Sonic Advance 3 Version Diffs

Sonic Advance 3 Version Differences

USA:
-Rings have significantly less impact on your air control than JP/EU versions
-Toy Kingdom 3: Near the beginning there are two power barriers.
-Cyber Track 1: Both barriers around the last chao are power barriers (i.e. need knuckles to break it).

JP and EU:
-More rings give you more air control and acceleration, similarly to how they work in Advance 2.
-Bosses for Route 99, Sunset Hill, Ocean Base, Toy Kingdom, Chaos Angel: After eggman flies off screen, it takes about an extra 1-2 seconds to regain control of the character.
-Toy Kingdom 3: Near the beginning only the far right power barrier exists.
-Cyber Track 1: the barrier to the right of the last chao is NOT a power barrier (i.e. anyone can break it). The left barrier is still a power barrier.

JP but not EU:
-Route 99 pulley sound effect is different from US/EU
-Toy Kingdom rocket explosion sound effect is different from US/EU

EU but not JP:
-Route 99 pulley sound effect is the same as US
-Toy Kingdom rocket explosion sound effect is the same as US


Overall:
-JP and EU are exactly the same for gameplay, but EU matches US with sound effects.
-JP and EU should be very slightly faster for most levels due to more air control from rings.
-Some jumps are more consistent in JP/EU than US because of more air control, but there are also situations where jumps can be less consistent because there's more variability with air control.
-JP and EU is significantly faster for Toy Kingdom 3 if using a power team route.
-JP and EU in 100% can cut out a team swap for Cyber Track 1, this saves about 10 seconds.
-US saves about 2 seconds each for 5 bosses with offscreen kills. JP/EU cannot regain control instantly. If executed properly, it's about a 10 second timesave.
-Note that japanese text saves time for 100% RTA because of chao text. However, you can toggle the text to any language in all versions, so this is not a version-exclusive timesave. Running on japanese version makes it less annoying to reset though.