History VideoGame / Sonic3AndKnuckles

* ContinuingIsPainful: The final boss of the Death Egg Zone, Giant Eggman Robo, in ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' or just ''Sonic & Knuckles''. If you die, you have to [[OneHitPointWonder fight the boss with no rings and no shield]]. What makes it worse is that the level itself is long, increasing the chances of that. Averted, however, if you are Tails, because Tails can fly over the laser beam and not have to worry about being hit.

** When you play as Tails, the levels are incredibly easy thanks to his flight, but you'll probably run into a brick wall with some of the bosses thanks to Tails' lack of an Insta-Shield. Marble Garden Zone Act 2's Jet Drill boss is ''especially'' hard since you will be fighting it alone and cannot jump at it (the only way that Tails can damage the boss is by maneuvering to fly into it from underneath with his propellers). The difficulty is somewhat taken down in ''Origins'', because Tails can now be Super Tails w/just the normal Emeralds (the Super Tails of original Sonic 3 and Knuckles is called Hyper Tails in ''Origins''.

* EasyLevelsHardBosses: When you play as Tails, the levels are incredibly easy thanks to his flight, but you'll probably run into a brick wall with some of the bosses thanks to Tails' lack of an Insta-Shield. Marble Garden Zone Act 2's Jet Drill boss is ''especially'' hard since you will be fighting it alone and cannot jump at it (the only way that Tails can damage the boss is by maneuvering to fly into it from underneath with his propellers). The difficulty is somewhat taken down in ''Origins'', because Tails can now be Super Tails w/just the normal Emeralds (the Super Tails of original Sonic 3 and Knuckles is called Hyper Tails in ''Origins''.

* HardLevelsEasyBosses: If you play as Sonic, you don't have Tails's flight to trivialize all the platforming, but the Insta-Shield gives you a huge attack range, and gives you the ability to bypass protections that certain bosses possess. This is similarly true for Amy in ''Origins Plus'', as her moveset is equivalent to Sonic's in many ways.

* EasyLevelsHardBosses: When you play as Tails, the levels are incredibly easy thanks to his flight, but you'll probably run into a brick wall with some of the bosses thanks to Tails' lack of an Insta-Shield. Marble Garden Zone Act 2's Jet Drill boss is ''especially'' hard since you will be fighting it alone and cannot jump at it (the only way that Tails can damage the boss is by maneuvering to fly into it from underneath with his propellers).

* PushyMooks: Rock'n, a giant walking block of rock that pushes the player around.

* ContinuingIsPainful: The final boss of the Death Egg Zone, Giant Eggman Robo, in ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' or just ''Sonic & Knuckles''. If you die, you have to [[OneHitPointWonder fight the boss with no rings and no shield]]. What makes it worse is that the level itself is long, increasing the chances of that.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** While it was later standardized as Eggrobo, "[=EggRobo=]" is the Badnik's earlier spelling, and also suggests that it may have been intended to be a portmanteau of "Eggman" and "Robotnik".
** [=TechnoSqueek=] from the ''Sonic 3'' manual was later listed as Technosqueek in the ''Sonic & Knuckles'' manual, despite it not making a proper appearance in the former game due to the zone order being rearranged relatively late in development.

''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' is Creator/{{Sega}}'s third [[UsefulNotes/The16bitEraOfConsoleVideoGames 16-bit]] entry in the ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series, and the follow-up to the wildly-popular ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2''. It was so ambitious that time and hardware constraints forced them to [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo split it into two separate games]]:

The plot picks up after the [[UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis Genesis/Mega Drive]] version of ''Sonic 2''. Following the destruction of the Death Egg at the end of the previous adventure, it crash lands onto the mysterious Floating Island above the sea, taking Dr. Eggman ([[DubNameChange a.k.a. Dr. Robotnik]]) with it. The island is able to fly due to its connection with the Master Emerald, a powerful gem said to control the Chaos Emeralds. Due to the impact of the Death Egg, though, the island has sunken into the ocean. Eggman is miraculously unharmed, and finds himself at the Master Emerald's altar.

* {{Homage}}: The item monitors strongly resemble UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Macintosh_128k_transparency.png computers.]] Possibly a reference to the fact that Macs were often used to program Mega Drive games, since at the time they utilized the same Motorola 68k CPU used by the console.

[[caption-width-right:350:An adventure so big, [[EpisodicGame one cartridge wasn't enough]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350:An adventure so big, one cartridge wasn't enough.]]

!!Provides examples of:

->''"[[FauxlosophicNarration Sonic races through the green fields.\\

Don't give up on the sun. Don't make the sun laugh at you.]]"''

** In Flying Battery Zone, an unusual variation of flame spewer appears that shoots flames horizontally left and right. When stepped on, the flames are disabled. **A more traditional Flame Spewer Obstacles can be found in Launch Base Zone and Lava Reef Zone act 2 which spis out flames at regular intervals with some spread.

* FlameSpewerObstacle: In Flying Battery Zone, an unusual variation of flame spewer appears that shoots flames horizontally left and right. When stepped on, the flames are disabled. A more traditional Flame Spewer Obstacle can be found in Lava Reef Zone act 2 which spits out flames at regular intervals with some spread.

* UnderTheSea: Hydrocity [[RuleOfThree of course]], but the ''Sonic 3'' half has noticeably the most water in any ''Sonic'' game, with Marble Garden being the only Zone (of six) without it. The second acts of Carnival Night (only as Sonic and Tails) and Launch Base have enough water to double as secondary water levels to Hydrocity's main one. There are less water segments when playing as Knuckles and the ''Sonic & Knuckles'' half has none at all -- though you can call Sandopolis a water level in disguise. Despite being a desert, it has all the markings of a ''Sonic'' water level.

* ConveyorBeltODoom: Death Egg Zone has elevators with conveyor belts that randomly switch direction and try to force Sonic into spikes or gun turrets.

** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} in Death Egg Zone. Some of the conveyor belts are moving platforms, which Sonic must take to progress, and they're designed to change direction whenever it's most inconvenient in order to push him into wall spikes or throw him into big ol' bug zappers.

->''"[[FauxlosophicNarration Sonic races through the green fields.]]\\
[[FauxlosophicNarration The sun races through a blue sky filled with white clouds.]]\\
[[FauxlosophicNarration The ways of his heart are much like the sun. Sonic runs and rests; the sun rises and sets.]]\\
[[FauxlosophicNarration Don't give up on the sun. Don't make the sun laugh at you.]]"''

->''"Sonic races through the green fields.\\
The sun races through a blue sky filled with white clouds.\\
The ways of his heart are much like the sun. Sonic runs and rests; the sun rises and sets.\\
Don't give up on the sun. Don't make the sun laugh at you."''

This would be the last core series ''Sonic'' game until 1998's ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', which further explores Angel Island's backstory. It would later get two more sequels in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' (its plot serving as a sequel to the Death Egg saga) and ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' (unrelated plot-wise, but closer in gameplay and formula, due to taking place in the Classic Sonic Dimension after the [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight Time Eater plot]] in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'').