====== Sonic 3 & Knuckles ======

Listing these as one game, though I only played //Sonic & Knuckles// on the Genesis and later played the whole thing through emulation and on a collection on Gamecube.

As a fanboy, this has the "epic" quality that appealed to me - more characters, quite a bit more storytelling through the sequence of stages and mini cutscenes. It seemed bold that Knuckles' story ended before Sonic's did. Looking back on the design of the games, [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2]] feels like it had a better editor - the game is simpler and brighter and a little more fun.  Still, the addition of the save system in 3 made a world of difference in terms of seeing all the game content and getting to jump to the parts I enjoyed.

It's kind of amazing that these two parts came out just months apart: Sonic 3 in February 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles in October. When Sonic 3 came out there were McDonalds toys promoting it.  Sonic & Knuckles seemed much cooler though with its red-and-black minimal cover art.  I received S&K for Christmas that year, along with a stuffed Sonic doll that in 2021 is still sitting on the wall in my office.

{{tag>videogame played "released in 1994" "played in 1994" "played on Genesis" "played on GCN"}}