8 Video Game "Mistakes" That Were Totally Intentional - Commenter Edition

6. Robotnik's Speed Traps - Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Tiny tina borderlands
Sega

The Sonic games are all about achieving lightning-fast speeds, and this is also what makes the experience immense fun. Who wants to play one where Sonic just strolls around like he's on a casual Sunday walk? Nobody.

This focus on speedy movement makes it incredibly weird that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will actively punish the player for going too fast. By going too quickly at certain times, there's a chance that Sonic will clip into an object and get stuck inside it, forcing the player to start over if they want to continue.

It was a frustrating bug to encounter, but bizarrely, Sega knew all about it and just decided to leave it in the game. Page 27 of the user manual even contains a cheeky excuse as to why this might happen to the player:

"Dr. Robotnik has created many diabolical traps which take advantage of Sonic's ultra-fast speed. Watch out for traps that Sonic cannot escape. If you fall into the wrong trap, you might have to reset the game (by pressing the RESET button) and start again at the beginning of the Zone you were last in. When Sonic is flashing (after being hit) don't let him travel too quickly."

So yes, the devs left this in the game on purpose, then tried to make an in-universe explanation for it ("diabolical traps") in the game's manual. The gall, the absolute gall!

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.