sonic 3 doesn't really hit its full potential unless you slap the and knuckles on the end there when Sonic 3 was originally released I was like in second or third grade at the time and I didn't really look at this stuff with a critical eye and I knew I loved what I played but I distinctly remember my first experience being well underwhelming and as I'd find out half a year later there was more to this game on another game which I would get as a Christmas present the thing is I had only rented Sonic 3 liked it fine but I didn't really feel the need to ask for it as a gift for Christmas since well I already beaten it as a rental and there was a brand spankin new Sonic game I had yet to play so I had a lot of experience playing Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles as their own games and they were great but again both feel a little incomplete it's when I finally rented Sonic 3 again and combined the two games that I realized there was something truly special here and it's true you could pop out Sonic 3 and then swap out carts and play part 2 with Sonic and Knuckles but it's really not the same experience they not only fuse the two games but they bring in features exclusive on each cart to the other and unlock a couple of other cool things not available on either until you combine them into one but why would they do something like this where they just trying to make more money no I mean potentially the story goes that the combined games aren't that Kru version of Sonic 3 they just ran out of development time so they cut their losses released sonic 3 as it was and then spent the rest of the time creating the rest of the game and honestly I think we're better for it now I only bring this up because well I don't know I guess it comes down to whether or not you feel each half needs to stand on its own and if this two-part tactic was pull off it in today's market would we be alright with it I mean considering the other tactics the game industry is pulling off this doesn't seem so offensive now I've gone on about this because I cannot stress enough that you really need to play Sonic 3 & Knuckles to fully understand why so many of us hold this title in such high regard but that doesn't mean either of these carts don't stand on their own or have unique values in each title that can be appreciated without the presence of the other and Sonic 3 by itself only feels underwhelming because of that extensive wonder that was Sonic 2 on its own still pretty awesome I've spent enough time in the other videos talking about the core gameplay of Sonic and why I love it so much they turned a pinball table into a platformer and they made it work by giving you direct control of the pinball but like an actual table you did have to relinquish a little bit of control and Bank on a bit of luck thanks to the iconic speed of the series unless you've had a bit of practice it was only a matter of time before you ran your black olive nose into a robot or a spike pit Sonic 1 being the first game out of the gate would sometimes relinquish Sonic's speed and give you more traditional platformer levels going forward Sonic 2 design levels to take full advantage of the speed in Sidi at the same time made players actively seek out spaces to build and maintain momentum to activate the unique time-travel mechanic song 2 was more about speed in Sonic CD it was more about exploration so while all these games are similar you can see why you'll get varied answers when you ask a classic Sonic band which one is their favorite they all tackle the simple gameplay in wonderfully different ways but Sonic 3 & Knuckles takes the very best ideas from all these games and improves upon them the level designs the characters the graphics the music bonus stages man there's a lot to cover here but since we're taking this level by level let's just talk about the mechanics as a new player we'll discover them [Music] okay so you pop this sucker into your Genesis you turn it on and the first thing you see is a hopefully cow I don't know what is about the sonic model but his big giant balloon head always kind of weirded me out when I was a kid anyway you hit start and you see something we've never had before in the series save files this already was a huge plus for me as a kid I was sick and tired of trying to play these games all at once and you don't have to hop into some irritating options menu to go pick out your character you buy Sonic and Tails or you can play each of them on their own and while I drag on tails design in the past they've actually made them pretty useful this time around he can actually fly this time which is incredibly helpful in this game considering the huge emphasis on exploration because of this he's considered the easy mode I mean he can fly over so many problems it's not even funny so I'm not gonna play him here but if you're new to the game where you're trying to hunt down emeralds he's an awesome starting choice sonic on the other hand hasn't changed a whole lot which it's fine by me don't fix what's not broken the only difference now is he has this weird little flash if you hit the jump button a second time when he's in the air and for the longest time I kind of felt it was useless as a kid but when I played in here the game without it felt a little naked this quick little flash can give you a little bit more of a hitbox and can reflect some projectiles if you're quick enough it actually feels kind of awesome if you get the hang of it well once you pick your character you then see something we've never seen on the genesis games before a cutscene but we've seen it done before in Sonic CDs so why make us think about it now no that's because this is perfect of a storytelling device as you could hope for for a Sonic game doesn't require you to read through a manual text boxes or listen to tinny little voices it tells you everything you need to know in an easy-to-understand format and get you on your way and it works for Sonic because it doesn't waste your time something that sadly would be a problem later games and they manage to improve upon it from CD by not smacking it in the second zone or giving the player a chance to run headlong into spikes it was obviously one of their players invested on a deeper level for this adventure simply having this cutscene exists is all they needed to make that intention clear so let's break it down they start things off by dangling the ultimate prize of the last game super sonic right there at the get-go this sells fans a couple of things one there is continuity from the previous game and two it's also about to tell you why you won't be starting off your venture with that shiny gold upgrade and at the same time if you hadn't played Sonic to work maybe just never got all the emeralds which was a real possibility speaking of experience this tells those players why these shiny gems matter and the potential prize they unlock and then [Music] an island native comes and Rob's our spiky blue tourists of all he's worth this cutscene also establishes just how much of a threat this new red dude is granted this is played up a little bit but eventually just be another furry fun buddy that be running around the sonic as the series progressed but back in 1994 knuckles II and kidnap punched his way onto the scene in a big bad way now at this point as the game was new we didn't know a whole lot about knuckles so for now we're only gonna analyze what the game is giving us in these few seconds but thankfully there's a lot we can glean from this knuckles keeps that simple but striking design the hedgehog is so famous for he gets his own radical primary color and his crimson fur displays the intensity and aggression of his persona instead of a mohawk he gets strep bucks and while his eye design is kind of similar to Sonic they're not as wide as his giving him this constant leering look looks like a bit of a bully I mean he introduces himself with a fist in your mouth and then cackles about it his actions expressions and design help establish this persona this nasty little guy amongst you and then runs off into the force given you all the incentive you need to give chase and just like that we're often ready to go that one little cutscene told us all of that within seconds making this long rambling explanation completely pointless and here's some other stuff you don't need me to point out but I'm gonna do it anyway the game looks and sounds fantastic I know I'm being biased here but as far as graphics and artistic design goes I think this game is unrivaled on the genesis you have to appreciate the capabilities of a video game machine that came out in 1989 to really get a kick out of what you're seeing and hearing this game is a technical wonder as good as the previous Sonic games looked there were nothing like this the developers are showing off what they can do the music in this first level invokes a tropical vibe to go along with the lush environment they want you to relax take this all in enjoy yourself check out these fun little swings look fell down into the ravine no worries you're gonna land just fine heck you might even find some nifty secrets if you're curious enough like I said there's a much larger emphasis on exploration than compared to Sonic 2 but without it being a chore like it could be in Sonic CD it's fun you get all rewards and the layout makes sense and is filled with recognizable landmarks meaning you probably won't get lost like the previous games this one starts you off in a more natural world but it doesn't look like another repeat of Green Hill Zone Angel Island feels completely unique compared to every other starting level that's come before but still keeps the same basic theme and all the strengths of the previous level designs and then halfway through the first act [Music] as if they didn't put enough emphasis on how different things would be this time around they literally set your world on fire just as you were getting used to this fun colorful jungle setting the game shows you just how real the threat of Robotnik and his robot army are to you and this island as well as letting you know not to expect the same challenges between acts even within the same zone the remainder of your time here will be navigating the force as it burns down around you and the music while keeping that same tropical theme becomes desperate the traps and enemies become a little bit more hazardous but despite all that the game is still teaching you some stuff like this brilliant little teaser in the form of puddles see in the past Sonic games water has been a bit of an issue sonic team had established some fairly unique mechanics for saugus water traversal and that in turn changes up the gameplay problem is fans don't usually like water levels and they certainly didn't like how they were handled in the first Sonic game shut up for one level required you to trudge through it for three grueling acts then again in a shoddy final level but otherwise it remained untouched Sonic CD refined that a bit but it's basically labyrinth zone all over again Sonic you would tackle these issues by putting it in some stressful spots in chemical plant and as a punishment if you take the lower path and aquatic ruin but again there's not a whole lot of it in the game and if you're good enough you probably won't see it at all Sonic 3 on the other hand finally found the right balance with the water making it a smart challenge without overstating its welcome or making it an underwhelming afterthought here in this first level you have chances to get submerged in tiny spots and really only one you have to navigate through before you run out of air this helps new players dip their red shoes into this mechanic and it also gives you a chance to play around with all three elemental shields another new feature for this game now all the shields still have the same function they had before giving you a free hit without losing any rings but now they come with some additional abilities and some available only to Sonic you have the electric shield which magnetically grabs nearby rings and draws them toward your player character as well as giving sonic and extra jump ability or the fire shield which protects you from fire and lava and gives Sonic a horizontal fireball attack and the bubble shield which lets you survive underwater without drowning and give Sonic an extra bounce the first zone has a generous abundance of all three varieties and ample chances to experiment with them and figure out how they work you can see the extent of their abilities and vulnerabilities all within this level there's always going to be rings around you to take advantage of the electric shield you're in a burning forest you're bound to find some use for that fire shield and like I mentioned just a minute ago you even have little spots of water to play around with a bubble shield and these also show you how well fire and electricity work with water and while this is just a tiny detail the game once you aware of what shield you are bringing into what environment they even subtly design challenges around this even in this first zone the fire shield comes in handy as early as that first mini-boss encounter normally you'd have to dodge this flamethrower but with the right shield the fights over in seconds and it's oh so satisfying to take down the machine that breakfast paradise well one of them anyway as you can see if you're paying attention to the background when things were first set ablaze the sky is filled with machines just like this one and this guy was just a mini boss oh and that reminds me if you had played previous Sonic games before this is another new thing we have mini bosses at the end of the first acts before this you just zip through a signpost maybe grab a giant ring and wait for the next stage to pop up here the game just gets you right back into the action and again if you're a seasoned player you might have noticed the bonus stages aren't acting the same way either the star post will get you into a bonus area but yet can't grab emeralds here just rings extra lives shields stuff like that when I was much younger and still fairly fresh to gaming these things would be a lifesaver in a pinch but they still require you to have some rings before the grant passage so clicking assert amount of rings is still important but no matter how many you collect the end of the act doesn't have a giant ring waiting for you no matter how many of its smaller counterparts you've collected as you've probably noticed by the time you got to this point in the stage the special stage rings are actually hidden within the levels this time around giving you the biggest incentive to explore and if you somehow missed every single one of them up to this point the game will actually force you through a tunnel blasting you through rock walls and smack dab into a giant ring making sure everybody knows that these giant rings exists and yes sometimes you have to run through some malls and the special stages themselves are also completely different from every other version from the previous games it does continue the tradition of a more 3d behind-the-back approach and if you don't know what you're doing this can be a little frustrating at first it took me a little while as a kid to wrap my head around how these things work you collect blue spheres but you can't touch the red ones but the blue spheres will turn into red ones once you touch them and they have a lot of these suckers set up in fields and if you didn't know that collecting only the outer perimeter of the spheres turns them all into rings you might find yourself a bit frustrated and if you were a dumb kid like me and you didn't understand for the longest time that Sonic doesn't move freely it actually makes sharp 90-degree turns on a grid pattern yeah it can be a bit annoying if you're dumb bait but once you understand the rules this is by far the best of the classic special stages requiring a lot less dumb luck but still a good amount of quick thinking and fast reaction they require you to think your problems through instead of memorization and constant failure and even if you do screw up the zones are littered with giant rings giving you plenty of chances to figure these things out until you finally have the skill necessary to be rewarded with a coveted Chaos Emerald you get taught all of these mechanics old and new within this first zone and we still haven't even come to the encounter with Robotnik which is an awesome introduction compared to previous games you first get chased down by an airship raining down missiles then you see your enemy looming in the background through the trees and then finally bursting through a waterfall burning down the bridge to make sure you can't escape all while within this intimidating machine reflecting the fiery aftermath of his attack just off screen like I said they do a great job of establishing the threat of Knuckles and Robotnik all within this first zone they teach you all of this regardless of the character you play like I mentioned before tails can take full advantage of his abilities here and we'll get to Knuckles in due time because again at this point we had no idea we have playing here but the developers still plan for him in the future he can take his unique skills to brand new places here as well what I find interesting is despite all these new ways you can navigate the environments it never deviates away from the core simplicity Eugenia Castro force since the original sonicing all you ever need is the directional pad and a single button to accomplish anything jumping flying gliding climbing spin - any of Sonic's 3 shield abilities they manage so much with so little now if you've never played this game before and it sounds like a good time I recommend just stopping here and playing for yourself I doubt it'll be quite as impressive to a newcomer as it was to a little kid in 1994 but you should experience this all the same I just wanted to talk about how great of an introduction this particular zone was compared to other games and it certainly doesn't fall victim to the claim that sonic games go downhill after the first sown you will get wildly unique environments and challenges with each and every act in this adventure once the first zone is done the game throws you right into the pool that is hydra city or hydro city do we have an official word on what that actually supposed to be you know what doesn't matter Sega can't even give their own cannon straight who cares now what's interesting about this level is while Sonic 1 made the water zone a challenge halfway through the game and Sonic 2 made water avoidable if you were good enough Sonic 3 well you remember how I said the first zone kind of lets it doggy paddle in the kiddie pool well I hope you learned to adapt because the second zone is just gonna shove you right into the deep end at least the other games less you jump in at your own leisure for the most part third games like up good luck you have to admire how they took one of the most complained about components of the previous games and just shoved your face in and gave you a swirly and maybe you don't happen in your own leisure like you do in lab rats own but you very quickly learn that this level is way more fun than labyrinth ever was it's not without its hazards but thanks to a great level design and that fantastic bubble shield the theme park that is the sonic zones finally added a waterpark that's fun to splash around it and speaking of theme parks they actually use a carnival theme for hmm alright fine we can't skip marble garden Sonic's never had the best luck with marble themed levels I mean the love is fine but it feels like a weak link in the lineup there are a lot of silly gimmicks through the level looting fake Springs crushing columns a giant Morningstar that greets you right at the start of low and this annoying spinning top thing now these are fine if somewhat frustrating or again useless it's not gonna break the experience it can just feel somewhat jarring compared to all the loop-de-loops and I don't think marble garden is quite as bad as people make it out to be but it's not the best either I honestly feel like you're gonna have a better time playing this level as knuckles or tails as opposed to Sonic considering how vertical this entire thing is but this level does not get anywhere near the grief carnival night does you come in expecting something like a scene o night which when I think about it feels pretty out of place compared to the rest of Sonic 2 much more in line with something you'd find in Sonic 3 but in comparison carnival feels cramped and linear which is crazy when you consider just how much time you're gonna spend traversing the zone and this is of course where we come across the barrel and yes geeks I know it's super easy when you know what to do and some of you figured it out so quick and we're so proud of you but that's not the point it's bad game design in an otherwise beautifully crafted experience the game doesn't do a great job teaching the player how to tackle this obstacle because well there's nothing like this anywhere else in the adventure and there are other barrels prior to this one but a majority of the time they don't share the same physics as this one so what's the problem with it well a lot of us new kids at the time got to this barrel and just couldn't figure out how to get past it you'd play around with it for a bit and it just wouldn't go anywhere and if you're playing with heels who knows he's jumping up and down on it so a lot of us felt like okay well obviously it's pushing down quite a bit when he jumps on it so obviously I just have to do that and you could do this to the point where you could start seeing the rest of the level when in fact all you had to do was press up and down on the directional pad to get a swinging motion going normally this is something that would shrug off because really yeah once you calm down and just push up and down you're gonna get the idea son I can only do so much you're bound to figure it out eventually and once you know the simple trick gets right back to the fun but I distinctly remember the first time I came across this as a kid and it was beyond frustrating and honestly I'm kind of glad to know that other people out there had that same frustration and yes guys I have seen that barrel mug and yes I do want that has a brilliant piece of merchandising all that rambling aside I really really really love how this level looks the screenshots for this place were the first thing that caught my eye when I was waiting for this game to come out and I still love the aesthetic outside of the barrel it's still a pretty fun time there's a lot of cool stuff happening here despite the stupid barrel still one of my favorite levels from here we get ice cap zone a fan favorite and for very good reason this is one of the only tolerable ice themed levels in just about any game of that era and that's probably because they don't have any slippery physics which is a common place for platformers and that's not to say there aren't clever ice base hazards and designs but it's really well put together a nice balance between platforming and speed gorgeous aesthetic fantastic music all around a plus after that is the final level of Sonic 3 launch base and you can see in the background the behemoth Star Wars reference that is the death egg now these games have always done a fantastic job using the backgrounds of zones in creative ways and it's now also a storytelling device as you notice with the firebombing earlier in the game but here you move closer and closer to the death egg as you go on and as you can see it's in the water that's the level carries on you of we'll be as well and this is something I should point out not only do they do a much better job of implementing the water mechanics but they have more water than any other classic sonicing outside of marble garden there is water in every single stage obviously they wanted to show off that nifty bubble shield but I thought it was interesting that there's more water than ever but somehow nobody ever talks about it being a problem when I hear about it non-stop when talking about Sonic 1 or 2 looking back on it now I have to give Sonic Team Mahan for completely turning around my views on such a notorious mechanic anyway back to the level at hand all around it's a fun time but again if you're playing Sonic 3 on its own there's nothing here that indicates this is the final stage nothing feels imminent or desperate and the music's fairly chill it's not even close to being the most challenging level of this game it's not until the very end of the level do we see some shake ups to let the player know that things are going down knuckles started off this adventure by being a mugger and has graduated to a full-on terrorist says he just takes down an entire building with a bomb in an attempt to murder Sonic right off there you have a fairly standard fight with Robotnik and then you jump into his hovercraft ok well from here yet confront Knuckles finally now it's not how expected it to go so imagine it's 1994 Sonic and Knuckles hasn't even been announced yet you're playing through this game for the first time and this little red rat man has been bothering you this entire time through this whole adventure and it culminates in this weird cutscene this is this is pathetic the player never interacts with him directly and all that's left is attacked on battle with Robotnik in a sonic screwdriver and grubby hands and after all that build-up to the death egg through this entire level we just see it falling out of the sky without ever really doing anything previously Sonic had to fight a robotic double of himself in a giant mech Robotnik without any rings in the def a and in Sidi he had an incredible race against metal sonic before storming the challenging final fortress that was metal madness even the first Sonic game had a sense of drama as you stormed an industrial deathtrap only to be thrown into an underground ruin you had to fight your way through here Sonic doesn't even make it into the death egg knuckles finally punches something does no damage falls in the water and I guess everything's fine I remember when Sonic 3 first came out I could not wait to play I felt instantly in love with his new art style I'd love the aesthetic of the zones and it finally had a bonus stage that I could beat with enough practice it was prettier than Sonic 2 no doubt about it but like I said right at the front of this video I could tell something was missing on its own Sonic 3 is a fantastic game that's missing some of that endgame flair that really made Sonic 2 shine but if he treat it as a midway point for an even bigger adventure well that's something else entirely and to follow in that game's amazing footsteps we're gonna have to wait a little while before we tackle the second half of this game to toot sonic warrior x' [Music]

Channel: Game Apologist

Views: 214,891

Rating: 4.928124 out of 5

Keywords: sonic, sonic 3, sonic and knuckles, best sonic game, sonic 3 review, game apologist, unapologetic, sega, knuckles, tails, sega genesis, classic sonic, sonic 2, sonic cd, sonic the hedgehog, angel island zone, hydrocity, marble garden, death egg, sonic 3 retrospective, sonic 3 & knuckles, mega drive, nick maida, retro gaming, part 1, chaos emeralds, super sonic, 90s gaming, island justice, 25th anniversary, blue sphere, sonic apologist

Id: 3LeEJmQSOl0

Length: 25min 26sec (1526 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019