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Ever since Sonic 3 came out, I never made it past Carnival Night Zone. I'm not sure which act, but I always got trapped at some point and would have to reset the game. I don't think it was a glitch, I just got stuck at some point. It happened back in the day on the Genesis console and even now when I attempt the game using an emulator.

Did this happen to anyone else? I'm a pretty capable gamer, but I never could get past this one part. It seemed that all paths led to this little trap room and there was no way out.

How do I get out?

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I think you're talking about the room with the red-and-white diamond barrel in Act 2 where you have to get the barrel low enough in order to progress to the next area. What I thought you needed to do was to jump up and down and time it properly in order to push the barrel down low enough.

This is the wrong method!

What you need to do is merely alternate pressing up and down on the directional pad in order to get the barrel to move, no jumping required. You can see a youtube video of this process here:

Do not feel alone! Pretty much everyone I talked to made this mistake as a young gamer. I never completed it either. I did get past the barrel twice I think, but by then I'd come so close to the 10 minute mark that I ran out of time before the end of the level. I didn't find out how to do this until talking with some friends a couple years ago. The answer eluded me for well over 10 years.

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    Interesting... Somehow I knew about Up/Down to move the barrels. Not sure why (maybe experimenting, maybe reading the manual or some game magazine). So, I never had problems. But TODAY, after reading this question, I realize this has been a very bad game design mistake from the developers, as it adds a new mechanic that is kinda obscure and thus many players don't discover it. That's a pity, as the next zone (Ice Cap) is one of the most beautiful and with an excellent music. Jun 24, 2011 at 18:24
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    Rumor has it that Sega's tips hotline had a prerecorded message stating how to get through the barrel problem, it was such a common roadblock.
    – Xkeeper
    Oct 28, 2011 at 23:46
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    It was so terrible, the barrel was actually removed in some later versions of Sonic 3 released in compilation packs and Sonic Jam.
    – Rohaq
    Nov 12, 2012 at 14:57
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    @Rohaq - That just takes all the fun out of it!
    – Robotnik
    Aug 1, 2013 at 11:15
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    Well you would say that, @Robotnik!
    – Rohaq
    Aug 6, 2013 at 14:16

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