Hey y'all, I'm going to utter retro gaming blasphemy!
I genuinely think that the reason Sonic 3 receives so much love and praise is due to nostalgia and not much else.
Seriously, this is one Sonic game I DIDN'T play as a kid. Playing it now as an adult, it just isn't fun to me like 1 & 2 are. The levels are frustrating, enemy placement is infuriating, the special stages are total crap...
The only thing it has going for it is the sheer scale of the game.