Sonic 3 & Knuckles: All 14 Special Stages (+2, HD)

This took the longest to process, as it's the longest of my 4 Special Stages compilations, so I uploaded it last.
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles bring back the big Special Stage Rings that were in Sonic 1, and Sonic CD. However, they are much thicker, and instead of finding them at the end of most Acts, they are instead stashed away in hidden areas scattered all over every Zone in the game between Angel Island to Lava Reef. They stop appearing in every Zone after that. If you can find them, you can enter them anytime you want without needing a certain number of Rings.

All of the Special Stages in this game take place on very small checkered planets. The goal is to, well... "Get Blue Spheres". Nab them all to beat the Special Stage and get a Chaos Emerald for your efforts. Once you collect a Blue Sphere, it'll become a Red Sphere. Don't touch those or you're automatically kicked out of the Special Stage.

There's a trick that, if you create a perimeter of Red Spheres in a group of Blue Spheres of 3x3 or more, you'll turn the entire group into Rings. If you collect all of the Rings in the Special Stage, you'll get a Perfect, which gives you 50,000 points: An instant 1-UP!
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As with Sonic 2, if you get all of the Chaos Emeralds, you can become Super Sonic and see the game's Good Ending. If you got them all as Knuckles, you can then become Super Knuckles. HOWEVER, since this is Sonic 3 & Knuckles, you can go further than that.

Launch Base is the last "Sonic 3" Zone, and in this game, it leads directly to Mushroom Hill Zone, the first "Sonic & Knuckles" Zone.

The big Rings you'll find in those Zones flash different colors. Enter one and you'll be taken to Hidden Palace Zone's Emerald Shrine. From there, any number of Chaos Emeralds you had at that point will be taken from you and transformed into unactivated Super Emeralds. This means you're no longer able to become Super Sonic/Super Knuckles. So if you still want to beat the game as just them, you're going to have to avoid every big Ring from there on out!

To reactivate the Super Emeralds, stand on top of a dull grey one to be taken to its Special Stage. The Super Emeralds' Special Stages are the exact same ones as the Chaos Emeralds' if you're playing Sonic & Knuckles on its own.

A new addition in these Special Stages are Yellow Spheres, which act like springs that give you a big jump that skips over several spots in front of you.
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The color order for both Chaos & Super Emeralds are: Green, Orange, Pink, Blue, Grey, Red, Cyan.

Winning a Super Emerald causes its essence to find itself at the shrine, reactivating the emerald with its matching color.

If you get all of the Super Emeralds, Sonic can become Hyper Sonic, Knuckles can become Hyper Knuckles, and Tails finally gains the ability to become Super Tails. Sonic and Knuckles' Hyper forms are more powerful than their Super forms, but Super Tails has a very unique quirk about him that probably outperforms the two Hypers, especially against bosses.

Also, you get to see an even better ending once you beat the game. A Perfect Clear of sorts.
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Last but not least, there are two extra Emeralds, as well: A Yellow Chaos Emerald, and a Yellow Super Emerald. To reach their Special Stages, you have to first unlock the Stage Select & Debug Mode, then go to the former's Sound Test and go to "1F" on it.

Then Hold A and press Start after highlighting "Special Stage" on the same screen, "Special Stage 1" for the Yellow Chaos Emerald, & "Special Stage 2" for the "Yellow Super Emerald.

Besides being able to carry over the stats of the last data you picked (such as having all 14 Emeralds), both of these Yellow Emeralds don't do anything in the game besides adding an unnecessary Emerald to your total, and once you get them, you're automatically taken to the beginning of Angel Island Zone.

I'll cover how you can unlock Stage Select & Debug Mode in the first place in a different video, as well as how you can do the same in Sonic 1, 2, & even CD!
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9/8/2017 UPDATE: Hey! It looks like ALL 16 of these Special Stages make a return as Sonic Mania's Bonus Stages! These 16, combined with 16 brand new layouts, make a grand total of 32 regular layouts! I will record all 32 of them eventually!
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Sonic 1's Special Stages:

Sonic 2's Special Stages:

Sonic CD's Special Stages (+1):

Sonic Mania's Special Stages:

Sonic Mania Plus' Encore Mode Special Stages:

[cianmoran]

Anyone notice how the colour schemes of the Chaos Emerald special stages correspond with the order of the prototype Sonic 3 stages?

The first one is brown with a blue sky, similar to Angel Island.
The next one is turquoise, like Hydrocity.
The third one is orange and white, like Marble Garden.
The fourth one is red and white with a night sky, exactly like Carnival Night.
The next one looks like Flying Battery with its orange and purple colour scheme.
The sixth one is blue and light blue, just like Ice Cap.
The last one is yellow and purple, exactly like Launch Base.

coInCidEncE, ? i tHiNk nOt

[PoisonDuckAnimations]

Oh God, these stages. One wrong move, and you hit a red sphere and have to find another dang giant ring. These were always absolutely nerve-wrecking to me.

[PrinceEomer]

For everyone going Emerald hunting with this video, I will put in all the times that he enters a Special Stage.

Chaos Emeralds:
0:01 - Chaos Emerald No. 1
1:40 - Chaos Emerald No. 2
3:37 - Chaos Emerald No. 3
5:34 - Chaos Emerald No. 4
7:22 - Chaos Emerald No. 5
9:07 - Chaos Emerald No. 6
11:06 - Chaos Emerald No. 7

Super Emeralds:
13:31 - Super Emerald No. 1
15:47 - Super Emerald No. 2
17:26 - Super Emerald No. 3
19:14 - Super Emerald No. 4
21:12 - Super Emerald No. 5
23:07 - Super Emerald No. 6
26:09 - Super Emerald No. 7

Bonus Emeralds:
28:08 - Bonus Emerald No. 1
30:13 - Bonus Emerald No. 2

I hope this helps.

[gaoutlaw]

One of the proudest moments of my gaming life, was getting all super chaos emeralds.

[kinggalactix]

I like how the chaos emeralds soecial stages represent the places we'll go, while the super emeralds represent the emeralds themselves. It's like we're actually unlocking their (and our) true potential.

[TheRealDustinNunn]

When I play the Blue Sphere special stages, I don't worry about the rings. All I care about is getting all of the blue spheres, get the Chaos/Super Emerald and get on out.

[alanbareiro]

The special stage at 19:14 is the hardest to get a perfect! Marvellous job!!!

[DDRhappiness]

19:15 that emerald was always a pain.
One wrong move, and you mess up your perfect. Especially if you don't know the correct path.
It's funny cuz its also my fav to do lol

[Gabonation]

19:12 dude i have no idea how i've been struggling at this special stage for so long but thank you so much for this tutorial

[TheGOGOSFAN]

Hint: Pause the game in the areas you don't know where to go or when your're going too fast and it's much easier.

[mondragon]

I remember the first time I ever got all 14 emeralds. I jumped up and down and went crazy because I was so excited lol. Great video!

[LrdDeLtA]

19:15. I could never pass this emerald for the longest time.

[ezrawyvern]

I love how when it comes to the Super Emeralds' Special Stages, you're actually allowed to choose which ones you wish to engage in, in any which order.
Although, if one has an incomplete number of Chaos Emeralds when coming across that Super Giant Ring at the start of Mushroom Hill Zone that will allow them to try for the Green Super Emerald, if my sources are correct.

[thatoneguy]

On the DS Sonic Classic collection, there was a strange all green Stage that I think was the Master Emerald stage, and it would randomly play at either level, and it’s rare for it to even activate. When played, and even if you didn’t collect any blue spheres, you’d automatically collect all Super Emeralds and go Hyper.

[magamexican]

When I saw him jump over a blue ball to get all the rings before completing the stage, I knew I wasn't as cool as I thought I was.

[ryancollins]

Can we all just take a moment to forget about spheres and emeralds and just appreciate what an absolute banger of a tune the sonic 3 special stage is ❤

[kriminatroy]

0:00: Chaos Emeralds
13:10: Super Emeralds

Why did I make this?

[dorourke]

25:22 Holy crap you rock! I was worried there for a minute

[bongocat-gb]

Back in the old days, i played a sonic 3 prototype and the yellow spheres would turn to blue ones

[ivanc.]

19:14 the hardest one but this is my favorite Special Stage