Sonic 3 and Knuckles/Trivia

• Manual Misprint: A few of the enemies from Sonic & Knuckles showed up in Sonic the Hedgehog 3's instruction manual.
• Refitted for Sequel: Sonic & Knuckles consists almost entirely of material that was originally intended for Sonic 3 but was cut due to time and hardware constraints. The two games can, however, be locked on together, which creates the official full game, and the longest in the original Sonic trilogy.
• Troubled Production:
  • Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles were once planned to be one big game. However, time restraints forced Sega to split the game in two in time for Sonic 3's release, leaving many fans to wonder what these other stages were once they put in the insanely difficult Stage Select code.
  • Michael Jackson's rumored involvement in the game's music is a whole story of its own, which ranges from anonymous credits and dropped finished tracks because of his child molestation allegations, to him being dissatisfied with the Sega Genesis sound hardware.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: There tends to be confusion as to why the original Sonic the Hedgehog could not be locked in with Sonic & Knuckles. The two most popular explanations are Knuckles would have dramatically altered the color pallet or that Knuckles gliding on conveyor belts in Scrap Brain Zone would cause the game to crash... both of which were debunked by the famous rom hack Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog as well as any future ROM hacks starring characters other than Sonic.
• Working Title: Sonic 3D, when it was developed as a 3D Polygonal Isometric Platformer with the SVP chip in mind. No relation to Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island.