Ooh, I was just playing Mania, and here's one: The development name of Zone 5, "Pulp Solstice Zone," was a way cooler name than whatever they ended up going with. I retained that name without even meaning to, but I can never remember the final name. :P
Not true. I've gotten it before. You can just barely squeeze yourself into the top. At least on Genesis. It might be impossible in Origins. ...was this posted in the wrong thread?
I always can get there...at least in Sonic 3 Complete, although I am pretty sure it's accessible in the original as well. I'm not sure about Origins as I haven't played that version yet.
Solstice is a cool sounding word, but I don't think that the name Pulp Solstice describes the level very well at all. Does pulp just refer to the shredding of paper and wood? It's weird. I'm not a fan. Press Garden on the other hand is much clearer. It's a printing press and it's also a beautiful garden. Coming up with a suitably exciting name for a level that is so wildly different between acts 1 and 2 is rather difficult though, which might be why Press Garden is a bit of a bland name compared to the other original levels in Mania. I have a feeling that this might be unpopular but... Press Garden > Studiopolis.
Also brings to mind the phrase "Pulp Fiction" which referred to the paper of said publications. I will say that Press Garden also works in terms of the stage gimmicks, where you literally have to press the wood into the chipper, but I feel like that's an unintended quirk of the English language.
Is loving the music to Sonic R still an unpopular opinion? I love the music to Sonic R. Every single word.
I don't like "Pulp Solstice". I feel like there's some weird race to come up to the weirdest combination of unusual words for zone names. That or stretched alliterations. I do think the original zones of Mania were generally the weakest of the bunch, Press Garden in particular. Act 1 is way too short and act 2 is both too short and too cramped. I do think Titanic Monarch is actually my favorite of the original zones, and I do like it a fair bit.
Here's another one I've been meaning to get off my chest: I really, really don't like the Knuckles exclusive routes in S3. They're painfully linear and super short, and just...don't feel like a proper Sonic game to me. They're a linear succession of obstacle courses in claustrophobic corridors, and it's such a stark contrast to the open ended Sonic/Tails stages I honestly don't know why Sonic Team even bothered with them. I suppose it's good marketing but I can't help but think there must've been a few kids in the 90s disappointed when they finally got to use the fabled "lock-on technology" to play as Knuckles in Sonic 3, only to find out you couldn't access a lot of Sonic's stages and instead had to play shorter, lamer version of the Zones. I mean, one of the biggest argument I see for people preferring Classic Sonic in these boards is that the multiple playable characters don't drastically alter the game, but only change the way you approach the levels themselves. But then you play Sonic 3 as Knuckles and like half the acts are exclusives to him and they reek lol. Seriously, CNZ 1 can be finished in less than a minute and act 2 doesn't even have a boss battle. What a joke :p When Mania released, I saw a bunch of people complaining that Knuckles didn't have enough exclusive content, but man I couldn't disagree more personally. MSZ 1 is a phenomenal stage and I much prefer they spend their resources to give him one good exclusive stage instead of a bunch of bite sized linear stages ala Sonic 3. And most of his exclusive paths are optional too, which means you can decide to play the regular stages if you want to. tldr; Knuckles is cool but his levels in S3 aren't and I wish there was a mod out there to make him go through the regular stages instead.
I feel like I'm the opposite. I don't really find Knuckles inherently fun to play because his traversal abilities felt so slow to me. I enjoyed his campaign because it gave me some glimpses, however brief, into some new areas that felt especially and uniquely designed for him. It's sad that the team couldn't realize their ideas for his campaign very well, because (according to some recently-revealed concept art) there were a lot of ambitions for what his story would be. I never liked Tails or Knuckles's abilities very much and ever since the drop dash got added I find it hard to ever use anyone but Sonic anymore. Advance's Amy is a character who plays fundamentally pretty differently and beyond the initial novelty I never really saw the appeal of her, either. I would have liked Mighty if he could just barrel through enemies or something, or if he could at least use his slam to hit curves on the ground and gain big speed, but he ended up just being a less-fun Sonic. I thought Ray was hilarious with the stuff he lets you do and I actually did enjoy him quite a bit.
I wasn't disappointed at all! For one thing, I had no way of knowing what "Lock-On Technology" even was. I just thought it was a brand-new Sonic game where, I assumed, I'd be able to play as Knuckles, and that was more than enough to be hyped about. Until my dad read the manual, I thought the cartridge was shaped funny because Sonic & Knuckles was SUCH a super-advanced game that maybe it needed a cooling vent. Once I learned what it really did, it was an awesome surprise, but you can't really be disappointed when you have no expectations. More importantly, Knuckles' truncated Carnival Night meant he never had to contend with the Barrel of Doom, meaning I could finally get at least ONE character past that level. For what seems like a very, VERY long time, playing as Knuckles was the only way I got to see Icecap and Launch Base. I mean, I can look at his stages now and see that yeah, Sonic Team was clearly crunched for time and couldn't put a lot of effort into most of Knuckles' exclusive routes on the Sonic 3 side. Knux's routes in Mushroom Hill, Sandopolis, and Lava Reef are much more complete. But in 1994, I was anything but disappointed. It was CRAZY to have this totally unexpected, unprecedented new way to play my old Sonic games. Imagine if having SA2 somehow unlocked Shadow in SA1, or if Generations could blend with Unleashed and Colors into one enormous game. I don't even know how to relate how magical it was. I just assumed lock-on would be standard in games going forward!
Someone was expressing an unpopular opinion that the Retro Engine physics aren't great, which led to the question about said giant ring. It's certainly impossible in Origins, but I've gotten that ring dozens of times in my life in any other version of Sonic 3.
100%. I couldn't beat Vanilla Sonic 3 because of the Barrel, but I could beat S3K in the Knuckles campaign! I later figured out I could "New Game Plus" with Debug mode and level select to play through Sonic & Tails', but I never had a legitimate savefile until a friend told me about it when I borrowed Sonic & Knuckles Collection for PC in like 2003.
Oh man, I was literally about to say the same thing about Knuckles dodging the barrel of doom. For the longest time my S3K game had a complete Knuckles save file and a bunch of scattered Sonic/Tails ones that all ended at Carnival Night. I remember being so excited when I went on to Sonic HQ for the first time (I want to say this was in like, 2000?) and found out how to get past the stupid barrel. It was right before school, so I immediately dashed from the computer to the Genesis to see if it worked, and it did. I got to see Sonic snowboarding right before I had to leave for school and it was all I could think about in class that day.
It's true most kids wouldn't think about stuff like level design and consistency accros characters. Not that it's a bad thing at all, mind you. I think I viewed things from the angle of an old veteran, but I have to admit even I as a kid thought Knuckles having his own routes in S3 was pretty neat, although I still thought they were kinda lame even back then lol. But then again I was playing on the DS, so obviously the wow factor wasn't there. On that note, I also got stuck on the barrel of doom like the rest of you guys, but the internet being a thing meant I managed to figure out how to progress much quicker. I just happened to be on vacations for the week with no access to the internet, so...I can still kinda relate?
I think @Josh mentioned this in a video (or perhaps someone else did), but my mind was blown when I first connected S3K and played as Knuckles and could get into the level chunks in Angel Island Zone that I could see playing as Sonic but couldn't access. For whatever reason, Sonic 3 is integral to me as a person so I'm always going to be happy with the game we ended up seeing, but there's always the potential of what could have been with more time...
Wow, yeah, me too! I eventually got a Game Genie, and I figured out if I enabled Hyper transformation with no emeralds, I could glitch through the barrel as Hyper Sonic by spamming his hyper strike down at it. But I still had no way of getting Tails past it, and the idea of playing as him in ANY Sonic & Knuckles level seemed like a pipe dream. I finally learned what to do when I convinced my parents to call the Sega Tips Hotline for $1.99 per minute, which, I suspect, is the whole reason the barrel exists in the first place. I mean, not even the official strategy guide told you how to get past it! And they think game companies being scummy about microtransactions is new.
