Away Game Special: Sonic 3

A Genesis gem, a Sega super-game, a Sonic speed-course. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is all of these things. It's also an incredibly restrictive game that forces you onto a linear path through levels that are anything but. Of course, it's possible to get everything secret and hidden within the 10 minute time limit. But, without a guide and/or a full day to play through, the game doesn't lend itself to exploration.

And this really bothers me.

It seems that Zelda games and RPGs have really soured me on time attack platformers. So it goes.

What bothers me about this turn in my gaming tastes, though, is that the Sonic games were childhood favourites. Maybe the GameCube controller doesn't offer as smooth an experience  as the original Genesis one did? Maybe it's just that I didn't play many platformers between my late elementary school days and now? Whatever the case, Sonic 3's just not the game I remember it being.

Hopefully my more recent backlog holds more titles to my taste.