15 Video Game Mysteries Answered Years Later

7. Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Was Michael Jackson Involved With the Game's Soundtrack?

One of the weirdest gaming mysteries to have risen its head over the years was undoubtedly the speculation around whether or not the legendary Michael Jackson had a hand in Sonic the Hedgehog 3's soundtrack. Fans of the lightning-fast hedgehog and the king of pop had spotted similarities between MJ's music and several tracks in the 1994 threequel since the game's initial release, but with Jackson's name not appearing in the credits, it remained a point of contention.

In the years after the release, these rumours persisted, and actually started to gain more traction as people involved with the project began talking about it more openly. Jackson was known to be a Sonic the Hedgehog fan and had worked with SEGA for his Michael Jackson's Moonwalker video game, so the link was already established. Several people involved with Sonic 3's development have since said that Jackson worked on the soundtrack, and his keyboardist Brad Buxer stated in 2009 he and Jackson had composed music for the game, giving the long-running theory its strongest evidence yet.

However, to this day, it has never been solidly confirmed by SEGA themselves, with some accounts suggesting that, even if he was involved initially, any work he did was removed before the game was properly released.