He has his own weekly and Saturday morning cartoon show, a comic book, and appears in commercials and tie-ins with foods like Fruit Roll-ups and Lifesavers. He's featured in over 10 video games and his balloon crashed in the last Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In a recent poll he was more recognizable and popular than Mario, Bart Simpson, or Mickey Mouse.
Who is this character? He's so fast only a blue blur is visible when he runs by. That's right, it's Sonic the Hedgehog and he's back in another adventure for the Sega Genesis.
Sonic 3 was released on Tuesday, February 1, to a lot of fanfare and in-store displays. You may have been exposed to the hysterical Sonic 3 commercials featuring a stunned groundhog who yells the familiar "Sega" at the end. Or how about all the magazine ads? Is it worthy of all this hype and the $60 price tag or will it tarnish the Sonic legend?
The opening, with a 3-D model of Sonic coming together, is the first hint that a lot of time and effort have been put into this game to make it better than its predecessors. The visuals are nothing short of stunning and have taken a dramatic leap since Sonic 2, which was an improvement on the original Sonic game's impressive graphics.
Once the game starts, the player is treated to a short story in the form of an animated sequence.
The story begins where Sonic 2 left off. Sonic has just rescued the chaos emeralds from the evil Dr. Robotnik and turned into Super Sonic, riding with his young friend Tails (a fox with two tails), who's piloting a bi-plane. Sonic unfortunately runs into Knuckles, a pink echidna (spiny anteater) who Robotnik has brainwashed into thinking Sonic is his enemy, and drops the emeralds, taking away his superpowers. Now it's up to Sonic and Tails to get the emeralds back from Knuckles and once again defeat Robotnik and his creations.
In the one player mode, the typical Sonic formula remains. The scene is a cutaway side view of the action and Sonic, with Tails following closely behind, must run through the levels avoiding obstacles and collecting rings and powerups. The player controls Sonic who has had a variety of new moves and animations added to his abilities.
Without a powerup, Sonic can now give himself a force-field for half a second. He can also hang on to objects and ride a snowboard. With powerups he can either shoot balls of flame, breathe underwater and bounce in a bubble, or he can magnetize rings and shoot lightning. These extra moves add a lot to the game play and make this adventure different enough to appeal to those who may have gotten tired of the standard format.
If a second player joins in, that person can control Tails to a much greater extent than in Sonic 2, where Tails couldn't do much but try to keep up. This time the second player can make Tails fly and swim. The flying is particularly useful to the person playing Sonic, as a friend can now airlift you to places that couldn't normally be reached.
The one player mode features six long levels with three stages each. Collect enough rings and be prepared to get transported to one of two bonus stages. One is a giant moving checkerboard globe where you have to collect all the blue spheres and avoid the red. The other is a giant gumball machine where you collect bonus items. As expected, at the end of every third stage, Robotnik, who's controlling one of his destructive machines, must be defeated.
The two player mode in Sonic 2 was criticized because it presented a distorted, squashed, split-screen view, which was in a low resolution to fit in all the action. Sonic 3 attempts to solve this visual problem by shrinking everything to a smaller size in the top and bottom halves of the screen. Because of this, the image is easier on the eyes. However, they forgot to improve the game play along the way and actually made it worse.
Sonic 2, despite its visual presentation, had a two player mode that featured slightly different levels than the one player game, but similarly great play. In Sonic 3, just like before, the player can either be Sonic or Tails, and now Knuckles, but unfortunately game play has become nothing more than a race with lots of loops and some obstacles. It is possible to literally just keep running right and jump over or through a few obstacles and win the game. That's it, there's nothing more to it. This will disappoint fans who were looking for another great two player Sonic game. It's best just to help out in the one player mode.
The Sonic legend does live on, but it stumbles slightly along the way. Sonic 3 is superior to any other Sonic game in terms of variety and has knockout graphics and impressive sound to back it up. The two player mode is a let down, but the one player mode should have enough two player interaction to satisfy most. Fans of the Sonic series will be more than happy with this one.
