The rollback

Sonic isn't the only one with two rolling animations; Tails and Knuckles have them as well. Tails' animations in particular consist of just three frames each, repeating at a constant rate of 30 frames per second regardless of the current ground velocity value.

AniTails02:     dc.b    1, $96, $97, $98, $FF

AniTails03:     dc.b    0, $96, $97, $98, $FF

Now, although judging from the animation scripts, the mapping frames appear to be in the correct order, they're actually in reverse order in the mappings themselves. As a result, Tails' fur rotates backwards whenever he curls into a ball.

The absurdity of this oversight, together with the fact that it doesn't occur in Sonic 2, makes it a strong contender for my coveted Top 5 Stupidest Bugs in Sonic 3 list. Maybe someday I'll post about the other entrants in this here blog thing.

Plenty more oversights exist in the player sprites, so I guess I'll talk about them next week. Have a great day, everyone!