Collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic 3 stages allows you to enter Giant Rings in the second half of the game to earn 7 Super Emeralds. This unlocks Hyper Sonic , Hyper Knuckles , and Super Tails .
were planned as one massive game, but they were split due to development time and cartridge costs. sonic-knuckles-wsonic3.bin
On original hardware, when the consoles booted with both carts locked together, the Sonic & Knuckles ROM overrode the initial boot sequence of Sonic 3 . The combined code unlocked features that were buried, incomplete, or locked away in the standalone Sonic 3 cartridge: Collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic
, he finally confronts Knuckles in a duel. During the fight, Eggman's true colors are revealed as he steals the Master Emerald right in front of them. The Final Stand On original hardware, when the consoles booted with