Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Genesis

Picking up where the second game in the series left off, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is indeed true to its forebears. Players guide the running, jumping, spinning, dashing, swimming, hedgehog through six huge zones of play (including Carnival Night and IceCap Zone), each with a different theme. The music matches the levels extremely well, and the graphics are the best yet, especially terms of the lushly detailed backgrounds. Split-screen two-player races have returned from Sonic 2, as has Tails the fox. This time, however, gamers playing the one-player mode can pick up controller two and have Tails airlift Sonic out of danger. Other fresh features include tons of new enemies (including Knuckles the echidna), a special Insta-Shield super move, new special stages (involving dodging red spheres while grabbing blue ones), and a save feature, which is very helpful since this is the biggest, toughest, least linear game in the trilogy. < -- Book -- > ~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide