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Sonic 3 - Unused Sprites & Objects

Objects that appear only in debug mode, but not during normal gameplay:

Red spheres - Angel Island:
This rotating mass of spheres changes the on-screen text red, and can cause the game to crash. It's possibly some kind of test for the special stages.

Sonic surfing - Angel Island:
Instead of Super Sonic flying into Knuckles, the intro sequence would have originally had Sonic surfing. The object for Sonic surfing can be placed with debug mode.

Objects & graphics that can only be accessed by hacking:

Surfboard - Angel Island:
In the original AIZ intro sequence, Sonic jumped off his surfboard.

Blaster enemy - Flying Battery:
Enemy from Sonic & Knuckles. Sonic 3 was rush-released, so many levels and features were saved for Sonic & Knuckles.

Technosqueak - Flying Battery:
Another S&K enemy.

First Act 2 boss - Flying Battery:
Boss from S&K.

Second Act 2 boss - Flying Battery:
Another boss.

Title card text - Flying Battery:
The letters F, L, Y, I, G, B, A, Y and R. Using an Action Replay code to reach FBZ will get you the FBZ title card, and then the game crashes.

Knuckles gliding & climbing - Competition Mode:
Knuckles can't climb or glide in Competition Mode.

Knuckles from the continue screen:
These sprites are loaded along with Sonic and Tails on the continue screen, but aren't used since you can't play as Knuckles.

Knuckles extra continue:
These appear on the special stage results screen when Knuckles gets a continue. But you can't play as Knuckles.

Knuckles lives icon:
Another unused Knuckles thing.

"KNUCKLES" has passed act:
You'd see this when Knuckles finishes a level.

Objects & graphics leftover from Sonic 2:

Competition mode level select menu:
This actually does work (in so far as you can highlight all 4 items), but you can't choose any of the levels.

Options screen:
The sound test actually works!

Tails & star from continue screen:
Graphics from the old continue screen. The pallete used here is from Sonic 2, not Sonic 3.