Sonic 3 vs. Sonic 3 & Knuckles

[Razor]

In this little topic me and Zenon wanted to point out some of the differences between Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It seems like it's the same game, what's the point? But S3&K was some kind of a "fix" of Sonic 3. And it made the differences apear. Some glitches were fixed, but due to that the new ones were introduced. The Launch Base Zone was changed a lot. Since it was the final zone in Sonic 3 it had to be harder.
We didn't review the differences in music and sound, but we can point out however, that there are some changed tracks like "gaining a 1 up" sound, the invincibility/Super Sonic melody, the miniboss melody, the title screen belody and such.
 

 

Do you know more differences?

[azoo]

The pluses of Sonic 3 Alone:

- the amazing credits music

- Big Arm existing

- the amazing miniboss music (C'MON)

- Knuckle's phat ass beats

 

The pluses of Sonic 3 & Knuckles:

- the level layouts

- S&K's miniboss music actually fit those bosses better

- the fact that it was a complete game

- everything else basically

 

It is sort of sad that Big Arm never appears in S3K at any point, nor does the original Knuckles and miniboss tracks nor S3's credits, but 3K literally did everything else much better. The layouts are more streamlined and less obnoxious in enemy placement, making the game overall faster and better for the pacing of the game as a whole (since they had to change Ice Cap, Carnival Night and Launch Base from being the later levels to being early-to-mid game).

 

Though I have to admit, Sonic & Knuckles' mini boss music fit the mini boss battles a lot better than S3's. Mostly because S3's sound more like a full version of Knuckle's beats.. which is why I'm sort of sad that in S3K they got replaced by that other song (which is still a great little theme for Knuckles and its super catchy, but you can't really beat the C'MON!).

 

That said, I do enjoy Sonic 3 Complete the most since it allows you to customize the game however you like, and fixes/patches certain things about the game. If only the Tax-Stealth port of S3K would be like this..

[a bean]

I'd rather just have Sonic & Knuckles on its own to be honest. That part I find decent, but not worth going through Sonic 3 for. 

[Big Panda]

I'd rather just have Sonic & Knuckles on its own to be honest. That part I find decent, but not worth going through Sonic 3 for.

But then there's the downside of no saving.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

I find Sonic 3 to be boring and dull and the level designs sucked a little. The bosses were good and some stages were okay but still. Sonic 3 and Knuckles was better because I can play as Sonic to the very end and fight a exciting boss as him in the Doomsday Zone. It also had the Sandpolis Zone I liked.

 

I hate classic games, but Sonic 3 and Knuckles was the only one I liked.

[Eternal EX]

Biggest difference and I'm so prepared to get beat for saying this.......Hyper sonic. S3&K had him, while S3 alone didn't. He was god mode and then some. Also Tails had a super form in S3&K, where he didn't in the S3.

[Razor]

It is sort of sad that Big Arm never appears in S3K at any point

 

Play the game with Knuckles 

[Meta77]

Soinc 3's mini boss music was amazing back in the day growing up.

[10e10]

S3&K all the way! In my opinion it's the best Sonic game ever (if you count it as one game ) It's really complete, from the characters, to the gameplay, to the bosses, the emeralds, super forms for the original three. Really great! I even consider S2 and S&K better than S3.

[The Pit of Mystic Cave]

Yeah, S3&K is my favorite Sonic game as well. However, strangely enough, S3 alone might actually be my least favorite classic Sonic game (that doesn't mean it's bad mind you). I didn't enjoy the stages, music, or ending nearly as much as S&K, but I still enjoy playing through the full experiece of S3&K the most.

[StaticMania]

Most of the changes were because Sonic 3 had to be a seperate game in general...the levels were made harder than they were suppose to be because there were only 6 stages alone on each cartridge...levels like Launch base had to be made like they were the final-ish level and end game-y.

 

Any music related changes were probably because they decided to replace the old tracks with the Sonic&Knuckles versions, the credits theme in Sonic 3 was only there for them not having made an actual medley for the game...the classic Sonic games use medleys to end off the games and they didn't make one, so they used something else.

[8ther]

I found Sonic 3's title screen and miniboss theme to be better than S3&K's but other than that, i prefer Sonic 3 & knux over vanilla Sonic 3.

[lucidshine]

Great video! And I agree, S3&K is more fun to play. It's my second favourite Sonic game.

[Vicki476]

I do agree, I much prefer playing S3&K over Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles separately. Mind you I have played both games quite a lot - I consider S3&K a bit more of a challenge. I like how Hyper Sonic is exclusive to this game too, it would be nice to see him make a bit of a comeback but I guess that's one of the reasons why he's so special.