TIL about Sonic 3 Complete
Oct. 13th, 2020 04:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sniffnoySo I recently learned about Sonic 3 Complete, a romhack that attempts to put Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles together in a way more coherent (and customizable!) than the canonical way.
It's interesting -- I'd thought as a kid there must be a better way than sticking all the levels of S&K directly after all the levels of Sonic 3; I mean the difficulty curve doesn't exactly fit, does it? Mind you at this point I can get through the whole game easily enough that it's hard for me to tell, but yeah. However the only change it makes to the level order is (optionally, of course!) putting Flying Battery inbetween Carnival Night and Ice Cap; you still have Mushroom Hill (which can optionally be renamed to Mushroom Valley...) after Launch Base. It also does some other nice things, like putting the Sonic 3 final boss back in if you want, and fixing various bugs.
But there are other changes I didn't realize -- in S3&K, some of the Sonic 3 levels have been altered in some places with easier object placements! I had no idea! Well -- I say I had no idea, but that's not exactly true. I definitely remember having moments of "Hm, that's not how I remember it" playing these levels, but had no idea that it had actually changed due to locking on the S&K cartridge. Hm. Naturally this romhack (optionally) reverts those. Also apparently in S&K, hitting an item monitor from below doesn't cause it to fall?? So that's another thing you can change...
Basically it lets you toggle like... lots of stuff... like which music to use of course. It's funny -- as a kid, I really didn't like the Sonic 3 miniboss music because, well, it didn't sound like Sonic. I preferred the S&K replacement because, well, it sounded more appropriate. But these days I think the Sonic 3 miniboss theme is pretty damn cool (and, obviously, distinctive). The S&K miniboss theme is kind of bland and generic by comparison. I've listened to the Sonic 3 miniboss theme quite a bit in the years since then; the Sonic & Knuckles miniboss theme, not so much.
...can't say the same about Knuckles's theme, though. Sorry, but Sonic 3's Knuckles theme is just kind of boring, the S&K versions is way better.
I'm unlikely to bother ever playing it, because, well, if I really want to replay S3&K, I think S3&K is good enough. But it's nice to know that it's there.
It's interesting -- I'd thought as a kid there must be a better way than sticking all the levels of S&K directly after all the levels of Sonic 3; I mean the difficulty curve doesn't exactly fit, does it? Mind you at this point I can get through the whole game easily enough that it's hard for me to tell, but yeah. However the only change it makes to the level order is (optionally, of course!) putting Flying Battery inbetween Carnival Night and Ice Cap; you still have Mushroom Hill (which can optionally be renamed to Mushroom Valley...) after Launch Base. It also does some other nice things, like putting the Sonic 3 final boss back in if you want, and fixing various bugs.
But there are other changes I didn't realize -- in S3&K, some of the Sonic 3 levels have been altered in some places with easier object placements! I had no idea! Well -- I say I had no idea, but that's not exactly true. I definitely remember having moments of "Hm, that's not how I remember it" playing these levels, but had no idea that it had actually changed due to locking on the S&K cartridge. Hm. Naturally this romhack (optionally) reverts those. Also apparently in S&K, hitting an item monitor from below doesn't cause it to fall?? So that's another thing you can change...
Basically it lets you toggle like... lots of stuff... like which music to use of course. It's funny -- as a kid, I really didn't like the Sonic 3 miniboss music because, well, it didn't sound like Sonic. I preferred the S&K replacement because, well, it sounded more appropriate. But these days I think the Sonic 3 miniboss theme is pretty damn cool (and, obviously, distinctive). The S&K miniboss theme is kind of bland and generic by comparison. I've listened to the Sonic 3 miniboss theme quite a bit in the years since then; the Sonic & Knuckles miniboss theme, not so much.
...can't say the same about Knuckles's theme, though. Sorry, but Sonic 3's Knuckles theme is just kind of boring, the S&K versions is way better.
I'm unlikely to bother ever playing it, because, well, if I really want to replay S3&K, I think S3&K is good enough. But it's nice to know that it's there.
