That, coupled with the fact that the game's levels were larger and more plentiful, compounded the time issue while simultaneously leading to another roadblock: the game was becoming too big for Sega's cartridges at the time.Īll this led the team to split 'Sonic 3' in half, making the second portion of it, 'Sonic & Knuckles,' a separate game with the ability to lock onto the 'Sonic 3' cartridge. Focusing efforts to craft the most ambitious 'Sonic' game yet, the team wasn't prepared to meet Sega's strict deadlines, imposed in order to tie in with an unanticipated McDonald's promotion. Iizuka cited multiple factors that forced the split, with the most crushing being the development team's deadline.
