Sonic the Hedgehog platforming of the main levels. The 16-bit "Sonic the Hedgehog " consisted of a giant rotating maze, which many considered a major technical achievement. The most common special stages, however, were segments with the character running through a long tunnel to collect certain items. 3D "collect item" levels, as in "Sonic 3" and "Sonic & Knuckles", used the same perspective but had Sonic collecting all the blue-colored orbs on the surface of a giant sphere. Finally, "Sonic Advance 2" employed a 3D ring-collecting stage, and "Sonic Chaos" ("Sonic and Tails" in Japan) used a variety of gimmicks for its levels.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in the game's advertisements and was also released as a single, which charted in the UK at number 55. Sega planned to release a single cartridge version of "Sonic 3" and "Sonic & Knuckles", "Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Limited Edition", but it was cancelled for unknown reasons. A prototype ROM image of this version was leaked in 2008. The game is included in the compilations "Sonic Jam" (1997) for the Sega Saturn, "Sonic & Knuckles Collection" (1997) and "Sonic & Garfield Pack" (1999) for Microsoft Windows, "Sonic Mega Collection" (2002) for the GameCube, "Sonic Mega Collection Plus" (2004) for the