Sonic 3D Blast

Not to be confused with Sonic Blast or Sonic the Hedgehog Blast.

Sonic 3D Blast^{[note 1]} is a 1996 platformer video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Sega for the Mega Drive, Saturn and PC. This was the final Sonic game on the Mega Drive, as well as one of the few that released on the Saturn. The game was internationally released on the Mega Drive in November 1996; a Saturn version with improved graphics and a new soundtrack released at around the same time due to the cancellation of Sonic X-treme.

3D Blast is set on Flicky Island. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, who moves in an isometric view and needs to rescue Flickies from Doctor Eggman to progress. The game received polarizing reviews due to its isometric gameplay and slower pace compared to other Sonic titles, but was commercially successful. It has been re-released multiple times since then, including an unofficial version by lead programmer Jon Burton with various features absent in the original game.

Plot

Sonic, Tails and Knuckles visit Flicky Island, which according to legend is the site of the seven Chaos Emeralds. The island is inhabited by Flickies, said to serve as clues to the gems' location. Soon after, Doctor Eggman comes to Flicky Island to capture the Flickies and get the Chaos Emeralds. He soon learns that the Flickies travel through subspace using Dimension Rings. Eggman exploits this and makes a "Dimension Ring Generator". He then begins capturing the Flickies and imprisons them in Badniks one after another.^[14]

Sonic returns to Flicky Island shortly after and learns of Eggman's actions. Making his way across Flicky Island, Sonic frees the Flickies from Eggman's Badniks. He infiltrates the doctor's base, the Panic Puppet and has a showdown with Eggman. After this, the game's ending will depend on the player's progress: failing to get the Chaos Emeralds ends with Eggman having them in his possession, but collecting them transports Sonic to The Final Fight. Sonic defeats the doctor and his Final Weapon, and celebrates with the Flickies.

Characters

Gameplay

Sonic 3D Blast is an isometric view action and platforming video game. The player takes control of Sonic the Hedgehog, who can run, jump and Spin Dash. The game features seven main Zones, each divided into two Acts and a third, shorter Act with a boss fight against Eggman.

The main objective of Sonic 3D Blast is to beat the aforementioned Acts in the least amount of time possible. To do so, the player needs to find all five Flickies in different sections of an Act, which can be done by defeating the Badniks in that Zone. The Flickies have different behavior according to their colors; the blue ones will try to find Sonic, and if they do not manage to do so, they will fly around in circles; the pink ones behave the same as the blue ones, except that they will fly in bigger circles; the red Flickies will not make any efforts to find Sonic, and make large jumps that make them hard to catch; the green Flickies wander around in random places, sometimes even trying to avoid Sonic. The playable character needs to touch a Flicky to make it follow Sonic and take them to the Dimension Ring. Once done, the player will be able to proceed with the Act, eventually reaching the goal.

In Sonic 3D Blast's Acts, many Rings can be seen scattered everywhere. Like in many other Sonic titles, Rings serve as the playable character's basic method of protection from enemy attacks and other hazards. If Sonic takes damage while having at least one Ring, he'll survive at the cost of losing all of his Rings and Flickies. And if Sonic is hit without having any Rings on him, he loses a life and must try the current Act again from either the beginning or at the location of the Dimension Ring that serves as a checkpoint. The game is over once Sonic loses all of his lives, but the player can keep playing by using any obtained Continues.

The secondary goal is to find the Chaos Emeralds, which can be done by visiting a Special Stage within the first five Zones. Upon completing a Special Stage, Sonic will be awarded with an Emerald. If he collects all seven Emeralds and defeats Eggman in Panic Puppet Zone, he can access the final Zone and the good ending of the game.

Scoring system

Main article: Point#Sonic 3D Blast

Controls

Characters

Playable characters

• Sonic the Hedgehog

Non-playable characters

• Dr. Eggman
• Flicky
• Knuckles the Echidna
• Miles "Tails" Prower

Badniks

Zones

1. Green Grove Zone: A Green Hill-esque tropical paradise with checkered soil.
2. Rusty Ruin Zone: The once-submerged remnants of an ancient culture, dredged up from the sea bed by Eggman.
3. Spring Stadium Zone: A bouncy arena filled with balloons and spikes.
4. Diamond Dust Zone: The frigid slopes of Flicky Island's mountain range.
5. Volcano Valley Zone: An active volcano.
6. Gene Gadget Zone: Dr. Eggman's genetic research laboratory.
7. Panic Puppet Zone: A fortified factory and the center of Dr. Eggman's base, with the game ending here if the player has not collected all 7 Chaos Emeralds.
8. The Final Fight: The steel foundations beneath the previous Zone that can only be accessed if the player collects all 7 Chaos Emeralds.

Special Stages

Main article: Special Stage (Sonic 3D Blast)

To warp to a Special Stage where the player can try for a Chaos Emerald, either Tails or Knuckles must be located within the regular levels. The player must then hand over a minimum of fifty Rings to one of them in order to be taken to the Special Stage. The player must stand next to either Tails or Knuckles for the Rings to be absorbed. However, the player is not required to hand over all fifty Rings at once but can instead hand over a portion and then come back later in the same level and hand over the remaining Rings.

There are three different versions of the bonus levels based on the game's platform:

• Sega Genesis/Mega Drive: Sonic runs down a bridge, collecting Rings and avoiding Bombs.
• Saturn: Sonic runs down a three-dimensional half-pipe covered in Rings and Bombs, the player must collect enough Rings to progress to the end of each stage.
• PC: Sonic runs down a half-pipe similar to those in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

After Tails/Knuckles has received fifty Rings and Sonic returns back to the level, Tails/Knuckles will not transport the player back to the Special Stage again, but will instead give Sonic extra bonus points at the end of the level if the player continues to give them more Rings.

Bosses

1. Green Grove Zone boss (only appearance)
2. Rusty Ruin Zone boss (only appearance)
3. Spring Stadium Zone boss (only appearance)
4. Diamond Dust Zone boss (only appearance)
5. Volcano Valley Zone boss (only appearance)
6. Gene Gadget Zone boss (only appearance)
7. Panic Puppet Zone boss (only appearance)
8. Final Weapon (The Final Fight) (only appearance)

Modes

Sonic 3D Blast features many modes that can be acceded through the main menu. These are:

• Start: Begins the game.
• Controls: Allows the player to change their controls.
• Sound Test: Allows the player to listen to the game's tracks.

Development

Background and conception

In 1989, Traveller's Tales was co-founded by British game developers Jon Burton and Andy Ingram. The company achieved recognition through its collaborations with Sega and The Walt Disney Company, having gained the former's respect through their work in titles like Puggsy (1993), Mickey Mania (1994) and Toy Story (1995).^[18]

The Mega Drive, a 16-bit video game console made by Sega, had enjoyed great success over the early 1990s with the release of games in the hit Sonic the Hedgehog series. A plethora of titles in the franchise were released for the system, including Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992), Sonic Spinball (1993) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994). These earned Sega worldwide success and allowed the Mega Drive to closely compete with Nintendo's SNES console in North America and Europe.^[18]

In late 1994 and early-to-mid 1995, Sega released the Saturn, the successor to the Mega Drive, in Japan and the rest of the world respectively, and discontinued production on the 16-bit console shortly thereafter. However, they wanted to release a new Sonic game for that platform, as games released one or two years after a system's discontinuation tended to still sell well.^[18][19]

Following the completion of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, series co-creator Yuji Naka reunited with his fellows at Sonic Team and began work on non-Sonic projects, including NiGHTS into Dreams... (1996). As such, Sega contacted Traveller's Tales to make the new game;^[18] such idea "got their attention" as the series was still very popular at the time. Development of Sonic 3D Blast would take eight months to be finished.^[20] Traveller's Tales founder Jon Burton served as lead programmer. The game was at first titled "Sonic Spindrift" before being given the final name.^[21]

Gameplay and art

Sonic 3D Blast uses 3D-like graphics and is played from an isometric perspective. The graphics were made from 3D-rendered models which were converted into sprites, and the overall artstyle was inspired by Donkey Kong Country (1994). Inspiration for the isometric gameplay came from Sonic Labyrinth (1995) and Super Mario RPG (1996), and the Flicky collection system was influenced by Flicky (1984).^[22]

Sega Saturn release

In addition to the Mega Drive release, Sega also commissioned a port of Sonic 3D Blast for the Saturn in case Sonic X-treme, slated for release in Christmas 1996, was cancelled. The cancelletion did occur in the end, so Sonic 3D Blast was released as a replacement for the holiday season instead.^[23] The Saturn version was developed alongside the Mega Drive one for eight weeks. The port also had higher resolution and weather effects, among other changes, but otherwise was made to play exactly like the 16-bit version. Sonic Team members filed in for development of the overhauled Special Stages, which were inspired by those in Sonic 2 and given polygonal graphics rather than sprites only.^[18]

Soundtrack

Jun Senoue worked on the music for the Mega Drive version, while Richard Jacques scored the Saturn/PC version. Many of the themes used in the Mega Drive version come from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. The Game Over music from Sonic 3D Blast was also used in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure.

The Saturn version features a theme song, "You're My Hero," composed by Richard Jacques and performed by Debbie Morris. This song is heard during the game's end credits.

Reception

Sonic 3D Blast has gained generally mixed reviews, with critics at the time finding the game's controls and slow pace frustrating, but praising its visuals and music.

IGN was critical of the game, complaining about the poor controls in conjunction with the isometric viewpoint and change in the previous Sonic formula, stating "you can't deny that the game's core design is repetitive and, ultimately, kind of bland."^[32] The sense of speed and intense action that Sonic's name was built on is absent here, replaced by, essentially, a looping, lazy fetchquest." Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot was more positive on the game, praising its graphics, soundtrack, and challenging boss fights.^[30] Unfortunately, there were still common complaints that "...wandering around the levels looking for the last enemy gets boring very quickly. Had this game been more action oriented, with more enemies and much faster gameplay, it would have truly lived up to the Sonic name."^[30] However, the staff at GameSpot's review of the PC port was much more critical, saying they "can only hope that our little blue buddy's next PC cameo will carry a little more merit."^[31]

Entertainment Weekly was harder on the Saturn version of the game than the original Mega Drive version, claiming that "while Sonic 3D Blast is super by 16-bit standards, it falls flat on Saturn, where 32-bit games with far more sophisticated 3-D graphics and gameplay are the norm." Overall, the Saturn version received slightly more positive reception than its Mega Drive counterpart, with critics praising the revamped Special Stages and the weather effects.

Retrospective commentary has also been more negative; ScrewAttack ranked it #5 in its list of worst Sonic games, calling the game "a 2-D overhead with a bad angle." Conversely, 1UP.com described the game as "much better than you might be led to believe by the negative reviews it garnered back in the day."

Sales

Mike Wallis, a lead producer, director, and employee in the American branch of Sega, recalled in an interview that the Sega Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D Blast was commercially successful for the company, selling over 700,000 units, despite the discontinuation of official support for the console in 1995. The Saturn version was the second best-selling game of that system worldwide, behind NiGHTS into Dreams, another title also developed by Sonic Team.^[19][34]

Re-releases

The Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D Blast is included in several compilation releases, such as: Sonic Speed Pack!, Arcade Collection for Windows, Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube,^[35] Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows,^[36] and Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.^[37] It was also digitally re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console system^[32] in 2007, within the Sonic Double Pack for Windows and on the Steam marketplace in 2010.^[38] The game was also playable for VIP members of the PlaySega browser game service sometime in the late 2000s/early 2010s. The game is also featured in the compilation game Sega Genesis Classics alongside many other Sega Genesis games.

Legacy

Archie Comics published a comic adaptation of the game for a 48-page special, published in January 1997. A loose adaptation of the game also appeared in issues 104 through 106 (May through July 1997) of Sonic the Comic.

Certain music tracks across both the Mega Drive and Saturn/PC versions of the game were re-arranged for future Sonic games including Sonic Adventure, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and Sonic Generations. For Sonic Adventure, composer Jun Senoue stated he included those tracks because he personally enjoyed them, but they had not widely been heard as he only composed the music for the Mega Drive version, which was not released in Japan.^[39] In addition, an unused beta song would also be re-used by Senoue as the boss theme in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I.^[39]

Sonic 3D Blast: Director's Cut

In 2017, Jon Burton, the lead programmer of the Mega Drive version, announced that he was working on an unofficial director's cut patch of the game that can be installed into the ROM of the game. The director's cut features improved controls and gameplay additions not seen in the original version, such as a Debug Mode level editor, a level password save system, Time Attack challenges, and the ability to transform into Super Sonic.^[40][20] A beta version was released in November 2017.^[20]

Cheats

Mega Drive version

• Level Select: On the title screen press , , Right, , , Up, Down, . If done correctly, the player will be taken to menu screen. At the menu screen, press the start option to be transported to the Level Select Screen.
• Level Skip: After completing the Level Select code and then selecting a Zone, pause and press during gameplay to skip to the next level. Also, when skipping a Zone during a Special Stage, the player will be awarded with its Chaos Emerald without even going through the stage.

Saturn version

• Level Skip: Enabled by default. Hold and press the start button at the start screen. The player should until they get into the main game, and press start to pause. Then press , or .
• 'Easy Emeralds/Quick Emerald Gain: Enabled by default. Hold and press start at the start screen. The player should until they get into the main game, and press start to pause. Then press .

Trivia

• Director Jon Burton revealed on his Youtube channel (Gamehut) that the Sega Saturn port of the game runs on the exact same code as the Sega Genesis version of the game. In order to streamline the process of porting the game to the system, Burton wrote his own compiler that allowed him to directly port the games Hex Assembly source code as is. The updated graphics would then be easily dropped into the game and overlaid over the original assets, as they do not directly interact with the gameplay code.
• In the Genesis version of the game, there is a peculiar glitch that can be triggered in the Sound Test menu. Playing track 14 (the boot-up cutscene music) and then playing track 19 (the 1-Up jingle) at the last second will trigger a series of random notes and sounds from the game. Leaving it running song enough will eventually cause this glitch to completely override the standard music and sound effects of the game.
• The European box artwork for Sonic 3D Blast was created by Me Company with a clay model used to design Sonic's head.^[41]
• This is the second game to feature Knuckles' socks being the wrong color, as they are blue instead of green; the first game to see this was in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, where they were yellow when not playing as Knuckles.
• In the Mega Drive version, by inputting the following the player can access to the Level Select screen: → ↑ ↓ , with the inputs spelling "Baracuda".
  • It is also possible to access the Stage Select by crashing the game (via glitches or physically tilting the game cartridge), according to the Traveller's Tales' founder Jon Burton.^[42]
• At Jack in the Box fast food restaurants, copies of the PC version of the game were given away as bonuses in kids' meals up until the release of Sonic Adventure.
• The names of the Zones in this game are all alliterations, much like in Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
• Richard Jacques, the composer for the Saturn/PC version soundtrack, remixed the music featured in Green Grove Zone for another Sega game, Metropolis Street Racer, into the song "It Doesn't Really Matter," sung by T.J. Davis, who had previously collaborated with Jacques for the soundtrack in Sonic R.
• The Sega Saturn port of the game uses an arrangement of the 1-Up jingle from Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 instead of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles 1-Up jingle by Jun Senoue that was reused for the Genesis version, and both versions of the game use the Chaos Emerald jingle. Despite this, Yukifumi Makino, who originally composed the former jingles, is not credited in the Saturn version.
• This is the second game where collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds does not unlock Super Sonic.
• This is the last Sonic game to be released on the Sega Mega Drive.
• This is the first Sonic game to have been released on the Sega Saturn, though Sonic and Dr. Eggman had originally appeared as unlockable characters in Christmas NiGHTS Into Dreams....
• This is the only Sonic game where the European version features a different name than the North American version.
• One of Sonic's waiting animations appears in Sonic Generations as one of Classic Sonic's animations.
• The Japanese Sega Saturn version has slightly faster loading times, but removed/changed the level skip code.
• Matthew Felix holds the world record score at 1,746,900 points achieved on 19 December 2013.^[43]
• Sonic 3D Blast was the third to last first-party Saturn game released in Japan, where it was a Saturn exclusive until the release of Sonic Mega Collection, which finally brought the Mega Drive version to Japan.
• Sonic 3D Blast bears some similarities to the video game Flicky, another game created by Sega and the debut of the Flickies. Both games focus on the rescue of small birds who follow the player in a chain behind them, with the birds also separating from the player if an enemy breaks the chain. In both titles levels are cleared by collecting all of the birds and bringing them to a specific point.
• Sonic 3D Blast is one of the two Sonic games to be added to the Arcade Collection, the other being Sonic R.
• Some of the tunes (such as the 1-Up jingle and Continue music) were reused from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The game also reuses several samples heard in previous Sonic games.
  • The sound effects appear to be enhanced on the Saturn/PC version.
• As with Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic & Knuckles Collection, and Sonic R, the original PC port of Sonic 3D Blast was released as part of the "Sega PC" brand.
• A Sonic Jam promotional screenshot showed that Sonic 3D Blast was planned to have a Game.com version, which was later scrapped for unknown reasons.
• Unlike previous Sonic games, the Mega Drive version of this game uses the exact same ROM for all three regions (NA, EU, and JP). The only differences are on the title screen, with it displaying "Sonic 3D Blast" for North American hardware, and "Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island" for European and Japanese consoles.
• In issue 54 of the video game magazine Superjuegos, a section on Sonic 3D Blast is featured, which refers to all the Zones in this game by alternate names, most of which come from previous Sonic the Hedgehog titles:
  • Green Grove Zone is referred to as "Green Hill".
  • Rusty Ruin Zone is referred to as "Marble Zone".
  • Spring Stadium Zone is referred to as "Casino Night". Curiously, the original uncompressed version of the the music in Spring Stadium Zone also bears this name.
  • Diamond Dust Zone is referred to as "Snow Mountain Zone". This name would later be used for a Zone in Sonic Dash, which also uses a remix of the music that plays in Diamond Dust Zone from the Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D Blast for its music. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
  • Volcano Valley Zone is referred to as "Volcano Zone".
  • Gene Gadget Zone is referred to as "Chemical Plant".
  • Panic Puppet Zone is referred to as "Scrap Brain".

Videos

Notes

References

External links

• Sonic 3D Blast at the official Sega website
• Sonic 3D Blast at the official Sega of America website
• Official Website (Japanese) (archived)