They just didn't care, part 2

Sonic 3 somehow managed to revive a bug from the prototype versions of Sonic 2: holding down a jump button while a level is loading causes the button press to be buffered until the player gains control of the character, making them jump as soon as the level starts.

As reader Brainulator9 points out, this works even when the player object spawns in mid-air, allowing you to do things you were never supposed to, such as turning into Super Sonic within a bonus stage.

Luckily, this was fixed in Sonic & Knuckles for all three player objects. However, there's one instance in which the game doesn't spawn the regular player objects. ...Yep, you know it.

Don't you just love Competition mode?