Well, Sonic 3's big release date gap between US/EU and Japan has led to speculation that it was going to be a US/EU exclusive to coincide with the McDonald's tie in, and Sega was waiting for the S&K portion to be done so that they could release the full game in a single cart in their homeland, but they were eventually forced to release S3 alone there to stop all the imports. If that's the case, then it makes sense that they would use the Western logo, as that version of the game wasn't intended for Japan.
Yeah, but I grew up with Looney Tunes, so 4 fingers doesn't bother me. Really like the 0525 one. IMO the deeper gold looks better on it.
Indeed that pic looks like it was drawn with the original static palette in mind, rather than the standard cycling Super Sonic palette. They probably changed it to accommodate Hyper Sonic who doesn't have a "default" color (unlike Super Sonic's gold), so he couldn't be represented by a static palette.
Sonic has the correct number of fingers on the title screens (Sonic 3, S&K, Blue Sphere) and the bad endings.
For what it's worth about the end screen Super Sonic palettes... The final game still has of the highlights hardwired to the gold color, which looks fine with Super Sonic, but quite off for Hyper Sonic. Said rotating palette actually pulsates like Super Tails and Super/Hyper Knuckles do, rather than how, in normal gameplay, Super Sonic flashes from bright to dark like a strobe light.
The box art would have been drawn after most of this game was finalised, as was probably the case with earlier Sonic outings (and most games in general tbh). But it's terrifying to note that aside from this one sprite, the first time Japan would have been introduced to that "The Hedgehog" logo would have been.... Sonic 4. I don't think it even appeared on merchandise (although this might have been due to the "SegaSonic" debarkle). One thing that might be worth checking is if it bothers to hide the ™ symbols. Sonic & Knuckles takes them out of the Sega logo and title screen - if they're still around in the ending, that would sugest they weren't thinking too hard about the Japanese market (although to be fair we already see that as there are are more "Tails"-es than "Miles"-es in Sonic 3 than Sonic 2). I might check myself, but it's the end of the day over here and someone might be faster.
See, Hyper Sonic is interesting. He's coded by Sonic 3C 0517, the Super Emeralds exist in Sonic 3C 0408, and even the hyper dash attack exists in Sonic 3A 1103. It's difficult to say when the idea was conceived. However, I do agree with others in the assumption that most of these ending sprites were designed prior to Sonic 3C 0517 as the style is hand-drawn and very similar to Sonic 3A's ending. This brings up an interesting point though, since Knuckles's ending sprite does not adhere to this style: It's very likely pre-rendered, and looks consistent with the Blue Sphere title screen, as well as the the signpost seen in Knuckles in Sonic 2: One of the things I was hoping would surface is a hand-drawn ending sprite for Knuckles. Surely, there had to have been one before the style change.
This is absolutely delightful~ How did it get missed the first time though? I would surely have hoped someone would have been shit hot on it... Glad someone is on the ball at least d= I cannot wait to see if and when you find something else hidden!
Has anyone ever tried to make a vid about the pre-rendered stuff in the classic games? Like Sonic2's half-pipe special stages, Sonic3's cast and special/bonus stages, and so on.
I'm really tempted to attempt building a chunk layout that matches the S3A MHZ object layout. I get the feeling I'd tear my hair out over it, though.
