Tails the Third

I recently bought the Atgames Sega Genesis remake. I ordered it off the Toys"R"Us website, and received it a week later. For the most part, it was good. The sound quality was kinda low, and the wireless controllers needed o be pointed at the console, but I could overlook these problems. One thing I did find odd, was how Sonic 3 wasn't in it. Sonic 1, 2, and Knuckles were, but not Sonic 3. Since my favorite Genesis game is Sonic 3 and Knuckles, I was very disappointed. So I went on Ebay to look for a copy of Sonic 3. After looking for about 15 minutes, I found one with buy-it-now, for 10 dollars. I didn't see any seller reviews, but I didn't care. I ordered it, and despite the shipping prediction saying it would take a week or 2, it arrived the next day. I was overjoyed by this, not considering how it had happened so fast. I put it into the Genesis, and started Sonic and Knuckles, thereby starting Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I chose the no-save file as Sonic, and began the game. The game began normally with the cutscene of Knuckles stealing the chaos emeralds. I started to run through the stage, and got the first special stage ring. to my surprise, when I started the special stage, Tails was with me. Since I had chose sonic alone, this was odd, but since Tails can't screw you over in the Sonic 3 special stages, I didn't really mind. I got the chaos emerald, and exited the stage. But Tails was still with me when I got back to angel island. At this point I was getting a little weirded out, but continued playing. I got to the second special stage, and Tails was gone. And he was still gone when I got the emerald and left the stage. When I got the third special stage ring, Tails was back, but his animation seemed slower, almost like he was tired of running. And when I left the stage, he was still there, and his animation was still slowed. This continued through angel island, hydrocity, marble garden, and carnival night. Each time he came in, his animation was slower. On the seventh stage, right as I collected the last blue sphere, tails just stopped moving. I left him behind and went forward to collect the emerald. When I left the stage, Tails wasn't with me anymore. I continued to mushroom hill without any more weird occurrences. When I went into the room with the master emerald, and my chaos emeralds turned into powerless super emeralds, and I jumped onto the green one, I could have sworn I saw Tails come out from the left side of the screen. I got the chaos emerald, and left the stage. But each time I went into the master emerald's room, I could swear I saw Tails right as I entered the stage. When I got to the point when Dr. Robotnic steals the master emerald, Tails slowly walked into the room as Knuckles fell off the emerald. He followed Sonic as he and Knuckles went to go to the teleporter to sky sanctuary. Knuckles jumped in, but Sonic and Tails simply stood there. Sonic began doing his waiting animation, but Tails continued to stay still. then, Tails jumped and began flying, and Sonic jumped and grabbed Tails' hands. they began flying upwards, and appeared in sky sanctuary. The game continued normally from there, Tails following me as if I had picked Sonic and Tails. As I got to the boss of death egg, Tails' animation once again slowed. I died a couple of times fighting the death egg robot. Each time I respawned Tails' animation slowed more. When I finally beat it, instead of going to doomsday, the screen faded to black, and a text box appeared. It played a slowed version of the special stage music, and then the text appeared, saying "the game's over Sonic. You won. Congratulations." Then, I appeared in a special stage with a gray floor and sky, but there were no orbs. no blue, red, yellow, or even spring. I ran in a straight line for a minute, then turned right. I still saw nothing, so I turned right again. I saw something in the distance. As I approached it, it turned out to be Tails. Right as I was about to touch him, the game froze. I sat still for a moment, then checked the console. it seemed fine, so I reset the game. but the console said that there wasn't a cartridge inserted. So I went to Sonic and Knuckles, but it was completely normal. I went back to the Ebay page I got the game from, but I appeared to have bought the only copy, and the seller didn't have anything else for sale. I'm still not sure if I should throw the game out, or see what happens if I play as tails.