The Making of Sonic 3 & Knuckles (excellent doc!)

[DZ: WF Legacy]

This is premiering right now. This guy's production is top notch.

[GuyOfOwnage]

I'll have to give this a watch. This was the series at its absolute zenith.

[Paul]

I always thought it was cool that originally they wanted Sonic 3 to be what ended up being Sonic And Knuckles + Sonic 3 but I guess they didn't have time to finish it by the time it was supposed to be ready to release.

Also, Michael Jackson did a lot of the music for Sonic 3.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

Premiere finished. All the production graphics and fascinating information make these docs the stuff of dreams for those of us who grew up in the 90s playing and obsessing about these games. Do check out his other stuff (including the one on Sonic 2) - he's not nearly as popular as he deserves to be.

[Paul]

That was excellent! It was very well produced, informative, and entertaining. I highly recommend anyone who's interested in classic video games or Sonic to watch it- totally worth it.

[Deleted]

Fantastic video. Very informative, and the motion graphics were a nice touch.

[Powerline]

Most of what people under the Retroware banner do is pretty solid.  This was excellent.

In the Console Wars book, they go into further detail about that issue with the U.S. team not being allowed in the section where Sonic 3 was being worked on.  The whole reason Naka was moved to the U.S. was because Sega of Japan kept sticking their nose into Sonic 2 and what Naka was up to.  Tom Kalinske (president of Sega of America) was very much of the belief that Naka's vision was what made the Sonic games work, and anyone else trying to add would spoil the broth, and both Kalinske and Naka felt that's what was happening in Japan.  So part of their deal to bring Naka over was essentially Naka saying "You give me the space, and then you leave me and my team alone", which Kalinske and SoA were willing to accommodate assuming progress was being made.  So the move to limit access to 3's development was built on the same idea, except with cutting off Sega's American team this time.

The emphasis on the 3D tech being used for animation was a sticking point when the game started falling more and more behind schedule.  A ton of people in both SoJ and SoA (mostly SoJ, since some of them were still not cool with so much of Sonic's development taking place in America) were unhappy with the idea of pushing back the game while still going to all this trouble with 3D animation in a 2D game.  It gave off the impression Naka's focus wasn't where it needed to be. 

Naka was a hardcore perfectionist, and would never really see an issue with delays if it meant the product was better for it.  That clashed with SoJ for Sonic 2, and then clashed with SoA for Sonic 3.  Naka didn't want to do the split-game, but Sega felt they had too much money in the McDonalds Happy Meal deal to just do it for fun without it tying in to anything.  Some even threw around leaving vanilla Sonic 3 as "Sonic 3" and being done with it there.

Michael Jackson actually still had possession of master recordings for Sonic 3 tracks in his Neverland Ranch recording studio when he passed away.

If you unlock Sonic 3's sound test, you actually notice the changed level order.  The songs will play in order according to zones and that even includes tracks for Sonic and Knuckles' zones, and the Flying Battery tracks are smack in between Carnival Night and Ice Cap, whereas the rest of the S&K tracks are where they belong.  It also shows Flying Battery as a selectable level in that same spot, but nothing happens if you try to select the stage.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

These games felt like events when they were released. Say what you will about some of Sega’s business decisions, this kind of innovation and smart experimentation is what I mainly associate with them.

I remember that Ooze game when I had the Sega Channel, and I recall finding it pretty annoying after a while. Then I just went back to Pulseman, or Gunstar Heroes or Columns. The good stuff.

[BorneAgain]

Its so easy to forget just how much of a dominant presence Sonic had in that three year period of 91-94. Nintendo had major success with Mario world and various other SNES releases, but the back to back releases of Sonic 1, 2, CD, 3, & Knuckles made the character and Sega by extension feel like a juggernaut in the scene.

And it tells you how quickly fortunes can change as the DKC trilogy and Yoshi's Island helped Nintendo take the spotlight away, while Sega's various troubles and the lack of a truly major Sonic game from 95-97 gradually made the character feel somewhat less relevant in the era of Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot.