Game Development:Sonic the Hedgehog 3

From Sonic Retro

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas, levels, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

Development Process

According to sources, such as the Japanese Sonic Jam strategy guide and issue 60 of Games TM, Sonic 3 began development as a isometric game, similar to Sonic 3D, but this idea was abandoned as the development team did not want a radical departure from the traditional Sonic forumla so soon.

Sonic 3 Part One

The game was envisioned to be quite large but many levels were shaved off the final release and later used in Sonic & Knuckles. This was likely due to time constraints and the manufacturing costs of a 32 MB cartridge with battery. Thus Sonic 3 became half as large as it was intended to be. Official artwork refers to this game as Sonic 3: Part One. According to issue 60 of Games TM magazine the decision to split the game in two was probably made before the Alpha development stage of Sonic 3, which would be quite early.

Sonic 3 Limited Edition

There is evidence Sega planned to release a special version of Sonic 3 with all the levels of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles combined under the name Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition as a German magazine referring to it has been found as well as internal Sega papers. More info is available on the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition article.

Original Celebrity Composer

Michael Jackson was originally onboard to compose Sonic 3's soundtrack, but those plans fell through upon news of child molestation allegations at the time. It is believed that his work may not have completely been removed from the game, however. A GamesTM magazine claims that the soundtrack was fully implemented in the game before having to be hastily rewritten.