Game:

Sonic 3D Blast (1996)

Duration: 2:27:35

3,444 views

58

#sonic #sonicthehedgehog #sonic3dblast #sega #segasaturn

Description and timestamps:

Despite the incredible success of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles in 1994, Sonic the Hedgehog more or less vanished from the mainstream gaming scene up until the original release of Sonic Adventure in 1998: a period lasting a little over four years; four years where the gaming world was going through probably it's biggest resonance. With the release of the powerful PlayStation and Nintendo 64, 3D platformers and action games were an absolute hit. It was here that Sega and the Sonic franchise had reached a major crossroads. To keep the fanbase in check while Sega were planning how to take Sonic into the 3D realm, a spin off title was created as a partial tech experiment for Sonic's first true debut into 3D (for better or worse) and was the Blue Blur’s swansong on the Mega Drive and first game on Sega Saturn: Sonic 3D Blast (or Flickies Island for European release)

Sonic 3D Blast was originally supposed to be released exclusively for the Sega Genesis and was intended to close out the system altogether as Sega made way for their Saturn future. Sonic’s future was going to be Sonic X-Treme, a 3D platforming game for the Saturn. When Sonic X-Treme was canceled, Sega ported Sonic 3D Blast to the Saturn. While the level layouts, bosses, enemy sprites, and so forth are all exactly the same between the Genesis and Saturn versions, the Saturn port was significantly more polished and detailed. It also featured an abundance of additions, including an entirely different soundtrack with CD-quality audio, level detail, a longer 3D introduction video, alternate bonus stages, and an overall better appearance. The soundtrack composed by Richard Jacques is so soothing and easy to listen to! Opinion to this day, is divided on the game with many believing that this game was the reason Sonic’s initial failure to adapt to the third dimension (an opinion I disagree with). I will say gameplay is much slower when compared to other games in the series and the controls are slippery (through lack of a better word!) But I still enjoy it all these years later as it offers something a little different than the standard Sonic experience.

Other Statistics