SAGE 2023 - Demo Sonic 3 Chronicles (SAGE '23 Demo)

Coming back after the first demo from SAGE2022, I can finally see what this project was supposed to showcase. Really solid work on the level design, the idea, the OST (except for Balloon Park) and visuals. The physics and insta-shield (primarily in bosses) are not ideal, however if created from scratch, they are ok enough but I hope they will be finished and more flexible. Also some collisions made me fall through walls and lose a life, so something to keep in mind. Overall really hyped for the final release.

Let me preface this with an explanation of why this game means so much to me. Ever since I was like 6/7/8 years old I've wanted to play the competition stages as full fledged, flushed out stages and I wanted to play through Sonic 3 and Knuckles as the Chaotix. I've been wanting to do this for 28 to 30 years. Every year I'd excitedly check SAGE and Sonic Hacking Contest to see if some one has made a fangame/hack/mod that does this and this year, I was in luck! I came into this knowing Sonic 3 Chronicles featured the Competition stages as full stages, but I had no idea mighty was going to be there until I check out the booth.

Now with all of that out of the way, I give you my thoughts on this amazing game. Though note, due to time constraints I have only completed Endless Mine Zone using Sonic, so my thoughts will be based off of that.

I love how the game opens up, giving us exposition to both how the stages would connect to the main game, an explanation as to why we never see them in the main game, and perhaps an idea of where Knuckles goes after he's finished harassing Sonic in the Sonic and Tails route of Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

The game play seems true to Sonic 3 and Knuckles for the most part, with some very minor physics issues, definitely nothing that is a deal breaker.

The design here is very impressive. I love how you incorporated the original layout of the Endless Mine competition stage into the full stage. I also loved the inclusion of new badniks, new sub-boss, and boss! Equally as enjoyable is the music. The act one Music is the standard Endless Mine music, but act 2 is a nice remix, keeping with the S3&K conventions.

Thank you so much for making this project! I look forward to coming back and giving the demo a more thorough playthrough once SAGE is over. I also look forward to playing the final!

I realy like the concept of this fangame especialy the start of the game and the boss
The design level of the game look fine, But i d'ont like physic and the control

Incredible work! I'm glad that such a wonderful project turned out in the style of the original games.
Also, cutscenes are really good.
It's amazing how carefully the original engine was recreated to Unity Engine.
I will be glad if someday it will be opensource. ;)

A good, rather classic feeling Sonic 3 experience! I love the speed down shoes lmao, a simple thing with an amazing audio effect lmao, made me want to collect em even tho they were bad otherwise.

Played through the demo as Mighty, took me a while to figure out his ability but yeah, it was pretty great, good Chaotix vibes from it. It sometimes, rarely, gave a HUGE jump, after hitting a sideways spring and then doing a wall jump for example, Mighty YEETED across the stage after lol.

A good bit of eh and awkwardness with some of the gimmicks though, the pulleys in mines for example are too slow I feel and jumping off them is awkward and difficult. But the biggest "I wanna end myself and this game" moment was in Balloon Park, with the cannons and even the boss that shot the sideways balloons. There's too many and avoiding them sucks ass. Visually there's more than enough room under them to crouch or spin to avoid them, but that didn't work and I kept taking getting hit. Alright cool great, then my bud figured out I could maybe jump on em and bounce along em, but nope I still got pushed back. Increeeedibly annoying, almost closed the game on the first balloon cannon whatever thing.

Physics definitely need some finetuning, spindash too is waaaay too strong after only a single tap, and the stages are a biiiit too long, which I feel many fangames are falling to doing nowadays. Still yeah, looking forward to playing the full game!

I've played through Endless Mine Zone so far; I've always wanted a game that explores what full versions of the 2-Player stages of Sonic 3 could be like, and this game seems to accomplish exactly that. So far the mechanics, level design and bosses have all been on-point. I was quite surprised at how accurate the title screen was when I first booted it up and the Angle Island Act 2 cutscene to set up why you're going through these extra levels is fantastic.

A few small critiques:
- Add a V-Sync option, as screen tearing can get pretty bad in high speed games like Sonic. These levels look absolutely gorgeous otherwise.
- Sometimes the game asks you to go up a slope into a narrow corridor, but when landing on the very edge, the way hitboxes work will push you back out into the sloped area.
- It is a little hard to tell what parts of a boss will/won't hurt you without trial and error, but once again, the bosses are REALLY good otherwise.

Overall this is shaping up to be one of the best games at SAGE for me; keep up the good work!