Sonic 3 vs. & Knuckles

S&K is the better of the two IMO.

Could just be nostalgia tho since I owned and played the shit out of S&k a couple years before I picked up S3.

>Angel Island
6/10
>Hydrocity
10/10
>Marble Garden
5/10
>Carnival night
3/10
>Icecap
9/10
>Launch base
5/10
>Mushroom hill
7/10
>Flying Battery
9/10
>Sandopolis
6/10 (I don't hate it as much as people usually do)
>Lava Reef
10/10
>Hidden Palace/Sky Sanctuary
7/10
>Death Egg/Doomsday
8/10

S&K is the clear winner for me

S&K is awesome, S&3 feels nice but it feels like its getting you ready for S&K. Also sonic 3 feels too much like the other games with the typical water level, grass level, carnival level, eggman level.

>>3871095
Not going lie, I have a preference for Sonic & Knuckles, but Sonic 3 is also a pretty good game.

All things considered, Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a great ride, and definitively the ultimate Sonic masterpiece (at least, imo).

>>3871095
S3&K > SCD > S2 >S&K > S3 >S1

>>3871095
>out of two halves of a game, which are better once cut down the middle?

I'd have to go with S&K, I like playing as knuckles a lot.

>>3871095
been a loooooong time since i played either game, but i preferred sonic 3. i liked the levels better and the music. thought s&k was "fat". the sprites seemed "fatter" or rounder to me. also that fucking pyramid level in s&k was as far as i ever got as a kid. i also got stuck at the carnival zone in s3.

S&K

Knock Knock It's Knuckles, Sonic 3's good though.

>>3871114
Why is Hydro City so high?

>>3872201
awesome music & atmosphere, multiple paths & secrets, great pacing & dynamics, not overly long nor short, best water level in vidya story probably too.

>>3872207
>best water level in vidya
I prefer Aquatic Ruin.

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I don't know what you all are on about, Sonic 1+Knuckles was the best of the lot.

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Sonic 3. Hydrocity, Marble Garden, Carnival Night and Ice Cap are some of the best and most complex level designs in all of Sonic. Hydrocity and Carnival Night in particular have pathways that cross back over each other by way of the water slides and rotating cylinders.

S&K. It has less shitty levels (Death Egg is the only crap level and it makes up for it for the boss fights), more levels in general, a hidden level, proper alternate endings, Knuckles plays so vastly different, and you can lock on Sonic 2 or Sonic 1.

Sonic 3 has... Icecap is okay I guess, and so is Angel Island, but the rest of the game is absolutely boring.

>>3872229
carnival night and marble garden were shit, though

Sonic 3 always felt slow and clunky compared to Sonic 2, at least to me.

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>>3872270
Why? Look at all the different pathways here, all the different gimmick objects, and the great mix of slower platforming and high speed. Everyone complains about Carnival Night and I don't get it. What's wrong with it besides the barrel, which by now shouldn't be a problem for anyone?

>>3872282
Because most of the zones shove a shitty gimmick at you that you have to use, or have terrible setpieces. The "puzzle/exploration" design doesn't work, which is why 1 and 2 are superior to CD and 3&K.

>>3872215
NO WAY!

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>mfw meeting a pleb who couldn't figure out the barrel in Carnival Night

Was the Knuckles expansion the first paid DLC for console?

>>3872481
No, it was the first expansion pak for a console.

>>3871695
sonic 3d? not bad at all...

>>3871695
wrong

2 > 1 > S&K > CD > 3

S3 > s&k
I like the s3 levels, music and presentation better. Last boss is better in s&k imo. Often s&k feels like left over stuff.

>>3873698
S2 = shit tier sonic

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>>3873880
t. hipster

The last few levels of Sonic and Knuckles have the best build up to climax in the series, Lava Reef through Death Egg actually manage to have plot while varying their themes and stage gimmicks with great boss fights and music.

Sonic and Knuckles has a way better climax and is a better game for it, though Sonic 3 has a way better couple of intro zones. I put more weight on the game finishing well than starting well, but combined the two are the masterstroke of the series.

>>3873931
>though Sonic 3 has a way better couple of intro zones.
Lolno. Mushroom Hill and Flyin' Battery shit all over Angel Island and Hydrocity.

It's all up to this:
do you prefer Hydrocity and Ice Cap or Flying Battery and Lava Reef?

>>3874034
I like Flying Battery and Ice Cap but not Hydrocity and Lava Reef.

Sonic & Knuckles has the better levels.

Marble Garden and Carnival Night drag down the Sonic 3 portion.

Sandopolis ruins S&K, making 3 the clear winner.

I played S&K first, 2 years before even playing 3 that got with Sonic Jam, so S&K seemed always better. Over the past decade S3 part just grew more on me, thanks to Marble Garden and Carnival Night that I didn't enjoyed much in the past, but when I learned about the shortcuts I just started having a blast with S3 part.
Overall is about even for me, just hate Sandopolis act2 because half the act have mandatory sections that you can't escape each playthrough. But S&K does have sort of "narrative" with the levels order and feels like you are progressing in a story

>>3872308
They don't know about the shortcuts and the huge number of alternative paths. Even doing a playthrough with Hyper Sonic will give you another perspective into the levels and how you can get into some of the Tails routes, like in both Carnival Night acts

>>3874034
>best water level and one of the best tracks in all sonic games
>vs
>best flying ship level and that level with such change between acts
I can't choose

>>3871095
S&K has better levels but 3 has the save feature and 2 players and slightly better music.

>>3874913
>slightly better music.
Overall, maybe, but the FBZ and DEZ's themes are better than any song from 3. Ice Cap comes pretty close, however.

>>3874884
>Sandopolis ruins S&K, making 3 the clear winner.

Marble Garden, Carnival Night, and Launch Base ruin Sonic 3, which is over half the game.

>>3874913
>slightly better music.

S3 has 2 zones with good tracks.

S&K has like half the levels with great tracks. Even Sandopolis has a great track. And it has an actual ending song instead of a bunch of random bass notes.

>>3871095

Probably S&K, though I'm surprised to be saying that, because until I read this thread and gave it some thought my impulse answer would have been 3. Both are excellent in my view, but I don't know if much can compete with Lava Reef.

>>3874995
>And it has an actual ending song instead of a bunch of random bass notes.
It's just a collage of all the stage themes.

Now the PC version has the best credits theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVRZOiPRA54

sonic 3 wins by default just because it actually implements a save system instead of dragging out the tired fucking sonic 1-2 style extra lives + continues system long past its expiration date.

even judging based on the levels themselves, sonic 3 feels like a complete, if short experience, while sonic and knuckles feels incoherent - like one half of a game and an "endgame" that starts halfway through, like starting sonic 2 at oil ocean.

>>3874995
>instead of a bunch of random bass notes

This is objectively false. Hell, Michael Jackson re-used the end song for Stranger in Moscow.

>>3871095
Knuckles because yikes Knuckles.