Hiya everybody! Welcome to a completely biased rant on how Sonic Mania does almost everything better than Sonic 3 & Knuckles! (I'll just call it Sonic 3 to make things less complicated).

To be a BIT more fair, I'll let Sonic 3 AIR to be the version of Sonic 3 I'll judge to see if modern technology can really make it better than Mania. . .albeit AIR also gives it much more customisation unheard of in base Mania. The modding scene won't be discussed at all either as it's unfair to compare both sides. So...let's just do this already.

Also please don't kill me for badmouting Sonic 3. I still like the game, but think people look over it's flaws. ''How come?'' Some of you may ask. ''Sonic 3 has been overhated recently!''. Oh really? Look up Sonic 3 & Knuckles on YouTube and show me a review that doesn't address the game's downsides. Aside from KingK and FrameRater (maybe Game Apologist?), there's none I can find. The Geek Critique even called the game ''perfect'', despite the series literally being a retrospective...no offence to him btw. Also look at any Sonic Tier List out there (INCLUDING THE ONES ON THIS SUBREDDIT) and take a shot every time Sonic 3 is in the top 5. Take another shot if it's at the very top. You'll be dead soon enough.

So please hear me out and lower your pitch forks...it's just my opinion, no matter how professional I try to look.

Story

Sonic 3 easily wins. While I really do like Mania's story more than the others, 3 really does feel special in it's storytelling mainly through Knuckles' story. After Sonic's big adventure we basically get an encore mode of sorts where we finally play as Knuckles. Unlike Mania's Encore Mode that means different boss behaviour and even a completely new story! I kinda prefer Knuckles' story over Sonic's story even.

The plot twist of Mecha still being alive and KILLING HIS PARTNER was certainly awesome, plus leaving ambiguity over what Mecha was thinking of. Did he transform out of sheer anger and grief, wanting to kill Knuckles to right his wrongs, was it just something he didn't care about or did he intentionally kill Eggrobo and become power hungry? Either way it's sad to see him crumble apart and I hope we can see him again.

You all know the rest: Sonic 3 has a much more immersive world with twists and turns, blah blah blah. But to be fair Mania Plus does improve base Mania's storytelling by a fair bit tho. Reintroducing Mighty and Ray was handled quite well and all of the zone transitions make logical sense. Even the Phantom Ruby teleportation transitions always have something a little extra in them like Sonic and co getting splashed by a small drop of chemicals, a preview of Metal Sonic's boss fight and the wireframe Titanic Monarch. Aside from Hydrocity's transition (that COULD be justified as Sonic and co heading back to Angel Island where the Tornado is) everything else is really solid. Like the little subplot of Eggman realising he screwed up by sending everyone to Stardust Speedway as it's RIGHT NEXT TO METALLIC MADNESS and instantly teleports his foes all the way to Hydrocity.

It's close, but I won't deny that 3 has the edge.

Level Design

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOY TIME TO SHRED SONIC 3 A NEW ONE! For starters compare Angel Island Zone to Green Hill. Notice something? Yeah, Sonic 3's levels are kinda tiny. There's generally only one or two pathways at a time which Mania and even CD scoff at. 2 is just as small but feels more open as there isn't as many arbitrary ceilings everywhere. Sonic 3...just feels cramped throughout the whole entire adventure. The only zone that doesn't enforce a set ceiling is Sky Sanctuary (which is one of my favourite levels in the game) and even the bigger zones like Hydrocity and Marble Garden barely have their paths intersect.

Then compare Mania's Flying Battery to 3's version. Notice how there's more stuff to do? As soon as you get to the first outdoor section do you notice a hidden Combine Ring. Sonic 3 lacks such secrets or at least has far fewer.

The worst thing about Sonic 3's level design is the pacing. While zones like Hydrocity & Ice Cap are generally fast, most zones just love to force you to take things slow. Speed is a reward for skill and shouldn't be given out like candy...but if the player is good enough, why punish them regardless? Notice how Sonic 3 speedruns (you know, the thing that inspired the FRANCHISE) abuse level warping and skipping cutscenes that arbitrarily slow down gameplay? Glitchless runs aren't that common because of all of Sonic 3's speedkillers.

RelaxAlex's Sonic Mania level design video covers just what I mean. It's OK to go somewhat slow (like on the monkey bars), but keep the player busy and NOT WAITING FOR ELEVATORS GOD DAMNIT!

Sorry about that. But seriously, 3 loves to enforce waiting on the player like with the treadmills of Death Egg or the numerous slow moving crushers in the game. Oh, what about Sandopolis' AUTO SCROLLING ESCQ SAND CHASE? Perhaps all the cutscenes that force the player to wait until they're over? Maybe we should stop and talk about those.

Look at Mania. Notice something? Yeah, there's almost zero cutscenes mid-act. Cutscenes always happen in between levels and are all skippable. While AIR lets some cutscenes be fast fowarded, there's still many sections that are a waiting game. Angel Island is the first damn level but is a test of patience. There's no Flamethrower Robots that break the pace in Green Hill, is there? Or Airships that turn the game into ''Literally hold right to win seriously it's not even a joke''? Yeah, they make things ''dynamic'' in the levels, but gameplay over story. Why not have Angel Island be set ablaze after beating Act 1's boss, letting the player skip the cutscene is desired? Oil Ocean did that with it's transition from Act 1 - Act 2. Let's count how many mid-act cutscenes 3 have that you can't skip, hmm?

Angel Island set ablaze, Airship bombing, Hydrocity Knuckles drop, Marble Garden Act 1's boss digging, Marble Garden falling apart, Carnival Night's lights turning off, Launch Base's tower collapsing, Death Egg launch #1, Death Egg fall, Knuckles closing the Hidden Palace door, Knuckles playing with the lever, Flying Battery's Act 2 boss, Sandopolis' Pyramid, Knuckles punching the boulder, Lava Reef Act 2 Boss, Knuckles getting back-stabbed by Eggman, Death Egg launch #2 & Sonic/Tails chasing Eggman into his Death Egg robot.

THAT'S 18 TIMES THE GAME INTERRUPTS THE PLAYER FOR A MID-ACT CUTSCENE!

What the actual frick Sonic 3. That's why Mania has, like 1 in comparison.

Level Gimmicks

Every good Sonic stage needs cool and unique level gimmicks! Sonic 3 has some nice ones, but Mania blows it out of the park. Compare the unique ideas of Mania's levels like DNA bubbles that raise you up, bouncy floors that can be increased in strength by the player pressing a syringe, Popcorn machines, Woodchippers, Rideable rockets that explode into fireworks, Guns that shoot the player out of them, piano keys, etc.

Then Sonic 3 has. . .spinning cylinders (Launch Base), more spinning cylinders (Hydrocity), even more cylinders (Carnival Night), moving...platforms (Lava Reef), Moving crushers (Ice Cap), etc.

Yeah, 3 does have creative gimmicks too like the Spinning Tea Cups of Launch Base and the gliding mushrooms of Mushroom Hill, but they're few and far between compared to Mania. This is only a small thing tho.

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The big thing is, akin to the level design portion, how pace-breaking many of Sonic 3's gimmicks are. But even worse. . .ARE ALL THE CRUSHERS!

Hydrocity's spinning cylinders can easily crush you

Marble Garden has crushers and even the level itself can flatten you

Carnival Night's barrels sometimes are in tight alleys so they can crush you

Ice Cap has gigantic moving crushers

Launch Base has crusher bricks

Flying Battery has crushing elevators and buzzsaw platforms

Sandopolis has SUCH SLOW CRUSHERS and sand that can crush you

Lava Reef. . .jesus christ. Those spiked platforms & all those moving grey platforms THAT ARE EVERYWHERE MIND YOU CAN CRUSH YOU ON THE SPOT

Death Egg has the weird platforms that move when touched from Chemical Plant that can crush you. Also trying to skip the elevator ride can get you crushed.

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Notice how many crushers, aka instant death gimmicks Sonic 3 has? It's infuriating and unfair to the player when they're just trying to go fast in a Sonic game. The Flying Battery elevators are the worst at this, with a certain section involving yet another bloody hallway (Sonic 3 has a hardon for making the player claustrophobic) with only a small elevator in the middle. You gotta time your spindash so you just slip through perfectly, but it's VERY precise and messing up even slightly cost you a life. This killed me so many times in all three of my playthroughs. . .god I hate that section. Lava Reef's moving platforms are horrible as well. There's just so many of them in Act 2 and it slows the pace to a hault and often have the player just barely squeeze through instant bloody death.

So what about the slower crushers? They're almost as bad considering it takes an eternity for them to open again and actually let you continue playing the game. Notice how there's barely any in Mania? How the Woodchippers in Press Garden only hurt you instead of kill? Or how there's no elevators entirely in Flying Battery? Yeah...a few levels still have crushers, but they're sparse and even then only come from the returning levels (most of them BEING FROM SONIC 3). Titantic Monarch simply teleports you back a bit instead of killing you, which could make for a perfect punishment in future Sonic games.

I once commented on a post about Mania's Lava Reef crushers about how many there are in Sonic 3. Suffice to say that I got buried in downvotes.

Even tho almost everything I say is my opinion, there's a ton of crushers in Sonic 3 and that's a fact.

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Bosses

Jesus take the wheel now please....Mania is much more flawed here. Rush Adventure has the best bosses in the series, always letting the player hit them but giving each a crap ton of HP to make it fair. It's about dodging and weaving to land as many hits as possible and the bosses change up strats in their pinch phases.

Sonic Mania is moreso classic like, but at least is creative. Compare Puyo Puyo and a Bumper Spider to. . .generic flamethrower-tron or generic icethrower-tron.

It's not just the creativity that's lacking. Why do many of the bosses that aren't easy to cheese take forever to wait for just to attack? If you don't cheese Carnival Night's second boss you're just left with a boss you can hit after 30 seconds of waiting. Oh and don't forget Flying Battery's interactive bosses! If you turn super you can literally win by standing in place for both fights. At least cheesing requires the player to actually move and can end the fight quickly. These battles...they just take forever.

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THEN THERE'S LAVA REEF ACT 2'S BOSS FIGHT

The actual frick is this monstrocity. First there's the somewhat cool looking missile auto-scroller that punishes the player with instant death because that's fair. But then they fall down and the actual fight begins. You just wait for Eggman to kill himself. . .it literally takes 2 minutes for the waiting to end. You can't hurry it up and Eggman never speeds up. It's hell and why I skip it with mods.

TWO MINUTES OF WAITING IN A SONIC GAME

Who thought that was a good idea?!

Also Knuckles struggles REALLY hard with some of the bosses if you don't turn super. Ice Cap act 2 REQUIRES you to damage boost as you can't jump high enough to land hits onto Eggrobo. Many fights are designed around Sonic's jump height and don't work well at all for Knuckles'. At worst in Mania he just can't cheese the TV Boss. Compared to 3, Knuckles has to be frame perfect or damage boost to actually win.

Oh yeah, and some of the bosses have extra attacks when you're Knuckles because that's fair.

Character Choice

What? Why is this a section? Well this is to cover how 3 handles it's different characters.

In other words, how Knuckles is rushed.

Look no further than Lava Reef Act 1 as Knuckles. Notice something? The level is a linear hallway where you gotta wait for crushers and never get to have any fast sections or chances to explore. Once you FINALLY get to explore, it doesn't even make you progress as the boss is right there! The only ''extra path'' is at the very end of the level, which just takes you to Sonic's version of the stage, thus meaning you're backtracking just to finally have fun. What a mess that level is.

Knuckles gets the shaft in many levels. All of his sections aren't avoidable (unless you have Tails or something) and are linear. Compare that with Mania which lets Knuckles take the normal pathway or take his exclusive one. It feels like a reward to play as Knuckles instead of a handicap. Plus his sections in Mania are shorter and much less slow. His exclusive act in Mirage Saloon is quite big and rewards exploration. . .all the while 3 gives Knuckles a STRAIGHT LINE AS AN ACT!

Also Hyper Knuckles sucks. Why can't he have a jump boost like the others or have a stronger glide? Mods actually make Hyper Knuckles worthwhile funnily enough, so why didn't SEGA do that?

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Conclusion

I think I firmly described why I personally prefer Mania over Sonic 3 and why I think the latter is a tad overrated. Please understand that it's my opinion and Sonic 3 isn't perfect. No game is. Thank you for reading and I'm sorry for talking your ear off. Sonic 3 is still awesome and you should play it!

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Edit: Huh...only four upvotes. Should have known such a controversial opinion wouldn't net good karma.