Games of the 8-, 16- & 32-bit era

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Title	Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
First release	1994
Developers	Sega Technical Institute, Sonic Team
Publisher	Sega of America, Inc.
Platform	Mega Drive / Genesis
Genre	platformer
Also known as	Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Players	1–2 players
Co-op	Yes
ESRB rating	E Everyone
Releases	Mega Drive / Genesis: 1994-10-18 (NTSC)

Dr. Robotnik pursues special gemstones across various Zones using unique lock-on technology to combine cartridges. Players can access the Blue Sphere minigame by pressing the A, B, and C buttons simultaneously, which unlocks all variations of the special stages. This combined experience integrates content from both components into a single, seamless platforming adventure.

Description: REG-Vault, CC BY-SA 4.0

Facts from REG-Vault, which aggregates several community databases; they may contain errors; gaps filled from TheGamesDB. Only retro platforms tracked by this site are listed.

Sources

REG-Vault (megadrive/sonic-the-hedgehog-3-knuckles) · last updated 2026-10-28 · descriptions CC BY-SA 4.0

TheGamesDB (60245) · last updated 2026-07-18 · no licence stated · internal use only

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles – box art (front)

Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © the rights holder · internal use only

1 / 11 Box art Box art (front) 1

Image credits

Box art, Screenshots, Logos, Artwork (6): Source: REG-Vault (upstream not stated) · © the rights holder · internal use only. REG-Vault page

Box art (1): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded, NTSC release) · © Sega of America, Inc. · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Screenshots, Logos (4): Source: TheGamesDB (user-uploaded) · © Sega of America, Inc. · internal use only. TheGamesDB page

Sprites

No sprite sheets yet. Find sprites on The Spriters Resource ↗ /

Videos

Mega Drive Longplay [023] Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles

World-of-Longplays · Mega Drive / Genesis version · longplay · 1:45:49auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:41 UTC

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (Genesis) Playthrough

NintendoComplete · Mega Drive / Genesis version · longplay · 2:14:03auto-matched
Watch on YouTube ↗ · auto:channel-harvest, checked 2026-10-25 18:42 UTC

"Auto-matched" videos were found automatically (title + platform match via the YouTube Data API) and may occasionally be wrong. Videos are hosted by YouTube (embedded via youtube-nocookie.com; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play) and belong to their channels.