The first thing I want to point out that made this game great was the inclusion of a save feature for the first time in any Sonic game. It made everything so easy. Maybe a little too easy.
Anyway, Sonic 3 starts off with Sonic and his buddy Tails flying towards an island which happens to be Angel Island (I would have told you the whole, but I have a used copy that doesn't include an instruction manual). Suddenly, a new character, Knuckles the Echidna, appears from underground and snatches Sonic's Chaos Emeralds. Upsetting, isn't it? What to do? Collect them, of course.
Before I get into collecting the emeralds, here's the lowdown of the game. Basically, the controls are still the same from the previous Sonic games. However, there are different power-ups scattered throughout the game like a water shield, a fire shield, and an electric shield. This helps spice up the gameplay. Remember how you would finish the first act of a level by just passing a sign? This time around you'll have to face a mini-boss for every first act.
The special stages have changed from the previous games (in the first you had to guide our hero through a maze while in the second Sonic runs through a halfpipe collecting as many rings over a certain limit). Sonic has to clear all the blue spheres that are given in each special stage. It's pretty tricky at first, but it's not so bad after getting some practice.
The game ends way too soon mainly because the levels feel like they're a tad bit short. However, you can hook this game to Sonic & Knuckles to continue the adventure and choose to play as Knuckles throughout the game.
Even though this game tended to be a bit shorter than the previous ones, Sonic 3 lives up to the pedigree of other Sonic games on the Sega Genesis.