This is an interesting sort of light ‘easy mode’ for Sonic 3 that I can’t help but compare to Sonic Superstars’ Emerald Powers. While not as robust as those from the recent game, this is an interesting way to add mechanical benefits to collecting the Emeralds beyond just Super at 7 and Hyper at 14.

I also tested this on my customized rom from the official website [https://www.s3complete.org/customiser/] up to 3 Emeralds, and it appears that everything is working fine in 1.0. One note, I’m not sure if this is *because* I used a customized version of the hack instead of the base hack, but the first Emerald’s shield upgrade does work, but I never saw the actual shield sprite on Sonic. If this is as intended, then I didn’t notice any immediate glitches or issues. I can’t guarantee this, as I don’t have the know-how to back it up, but I don’t expect this hack to have conflicts with customized S3C versions.

Otherwise, I would honestly recommend this to newcomers of Sonic 3&K - or classic Sonic on the whole - as it offers benefits that might make the original game slightly easier. Thumbs up!