Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog 3, also known as Sonic 3, is a video game for the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Genesis. The game was developed by Sega Technical Institute, published by Sega and released in 1994. It is the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sonic 3 and its sequel Sonic & Knuckles, were originally planned to be a single game, but were split up due to cost.

Zones
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 contains six zones, each divided up into two acts. At the end of each act you must fight against a boss.

Angel Island Zone
After Sonic arrives he is stopped by Knuckles who steals the seven Chaos Emeralds he is carrying. The zone is green and jungle-like to begin with, but halfway through act 1 it is set ablaze by Dr. Robotniks robots.

Special Stages Act 1
1. Near the start of the zone, just after the first drop, turn left. Do a spin dash to break the rock blocking the entrance to a hidden room containing the special stage ring.

2. After the zone is set on fire, go down the first drop and break the rock to the left. In the hidden room is a spring. The special stage ring is above the spring.

Special Stages Act 2
1. After you go through the narrow shoot at the very start of the stage, just keep pressing right and you should break into the hidden room after you exit the shoot.

2. When you get to the waterfall with the rocks that appear and disappear, fall down into the pool below. Do a spin dash up the right wall to find the hidden room where the special stage ring is.

Hydrocity Zone
This zone mostly takes place underwater.

Marble Garden Zone
The ruins of an ancient civilization. This is the only zone not to feature water.

Carnival Night Zone
This zone takes place in a carnival at night. It is similar to the Casino Night Zone from Sonic 2. The drums on the stage can be made to bounce up and down by pressing up and down when standing on them.

Icecap Zone
Act one takes place in a frozen cave, while act two has Sonic on the snow covered surface.

Launch Base Zone
This is where Dr. Robotnik is building his Death egg.

Special Stages Act 1
1. At the very first rotating bridge drop down and go left. When you get to the wall jump up into a secret passage to find the special stage ring

Items
Sonic 3 contains many items from previous Sonic games as well as new ones. Most notably, the shield is now available in three versions. Each shield has a unique power that can be used by Sonic. Tails is unable to use these powers as he can fly and swim instead.

Rings
Rings protect you when you are hit. If you are hit when you are carrying rings, you lose all of them, and if you are hit when you have no rings you lose a life. Every 100 rings collected gives you an extra life.

Item Boxes
Sonic/Tails must attack these to get the contents.

Shields
Shields protect you from harm. If you are hit when you have a shield, you lose the shield instead of your rings. In Sonic 3, there are 3 different types of shield. Each shield gives Sonic an extra attack while he has it (Tails can't use these extra attacks, but can fly instead).

Giant Ring
These are hidden around the levels. When you go through them you will be taken to a special stage. If you have collected all the Chaos Emeralds it will give you 50 rings instead.

Chaos Emeralds
There are seven Chaos Emeralds in total. Each Chaos Emerald comes in a different colors: red, blue, green, orange, purple, white, and aqua, respectfully. Collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds will turn Sonic into Super Sonic, and result in a special ending upon the completion of the game.

Star Post
These are placed at random through out most levels. If you die, you restart at the last star post you ran through. If you have 50 or more rings when you pass through a star post, a ring of stars will hover above. You can jump into these to go to the bonus stage.

Special Stages
There are seven special stages in the game, one for each Chaos Emerald you can collect. In the special stages, you must collect all the blue spheres while avoiding the red spheres. If you collect all the blue spheres you are rewarded with a Chaos Emerald.

Making Rings
Groups of blue spheres can be turned into rings by going around the outside of them.

A Simple Example
1. 2.  3.

There must be at least 1 blue sphere in the center.

Irregular Shapes
1. 2.  3.

Notice how only the spheres in the outline and the center turn into rings.

Bonus Stages
In Sonic 2 jumping in to the stars above a star post brings you to the special stage, however in Sonic 3 you are brought to a bonus stage instead. The goal is to try and collect as many useful items as possible. The items available are: To enter a bonus Stage you need to pass a Starpost with 50 or more rings. Stars will appear above the starpost. Jump into the stars to enter the bonus stage.