The Making of Sonic 3 & Knuckles

In this chapter of the making of series we look back at the long and eventful development history of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles.

In this video we discuss the:
-Art direction, graphic tools and tricks
-All the management challenges
-The split up
-Lock on technology
-and Michael Jackson's involvement

///Support the channel:
All your views, likes comments and shares are really appreciated! My making of videos are part of bigger project. I set up a patreon for those who would like to financially support it:

///Music used in this video:
For the complete track-list skip to the end of the video
"Wow" Samples from Norman Cook - "Skip To My Loops!"
Sources are listed at the end the video.

Special thanks to Andy Wolan and the SSRG for their research on the Lock-on technology.

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The Making of Sonic The Hedgehog : Inspirations

The Making of Sonic the Hedgehog 2

[kingdavewoody]

I'm actually glad that they released it as 2 games. At the time I didn't know that my sonic 3 game was unfinished.

My friend had sonic and knuckles and we didn't know about sonic 3 & knuckles. Anyway out of curiosity we plugged my sonic 3 cartridge to his and we were SO SHOCKED... after that we'd go to each others houses to play our shared game.

Good times

[TedThomasTT]

youtube doesn't deserve videos with this level of quality. amazing work.

[gothicspoon]

"too ambitious" seems to be the best way to describe Sega. All memes aside, they really were always into pushing boundaries and innovating.

[jayjayjaythebrand]

Thank you so much for no stupid jokes or high pitched voices and screaming everyone else is doing. Easy to listen too, informative, straight to the point, and amazing production quality. Subbed bro

[emilyapricot]

Like Sonic 3 itself, this channel has outstanding quality and is criminally under appreciated.

[xXBlueSheepXx]

Why are small niche YouTube channels always the greatest?

[Zx]

Man, Sonic 3 and Knuckles blew my mind when I was a kid. The level design, the characters, the secrets, the bonus stages, the bosses, and more! Then suddenly I could connect Sonic 2 to that and play Sonic 2 all over again with Knuckles?! It was a dream.

Thanks for the amazing video! Keep up the great work!

[LoneStoneMaalik]

“Sonic Mania Day”

They knew that this game was coming even back then.

[pleasebenice]

Why does this have the strong vibe of a VHS video a teacher would put on for a classroom? That’s not a complaint, I honestly love it, very informative and well-done. Thank you for making this!!

[gamenextnusic]

I thought that all these background videos were all made by SEGA, but no, you've spent countless hours making this video just for us, the Sonic fans. Dude, you're awesome, a great future awaits you. Liked & suscribed, you deserve way more subs, and way more acknowledgement, seriously, I can't express how lucky I feel when finding a channel like yours, it's just... truly awesome!

[memaimu]

Damn, no introduction or nothin'. Just gets straight to the point.

[AltimaNEO]

Man, growing up as a teen in the 90s really let me appreciate how awesome Sega and Nintendo were during their golden age. Their rivalry really brought it the best in them. It's just not the same between Sony and Microsoft. And Nintendo just doesn't try like they used to.

[Haloforus]

For fun, I've often tried making my own top 10 favorite games list for myself. I've never been able to finish any of these lists, but they all share a single thing in common, and that is this game here taking number one.


I adore this game, I make sure to play through it at least once a year, in fact I make sure to play it every single Christmas, it's like a tradition. The memories I have being young and loving every second of Sonic 3&K, playing it with my brother every once in a while, loving the music, enjoying the great level design, the multiple characters that all feel different yet retaining the familiar feel of momentum...


This is my favorite game ever made, to this day I still enjoy very single visit I make to Angel Island and I salute SEGA and the developers for putting together such a masterpiece that I quite literally will continue to enjoy for the rest of my life.


Thank you for the extremely informative video on the making of this classic gem, you did it absolute justice.

[sonicrunnr]

“Takashi IIzuka was responsible for the airship bombardment and opening cutscene”


Oh, that makes sense.

[Nicknir]

I love this channel. You put so much effort to bring us a great content. thank you!

[InNominePraxis]

I almost never write youtube comments, this is one solely to give a small contribute to the youtube algorithm.

[DrunkASMR]

Sonic 3 is by far one of my favourite game ever, enjoyed this video.

[Antonio_Ortiz]

Dude, you have no idea how much seeing those old Sonic marketing materials (like the McDonald's commercial and the magazine ads) brings joy to my heart: I remember seeing all of that as a kid and being so hyped for Sonic 3 to come out. So many memories, so many feels.

And you even give time stamps for the music credits. Strafefox, you are a good man.

[blackphoenix]

I was blown away when I found out that Michael Jackson and his music team did some of the music for Sonic 3: shame that they couldn't score the entire thing. By the way, Sonic 3 hasn't been on any recent game collections because that same music team is in a lawsuit with Sega over royalty payments for the music they made for the game.

[Massflavour]

This is professional production quality and research. Well done.