Today, Sonic 3 is 30 Years Old
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
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Today is Feruary 2nd, 1994! New episode every single Friday!
Welcome to Now in the 90s, where we rewind the clock exactly 30 years ago to see what new video games had just released! This week we had Sonic the Hedgehog 3, X-Kaliber 2097, and Mansion of Hidden Souls!
Writers: Jared Knabenbauer, David Rota, & Dylan Lawrence
Editor: Dylan Lawrence
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~~MUSIC BY WILLIAM BENCKERT & AGST~~
#retro #retrogaming #sega - Ігри
Knuckles the Echidna is turning 30 this week! His official response statement:
"oh no"
Nah, mate... His official response is, "I don't care HOW many times you ask... I am NOT related to Ugandan Knuckles!" 🤣😂🤣😂
I thought his response statement was just him chuckling.
@@GabePuratekuta If it's Sonic Adventure Knuckles, he'd never do that. :P
Are you sure it's not "Do you know de way ?"
Sorry for the outdated meme.
Thank you for talking about why Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was split into two cartridges because of the McDonald's toy promotion! My sister was actually one of the lucky 10,000 winners of the Sonic 3 McDonald's promotion, and she still keeps the box and cartridge of the game for posterity's sake to this day!
That’s great 👏
I got my copy from the contest too! Unfortunately my copy's battery was dead from the start, so it was actually only many years later that I learned that the reason there were all those files is because it was supposed to *save* even after you turned off your console lol. Still, hard to complain with winning!
That's pretty cool 😎
Fun fact about the MJ/Sonic 3 connection: one of the members of his "dream team", one Brad Buxer, was once the keyboardist of 1980's new wave band "The Jetzons". And if you know the theme to Ice Cap Zone, that theme is a MIDIfied instrumental of an unreleased Jetzons track called "Hard Times".
Even on its own, Hard Times is a bop. And honestly, with the third Sonic film currently in production, I feel like that film should DEFINITELY include Hard Times on the soundtrack.
30 years later, Jim Carrey is confirmed to reprise his role as Dr. Robotnik in the 2024 movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Hype! And also Pog!
And, what's this? A version of "Live and Learn" in the teaser trailer??? Oh I'm so there!!!!
I wonder if it was on purpose.
Wait really? But I thought he retired from acting
@@db_524 scum
30 years from now, Jared is a old man: "Today, we talk about Palworld"
If the show goes that long, I just wonder if it'll rebrand itself every decade.
I think he would stick to console exclusive games.
That will already be forgotten next year anyway. Like all the other survival slop games
@@DapSchaf I didn't even know it was a survival game.
oof
I think we all know that the OST for Sonic 3 was composed by the first American to work on Sonic, Tommy Tallarico.
I heard that Sega were so humbled that Tommy wanted to work with them that they fired Micheal on the same day and hired Tommy, no questions asked and they designed the game around Tommy's soundtrack. They just asked him to make some songs, and then made the levels based on his music.
And Miyamoto clapped.
His mother is very proud!
tommy tallarico wasnt just that or the greatest of ALL Western musicians even though he TRIED to teach losers like Tim Follin, Jeremy Soule, and Jesper Kyd .. he was the first musician to bring back the dead thru his music, because it was just so much better than any Japanese music maker especially those losers he hates hearing everyone talk about his whole career like Yuzo Koshiro, Nobuo Uematsu, Koichi Sugiyama, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Michiru Yamane, Koji Kondo or those hacks in Zuntata or Nihon Falcom's J.D.K.. when Shigeru Miyamoto first heard his godly music, he had to fly immediately to the US to meet him.. when they met, tommy was so full of grace he addressed this insignificant employee of Nintendo by "Miyamoto san" and this shook him to his core.. he begged tommy tallarico not to show him such respect given how small he was compared to the towering achievements of tommy tallarico, but again, tommy's grace was so great, he only responded with, "Stand, Miyamoto san..".. Shielding his eyes from tommy tallarico's grandeur and light, Shigeru Miyamoto got up and just skulked away quietly back to Japan... in awe of tommy tallarico.. and tried to live, one day at a time, after witnessing such a being... get your facts STRAIGHT..
The slap bass riffs on Tetris Attack / Panel De Pon are absolutely nuts too.
Friday? More like Now In the 90s Day
It actually is national Hedgehog day on 2/2 this year.
Was going to say this. Was it planned that way? Hedgehog Day was originally made as an alternative to Groundhog Day.
Jared: mentions Psykosonik and the MK: Annihilation soundtrack
Me: Well, guess I gotta listen to Panik Kontrol after this...
That soundtrack is fantastic!
3:57 The CD was called "Sonic the Hedgehog BOOM" and it didn't have music from all Sonic games. It had several tracks of Spencer Nilsen's score for the US release of "Sonic CD" and a few select tracks from "Sonic Spinball." I got it from pre-ordering StH3 and it was actually the first CD I ever owned!
were those Spinball tracks at a higher quality? Because I love that soundtrack, but it did not get programmed very well
I still have my copy.
"Did you see the Shadow?" Sonic movie 3 also confirmed today, wow... kino
The licensing issues with Sonic 3's music is mostly impacted by Ice Cap Zone and Brad Buxer more than it was Michael Jackson. Buxer was MJ's keyboardist, but stayed on to do an instrumental of an unreleased song from his band The Jetzons in the 80s. Even though the original song was never released until the late 00s, SEGA likely just wanted to avoid dealing with any legal issues to begin with
Hard Times is a great song
There's still something going on. A number of people involved with the music are still wildly secretive about it today and will hurl all sorts of legal threats at you if you so much as merely mention Sonic in an email. It's fucking werid
I am pretty impressed with all the research done by editor Dylan concerning the early 90's audio, and that pattern he found including Seinfeld was brilliant! Top notch
As a music geek, that tangent about the Korg M1 Slap Bass was a treat. It was also used in Mega Man X! And a lot of other similar instruments can be heard across different games from that era.
My birthday is February 12th. I remember coming home from school one day and my dad telling me he had a surprise for me. He took me to McDonald's as an early birthday present and then handed me a wrapped copy of Sonic 3. Was one of my favorite birthdays as a kid.
"1.99 happy meal."
Man remember when that was the cost of a happy meal? Good times.
Also we went a whole episode talking about Sonic 3 and we didn't mention the infamous barrel?! Madness!
Dylan killing it with the trivia- would love to see more of this in the show!
4:03 - Anyone else stop the video immediately this and search for the music video? I HAD TO! I’m a massive deep dived fanatic of Sonic 3 and know just about ever Easter Eggman you can throw at me by this point in life but I NEVER knew this. Thanks so much for sliding this into the show today fellas!
God, the amount of hours I put into Sonic 3 & Knuckles just to get the clear art for each character, from not becoming Super Sonic to a perfect clear.
I had to try and do it multiple times due to a save error at times, while other times I was plain unable to cause my TV would keep dying on me and my dad was too stubborn to just buy a new TV vs how much he wasted on trying to get the one I had fixed.
Man you were a lot better than I was, I couldn't get more than 2 emeralds in any sonic game. special stages in general I sucked at, Vectorman's comes to mind. and Sonic Spinball's ones.. i couldn't win.
Dylan's did you know segment slaps! Music to my nerdy ears.
I remember having the little Tails Happy Meal toy as a kid. I remember being so blown away because video game related merch felt so hard to come by back then.
before i had a chance to play the game, i assumed Knuckles' gimmick was that he spun around in a dust cloud like Taz, because of that happy meal toy.
I had all four even the sega tv toy released later this year.
I seriously appreciate all of the music info from editor Dylan🥂🎉😅
I just added the VG Music Preservation site to my bookmarks, kudos
Sonic 3 was fantastic, a shame Sega can't use the original music, Ice Cap Zone was so good. I loved the connectivity with Sonic and Knuckles, S3K is the best Sonic game next to Mania
all they have to do is give a few guys the money they rightfully earned for composing it. though.. obviously the company's not doing that well anymore.
The SNES S-SMP is a sample based chip, meaning that it could sample whatever the composer desired, but at a cost. You only had 64 kB of sample memory, and if you wanted to use echo, a native feature of the chip, you would have to allocate memory for a buffer. This is why some samples are heavily compressed, and game music gives off a “MIDI” sound.
I had no idea Sonic came out on my birthday, I was still a toddler so I wouldn't have played it back then.
In my hometown we got the videogame magazines waaaaay too late, so we often got new videogames in the stores before we even have any info about them. That added a new layer of mistery of what we could get to play on the weekends every now and then, when we went to the rental store.
That's why my brother and I were able to rent Sonic 3 without knowing anything about the game, or even about Knuckles (as the games were not available with manuals at the rent store). We ended up calling Knuckles by the name "Speedus", and due to not figuring out his character design, we drew him as a "Red Sonic" with claws and more quills, considering him another hedgehog. Funny stuff.
We had a blast with the game, even if we couldn't finish it on that run, nor figuring out the special stages. We mostly played two players co-op mode, and I remember we thought Robotnik had killed us on the third zone when we reached the boss battle, and we were arguing about "not being fast enough" and "getting ready to hit him as soon as he appears", but then Tails raised Sonic to continue the fight in mid-air, and we lost our s**t, we were astonished. That was awsome. And we loved Ice Cap Zone, both the level, and the original BGM. And the snowboard intro.
Speedus the Hedgehog... Too bad we didn't called him something more like "Jared the Hedgehog" or "Dylan the Porcupine", as a lot of fans in Deviant Art do for awhile now.
(Just kidding, guys, love your videos, as always).
Sonic 3 is the best in the series of all time. 😀👍🎮
Amen, bra.
💯
There are some 3D games I prefer but Sonic 3 is my favorite 2D Sonic game.
& KNUCKLES
@@a_lost_one Featuring KNUCKLES
X-Kaliber 2097 does have one thing to call its legacy: the main character's sprites were repurposed for use by Balthios, everyone's favorite zauber user in Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden.
I didn't play Sonic 3 until the game was included on the 2002 compilation Sonic Mega Collection. Cool episode as always.
The Sonic 3 OST is simply GOATed. You can tell it was very much influenced by Michael Jackson and you can hear it through each theme in the game. Granted it didn't fully work out the way he wanted to but the effect of his work still remains in Sonic 3.
Don’t forget that Michael’s musical collaborators were contracted personally by Michael to work with Brad Buxer on the game.
@@waypastcoolkid Was going to bring up Brad Buxer as well... Ice Cap Zone's track was literally released later as a Brad Buxer song. Explains why it was changed for Sonic Origins... So if you have a copy of Sonic Origins Collection... make sure you fix Carnival Night Zone and Ice Cap Zone's track
Wasn’t Moonwalker out before any of the Sonic games?
@@lorntrent3308 Yes... Jackson WAS a huge sonic fan, which led him to want to work with Sonic 3. It's also true he was unsatisfied with the sound quality of Moonwalker.
However, I think he might have been convinced to join the project if they claimed to use a custom on-cartridge sound chip... Or he was fine with the way it sounded but the separated ways over his scandals, and they used the excuse of "dissatisfied with the sound quality" to save face for him.
@@Kevinsyel I didn’t mean to post under someone’s comment but I’m referring to when the host says Michael was a fan of Sonic which lead him to work with Sega on Moonwalker. The timeline doesn’t add up
All these development trivia and kinda niche music facts are one of the many reasons you're so entertaining, thank you so much for this episode! and keep up with the fine job👾
I played Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles aplenty for the Genesis. I love the soundtrack too, I also knew of connections between Sega and MJ, and I even had the Sonic 3 happy meal toys.
Thank you Dylan for the random investigation of that musician. Sometimes I really enjoy a random rabbit hole, and it is nice to hear others do too.
I appreciate the long tangent about the hidden jams from the same guy who made "Top 10 Basslines in Video Games"😆
Oh damn. I remember that McDonald's ad. I saw it on a trip to visit family out of state. I vividly remember waking up on their living room fold-out and turning on the TV and seeing that ad. On the day we left I begged my dad to take us to McDonald's for food so I could get the happy meal toy. I got the Sonic one and remember being so mad cause I wanted the Tails one 😅. That was also right around the time I started collecting the Archie Sonic comics line, at issue #13 in May 1994.
That nostalgia wave hit hard. 😂
Came for the sonic nostalgia, and left learning about slap bass and pseudonyms. Great show
Sonic 3 is one of those life-changing video games. You remember where you were when you first witnessed its glory.
In honor of this day, I watched a bit of Sonic 3 gameplay and I keep forgetting how fire Knuckles's theme is
Although I'd forgotten about it, the intro music made me remember Super Bases Loaded 2 was one of the few games my dad would play consistently, even long after we'd gotten an N64. His other favorites were Super Punch-Out, NHL93 and Sim City. I don't think he ever touched a console game after the SNES was made obsolete.
RIP
I had Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) as a kid and played it to near death. The upgrades were good, but there was something about the feel of Sonic 2 that was comforting that Sonic 3 just didn't have. Both graphics-wise and gameplay-wise.
This is by far one of my favorite weekly shows anywhere. Thank you Jared and Dylan for your dedication to the craft. I honestly hope this show lasts all the way to 2030
Hidden jams are tight!
Please keep on telling us about the artists behind hidden jams, love it.
Ah, the first half of the legendary Sonic 3 & Knuckles game.
Cool to see sailor moon dude back at it.
One of the main composers for Sonic 3 was also a songwriter in the band The Jetzons and the Ice Cap riff was directly pulled from their song, Hard Times. It also rocks. :3
Editor Dylan in the comment section?? Well, all I gotta say is.. You rock my dude! Editor Dylan is love! Editor Dylan is life!
I had completely forgotten about Mansion of Hidden Souls. I never played it, but I definitely remember seeing pictures of it in a magazine (possibly Sega Visions?). Those butterflies and that weird little girl are the only things that stick out about it, though. I have no clue what the magazine even said about the game, nor was I enticed to play it.
I DO remember where I first played Sonic 3! I passed out at my church and was sent to the hospital for hypoglycemia. There was a Megadrive in the collective room and a boy was playing. Oh, well, I never played now that I think of it, but I watched (and listened) with glee.
Also, I associate the game, the music and Knuckles to the scent of the "clay" they put on the captors for one of my tests
This is the best educational video game channel on UA-cam! No contest! Every week gets better. I love it
The dive into the Korg M1 and its importance was honestly awesome. The 3DS actually had a playable digital version of it, known as Korg M01D, though with the closure of the eShop it's currently stuck behind "ways and means", along with the Korg DSN-12 digital synth. There is a newer Korg title on the Switch, though, for anyone looking for some music production tools on their console of choice; it's called Korg Gadget.
Always love some extra info on game music, specially when is that niche and sounds so good
I first played Sonic 3 at a Sears too! My mom used to work at Sears and every once in awhile I would be over there checking out whatever they had running at the kiosk
Mansion of Hidden Souls terrified me!! Something about the choppy graphics and eerie sound effects just shook me. Not many people know that statue will silently follow you in that hallway, and if you turn around… game over!
When I get the Genesis Mini 2, I hope to conquer that old fear..!
I remember the day that sonic 3 came out, mainly because it was my mom's birthday and my friend called me up and I went to his place playing it all night. I got chewed out for that one, mostly how I remember it to be honest. What can I say? I was like 7 at the time and all I really wanted to do was go play the new sonic game, I wasn't thinking at all.
I think I might actually enjoy editor Dylan’s rapid fire releases segments more than ProJared’s. He never fails to find ways of making his summaries of the most obscure, boring a$$ lists of releases genuinely entertaining to watch. Brilliant.
I desperately hope you guys legitimately cover Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball next month. Not only does it have hidden jams, but it's so beloved that the fan community updates the rosters with rom hacks every year.
Sonic 3 is my absolute favorite! I became Store Champion at my local Blockbuster Video that year in the Blockbuster Video Game Championship thanks to this game. I played the first bonus stage perfect which got me an extra 50K points shooting me directly to first place on the leaderboard.
I was one of the lucky kids who won Sonic 3 from a happy meal, I could not believe it when it showed up!!
I loved Playing Mansion Of Hidden Souls back in the day, it was another game I didn't pick up until years after it came out, and the first game I sat down and beat after my dad gave my all his Sega stuff for my 18th Birthday
I remember playing Sonic 3 back when it was relatively new and I was blown away by the jungle backgrounds. And when they all start burning down... wow, that's a core memory. It looked so good in ways that I'm not sure kids today can fully understand.
Side note: I had that racing game, and the beat ALWAYS made me thing of Seinfeld. Glad to see I wasn't deluded!
Sonic 3 was one of the games that came with the Sega Genesis that my grandma gave to me, I played a lot as a kid... until I got to that infamous part of Carnival Night Zone. I never figured out how to get past from there, until I got older and with access to internet and played it again in a Sonic collection game for the DS
A friend had a copy of _Sports Illustrated: Championship Baseball & Football_ back in the day, and we played that thing TO DEATH. Mostly baseball.
So YOU'RE the one that killed it!
Sonic 3 defined my childhood and my tastes in platformers. If you wanna play the game with all the original audio intact but don't have a Sega Genesis, hunt down Sonic Mega Collection or Sonic Mega Collection+. As far as I'm aware, they're the only compilations that let you play Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined AND solo.
Sonic 3&K is still my 2nd favorite Sonic game, I still play it to this day
Sonic 3 is probably one of the first game launches I actually remember and was excited for... I was 6 and collected all the Happy Meal toys.
Rented mansion of hidden souls shortly after release, and I was terribly disappointed.
Imagine going from sonic three to that within one month. Yeah I made the wrong decision at Blockbuster that weekend.
Came for snark,left learning something about game music. Good job.
Sega did the same thing with crazy taxi on the dreamcast it had music from offspring and bad religion but when they ported to the later consoles like xbox 360 and ps3 they did have songs from the original
I do remember where I was when I first tried Sonic 3, I was playing on my father's pc, because Sonic & Knuckles had a Win95 port.
I'd say Mansion of Hidden Souls is worth a playthrough. It's not scary, but it has a lot of charm and is a surprisingly smooth with very little in the way of roadblocks. All the FMV is extra rough without the CRT-blur though.
I think Sonic 3 ended up being the last time Sonic was ever able to work such a wide sense of marketing promotion. Got the works everywhere, and it never quite hit those highs in marketing again. They are trying better now that it's finding wider popularity again thanks to the movies, but still.
i was only 11 when this came out, i remember liking Sonic 2 a lot "i didn't have part 1" but i remember *LOVING* Part 3 when i rented it, and i loved Sonic and Knuckles even more, cause i really liked Knuckles cause he felt like Sonic's Wario. which btw, HUGE Fan of Wario and those games, was back then, still love them now.
What a good week that was. I do wish there was a direct arcade port of moonwalker.
Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube also has Sonic 1 2 and 3 and 3 and knuckles.
Sonic 3 as well as Sonic 3 and Knuckles is on the Mega Collection.
;)
Why is Editor Dylan so unreasonably hilarious?
I loved Sonic 3 growing up (Ice cap zone 1 music hype!!) but it wasn't until several years ago that I learned Sonic & Knuckles was actually supposed to be the 2nd half the the game 😱(I always thought the game "ended" strangely, lol!!) I have no idea how this knowledge eluded me for so long.
Best Sonic game honestly. A shame it got cut in half though.
This series is really neat! It lets me follow the developments of a decade I (almost) wasn't born for in real time!
My son and i who is 4 competed sonic 3 together to mark the occasion.
On the M1, Korg actually has a collection of downloadable synthesizers including everything on the M1, and there's even a free demo version available to play with too.
I only don't care for slap bass because I can't play slap and pluck very well, and it really hurts when I do. But thanks for the deep dive on the music. 90s era video games had tons of hidden jams everywhere. If a 90s shump doesn't have kickin' music, the best it can be is a very flawed masterpiece.
Did a double-take and had to rewind to look at "$1.99 Happy Meal" again, time really makes you forget how low price numbers used to be.
Besides Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sega Retro has Barkley Shut Up and Jam, Caesars Palace, Family Feud, Romance of the Three Kingdoms III: Dragon of Destiny, and Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension (covered here a few weeks ago for SNES, I think?) listed as February 1994 Genesis cartridge releases in North America but only Sonic 3 gets a firm release date, the others just get a month.
Personally, the next Genesis game I'm looking forward to seeing covered here isn't until March when one of the most iconic third party releases on the Genesis made its debut... well, I mean, there's NBA Jam but that's not even the Tournament Edition. No, I'm talking about Normy's Beach Babe-O-Rama, released by Electronic Arts. You know, the game based on the newspaper comic strip that everyone remembers, Making It by Norman Keith Robinson. Yup, right up there with Peanuts, Garfield, and Calvin and Hobbes.
should be noted that there are many reasons why Sonic 3 didn't sell as well as the first two games.
None of which had to do with the game's quallity.
1. People where getting tired of the 16-bit revolution by 1994. In the mid 90s, 3d games where blowing up (like Doom and Daytona USA). This even had an effect on Super Metroid too, as it also didn't sell as well as it's predecessors. DK Country was an exception because it's graphics satisfied that 3d itch console gamers wanted scratched at the time.
2. It had a shorter shelf life when compared to the first two games. it came out in 1994 and the system got discontinued roughly 3 years later.
3. Sonic and Knuckles overshadowed it in the marketing department in late 1994, meaning Sonic 3 alone got over shadowed at Christmas time and was never meet with Christmas sales or got packaged with the Genesis like the first two.
4. Sega's messy marketing, Sega was more interested in promoting gimmicky hardware rather then their quality games at the time. it's also why masterpieces like Shining Force 2 and Castlevania Bloodlines bombed in sales.
That's why Sonic 3 didn't sell as well as the first two games despite being the most acclaimed Sonic game of all time and being one of the most acclaimed games of 1994.
9:00 Vic Tokai also published Golgo-13 Top Secret Episode & The Mafat Conspiracy
9:26 and let's not forget that wonderful classic: The Krion's Conquest.
11:04 Wait, we get this game on the Mini 2....and no Snatcher.... SMH
I didn’t exactly play Sonic 3 so much as Sonic 3 and Knuckles growing up but I do have fond memories of playing it as part of Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2.
I remember my mother buying me this in '94, she'd kept it a secret all day and then boom- there it was. I still put time into the "complete" from hack now, as i have it on cartridge. never gonna forgive for the dreaded barrel puzzle which stunted my progression for literally years, but it did reach its final form when sonic and knuckles followed soonafter.
Coming soon in 6 years: now in the 00’s
My only legit fan-service related complaint about the second Sonic movie was its clearly missed opportunity to musically reference Ice Cap Zone during the snowboarding escape scene by licensing the original “Hard Times” by The Jetzons.
I always love watching this series on Fridays.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my favorite Sonic game! It's a slam dunk in every way. It was really innovative to split it up into two games then connect them with the lock-on feature.
“There’s also this Sweepstakes thing…”
6:20 "Although, it does conspicuously have certain music changed." This is because in 1997, Sega released the _Sonic & Knuckles Collection_ CD-ROM for Windows PCs, which uses an altered soundtrack. The Origins re-release includes this soundtrack. I remember the different tracks for Carnival Night, Ice Cap, and Launch Base Zones, and thinking they were actually sounding better in the later ports? It's strange to describe, because I remember hearing the original tracks first and somehow remembering the newer ones more. More bops, more memorable melodies, for me.
Sonic 3 and Knuckles is peak gaming.
I remember getting a Sonic 3 strategy guide from Walden Books with my grandma. RIP grandma. ❤
Knuckles killed your grandma!?
Good job on the research, Dylan, your obsession to see it through is appreciated.
I remember talking about knuckles going to become 20, can’t believe it’s been a decade since then, that was half my life ago
Sears had the coolest stuff! My fondest memory was the one where they had demos of Daytona USA on Saturn, a Virtual Boy, Killer Instinct on SNES, and Toy Story on Genesis. Virtual Boy seemed so cool. That was all great, but they had nothing on Toys R Us.
The most vivid memory I have at Toys R Us was when they had a whole ton of demo systems that just seemed so cool at the time. They had a Genesis demoing Sonic 3, a Game Boy with the giant TV screen playing Super Mario Land 2, I cant remember what the SNES had running, but most fascinating to me was the Turbo Duo. I dont even remember the games on it, but I just remember being in awe of it. A CD console? It was definitely way too expensive for me. I think this was just slightly before the launch of Playstation and Saturn.
I played Sonic 3 for the first time in my life at a kiosk at Service Merchandise. Anybody remember that store?
All this love for Sonic 3....but the only thing my brain could focus on this entire episode is that a happy meal used to only cost 2 F*%!ING DOLLARS.
"michael jackson" composed for the game, which is to say, MJ's _composers_ worked on the game. He didn't write his own music, he was a performer. It's a small distinction, but it does mean something. And the big issue is Sega did not and still refuses to give the artists credit or pay them, so they've just stopped using those excellent tracks.