Sonic the Hedgehog 3/Development

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, 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. 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.

Official artwork refers to this game as Sonic 3: Part 1.

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.

Sonic 3 Limited Edition

As stated previously, Sonic 3 was meant to be a much larger game but was split apart with half of the levels going into Sonic 3 and the other half going into Sonic & Knuckles. However, there is evidence Sega planned to release this combined game under the name Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition. Prototypes of this game have been found and dumped. They can be found here and here.