Big's Big Fishing Adventure 3 is a browser game created by Sega of Virgin Islands based on a Running Gag from the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account. A trial version was released on April Fools' Day in 2016, and has a surprising amount of effort put into it, with loads of Continuity Nods, Ascended Memes, and Self-Deprecation. The game was initially "teased" during the "History of Sonic" panel at South by Southwest on March 11, 2016, but written off by everyone there as a joke, after which the Sonic Twitter claimed that absolutely nothing was happening on April 1st.
A voice-acted full version made by fans was announced in 2017, with Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock returning to voice Sonic and Eggman, respectively. However, it appears that progress has been slow, with no updates since 2018.
The Trial can be played here,
no Genesis controller required.
Hold on, Tropes! I'm coming!:
- A Day in the Limelight: Big the Cat gets a whole game to himself here!
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: Much like one of his cameos in Sonic Adventure 2, Big can survive in the vacuum of space with no trouble at all.
- The Bus Came Back: After being retired from the series for several years (save for sporadic cameos), Big the Cat not only returns, but gets to headline his own game.
- Continuity Nod: By the truckload.
- The game itself is named after Sonic Adventure 2: The Trial, the pre-release demo of Sonic Adventure 2.
- Eggman name-drops Sonic Adventure 2 and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine while listing the reasons why he's more popular as a character than Big is. Sonic later points out that Mean Bean Machine technically wasn't made for Eggman, referencing the fact that it was a Dolled-Up Installment of Puyo Puyo.
- Eggman also mentions Perfect Chaos and Biolizard by name if you ask him where Froggy is.
- Big brings up his last solo game, "Big's Fishing," numerous times throughout the game, which almost everyone claims doesn't count due to being nothing more than a kid's meal toy.
- Big says that he helped Sonic run in his last game, which Eggman dismisses as a "glorified cameo."
- Before Big enters the labyrinth to rescue Froggy, wavy text reading "The programmer has a nap. Hold out! Programmer!" briefly appears on screen, accompanied by the Sonic the Hedgehog CD special stage music. This is a reference to one of the early prototype builds of Sonic CD, which had the same phrase pop up during one of the special stages.
- During the "Have you seen Froggy?" dialogue with Eggman, when Eggman learns that Big is seriously developing his own game, he exclaims, "No way! I can't believe this was ever approved!" This was based on a line of dialogue he repeatedly said during a boss battle in Sonic Adventure (as well as the cutscene after said boss).
- When Knuckles recommends Big to delay his game, he mentions that Sonic's philosophy is to go fast, a reference to the 4Kids Entertainment dub of Sonic X.
- Excuse Plot: Big is trying to develop his own game, and the deadline is tomorrow. Unfortunately, he has no programming experience, and Froggy, who was supposed to help him, has disappeared.
- Here We Go Again!: After the credits, Big wakes up from a strange dream, only to find Froggy has disappeared yet again.
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Nintendo Hard: The Flappy Bird parody is as hard as the original. - Official Parody: It's a game by Sega that makes fun of both the Sonic series and themselves.
- Percussive Maintenance: Big's method of operating any form of machine is to bash it with his fishing pole, which somehow always works.
- Recurring Riff: The few pieces of original music in the game are either covers of or contain snippets of "Lazy Days ~Livin' In Paradise~", Big's Image Song from Sonic Adventure.
- Take That!: Eggman comments on his infamous American redesign from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog that was used in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and some of the western box arts:Eggman: What about my solo game? Sure, I looked a little... odd... in it... but "Mean Bean Machine" was a smash hit!
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: At certain points, the game becomes a maze game, a Flappy Bird clone, and the inevitable Fishing Minigame.
- Un-Installment: There is no Big's Big Fishing Adventure 1 or 2. It's likely named as a reference to the fandom's long-running desire for a Sonic Adventure 3.
