The dreaded Sonic 3 level select

[Lucky]

It always amazes me how many people got stumped at that barrel. First time I played Sonic 3, I tried jumping for a minute or two and as soon as I realised that didn't work, I just started bashing the rest of the buttons until I found a combo that did. Seemed simple enough to me and I was a kid- that's why it always makes me giggle a bit when I see all these folk who say they never managed to get past it until years later, a lot of them with help from an FAQ.

Ecco did take me a lot longer, admittedly. :F

[Ebby]

Sonic 3 is probably the easiest of the old Sonic games anyway.

...well, unless you count the BARREL OF DOOM.

I second that. The barrel..... anyone who said they never got stuck for at least a five minutes, IS A LIAR!

I couldn't do the code to save my life, so I said, "Fuck it! I won't cheat! I'll beat it the hard way."

So I did, Chaos Emeralds and all.

[Angnix]

I only got that code to work once.

And the Barrel of Doom, I read the trick to it years later, but there was a point of time I got good at it, but I still didn't do it the correct way and it was silly how I did it.

It reminds me though there was a game I played a long time ago called Sheep Raider (Where you were Ralph Wolf from Looney Tunes and you had to steal sheep from the sheep dog) that gave a clue to the boss... but I didn't get the clue, so I somehow beat it anyway, in a ridiculously hard way, lol.

[Blacklightning]

I remember they gave me maybe a day of frustration, but you solve them by process of button-by-button control pad elimination in the end.

Unless you're retarded.

Yeah, exactly.

It's not exactly like the Mega Drive pad is complex, and the fact that the game limits traditional movement whilst on the barrels should give you the hint to try something fucking new

Y'know, I'm just a tad annoyed this was exactly what I said back in the last barrel topic and I got flamed to high hell for it. I swear, you guys just can't make up your minds.

EDIT: Also, the obligatory.

Edited December 23, 2009 by Blacklightning

[canderson]

You're talking about that one in Carnival Night Zone right? If you are, then I knew I wasn't the only one who was stuck on that crap.

-Iceman

You're not the only one.

I made a topic about this earlier in the year, and many people had difficulty getting past that. =D

I have never heard of this cheat by the way. I guess I should try it on an emulator.

Edited December 24, 2009 by canderson

[Frozen Nitrogen]

I'm just wondering how any of you Genesis owners ever got anywhere in Ecco the Dolphin if the barrel was such a game stopper.

OH GOD WHAT THE HELL ICE-CRABS AND NOW THERE'S A GIANT OCTOPUS OH FUCK I'M BACK IN TIME BEING EATEN BY ICHTYOSAURS AND THE ASTERITE IS DOING SOMETHING CRAP CRAP STUCK IN ATLANTIS OH HOLY HELL THE MACHINE

- That poor little dolphin.

So.

Many.

Deaths.

[SchemingMinor]

Once. ONCE. And this was on the Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube. I had to use the D-pad which allowed for timed directive hits compared to the analog stick. I found it easier to access the sweet, sweet debug through Action Replay.

Though finding out about debug Sonic in S&K which spazzed out in an interpretative dance after reaching a point in Marble Garden Zone made my day:

Edited December 24, 2009 by Kintobor

[Phos]

This code is so hard to pull off because the 68K is busy decompressing the intro animation, causeing the game to miss inputs.

So uh, why did mine stop saving, then? not being an ass- just curious.

Sometimes chips just go bad.

also barrels is so overblown, I dind't even know people had trouble with it until i started going on forums. D:

The barrel is a funny thing, you'll probably figure it out quick IF you don't try to pass it by timing jumps. If you try to do it that way, you can come close pretty easily making it seem like the right way.

Edited December 24, 2009 by Phos

[Dr. Mechano]

I'm just wondering how any of you Genesis owners ever got anywhere in Ecco the Dolphin if the barrel was such a game stopper.

I think what tripped most people up is that previous barrels could be used as standard "Jump up and down on this to make it move" platforms before this, and by the time one reaches the barrel in question, it's already in the gamer's head that this is what you're supposed to do to bypass this area.

[Badnik Zero]

^ I guess I shouldn't be a snob about my 1337 PLAYING SKILLZ. Really though, I think I remember what I did by the barrel now, though it took a while to remember it. I thought I needed Tails to get past, but then I realized it wouldn't make sense to require 2-players in the single player game. I also tried jumping, I think everyone did. I might have figured it out when I looked down to see what I could see past the barrel, but memory's fuzzy. Speaking of Ecco though, the friend I used to swap Sonic 3 with thought his Ecco cartridge was broken because it kept dumping him back to previous levels, but that's just the story progression and the game messing with you. It helps to try and think what the game designers were doing when they came up with an unintentional puzzle. I remember a few that had me stumped for a while in the Genesis era. The Scrambled Egg Zone in Sonic 2 has this tube you have to wait in for a certain amount of seconds before going down the right tube to catch a moving platform, which was crazy difficult to figure out. If anyone's done the original Prince of Persia, there's one level that had me for about a month. There's no way out of this area, and there's an unreachable button on the floor across from a dead end which is placed at the side of one "room screen". Instead of trying to find a way to get to the button, you have to go to the dead end area and just stand there looking at the button for fifteen or so seconds, until a mouse comes along stands on the button for you. I obsessively looked for a way to that button, and it was a mouse. I dunno how many versions of the game there are, but I think the GG one was identical to the original PC one. Holy crap, a mouse. Does anyone know what I'm talking about!

[Rusty Spy]

I think what tripped most people up is that previous barrels could be used as standard "Jump up and down on this to make it move" platforms before this, and by the time one reaches the barrel in question, it's already in the gamer's head that this is what you're supposed to do to bypass this area.

Funnily enough, it is possible to bypass the area by jumping, but the only way I've seen it work was with Tails and incredibly precise timing. I've never done it myself, but my brother has done it a few times. It had something to do with quickly going into a fly just as your about to land on the barrel.

I never got stuck on it for too long though, since I found a glitch that lets you pass under the barrel as it's bobbing up when transforming into Super Sonic.

If anyone's done the original Prince of Persia, there's one level that had me for about a month. There's no way out of this area, and there's an unreachable button on the floor across from a dead end which is placed at the side of one "room screen". Instead of trying to find a way to get to the button, you have to go to the dead end area and just stand there looking at the button for fifteen or so seconds, until a mouse comes along stands on the button for you. I obsessively looked for a way to that button, and it was a mouse. I dunno how many versions of the game there are, but I think the GG one was identical to the original PC one. Holy crap, a mouse. Does anyone know what I'm talking about!

Oh, we do.

Edited December 25, 2009 by Black Spy

[SchemingMinor]

I think what tripped most people up is that previous barrels could be used as standard "Jump up and down on this to make it move" platforms before this, and by the time one reaches the barrel in question, it's already in the gamer's head that this is what you're supposed to do to bypass this area.

That's a nice theory and all, Mechano with your "game physics", but the real reason is that it lured you in with promises of candy and fun with it's glittering harlequin design, before it sucked your soul out and left your zombie husk to die by the bobbins and bumper balls.

I mean people trust a harlequin. Jazzy, fun, gleeful and with the uncanny ability to make you laugh. What's not there to trust?

...oh yeah.

[Remynaka]

I remember when I found that code out in a gaming mag, tried it out, failed a few times.. nothing serious... and got it. in like maybe 30 min. and ever since then I've been able to do it. If you do the input BEFORE sonic hits the sega logo.... 9 times out of ten, you'll get the code in. That's how I figured it out anyway. And the fucking barrel is a JOKE. again, all it took was a bit of I dunno THINKING and you were past it. It shocks the fuck out of me people are like STILL stuck there. =/ Like really, it's NOT that hard.

[Dark Qiviut]

It shocks the **** out of me people are like STILL stuck there. =/ Like really, it's NOT that hard.

Tell that to millions of gamers, including critics. There are some who've NEVER seen IceCap nor have heard its theme. All because of a trial-and-error puzzle that never gave clues to ANYONE. That barrel literally made me HATE this overrated game at one point and to this day, I still rely on the "jump" technique to pass it successfully. (Yes, I did pass this level several time doing this.) There's a reason why Sonic Jam eliminated the barrel in its "easy" and "normal" modes. Edited December 26, 2009 by Dark Qiviut

[Remynaka]

Tell that to millions of gamers, including critics. There are some who've NEVER seen IceCap nor have heard its theme. All because of a trial-and-error puzzle that never gave clues to ANYONE. That barrel literally made me HATE this overrated game at one point and to this day, I still rely on the "jump" technique to pass it successfully. (Yes, I did pass this level several time doing this.) There's a reason why Sonic Jam eliminated the barrel in its "easy" and "normal" modes.

It's still shocking.. because it's really not that hard. The barrel was easy. I got past it not even thinking. But going back to it my second play though, after a few seconds, I pressed up and it went up. I thought nothing of it after that...... until more than 10 years later... I read people are STILL having problems with it. It makes me LOL. and yes sonic 3 is overrated. Glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this.

[Jix Hedgehog]

There's an easier way to get the level select. I don't really remember the specifics, but it requires swapping Sonic 2 with Sonic 3 with the Genesis still turned on. And I actually got it to work!

I think you have to do level select in Sonic 2, then pull the cartridge out while still on, and replace it with Sonic 3. Then reset. Something like that. I don't really remember since I used to do this a long time ago. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I remember it, everyone advised against it because it could damage your Sonic 2 cart.

When you're on the level select on Sonic 2, you pull the cartridge out, pop in Sonic 3 and hit the reset button. Friends and I did it all the time.

The level select for Sonic 3 itself wasn't that hard, if you rotate the control pad vertically, you can use your thumbs which makes it 99% easier.

And the barrel? I had no idea it was such a big deal until I got connected to the internet

[Octarine]

I remember wasting a couple of lives due to time-outs in Carnival Night the first time because of the barrel, but it didn't stump me for that long. I don't remember how I actually came upon the solution... I probably figured it out by accident. You can only sit in front of the same barrel for so long without trying the up-down rhythm eventually.

I've actually never tried the level select thing. Not much point, really, even if it weren't apparently controller-bendingly impossible.

[Mega]

Protip: Just put it into Sonic and Knuckles.

The level select is so much easier when they're connected. Left x 3, right x 3, up x 3 on the first swing in Angel Island.

And debug is really similar, just in Mushroom Hill. I never tried the S2 cart trick in Sonic 3, but it sounds odd.

[SefHighwind]

I'm just wondering how any of you Genesis owners ever got anywhere in Ecco the Dolphin if the barrel was such a game stopper.

Ah Ecco, how I love and hate that game.

As far as the level select code goes, I've only done it once. The timing is a pain in the neck, and it took me about 5 to 10 minuets to do it!

The Barrel of Doom did stump me for a while. I wasn't sure how to do it since, like Dr. Mechan said, the previous barrels were the jump up and down kind. When I came across the Barrel of Doom, I had no idea. I think it took me 4 years until I looked up how to do it with Sonic or Tails. Ya it's pathetic, and after I found out, I really felt stupid.

[AM2]

I never really tried doing the level select. Just played the game, could never do it.

[Tailikku]

Yeah, Sega was a bitch here. But I do know the other alternative level select.

Perform the trick in Sonic and Knuckles, go to level select, pull out the cart, reset once you have Sonic 3 in it and voila!

[Detective Shadzter]

Wasn't there supposed to be another way of doing it in Sonic 3 using the swings in the first level above the location of the first special stage ring?

EDIT: Just seen Mega's post about it.

[back2s0ul]

I used the Game Genie.

[Meta77]

I pulled it off once.....and never again will i ever try.....never....sonic 2 and sonic and knuckles lock on....i love you guys way more with your simple cheat codes.

[jeremycarrier]

Dude...such an amazingly annoying cheat. I remember when I beat the game as a kid, but I lost it, so I bought another copy. I didn't feel like beating all over again to get to Icecap Zone, so I said "To GameFAQs!". Cheat code looked easy enough. Little did I know the time frame for putting the code in was smaller than the average length of a Sonic Rush level. Holy crap, I had to reset the Genesis so many damn times, and I heard that little opening tune a million times. Duuuuun, Dun-DUN, Dun dunnahnahnahnah, dunnahnahnahnahnah...