Bugs:Sonic the Hedgehog 3
This page details bugs of Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Sonic 3 is known for having many, many bugs. So many, in fact, that the U.S. manual treats them as intentional features! A good chunk of them were fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Contents
Music Glitch
The file select theme has a bug where it doesn't reset one of the channel's volume correctly, so waiting for 47 minutes will cause it to overflow and be much louder than it should. The bug was fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Angel Island
Intro Palette Loop Bugs
| Used |
|---|
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| Intended |
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The ocean in the opening cutscene actually has 64 entries of palette animation data. However, only the first 40 entries were used. To fix this, use the Game Genie code TAWA-AAF6. Likewise, the sand on the beach has 48 palette animation entries, but only 30 ended up being used. Again, the Game Genie code NAWA-AAHE should restore it.
The Sonic 3 & Knuckles equivalents of these fixes are TAVA-AABY and NAVA-AAC6, respectively.
Hydrocity
Music Madness
The Big Shaker miniboss in Hydrocity incorrectly plays the Act 2 boss theme, and jumping out of water when you're about to drown will play the Sonic & Knuckles miniboss theme; the latter wasn't necessarily fixed as it's still calling the Sonic 3 miniboss theme, however in Sonic 3 & Knuckles both miniboss themes are the same.
The Game Genie code F38T-KA8A will have the correct music play during the miniboss.
Other Hydrocity Bugs
- Tails doesn't have collision with the wall at the beginning of Hydrocity Act 2.
- It's possible to outrun the trigger to lock the camera at the boss in Hydrocity Act 2. Though this isn't recommended as breaking the capsule will softlock the game.
Marble Garden
You Can't Cheat the System
Upon reaching a certain point at the end of Marble Garden Zone Act 1, the miniboss is activated and the object is spawned offscreen. When playing as Sonic and Tails together, a player can have Sonic stand away from the boss, then have Tails hit it while it's offscreen until it explodes. When the goal signpost lands, the game freezes due to the game expecting the player to be within the right boundaries when it loads Act 2. This bug was fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles by forcing the camera to pan to the right if the miniboss was destroyed offscreen by Tails.
Carnival Night
Speedy Death Zone
There is a corner in Carnival Night Zone Act 1 where, if Sonic is going too fast, he will clip into the floor and die.
Wrong Underwater Palette Cycle
Carnival Night has three palette cycles for its graphics — the yellow gradient lights, the red-green-blue lights, and the glowing green and blue lights. Each of these also have underwater variants for the second act, resulting in a total of six palette cycles designed for this zone. However, the normal palette for the glowing green and blue lights was referenced twice — once for outside the water, and again for under the water. This leaves the third underwater palette cycle unused.
Using Game Genie, it's possible to fix this with the code 1JXA-A4P8 for Sonic 3 alone, and W2WA-A8K0 for Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Other Carnival Night Bugs
- Tails can spawn in weird positions at the beginning of Carnival Night Act 2.
- A ceiling corner in Carnival Night Act 2 has faulty collision. Should Super Sonic jump into the wall-to-ceiling transfer and run along with the ceiling, he will be stuck in the ceiling, unable to escape.
Ice Cap
Ice Cap vs Tails
When playing Ice Cap Zone Act 1 as Tails alone, reaching the Y co-ordinates where the level would loop vertically will cause Tails to spontaneously die, and this will continuously happen unless the player has activated the Starpost at the start of the Act or has entered the Special Stage through the nearby giant ring. This bug was fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
The US and European manuals acknowledge the bug with the following statement in the "Even More Sonic Super Play Tips" section:
"In the IceCap Zone and throughout the game, avoid having Tails get stuck in passageways or get caught in traps. Have Tails activate Starposts or enter into a Special Stage as quickly as possible."
Launch Base
Tails' tails
When playing as Tails alone, during the zone's end sequence and after defeating Big Arm, Tails will turn to see the Death Egg falling in the background. Due to a code oversight, the tail object won't get cleared resulting in him having four tails (two from the sprite used when facing away and two from the actual tail object).
When playing with Sonic and Tails, the tail object is correctly cleared due to Player 2's tails animation specifically being cleared on each frame. This was later fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which clears the animation for both players.
Big Arm oddities
Your invincibility has been recalled
Big Arm can hurt the player regardless if invincible (through status effect or Super state) due to an oversight in the code. This, notably, causes Super Sonic to lose all his rings and revert to regular Sonic. This was fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles by checking for the invincibility status.
A Victory Not Rewarded
Another bug involving Big Arm is that if Sonic is being grabbed and Tails kills Robotnik the game will softlock, as Sonic will be stuck in his rolling animation unable to touch the ground and let the score tally sequence begin.
Super Sonic
Bubble Bouncer
In Sonic 3 alone, Super Sonic can bubble bounce through the use of the bubble shield, which isn't meant to happen.
Other Super Sonic bugs
- Due to an oversight, Super Sonic decelerates very fast when rolling.
- The Screw Mobile can glitch out Super Sonic.
Other bugs
- If the W Spin Attack/Insta-Shield animation finishes after Sonic lands on the floor, using it on the next jump won't increase his attack radius.
- It's possible to clip through the loop in Balloon Park.
- If you hold any of the jump buttons while a level is loading, your character will jump as soon as the level starts. This bug was originally present in Sonic 2 prototypes and was somehow revived here. Fixed in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
