Paramount Made a Sega Genesis Cartridge Just to Tease a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Trailer Next Week

There’s a new trailer for Paramount’s upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film debuting next week, on Monday, November 25. How do we know? It’s all thanks to a custom Sega Genesis cartridge.

IGN received a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film mailer this week that includes a Sega Genesis cartridge that’s actually playable. After a classic Sega title card, a main menu appears with options for “Characters,” “Posters,” and “Unlock”. The characters screen features lines of dialogue for the different Sonic characters, and posters lets you look at four Sonic movie posters.

But “Unlock” is a bit different. It starts a small minigame where you play as Sonic and run away from Shadow. You can jump and move from left to right, but there’s no real end goal and no way to win or lose. However, we discovered that if we input a famous Sonic 3 cheat code (Up Up Down Down Up Up Up Up) Sonic scolds us for cheating… and then opens up a new menu option: “Trailer?”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the trailer this way – the game just tells us that the new trailer is coming on Monday, November 25. So stay tuned for that.

We’ve already seen one trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which features the debut of the infamous Shadow the Hedgehog voiced by Keanu Reeves. Each subsequent Sonic film has introduced a new character, with Tails and Knuckles appearing in 2, Shadow in 3, and a mysterious fourth new character planned for a future film. We’re hoping it’s Amy Rose.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 speeds on into theatres on December 20, 2024.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].