You Have Only Experienced 25% of Sonic 3

A gameplay-focused deep dive into the wealth of incredible content in Sonic 3, that you were unaware of...until today.

Clips

2:50
Yoshi’s Wooly World gameplay by YouTube user Zephiel810
Yoshi's Woolly World - Mellow Mode Gameplay

17:04
Arcade Hammer Game clip by YouTube user Ali H
Winning the Arcade Hammer Machine JACKPOT! *new record*

17:28
Paul Pierce Postgame Analysis clip by NBA-TV / YouTube user Matthew Lucio
Postgame Presser: Paul Pierce Game 6

30:42
James Bond Clip from “Quantum of Solace” by Eon & MGM / Sony Pictures

30:43
Marshall Faulk gameplay by NFL / YouTube user G.C. Bourque
Marshall Faulk Highlights - High Quality from 'A Football Life'

37:12
Sonic Generations gameplay by YouTube user Ezodagrom
Sonic Generations - Planet Wisp (Modern)

40:59
Batman Prison Escape from “The Dark Knight Rises”
by Warner Bros. / Legendary Pictures

[AlexYardAdventure]

My other stuff:
Livestreams 3 times per week on Twitch:
Sonic News Roundup Dispatches (monthly):
Channel for Music Theory videos about Sonic soundtracks (and other games):

[davidabner]

When I play through, I adapt my play style to how I think my character would go through the campaign. Sonic is all about the quickest time, Tails is all about saving all the animals, and Knuckles is all about getting all the collectibles.

[asialsky]

25%?! Oh, my sweet summer child.
Nobody tell him about the millions of Blue Sphere levels.

[QruisS]

Title should be "Player discovers score system and optimal play and treats it as if they found the holy grail of gaming"

[calebbennetts]

On the topic of time, don't forget that finishing at 9:59 gives you a 100, 000 point time bonus (at least in Sonic 3), which means the maximum score isn't a "speed run, " but a "distance run" that maximizes rings and Special Stage score, but always ends at the same time.

[Alohabob]

Well clickbaited sir, here was me thinking this was going to be about cut content and not just 47 minutes to say "You can measure your performance by points and time".

[Celtic]

18:43 you are making a very stupid assumption there. "This is more interesting to me and therefore the intended method of play" you have the option to make it easier and you're actively choosing to ignore it. That's like saying that a nuzlocke is the intended way to play pokemon because revives must only be for babies. No it's an intended mechanic for anyone to use.

[marfdasko]

if the developers intended for your score to be reflected by balancing speed, ring collection and badnik chains, perhaps they shouldnt have made it possible to get literally infinite points from bouncing the spin sign around at the end of act 1 (or to grab 300 rings from the glowing sphere bonus stage for that matter)

[renzokuken]

Honestly, if this video was framed as a
"Try this Sonic 3 challenge! It will change your way you see the game forever!"
and went for a more fun approach, I feel that more people would enjoy this video....

[RonDaSantis]

I didn’t see the 75% of the game we all missed.
Looked like the same game.

[Akanint]

The complete S3K is my favorite video game of all time.
I've replayed it with every character on at least five different consoles (Basically every time it's in a new compilation)
I assure you, S3K never gets stale.

[Astro_Crunch]

Two big takeaways from this video:

1. A good scoring system can add a lot of depth to a seemingly simple game

2. I need to call my mom

[agreedboarart]

Even coming from someone who does pay attention to points, HARD disagree with the point about people who don't play Sonic for points not being allowed to say which game is better. Only in the Sonic fandom have I heard such pretentious nonsense.

[MasterSonicKnight]

u had me going until u said "don't get shield monitors or chaos emeralds", those are literally important and complementary parts of the game, the moment u start doing that u stopped "fully enjoying the game" and started to do a challenge run.

getting chaos emeralds are literally part of the very lore of the game, and lemme tell u how hard it is to even find one on the later stages of the "& Knuckles" levels, once i got so frustrated i entered debug mode just to be able to find them, and i still could barely find any.

also the shields might seem like an easy mode at first, but changing the moveset also provides the player with a whole new range of paths and decisions, because there are many things u can do, or even paths u can take with a shield u can't do without them, but now u also gotta be mindful that some things u can do without a shield u can no longer do. the spiky enemies from launch base are now a permanent threat, since the shields can't break the metal spikes from them, like they were able to in ice cap. some enemies projectiles and hazards now have to be fully dodged, because u don't have the invincibility shield. there are many portions where having a shield might make it harder to avoid damage because of this, since only a few stages have sections where having a specific shield makes ur life easier

I've always played the game trying to take the least amount of damage as possible, since i personally hate losing rings, and love collecting them, i never cared much about going fast, and i find it rly cool to just go and explore the level, search stuff in every corner, this is the one thing most people just completely ignore when playing sonic games, barely anyone nowadays will actually try and explore the level.

[whackcracka]

“ I didn’t collect all the rings in sonic, so my opinion is Null”

I can’t believe you recorded that, watched your video, and then said yeah, I’m gonna let that one go

[Miraglyth]

A bit rich to declare "not caring about score" is the developers' idea of Easy Mode when Sonic Jam involved the same developers literally making a specific Easy Mode that was considerably easier, set alongside a balance-adjusted Normal Mode (and an untouched Original Mode).

[AndrewGrabowski]

This video shares an interesting perspective on how players can get more out of Sonic 3, and that’s great, but it also comes across as needlessly pretentious. Players are not ‘unqualified’ to compare the quality of Sonic games or wish for certain sequels just because they didn’t play Sonic 3 with an emphasis on score. Passion for deeper game mechanics is fine - but let’s not gatekeep.

[gbjon]

Nothing burns me out faster than feeling like I have to play perfectly. I have more fun when I'm able to let go.

[zinarmagadan]

My mom would play Sonic & Knuckles by itself all the time and write down her score every time. She got two or three notebooks filled with scores and she would always circle her highest score up to date.

[paper_gem]

I think there's a misunderstanding about game design here. There's a reason why you're invincible after you get hit. It's so your character won't get stuck.