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Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Development

From Sonic Retro

Revision as of 11:53, 24 September 2010 by MathUser (talk | contribs) (Undo revision 160393 by SuperSonicRider (talk))

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.

Michael Jackson involvement

Michael Jackson was apparently involved in composing for Sonic 3's soundtrack, but never credited. Several similarities between Jackson songs and tracks from the soundtrack are documented on his article. GamesTM magazine claimed that compositions of his were implemented in the game before having to be hastily replaced. Moreover, when the game was ported to the PC as part of Sonic & Knuckles Collection, several songs were replaced with MIDI versions, with one suggested cause being Jackson's involvement in their composition.

Theories for Jackson's absence in the credits include him being dropped due to child molestation allegations. A more recent 2009 interview with Brad Buxer (one of the composers credited) confirmed that he and Jackson collaborated on music for the game, but Jackson was not satisfied with the quality of the sound produced by the console, and that this could be a reason for his absence in the credits.

Concept Art

The following are images which do not really fit with any other section.

Early Game Design

These scans come from various magazines. They display different aspects that were removed from the game before release.

Angel Island Zone

Hydrocity Zone

Carnival Night Zone

Marble Garden Zone

Ice Cap Zone

Launch Base Zone

2 Player Mode

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