Sonic & Knuckles/Development

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Sonic 3's level select is notoriously hard to activate, and perhaps for good reason - it's listing zones that aren't in the cartridge.

The ambitious scope of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 meant that form an early stage, it was decided that the adventure would be split into two halves. As a result, 1994 marked the release of two mainline Sonic the Hedgehog platform games - Sonic 3 in February, and Sonic & Knuckles in October.

Unlike Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which spent the best part of ten months in the public spotlight across 1992, news of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 did not break until after 1993's Christmas Sonic schedule; the combined efforts of Sonic Spinball, Sonic CD and Sonic Chaos. Having only surfaced in December 1993 and released within three months, questions could be asked about whether the game was quite as big as it claimed to be at launch. Sonic 3 has bigger levels, but with only six zones, there was suggestion early on that something was missing.

In February 1994, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was not technically finished, but a tie-in promotion with McDonalds saw the game released anyway. There seemed to be an acknowledgement in the release schedule - breaking from a tradition of near-simultaneous worldwide Sonic launches, Japan weren't set to receive Sonic 3 until May, and rumours began to surface that their version would be bigger. When news got out about Sonic 3's level select, it was clear more content had been planned; Flying Battery Zone, Mushroom Valley Zone and Sandopolis Zone are all accounted for, but cannot be accessed normally. Likewise levels in Sonic 3 tease routes that Sonic and Tails can't access, and the much hyped Knuckles the Echidna is defeated by a wobbly girder - perhaps not a fitting send-off.

Behind the scenes, the Sonic 3 team were indeed working on a bigger game - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition, also known as Sonic 3+, a rumoured 24-megabit cartridge that would have been the definitive version of the adventure. But while development continued shortly after the split, the focus soon became on releasing a "part 2" that could combine itself with "part 1".

After Sega Gamer's Day 1994, this was all that was known about the Sonic & Knuckles project.

Sega did not confirm the existence of Sonic & Knuckles until Sega Gamer's Day 1994 in June, where they showed just the logo and a October 18th release date.

Concept art

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  Concept art of Mushroom Hill Zone, named as "Mushroom Forest". Reworked from concept art of Sonic 2's, scrapped Wood Zone.