Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles Longplay [all emeralds, no Super Sonic]

A longplay of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis. In this run, I play as Sonic and Tails, which provides the most complete version of the game and story, and acquire all of the Chaos Emeralds to get the best ending. Tails is actually not necessary for those ends when you play as Sonic, but it just didn’t feel right without the little guy. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles was developed and published by Sega in 1994. It was originally intended to be released as a single game, but due to time constraints and cartridge limitations, it was released as two separate games: “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” and “Sonic & Knuckles”. The cartridge for Sonic & Knuckles came with its own physical cartridge slot which would allow players to insert the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 cartridge, allowing them to play the full, uninterrupted game as originally intended-- an ingenious way of circumventing technological limitations at the time. Attaching the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 cartridge allowed players to play as Knuckles in levels from the second game, and attaching the first Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge allowed players to play unique Special Stages via a secret code. The game is a side-scrolling platformer with an emphasis on fast gameplay (hardware power and speed being one of Sega's selling points for the system). It is the first game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series that gave different characters unique abilities, including Tails’ ability to fly and carry Sonic to unreachable heights, and Knuckles’ ability to glide and climb walls. The plot begins immediately after the conclusion of the second game. After successfully foiling Dr. Robotnik and sending the Death Egg falling out of the sky, the Death Egg crashes into Angel Island, home of Knuckles-- guardian of the island and an artifact of enormous power, the Hyper Emerald. Robotnik tricks Knuckles into thinking Sonic is responsible for the chaos being wrecked across the island and pits Knuckles against Sonic while making plans to steal the Hyper Emerald for himself. Along with Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles is revered by many as the zenith of the 2D era of the Sonic franchise with graphics that showcase the full power of the Sega Genesis, beautiful environments, gameplay that combines high speed with fluid platforming, and a soundtrack that is a timeless chiptune marvel. --------------------------------------------- NOTES: • I chose this game not only because it is a ton of fun and my personal favorite Sonic game, but also because every other all-emerald longplay of the game overuses Super Sonic. As Super Sonic, the levels go by too fast, the enemies are non-factors, and the music is extremely repetitive and the same for every level. It just makes for a very dull, unenjoyable run. So in this run, even with all emeralds, I never activate Super Sonic (besides the final level, during which activating Super Sonic is forced by the game and necessary to complete it). • You can also play as Tails and Knuckles in this game, each of which branch into their own endings which are essentially shortened versions of Sonic's ending with slightly different graphics. As Tails (or Sonic without all the Chaos Emeralds), the final level is the Death Egg Zone with Giant Eggman Robo as the final boss. As Knuckles, the final level is Sky Sanctuary Zone with Super Mecha Sonic as the final boss.