(The box says Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but the title screen says SONIC
3. Um…)
The next video game my dad rented
for me and my sister in the Sonic the Hedgehog series was Sonic the Hedgehog 3. By
then the TV set from the den was moved to the living room because of the 1994
Northridge Earthquake. We would have loved
to own this game too, but… how much did video games cost in 1994? Was it $40?
$50? Not to mention that Sonic 3 was hard to come by than time in
toy stores. So Sonic 3 was rented a few times at least, for three days each time. We tried to buy it later and, at our favorite
Toys R Us, they didn’t have it, but the salesman let us try a Duck Tails game and Mickey Mousecapades. We
ended up with the Mickey Mouse game, and it was okay. I beat it at least twice. But I digress…
Sonic started out as Super
Sonic? Wow, that was interesting. We never saw Super Sonic unless he had all
seven Chaos Emeralds and at least 50 rings.
We didn’t realize that it took place after the events of Sonic 2—granted that one finishes Sonic 2 with the conditions to turn into
Super Sonic.
The thing that blue—I mean,
blew—us away about the game was the new player move that was given to Tails. I was playing as Tails in Angel Island Act 2,
and at one instant I accidentally pressed the jump button twice, and then Tails
was airborne for a few moments, with his two tails spinning like a helicopter. I was like, what? He’s did that before, but not while I
controlled him during gameplay. I thought nothing of it until about another
minute or two later I did a repeat and kept pushing the jump button and—Tails
was flying? I was making him fly?! That was so cool!! For the rest of the time the game was rented
I looked forward to playing the game again just to play as Tails and make him
fly…
And swim! Tails could swim, too! Of course Sonic couldn’t. I forgot:
have we ever had an argument over who was going to play as Tails or
Sonic during the co-op mode? I feel like
we did, at least once if not any more.
We also eventually learned that Tails could carry Sonic to a higher part
of the levels he can’t reach by himself.
That was really co-op!
Man, I really loved making Sonic
run on top of the water in the Hydrocity Zone… there was something so right
about it. Like, he’s fast enough to do
that; because when he slows down he’s gonna sink. Whenever I played in the Hydrocity Zone I
felt all was right with the world. I loved all the blues and greens that were used in designing the zone. It was a nice distraction from school stuff.
I also loved the icy snowy environment
in Ice Cap Zone (and the music…! But
there will be a separate post about the music of Sonic 3 later in Cyborg Haven.)
On a Sunday night before a school
morning, the third night of the rental of Sonic
3, I was at the Launch Base Zone, Act 2.
I was taking a while to beat the final battle against Dr. Robotnik. I was afraid we were never going to see the
end of the video game. Time was running out. I was on my last life…and beat the game with
one Ring and one second to spare.
It…was…awesome! My sister and I
were thrilled to hear a new End Credits song.
It wasn’t a medley of music from the video game. It was a stand-alone track altogether.
I remember hoping that on
Christmas of 1995 we would get Sonic 3
as a present. We did get a video game,
but it was Zoop, a puzzle–type
game. I, I mean we, were disappointed. After all that time that Sonic 3 was around, why didn’t we get a copy yet? (I eventually asked one of my parents about
it and that’s when I found out that it was hard to find during those years).
When
did we get it? It had to have been on a
birthday because I certainly don’t remember receiving it on a holiday. I’ll have to really think back or go back to
a really old journal to find out on what occasion we ended up getting our very
own Sonic 3.
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