i absolutely adored sonic 3 (with the knuckles attachment). One of the primary reasons i enjoyed it was the levels were so big (plenty of exploring with knuckles and tails), and the hyper emeralds, while broken, did make the game a lot more enjoyable when you wanted to abuse enemies (and tails having a hyper form was very nice indeed).

Kunckles is gonna cut you up if you diss Sonic 3

I loved the game, and I liked the sonic part hell of a lot more than the knuckles part honestly.

I consider Sonic 3 & Knuckles to be one game in itself and probably the best in the entire series. I don't remember it being particularly difficult, but that could be because I played the heck out of it as a kid and I wouldn't really remember it being HARD or EASY back then.

And then I usually got Super Sonic really early so boom boom boom