- Aftermath (2)

Discover the extended Mushroom Hill Zone, find the Giant Ring to Hidden Palace Zone, and learn about the different game endings based on Chaos Emerald collection in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Alright, so after that last bit, you'll land back in Mushroom Hill Zone. Act 1 here actually has a little extra area added on compared to how it usually starts. Just head right for a bit and smash through those walls you see. Behind them, you'll find a passageway with a Giant Ring. Hop in there – it'll zap you straight to the Emerald Chamber in Hidden Palace Zone. For the nitty-gritty on that, you'll want to check out the Special Stage section.

Once you pop back out of the Giant Ring, just keep heading right. You'll eventually end up in the exact same spot where you'd normally start in Sonic & Knuckles by itself. From this point on, the levels are identical between Sonic 3 & Knuckles and just Sonic & Knuckles. So, for help with the rest of the game, you should totally refer to the Sonic & Knuckles walkthrough. Any other minor differences will be pointed out there too. Oh, and the very last Zone for Knuckles is Sky Sanctuary.

Now, let's talk endings! If you've managed to snag all 7 Chaos or Super Emeralds, you'll see Regular or Super Knuckles chilling on Sonic's biplane, holding the Master Emerald. Both Sonic and Knuckles will head back to the Floating Island. As the island ascends into the sky, Sonic waves goodbye in his plane. However, if you only collected 0-6 Chaos Emeralds, an exhausted Knuckles will be on the biplane, but without the Master Emerald. Sonic and Knuckles return to the Floating Island, which then sinks into the sea as Sonic departs.

After the credits roll, stick around for a little bonus scene. If you got all 7 Chaos/Super Emeralds, you'll get a cosmic view of outer space with Knuckles posing in front of the Sonic & Knuckles logo. If you collected all 7 Super Emeralds, you'll also see Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles together in front of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles logo. But if you only got 0-6 Chaos Emeralds, you'll see a glitchy, short-circuiting Mecha Sonic with the Master Emerald. He somehow fixed himself after exploding! He jumps onto the Master Emerald, but it doesn't do anything.