16:21 This one's not entirely accurate. The whole "mole" thing is kind of a mistranslation of the Japanese word for echidna, ハリモグラ (harimogura), which if translated literally comes out to "needle mole" much in the same way that ハリネズミ (harinezumi), the Japanese word for hedgehog, would come out as "needle mouse". Nothing in the OVA itself is necessarily wrong here. It could be debated whether or not Sara calling Knuckles "Mr. Mole" is a proper translation or not, but her calling him "Mogura-chan" in the Japanese version doesn't mean he's not still an echidna. Still, the bio on the DVD release is definitely someone who worked on the DVD menus not getting the memo.
@@JohnnyVector Brad Buxer was brought onto Michael's team in June/July 1989 by Bill Bottrell during the production of "Decades", which later evolved into "Dangerous". Buxer had previously worked with multiple Motown artists, such as Stevie Wonder's touring band, prior to working with Jackson. They became very close & Buxer had a hand in working with Michael on all his projects up until 2008, around the time talks of the 'This Is It" tour began. His last work would be in 2008 on Michael's last song, "Best Of Joy".
For the "Chaos in Sonic 3&K" I believe that they got a bunch of idea but couldn't actually pull it off in time or because of hardware limitations so they had to keep it for a later game (Chaos itself wasn't planned but his Perfect form may have been inspired by that concept art)
I KNEW I DIDNT IMAGINE FIGHTING EGGMAN AS KNUCKLES IN MUSHROOM HILL ZONE AS A KID The only thing i remember before obtaining it was dying alot idk if that has anything to do with it
also it seems that the sonic mania team may have wanted to bring back hyper sonic as not just the emeralds are cracked theres super emeralds if i remember and the word hyper in the code/files
@@walkerphillips2818 they dont even use the chaos emeralds anymore tbh as it was literally purchasable dlc to get super sonic in forces or reduced to an easter egg. Bringing back hyper sonic would honestly hype things up and since it requires the master emerald would actually give knuckles story relevance again.
18:20 my theory about the human decorations is that perhaps, at one point, the Echidnas co-existed with a a tribe or civilisation of native humans and held them in high regard, or at least mutual respect. Hence the decor in some Angel Island levels honouring them.
Here are chapters for your convenience: 00:00 Introduction 01:18 Tip of the Iceberg 06:42 Below the Surface 12:14 Middle of the Iceberg 18:15 Bottom of the Iceberg 24:03 The Depths
24:40 The reason why the Iroha poem is used is not necessarily because it is placeholder, but because it is a font test. The Iroha contains exactly one of every symbol in the Japanese syllabic "alphabet", even some that are not commonly used nowadays, so it can be used to test fonts in a similar fashion to "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", and is also one of the classic ways of ordering the Japanese syllabary, similar to the "ABCDE..." order.
I've played this game so many times and I never knew about the Sonic statue in hydro city, it's crazy that it's been there all this time and i never noticed it
random thing, I think another piece of evidence that came much later was in SA2 where one of the bosses is just sort of a bigger version of the Sandopolis guardian, the "Egg Golem" is probably just a V2 of the guardian
I'll add that Angel Island itself appears in Sonic Advance, as a zone. I never really thought about how much sense it makes, if it even makes any at all.
Icecap Zone is at the top of Angel Island, specifically the giant mountains at the center of the island, those mountains are the same ones you see in the background during the snowboard segment.
Chaos being in dev since S3&K Makes a lot of sense considering one of Xtreme's lost storylines, actually I think 3 or 4 of them, are specifically about the creatures that would be unleashed when the master emerald is broken. With that being said, Xtreme had been in developement since the 32x, Released in 1994, Under the dev name Sonic Mars. Is it really that much of a stretch to say that SEga returned to this concept for Xtreme? Especially since S3&K Also released in 1994?
Ever done the thing at the start of Angel Island act 2, where if you hit the springs beyond the Special Stage entrance it sends you back up the tunnel and then you can go back and play around in act 1? Used to do that all the time as a kid.
Not only that but in Sonic.exe, it makes references to some Classic Sonic games. The character select at the start is taken from Sonic 3, and when you enter the stage "Hide and Seek" Tails appears in Angel Island set on fire which normally happens when Sonic meets Fire Breath.
I've always enjoyed how Sonic and Knuckles was the very first video game expansion pack to exist in the early 90's other than that of PC games getting expansion packs example, Command & Conquer series, Diablo II, StarCraft.
Fun Fact about the Knuckles palette glitch: they were referred in Sonic Advance where in Mecha-Knuckles disguise refers both the more pink knuckles and the miscolored socks
As a child I was deff confused with the name things escpecially since Sonic and Knuckles was the first sonic game I ever played. Because of this I thought Egg-Robo was Dr.Robotnik and the actual Robotnik aka Eggman was just Dr. Eggman
I think the dragon thing resembles Finalhazard more than Perfect Chaos. But considering the potential links between the two as well as both the both the final fights of S3&K and SA2 taking place in space, it's not unreasonable to think that the conception of the ideas began during the former's development.
Yeah I agree actually, it does look more like Finalhazard, though I always wondered if Finalhazard/Bio Lizard was based off the Perfect Chaos mural in Sonic Adventure. They both give off Godzilla vibes
My first Mega Drive experience was playing Sonic 1 at a friend of my cousin's house. I got a Mega Drive that Christmas and with it came Sonic 1 and 2. I played the heck out of Sonic 3 at another cousin's house and then owned Sonic & Knuckles. I didn't play the complete Sonic 3 & Knuckles (or Sonic 3K as I took to calling it) until Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn (I was a Sega fanboy and to this day I'll argue that the Dreamcast is one of the best consoles ever) but when I did, Sonic 3K became my absolute favourite game and remains so to this day. I think it's an absolute masterpiece of the 2D Sonic era. Sonic CD and Sonic 2 were two separate projects spinning off from Sonic 1. CD focused more on platforming and exploration whereas Sonic 2 focused more on the speed and momentum gameplay of Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1. Sonic 3K is the game that in my opinion finds the perfect balance between the two game styles. It has relatively large levels that encourage exploration and has platforming without sacrificing momentum and forward movement. It also has arguably the best story of any Sonic game, starting out simply with Sonic bringing the Chaos Emeralds to Angel Island only to be jumped by a mysterious echidna and culminating in an epic final battle against Robotnik high above the planet. Sonic 3K also has some of my favourite boss battles, not necessarily in terms of difficulty but in driving the narrative. Marble Garden can be a frustrating, bug ridden level but that boss fight, with Tails flying Sonic into the sky to battle his enemy is epic. Sonic's fight with Robotnik in Mushroom Hill Zone, racing to after him is also kinda epic when taken in the context of telling a story and obviously the aforementioned Doomsday Zone is off the scale in terms of epicness. I also love that in Knuckles' story Sonic Team made use of the idea that because it's his island and he knows every part of it, he can skip whole sections and boss fights. I liked Sonic Mania. Gameplay wise it felt a lot like Sonic 3K but I think the story was disjointed and kinda random. Sonic 3K felt like you were playing through an epic tale from beginning to end. For me it remains the absolute benchmark for 2D Sonic games. Is it perfect? No but no game is and overall it's an outstanding package.
I always called it high draw city as well. I think this stems from a lot of us being kids when the game was popular and seeing as it appeared to be one word, would just pronounce it this way.
For the entry of Knuckles having yellow socks it was not glitch. It was intentional because Knuckles green socks screwed with the palate for the hud. I'm not exactly sure about Knuckles being pink though.
28:05 I remember my instruction book for Mega Turrican had a warning about seizures. That game has so many white screen flashes especially with the 3 bomb blast they give to clear the screen if done in rapid succession I think the back of the box may have had a warning.
I wish you covered how Baxton was contracted to Jackson still. Four Hydrocity, it was confirmed by Sega I believe last year, though you can find Japanese speakers explaining it's Hydro-city as well.
Hi, I'm currently looking for a lot of references and development info about S3&K, and while checking your video, I notice two misconceptions that I would like to correct: 1.- There's a certain misconception that McDonald's was responsible for splitting the game into two parts, but in fact, the team knew almost from the start that such a big game like Sonic 3 had to be divided. 2.- Samsung Sonic probably also refers to Sonic 3 was planned as a 3D game, using SSP1601 chips produced by Samsung. The only title released by Sega to use the chip was the Mega Drive port of Virtua Racing. (Sorry for my bad english)
Thanks! Regarding Samsung Sonic, I actually added that one to the iceberg chart myself after finding that bizarre ad. I have spent some time in Korea and the retro gaming scene isn't thriving over there but I'd love to know if that particular piece of Sonic art appeared anywhere else.
If the developers already knew that Sonic 3 would have to be split into 2 parts, why does the 1103 prototype have so much leftover data for the S&K zones? Specifically, a bunch of leftover data for Mushroom Valley and Lava Reef and even having the Sandopolis Act 1 boss leftover. (Albeit missing it’s graphics.)
I loved Chaos as a villain, but jesus, I could NEVER get over how dopey the animation is on his final form... It takes all tension out of the final boss for me, I'm too busy laughing at his flappy jaw!
Wonderful!! I love it!! But just one thing, i'm sure that with Red Sonic the Iceberg was referring to Blue Knuckles's Sonic counterpart of the glitch, which turns Sonic red! But it was interesting to see that fake magazine scam!
17:41 it’s theorized that egg man escaped the death egg and went to flying battery as a back up after the death egg was destroyed . Theory from Alex Yard & Knuckles
During the Castle in the sky connection at 27:31 I'm surprised how you didn't mention that one of the minor characters looks like Classic Eggman complete with a round body, big mustache and glasses but that was before sonic 1 was released maybe that to was probably the inspiration of Eggman
Johnny Vector laputa was probably the inspiration of Sonic 3 and also like you said, the fact that most levels look similar to places in Laputa makes me want an actual animated series of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. at least there's that one Comic of the death egg Saga
Pausing to see the different photos on the Act 1 sign posts was always one of my favorite things to do. Just like the *NEED* to catch the wand in Mario Bros 3 before it hits the ground. I always wondered about the blue Knuckles on the sign post, of course ‘palette glitches’ were not something we knew about in the 90’s, only that Game Genie could make crazy things happen in-game.
I really didn't think that there'd be things I wouldn't know about, but there were a few. Bootleg S&K game, Scott Pilgrim, Marxio Bros, Space Ghost, bonus stage Japanese text, Samsung Sonic, Castle in the Sky reference, and Chaos in Sonic 3
Yeah, barrel of doom was game over for me for a long time as a kid. I was subscribed to Game Players magazine and they explained how to get past it in an issue.
You know when I was a kid I didn't really pay attention to the whole Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Castle in the Sky connection but ever since I watched Castle in the Sky again over those past couple of years yeah I can definitely see that Sonic 3 & Knuckles took some inspiration from Castle in the Sky I wish it was confirmed that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was inspired by Castle in the Sky I mean dang it I mean Sky Sanctuary zone is literally a rip-off of laputa I mean it makes sense because Yuji Naka says that he was a Hayao Miyazaki fan
Just some things I want to point out. 1. IceCap Zone and The Jetzons - IceCap Zone’s music is not based on but is in fact the same song. I also want to point out that The Jetzons did not release the limited vinyl single of Hard Times with the IceCap Zone level art on it, but the company that owns their entire catalogue of music, Fervor Records. Another thing I want to add is that I believe one sample used in IceCap Zone was in fact taken from the Michael Jackson track, Speed Demon. 2. Knuckles’ Socks - This was more likely due to colour palette issues. 3. S3 Prototype - The Drop Dash thing was a coincidence. I believe Christian Whitehead AKA Taxman didn’t know about this prototype and Sonic having this ability way back then was just a coincidence. 4. Eggrobo - They aren’t a robotic version of Eggman, they’re just badniks he created in his image. Like the Hard Boiled Heavies from Sonic Mania, except they’re a more elite for of an Eggrobo. 5. Dragon Ball connection - Couldn’t you also say that the bumper spheres in the Special Stages are similar looking to the 1 star Dragon Ball. Nice video by the way.
One my favorite game Of all Time, and the best Sonic game in my opinion. I remembered been stuck on carnaval night zone with the (in)famous barrel puzzle when i first played the game in 1994 ( i was 9years old) Cool storie, great gameplay GREAT music ! Im still playin it these day with my laptop. Im a HUGE fan of this game, and yes, ive learned 3 things thanks to your video! Great job dude !
17:51 - I have a theory as to why no Egg Robo facing forward sprites were made for this boss: Given the originally intended placement of Flying Battery coming between Carinval Night and Ice Cap, Sonic & Tails were originally going to be fired from a canon from Carnival Night onto a the Flying Battery, then drop down from Flying Battery to Ice Cap where Sonic uses the door he knocks off after defeating Eggman as a snowboard. On Knuckle's playthrough of Carnival night, there's a teleporter which goes from Carnival Night direct to Ice Cap. Knuckles wasn't originally intended to enter Flying Battery. This is supported by the lack of Knuckles exclusive routes in this Zone. Everywhere Knuckles can go, Sonic can also go. The oversight comes in because the whole of Flying Battery was moved in between Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis where the decision was made to have Knuckles enter this Zone the same way Sonic does, but they forgot to add the Egg Robo facing forwards sprite.
I see no reason why they can't bring the super emeralds and hyper sonic back, they can remove the changing colors from sonic and just make him very bright white
What also gives epilepsy in the game is the PC version. If you play the fourth special stage of S3, the stage floor will turn white and the floor will blink (I can't explain it, but this is it: 8:03 ua-cam.com/video/ospJ6hUpkWU/v-deo.html)
I would like to state something regarding the palette swap glitch that looks like Sonic.exe. I spoke with JC and he stated that it was merely coincidence. I hope this clears things up
"Gum, Disease" wasn't the only time the Space Ghost universe referenced Sonic. TOM 1 gave Sonic Adventure a 5/5 in Toonami's review of the Dreamcast, and the main character of another Sega game, Rez, was nicknamed "Swayzak," after Swayzak showing up in Toonami's review of the game.
Omg I’ve been looking for this tails McDonald’s toy for DECADES. I vividly remember having it as a child but I was too young to know what ever happened to it
Sonic has always been a mix of more abstract weird environments and realistic ones since the get go - a lot of art depicted him in realistic settings alongside humans early on, and of course in Sonic 1 you have Whackadoodle levels like Spring Yard Zone coupled with places like Marble Zone
Awesome as always! Though surprised to find this video misses the fact that the reason some people refer to it as hydrocity (pronounced like velocity), is because of the spelling - there’s no space. Although the majority (myself included) pronounce it "Hydro City", there’s no space in the level’s title. It’s spelled Hydrocity. Yuji Naka did later claim that that he believed the level was intended to be pronounced "Hydro City".
I am surprised you didn't mention that collecting the 7 chaos emeralds is just a copy of collecting the 7 Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball Z. Also I think the picture at 29:39 is just exploring the concept of Dragon Ball. I mean it's a green dragon with a happy face. Just like the ones used on the Dragon Ball anime cover art. Perhaps they were exploring a sort of dragon connection when using the emerals, or maybe it's just Goku in that pic. It's hard to tell which character is in that yellow bubble. Likely whatever that is, was dropped due to already copying too many ideas from the Dragonball universe.
i kinda felt like the Lava Reef Act 1 music was the most Michael Jackson-esque track there but i never knew about how only parts of other tracks were actually from his other songs; i had thought he spent a bit of time composing entirely new music for the game before, uh, he stopped.
Random detail I noticed in the Seinfeld bit around 26:00 is that there's also Sonic Spinball on the top shelf. I know this is a S3&K video, but I thought it was cool and wanted to point it out.
I have a question actually, why is Tails always referred as "Super Tails" a lot, when he was also called "Turbo Tails", has a cape and Flicky birds around him. I thought that was the original name always...
another fun fact knuckles chest isnt just part of a nike deal it also represents the moon and sonics belly the sun
another rivalry design bit thing.
“Rivalry”
It is always those very very subtle things in character design you don't catch.
and shadows is a cloud
@@wolfyplayz123_ I would say spike
Or something
Kind of like kyo and iori from King of Fighters
16:21 This one's not entirely accurate. The whole "mole" thing is kind of a mistranslation of the Japanese word for echidna, ハリモグラ (harimogura), which if translated literally comes out to "needle mole" much in the same way that ハリネズミ (harinezumi), the Japanese word for hedgehog, would come out as "needle mouse". Nothing in the OVA itself is necessarily wrong here. It could be debated whether or not Sara calling Knuckles "Mr. Mole" is a proper translation or not, but her calling him "Mogura-chan" in the Japanese version doesn't mean he's not still an echidna. Still, the bio on the DVD release is definitely someone who worked on the DVD menus not getting the memo.
Thanks for clearing that up!
@@JohnnyVector No problem!
@@FancifulDancingStar well it could have made sense for Knuckles to be a mole but I'm really glad that it was a mistranslation thank you
Mr needlemole
Sonic 3, Awesome Iceberg Revisited
Thanks for the support again Mish!
Brad Buxer did work with Jackson too on some of his albums
Yeah, on HIStory and one or two others maybe? Thanks for the comment!
@@JohnnyVector Brad Buxer was brought onto Michael's team in June/July 1989 by Bill Bottrell during the production of "Decades", which later evolved into "Dangerous". Buxer had previously worked with multiple Motown artists, such as Stevie Wonder's touring band, prior to working with Jackson. They became very close & Buxer had a hand in working with Michael on all his projects up until 2008, around the time talks of the 'This Is It" tour began. His last work would be in 2008 on Michael's last song, "Best Of Joy".
For the "Chaos in Sonic 3&K" I believe that they got a bunch of idea but couldn't actually pull it off in time or because of hardware limitations so they had to keep it for a later game (Chaos itself wasn't planned but his Perfect form may have been inspired by that concept art)
I KNEW I DIDNT IMAGINE FIGHTING EGGMAN AS KNUCKLES IN MUSHROOM HILL ZONE AS A KID
The only thing i remember before obtaining it was dying alot idk if that has anything to do with it
also it seems that the sonic mania team may have wanted to bring back hyper sonic as not just the emeralds are cracked theres super emeralds if i remember and the word hyper in the code/files
@@_Tzer that’s true! The truth is that the Hyper powerup was forbidden from any future games by Sega, as to not confuse the number of Emeralds.
@@walkerphillips2818 they dont even use the chaos emeralds anymore tbh as it was literally purchasable dlc to get super sonic in forces or reduced to an easter egg.
Bringing back hyper sonic would honestly hype things up and since it requires the master emerald would actually give knuckles story relevance again.
18:20 my theory about the human decorations is that perhaps, at one point, the Echidnas co-existed with a a tribe or civilisation of native humans and held them in high regard, or at least mutual respect. Hence the decor in some Angel Island levels honouring them.
Sounds like a good theory
The Egyptian hieroglyphs in the background wall in Sandopolis Zone Act 2 are also humans.
It kinda looks like it when 3 humanlike people were with knuckles in the Sonic 2 movie opening scene
Here are chapters for your convenience:
00:00 Introduction
01:18 Tip of the Iceberg
06:42 Below the Surface
12:14 Middle of the Iceberg
18:15 Bottom of the Iceberg
24:03 The Depths
I was wondering how i watched this 4 times in a week
Eggman and dr robotnik is both correct. Same as tails and miles prowler. Sonic just names people weirdly.
Hey for Christmas 2020 I got the sonic 3 handheld game
@@miciso666 prower
Thanks for the amazing video and chapters
16:22 he's both. The Japanese word translated as mole is rather generic, and the classification includes many non-mole burrowing animals.
24:40 The reason why the Iroha poem is used is not necessarily because it is placeholder, but because it is a font test. The Iroha contains exactly one of every symbol in the Japanese syllabic "alphabet", even some that are not commonly used nowadays, so it can be used to test fonts in a similar fashion to "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", and is also one of the classic ways of ordering the Japanese syllabary, similar to the "ABCDE..." order.
Very interesting, thanks for that!
I've played this game so many times and I never knew about the Sonic statue in hydro city, it's crazy that it's been there all this time and i never noticed it
Awesome! Spotting the statue was one of my favourite moments in the game as a kid. Blew my mind haha
The Man that got crushed by the balloon was actually a police man, maybe this is why gun was so quick to blame sonic in SA2
I always called it "Hydro city", because I thought it was an ancient civilization that used water power before it was drowned out and abandoned.
Good point. I always though it was "Hydro city" because all the other zones follow that two-word naming convention as well.
The Pronunciation Was Confirmed By Yuji Naka As He Pronounced It As "Hydro-City" According To A Twitter Post.
@@logancraven6957 Yuki Naka did said that he doesn't "speak" English, he only write it but the Japanese manual does say『ハイドロシトィ』(haidorositi)
@@FunnyParadox True. 👍👍
@@JohnnyVector it is called HYDRO CITY not HYDROCITY so
“And I garuntee, there’ll be something in here you haven’t heard of”
Cybershell: “hold my beer”
He'll come across this video eventually and comment
"Garuntee" wow
The sonic lore master. Hes got the highest possible rank in sonic brain ranking.
@@ballthatbounces626 truly the most miserable title
Tails: **kills eggman**
Shadow: WRITE THAT DOWN WRITE THAT DOWN
And then he realizes He was a robot
random thing, I think another piece of evidence that came much later was in SA2 where one of the bosses is just sort of a bigger version of the Sandopolis guardian, the "Egg Golem" is probably just a V2 of the guardian
At this point, there should exist a Sega Genesis iceberg.
Mega Drive*
@@SproutyPottedPlant I live in the US where it's called the Genesis, so "correcting" me like that is a waste of time.
I thought I also remember Red Sonic being a similar glitch to Blue Knuckles.
I'll add that Angel Island itself appears in Sonic Advance, as a zone. I never really thought about how much sense it makes, if it even makes any at all.
Wait where's ice cap zone how is that part of the island?
Icecap Zone is at the top of Angel Island, specifically the giant mountains at the center of the island, those mountains are the same ones you see in the background during the snowboard segment.
Technically Sonic and knuckles was the first game that allowed dlc.
True tho
Is that good or bad though.
@@dragonator1012 neither, tis simply an observation
ea really took that to heart didn't they
No, Sonic 3 was the first game that had dlc and Sonic and Knuckles was the first dlc.
The Knuckles Mole thing comes from the fact that, similar to Sonic being a Needlemouse, the Japanese name for an Echidna is "Needle Mole".
Thanks!
Chaos being in dev since S3&K Makes a lot of sense considering one of Xtreme's lost storylines, actually I think 3 or 4 of them, are specifically about the creatures that would be unleashed when the master emerald is broken. With that being said, Xtreme had been in developement since the 32x, Released in 1994, Under the dev name Sonic Mars.
Is it really that much of a stretch to say that SEga returned to this concept for Xtreme? Especially since S3&K Also released in 1994?
My kid mind was blown when i saw tails in SK on space ghost randomly.
Haha yeah, it was like two things I really liked but never thought would overlap coming together for a brief moment
YES.
The boss music for Hydrocity Zone changes as well if you wait in the water long enough for the drowning timer to start and then exit
Cool, I'll have to check that out
For Knuckles's chest, I believe it or was decided on partially to contrast sonics torso, having a sun and a moon.
This likely is why it was kept.
Ever done the thing at the start of Angel Island act 2, where if you hit the springs beyond the Special Stage entrance it sends you back up the tunnel and then you can go back and play around in act 1? Used to do that all the time as a kid.
Not only that but in Sonic.exe, it makes references to some Classic Sonic games. The character select at the start is taken from Sonic 3, and when you enter the stage "Hide and Seek" Tails appears in Angel Island set on fire which normally happens when Sonic meets Fire Breath.
I've always enjoyed how Sonic and Knuckles was the very first video game expansion pack to exist in the early 90's other than that of PC games getting expansion packs example, Command & Conquer series, Diablo II, StarCraft.
Fun Fact about the Knuckles palette glitch: they were referred in Sonic Advance where in Mecha-Knuckles disguise refers both the more pink knuckles and the miscolored socks
Oh man, seeing Sonic snowboard into Icecap zone... after FINALLY beating carnival night.
A good feeling. And a rare one for idiot kids like me who didn't understand the Carnival Night barrel!
Great job! Great job with organizing the topics in the tiers. It’s something I struggle with eventually give up on all the time lmao
Haha, thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed!
As a child I was deff confused with the name things escpecially since Sonic and Knuckles was the first sonic game I ever played. Because of this I thought Egg-Robo was Dr.Robotnik and the actual Robotnik aka Eggman was just Dr. Eggman
Wow, that Sonic Heroes Music you have in the Background takes me back to 2004.
12:41 so it has the body of Knuckles , color of Sonic , and name of Tails ...
A perfect combination 👍😂😂
20:59 Makes sense well in the console wars
That Sonic balloon suffered the same fate as the Barney balloon, ripped apart by an evil lamp post.
I think the dragon thing resembles Finalhazard more than Perfect Chaos. But considering the potential links between the two as well as both the both the final fights of S3&K and SA2 taking place in space, it's not unreasonable to think that the conception of the ideas began during the former's development.
Yeah I agree actually, it does look more like Finalhazard, though I always wondered if Finalhazard/Bio Lizard was based off the Perfect Chaos mural in Sonic Adventure. They both give off Godzilla vibes
@@JohnnyVector That makes perfect sense too! :)
My first Mega Drive experience was playing Sonic 1 at a friend of my cousin's house. I got a Mega Drive that Christmas and with it came Sonic 1 and 2. I played the heck out of Sonic 3 at another cousin's house and then owned Sonic & Knuckles. I didn't play the complete Sonic 3 & Knuckles (or Sonic 3K as I took to calling it) until Sonic Jam on the Sega Saturn (I was a Sega fanboy and to this day I'll argue that the Dreamcast is one of the best consoles ever) but when I did, Sonic 3K became my absolute favourite game and remains so to this day.
I think it's an absolute masterpiece of the 2D Sonic era. Sonic CD and Sonic 2 were two separate projects spinning off from Sonic 1. CD focused more on platforming and exploration whereas Sonic 2 focused more on the speed and momentum gameplay of Green Hill Zone in Sonic 1. Sonic 3K is the game that in my opinion finds the perfect balance between the two game styles. It has relatively large levels that encourage exploration and has platforming without sacrificing momentum and forward movement. It also has arguably the best story of any Sonic game, starting out simply with Sonic bringing the Chaos Emeralds to Angel Island only to be jumped by a mysterious echidna and culminating in an epic final battle against Robotnik high above the planet.
Sonic 3K also has some of my favourite boss battles, not necessarily in terms of difficulty but in driving the narrative. Marble Garden can be a frustrating, bug ridden level but that boss fight, with Tails flying Sonic into the sky to battle his enemy is epic. Sonic's fight with Robotnik in Mushroom Hill Zone, racing to after him is also kinda epic when taken in the context of telling a story and obviously the aforementioned Doomsday Zone is off the scale in terms of epicness. I also love that in Knuckles' story Sonic Team made use of the idea that because it's his island and he knows every part of it, he can skip whole sections and boss fights.
I liked Sonic Mania. Gameplay wise it felt a lot like Sonic 3K but I think the story was disjointed and kinda random. Sonic 3K felt like you were playing through an epic tale from beginning to end. For me it remains the absolute benchmark for 2D Sonic games. Is it perfect? No but no game is and overall it's an outstanding package.
I always called it high draw city as well. I think this stems from a lot of us being kids when the game was popular and seeing as it appeared to be one word, would just pronounce it this way.
For the entry of Knuckles having yellow socks it was not glitch. It was intentional because Knuckles green socks screwed with the palate for the hud. I'm not exactly sure about Knuckles being pink though.
Thanks, good point. I've done a little reading up on the yellow socks since.
2:55 - Not really a fan theory. Knuckles being tricked into believing Sonic was out to steal the emeralds is a plotline in Sonic the Comic.
It's also a hook in Sonic X and Sonic Boom episodes.
ultra sonic in the american comics seems to be referencing or a state before hyper sonic
theres some trivia for you
Missed chance to call this “the sonic 3 ice cap”
Fair enough, a good few of those I didn't know at all.
28:05 I remember my instruction book for Mega Turrican had a warning about seizures. That game has so many white screen flashes especially with the 3 bomb blast they give to clear the screen if done in rapid succession I think the back of the box may have had a warning.
I wish you covered how Baxton was contracted to Jackson still.
Four Hydrocity, it was confirmed by Sega I believe last year, though you can find Japanese speakers explaining it's Hydro-city as well.
Hi, I'm currently looking for a lot of references and development info about S3&K, and while checking your video, I notice two misconceptions that I would like to correct:
1.- There's a certain misconception that McDonald's was responsible for splitting the game into two parts, but in fact, the team knew almost from the start that such a big game like Sonic 3 had to be divided.
2.- Samsung Sonic probably also refers to Sonic 3 was planned as a 3D game, using SSP1601 chips produced by Samsung. The only title released by Sega to use the chip was the Mega Drive port of Virtua Racing.
(Sorry for my bad english)
Thanks! Regarding Samsung Sonic, I actually added that one to the iceberg chart myself after finding that bizarre ad. I have spent some time in Korea and the retro gaming scene isn't thriving over there but I'd love to know if that particular piece of Sonic art appeared anywhere else.
If the developers already knew that Sonic 3 would have to be split into 2 parts, why does the 1103 prototype have so much leftover data for the S&K zones? Specifically, a bunch of leftover data for Mushroom Valley and Lava Reef and even having the Sandopolis Act 1 boss leftover. (Albeit missing it’s graphics.)
They never let me play my Sega. Look at the quality crew I had to work with! Glad to be outta that hole, don’t worry the studio is in good hands.
I loved Chaos as a villain, but jesus, I could NEVER get over how dopey the animation is on his final form... It takes all tension out of the final boss for me, I'm too busy laughing at his flappy jaw!
And then his nose goes all _snoot snoot_
Wonderful!! I love it!!
But just one thing, i'm sure that with Red Sonic the Iceberg was referring to Blue Knuckles's Sonic counterpart of the glitch, which turns Sonic red! But it was interesting to see that fake magazine scam!
17:41 it’s theorized that egg man escaped the death egg and went to flying battery as a back up after the death egg was destroyed . Theory from Alex Yard & Knuckles
During the Castle in the sky connection at 27:31 I'm surprised how you didn't mention that one of the minor characters looks like Classic Eggman complete with a round body, big mustache and glasses but that was before sonic 1 was released maybe that to was probably the inspiration of Eggman
Good point. I remember watching Spirit Away and one of the characters in that movie looked like Eggman too.
Johnny Vector laputa was probably the inspiration of Sonic 3 and also like you said, the fact that most levels look similar to places in Laputa makes me want an actual animated series of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. at least there's that one Comic of the death egg Saga
Pausing to see the different photos on the Act 1 sign posts was always one of my favorite things to do. Just like the *NEED* to catch the wand in Mario Bros 3 before it hits the ground.
I always wondered about the blue Knuckles on the sign post, of course ‘palette glitches’ were not something we knew about in the 90’s, only that Game Genie could make crazy things happen in-game.
I really didn't think that there'd be things I wouldn't know about, but there were a few.
Bootleg S&K game, Scott Pilgrim, Marxio Bros, Space Ghost, bonus stage Japanese text, Samsung Sonic, Castle in the Sky reference, and Chaos in Sonic 3
I remember the Space Ghost episode. I always wanted Chad or Birdman to play a Sonic game.
I already watched this video fully before and I still learned something new.
That's awesome!
Yeah, barrel of doom was game over for me for a long time as a kid. I was subscribed to Game Players magazine and they explained how to get past it in an issue.
Hydro City is pronounced as 2 separate words, it was confirmed in Sonic Generations in the music player it is written as 2 words.
Yeah plus, you can kind of understand that its hydro city zone by how they name every other stage.
Hidrawcity just doesnt sound right.
will see this tomorow and also how tails survived . i have to live with that memory
You know when I was a kid I didn't really pay attention to the whole Sonic 3 and Knuckles and Castle in the Sky connection but ever since I watched Castle in the Sky again over those past couple of years yeah I can definitely see that Sonic 3 & Knuckles took some inspiration from Castle in the Sky I wish it was confirmed that Sonic 3 & Knuckles was inspired by Castle in the Sky I mean dang it I mean Sky Sanctuary zone is literally a rip-off of laputa I mean it makes sense because Yuji Naka says that he was a Hayao Miyazaki fan
"Get blue balls"
Me: Wait wait wait. This is Sonic, not Friday Night Funkin'
Bf: * feels actual P A I N *
29:37 - I dunno dog, that looks more like Finalhazard to me. The background looks to be space with the Earth below.
This was a pretty cool video, I didn't know about many of these at all!
This is so cool! I should make a iceburg somtime.. Well this is very nice! Keep on the amazing work!
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed the video
Just some things I want to point out.
1. IceCap Zone and The Jetzons - IceCap Zone’s music is not based on but is in fact the same song. I also want to point out that The Jetzons did not release the limited vinyl single of Hard Times with the IceCap Zone level art on it, but the company that owns their entire catalogue of music, Fervor Records. Another thing I want to add is that I believe one sample used in IceCap Zone was in fact taken from the Michael Jackson track, Speed Demon.
2. Knuckles’ Socks - This was more likely due to colour palette issues.
3. S3 Prototype - The Drop Dash thing was a coincidence. I believe Christian Whitehead AKA Taxman didn’t know about this prototype and Sonic having this ability way back then was just a coincidence.
4. Eggrobo - They aren’t a robotic version of Eggman, they’re just badniks he created in his image. Like the Hard Boiled Heavies from Sonic Mania, except they’re a more elite for of an Eggrobo.
5. Dragon Ball connection - Couldn’t you also say that the bumper spheres in the Special Stages are similar looking to the 1 star Dragon Ball.
Nice video by the way.
One my favorite game Of all Time, and the best Sonic game in my opinion.
I remembered been stuck on carnaval night zone with the (in)famous barrel puzzle when i first played the game in 1994 ( i was 9years old)
Cool storie, great gameplay GREAT music !
Im still playin it these day with my laptop.
Im a HUGE fan of this game, and yes, ive learned 3 things thanks to your video!
Great job dude !
17:51 - I have a theory as to why no Egg Robo facing forward sprites were made for this boss: Given the originally intended placement of Flying Battery coming between Carinval Night and Ice Cap, Sonic & Tails were originally going to be fired from a canon from Carnival Night onto a the Flying Battery, then drop down from Flying Battery to Ice Cap where Sonic uses the door he knocks off after defeating Eggman as a snowboard.
On Knuckle's playthrough of Carnival night, there's a teleporter which goes from Carnival Night direct to Ice Cap. Knuckles wasn't originally intended to enter Flying Battery.
This is supported by the lack of Knuckles exclusive routes in this Zone. Everywhere Knuckles can go, Sonic can also go.
The oversight comes in because the whole of Flying Battery was moved in between Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis where the decision was made to have Knuckles enter this Zone the same way Sonic does, but they forgot to add the Egg Robo facing forwards sprite.
Ohhh! So THAT'S where that Tails spinner came from.
I once had that Tails Happy meal toy, but had no idea where my family got it until now. Lol
Rankles needs to become an official character. His jokish appearence has a charm I really liked sense i just first saw him today!
If I played the special stage as a kid and saw the message "get blue balls", I would have probably died of laughter
It’s really not the funny guy
I'd have been none the wiser lol
25:35
Sega made Sonic.exe canon before their twitter post! 🤣
I see no reason why they can't bring the super emeralds and hyper sonic back, they can remove the changing colors from sonic and just make him very bright white
Yeah, I'm not sure why they haven't ever brought them back. I guess they just feel Super Sonic is sufficient?
Hmmm 🤔 that’s a good point
What also gives epilepsy in the game is the PC version. If you play the fourth special stage of S3, the stage floor will turn white and the floor will blink (I can't explain it, but this is it: 8:03 ua-cam.com/video/ospJ6hUpkWU/v-deo.html)
Woah that's crazy. I've never seen that before but that doesn't feel great on my eyes haha
13:49 Friday Night Funkin Players: now I know where blue balls came from
B L U E B A L L S
21:23 I love how they start dancing after killing Eggman lol
In addition to DBZ connection, the Death Egg was inspired by the Big Gete Star.
Very cool, thanks
@@JohnnyVector thank you for responding 🙏🙏👍 keep being great
@@JohnnyVector 7 emeralds. 7 balls. Red and blue. Goku vegeta. Tails is gohan? Amy chichi
I thought it was inspired by the Death Star
I would like to state something regarding the palette swap glitch that looks like Sonic.exe. I spoke with JC and he stated that it was merely coincidence. I hope this clears things up
Thanks for confirming. I kinda thought so because the palette glitch is quite obscure.
@@JohnnyVector Glad to finally assist someone lol
"Gum, Disease" wasn't the only time the Space Ghost universe referenced Sonic. TOM 1 gave Sonic Adventure a 5/5 in Toonami's review of the Dreamcast, and the main character of another Sega game, Rez, was nicknamed "Swayzak," after Swayzak showing up in Toonami's review of the game.
I've always called Hydrocity Zone the 2nd name you mentioned
Omg I’ve been looking for this tails McDonald’s toy for DECADES. I vividly remember having it as a child but I was too young to know what ever happened to it
15:40 well, you got me. I had never heard of that one.
Sonic has always been a mix of more abstract weird environments and realistic ones since the get go - a lot of art depicted him in realistic settings alongside humans early on, and of course in Sonic 1 you have Whackadoodle levels like Spring Yard Zone coupled with places like Marble Zone
The occult ascended one isn't just exclusive to super saiyajin... it's the alchemical rainbow light body...
Actually that Space Ghost moment was a remnant of the fact that Sega was a sponsor for the series early in the show's run.
Awesome as always! Though surprised to find this video misses the fact that the reason some people refer to it as hydrocity (pronounced like velocity), is because of the spelling - there’s no space. Although the majority (myself included) pronounce it "Hydro City", there’s no space in the level’s title. It’s spelled Hydrocity.
Yuji Naka did later claim that that he believed the level was intended to be pronounced "Hydro City".
25:36 huh I wasn’t expecting that
One thing you left out of the castle in the sky parallels bit, there's also a character that looks identical to eggman.
I actually have the Sonic 3 Tiger LCD console.
8:42 " unfortunately the mobile port never went any further then this "
*Sonic 3 air has joined the server*
I might be eating my words even more in the future if the port on Sonic Origins finds itself onto mobile as well
I feel asleep watching this video yesterday because i dont remember anything after the depths
I am surprised you didn't mention that collecting the 7 chaos emeralds is just a copy of collecting the 7 Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball Z.
Also I think the picture at 29:39 is just exploring the concept of Dragon Ball. I mean it's a green dragon with a happy face. Just like the ones used on the Dragon Ball anime cover art.
Perhaps they were exploring a sort of dragon connection when using the emerals, or maybe it's just Goku in that pic. It's hard to tell which character is in that yellow bubble.
Likely whatever that is, was dropped due to already copying too many ideas from the Dragonball universe.
I like your take on the dragon. I didn't draw a connection with Shenron but it does make sense.
27:14
It looks like a bootleg! XD
Sonic and Knuckle might have been rivals not any more
22:34
I thought this was the "rival" character from sonic 3's concept art seen in sonic origins.
27:36 not just that, those gemstones are both wanted by power hungry bespectacled madmen,
i kinda felt like the Lava Reef Act 1 music was the most Michael Jackson-esque track there but i never knew about how only parts of other tracks were actually from his other songs; i had thought he spent a bit of time composing entirely new music for the game before, uh, he stopped.
Sonic.exe isn’t always able to kill tails,knuckles,and eggman
Random detail I noticed in the Seinfeld bit around 26:00 is that there's also Sonic Spinball on the top shelf. I know this is a S3&K video, but I thought it was cool and wanted to point it out.
I have a question actually, why is Tails always referred as "Super Tails" a lot, when he was also called "Turbo Tails", has a cape and Flicky birds around him. I thought that was the original name always...
13:11 sounds like something megamind would say
1:21 we're only on point #1 and already my blood-pressure is rising