--S3&K: Glitches, Oddities, and Mysteries--
By Lemming 1545
Category: Glitch
Zone/Act: Marble Gardens Zone Act 1
Description: A steep slope that acts as flat land.
How to get: The slope can be found coming through a secret passage in the right-hand wall. Walk slowly down as the hill steepens, and when you reach the steepest part, it will act as level ground (you will not slide down, you can walk up and down freely, etc.). The effect leaves if you jump or walk off the slope.
Note: This supposedly works on several of Marble Garden's hills, but I've only ever seen it on this one.
The point?: Not much, except a lack of stringent testing.
Category: Oddity
Zone/act: Sky Sanctuary Zone (S/T)
Description: Fight two bosses at once.
How to get: Seven Super Emeralds and a Tails partner are both required. Play through Sky Sanctuary as normal, but take extra care to collect rings. When you reach the last teleporter (the one that leads to the final Mecha Sonic boss), turn around and go up the small hill. Have Sonic stand in the center of the top of the hill, and have Tails stand at the junction between the two slope levels. Those rings are going to come in handy, because the next part is going to take MANY tries. Have Sonic turn into Hyper Sonic, and Tails charge a Spindash facing left. Have Tails release the Spindash and jump, beginning to fly immediately. Have Hyper Sonic jump up after him, and use the Speed Burner move to catch up to him in mid air so that Tails is carrying Hyper Sonic. Keep flying (slightly rightward) until you see land. Tails will be able to reach about halfway up to the edge of the land before he runs out of energy. At this point, have Hyper Sonic jump out of his arms and use the Speed Burner again to reach the land. You will see that this is the boss arena that the teleporter takes you to, but without the scroll lock. Wait for Tails to reappear, then have him begin to fly upwards and slightly left, carrying Hyper Sonic again. You should come up between two pillars, keep flying up, until Tails run out of energy. Use Speed Burner one last time, you should be able to get over the wall and onto the land on the left side. Suddenly, a scroll lock will activate, the final Mecha Sonic boss will zoom across the ground (as if destroying the teleporter in his own arena), and the second Mecha Sonic boss will descend from the sky. The egg capsules on the second boss will appear as the electricity sprites that are used when the final Mecha Sonic boss is defeated, and the bubbleclones appear as messed-up, unidentified flame sprites. You can fight them both at once.
Note: There are other ways to pull this off, but this is the most straightforward. It is, however, VERY difficult to reproduce.
The point?: Proves that Sky Sanctuary is actually several areas stitched together by the teleporters, rather than one massive level.
Category: Mystery
Zone/Act: Hidden Palace Zone (S/T)
Description: Reach an unusual hidden area.
How to get: Playing as Tails or having a Tails partner is required. Go up the first two staircases, and past the long area with the hidden springs. Stand in front of the spikes. If you are playing as Tails, jump on top of the spikes, then jump up again while you are invulnerable and start flying straight up. You should find a wide hole in the ceiling through which you must fly. You should be just able to reach over the edge of the wall onto the platform on the left side before you run out of energy. If you are playing as Sonic with Tails, do the same thing, but be sure to jump out of his arms before you get "clotheslined" on the lip of the wall. To your left, you will find six item monitors: a Big Ten Rings, a Flame Barrier, an Aqua Barrier, a Thunder Barrier, an Invincibility, and a Fast Shoes. Fly to the right and above the slightly higher wall on that side, and you will go up a small set of stairs to find three more item monitors: two Big Ten Rings and a 1 Up.
Note: The ceiling in this area is very high in some places, and part of it appears to be another shaft like the one used to reach this area, though much higher, and impossible to reach the top of. I speculate that it might lead to Knuckles' part of the level. I also speculate that the area I have described is a sort of programmer's "testing area".
The point?: If my two above guesses are correct, it first gives evidence that the two different Hidden Palace Zones in S3&K (Sonic/Tails' and Knuckles') are connected, but separated by a scroll lock, which I believe comes into play at the first, ornately decorated teleporter. I have identified it to be surrounded by the same graphics, background, and land in both versions, and it is therefore possible it is in the same "place" in both versions, only blocked off by different scroll locks in both. Second, it proves that some testing areas were left intact, perhaps there are more?
Category: Oddity
Zone/Act: Icecap Zone, Act 1
Description: Play through Sonic and Tails' Icecap Zone Act 2 as Knuckles.
How to get: Seven Super Emeralds are required. Obviously, you need to be playing as Knuckles. Play through the level as normal until you reach the last swing that leads to the breakable wall before the mini-boss arena. Instead of going through the wall, climb the true wall above it onto a slope. Walk or glide up the slope. You will see two walls on your left and right, both of which have ice crystal spikes on them. Turn into Hyper Knuckles so that you can climb through the ice crystals unharmed. If you try to climb the right-hand wall, you will fall off just before the top. Climb the left-hand wall. You will be blocked at the top by a swing. Now glide from the left all to the right one. It will likely take several tries, but eventually you should be able to grab onto the right-hand wall just above the spot where you fall off. Climb to the top, and you will be in part of Sonic and Tails' area. Go through the series of slamming pillars, and you will hit a checkpoint. Then go up the ramp and you will be in Sonic and Tails' mini-boss arena. The mini-boss will fly slightly higher then it does in Knuckles' arena, so it may be hard to hit. Once you defeat it, you will continue into the next Act, except that it will be the Sonic and Tails part of the level, which Knuckles cannot normally access.
Note: If you die in Sonic and Tails' Act 2 before reaching a Star Post, you will restart the Act in Knuckle's area.
The point?: Like the Marble Gardens Zone glitch, this shows that testing wasn't as thorough as it could have been. Also proves that certain level movements are determined not by who you are playing as, but where you exit the level.
Category: Glitch
Zone/Act: Launch Base Zone, Acts 1 and 2
Description: Move without using the running animation.
How to get: Go to one of the flip-arm speed boosters. Walk in front of it, then slowly inch towards it pixel by pixel. Eventually, you will activate the arm, and it will shoot you across the ground, even up and down hills, without activating the running animation. It stays this way until you leave the platform, or run out of speed.
Note: If you press the left or right keys, the running animation will activate. You must not press any buttons once you start to move for this to work.
The point?: Further evidence of inadequate testing. I found this after five minutes of trying to find out exactly how close you had to be to one of the arms to trigger it, you'd think the testers could have found it in the days they were probably working on it!
Category: Glitch
Zone/Act: Angel Island Zone, Act 2 (S/T)
Description: Move backwards between Acts.
How to get: Play through Angel Island Zone Act 1. Once you reach Act 2, go through the rolling tunnel at the start of the level. Now comes the hard part. Go back through the rolling tunnel. Don't stop rolling once you come out the other end. If you do it right, you will break the scroll lock and roll right into Act 1! You can play your way backwards through Act 1, up to the point where the mini-boss appears for the first time, then the scroll lock in that area prevents you from going any further.
Note: This is VERY hard to reproduce. It will likely take MANY, MANY tries, but trust me, it is possible.
The point?: I can't blame this one on poor testing, since it's nearly impossible to do. I myself ran across it totally by accident, and it took me days to do it again afterwards. The only thing gleaned from this glitch is that, in case you hadn't already figured it out, the two Acts in each Zone are separated only by what could be considered a cutscene and a scroll lock, and are actually one huge, contiguous level.
Category: Glitch
Zone/Act: Icecap Zone, Acts 1 and 2
Description: Defy all known laws of in-game gravity.
How to get: Having a Tails partner is required. Have Tails carry Sonic on top of one of the destructible ice bricks. Pick one without an Item Monitors inside. After Sonic is standing on the brick, have Tails jump on it and break it. The brick will break, but sonic will remain standing in mid-air, only now using his ledge animation. You can still walk back and forth, run, et cetera, without changing altitude. If you hit a slope, things get really weird, allowing you to walk on a diagonal axis in mid-air. If you jump or have Tails carry you, your altitude will reset and you can continue to walk on solid ground as usual.
The point?: Well, I'm sure all those testers are getting pretty irked by now for me blaming everything on them, but... Really. Was this THAT hard to find?!