Or is it “Sonic the Hedgehog & Knuckles 3”? Either way, Sonic Origins stitches the two games together as $deity intended to make one massive game. And yes, I completed it with all the Chaos Emeralds (and the Super Emeralds).
It’s great, because of course it is. However, there’s something wrong – very wrong – in this version. You see, it’s pretty well known that Michael Jackson was somehow involved in the creation of some of the music tracks in Sonic 3. It has never been fully proven as to what extent, but some of the music does sound very much like some of his work – take the “crash” from both his track “Jam” and Sonic 3’s Carnival Night Zone, for example. Probably related to this, they’ve replaced some of the music with new chiptune music in this release and it’s also the most likely reason why Sonic 3 hasn’t appeared on any Mega Drive or Sonic game compilations in the last decade or so.
This new music is rubbish.
Part of it is surely just because it isn’t what my head remembers. It feels wrong playing through levels with the wrong soundtrack. But also, this new music is rubbish. Ice Cap’s new track doesn’t even sound like an ice level music track. The new Carnival Night Zone music is out of tune. Launch Base sounds like it’s in the wrong game. They all make my ears cry.
Thankfully, the game itself is as good as it ever was to play.
@deKay Sonic 3 – The Hedgehog and Knuckles.