obscure stuff
Sonic 3D Blast
Sonic 3D Blast, also known as Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island in Europe, is considered by many to be a mediocre Sonic game. Released in 1996 for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, and later that year on the Sega Saturn, after the Sonic X-Treme project was cancelled and had to be hastily put together in under 7 weeks. It was developed by Sonic Team and Traveller's Tales, who would later collaborate to develop Sonic R.
The game is set on an island home to creatures known as Flickies. Doctor Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog's eternal nemesis, seeks to use them for his own purposes, namely trapping them in robots to collect the Chaos Emeralds and subsequently conquering the world. Obviously, Sonic does not like this, and sets off to save the Flickies and beat the shit out of Robotnik for the sixth time now.
Sonic 3D Blast, while not a truly 3D game, is the first time Sonic has really dipped his toes into the swimming pool of 3D gaming. (Yes, Sonic Labyrinth exists, but we don't talk about that.) The game follows an isometric viewpoint, criticised by some and the subject of intrigue for others. Sonic can move in eight directions, jump, roll, and perform his iconic spindash. His traditional set of powerups returns, being the speed shoes, ring box, 1-up, and invincibility. There are also three shields to be found in the monitors dotted around the map. All give Sonic an extra hit, but they all also have another ability. The blue shield, which protects against electrical damage, the red shield, which protects against fire damage, and the golden shield, which doesn't give any special protection, but allows him to perform a rudimentary homing attack against enemies.
Alright, enough babbling about gameplay.
Now, many people don't like this game. Some do, but not to the point of treasuring it. I, however, LOVE this game. There are so many little things that, put together, make this game quite a classic.
First of all, the music.
The music you're hearing right now? That's from 3D Blast. It's the BGM of Rusty Ruin Zone Act 1. We're only two zones in and we already have a headbanging track. I'd show more examples, but I don't want to interfere with what you're hearing. Oh, by the way. You've been hearing Sonic 3D Blast lots of places on my website. In the guestbook, in the links, and in the Obscure Garbage Zone, where you just were.
Soaked it in? Good. Because now we're going onto the b e a u t i f u l l a n d s c a p e s.
What you're seeing here is Green Grove Zone, the first level of the game. Doesn't it look beautiful? Yes, yes it does. It gets better though.
Here's Diamond Dust Zone, one of the later levels of the game. A nice, snowy field of ice and death robots.
And here's Volcano Valley. Pretty neat, huh? Boiling lava and more death robots.
There's a lot to see in this game. I'd also like to gloss over things like bosses and such, but unfortunately I don't have the time. I guess this conclu-
God damn it.
Yes, this game has multiple endings, and yes, they rely on whether you collected all of the Chaos Emeralds. Guess I can't get away with half-assing this review, can I?
In order to collect the Chaos Emeralds, you first need to enter the Special Stages. To do so, find either Tails or Knuckles and ram your face into them. This will cause you to deposit all of your rings. You can leave them and come back later to deposit more, if you wish.
Once you have deposited 50 rings, Tails/Knuckles will take you to the Special Stage. The Special Stages differ greatly depending on whether you're playing the Genesis or Saturn versions of the game. However, both essentially boil down to the same goal; collect enough rings to continue, and eventually you'll get the Emerald.
After defeating the boss of Panic Puppet Zone, the final(ish) zone of the game, you will get an ending. If you don't have all of the Emeralds, you will get the bad ending (shown above). If you do, Sonic will be warped to the true final boss: The Final Fight.
The Final Fight is very simple. Survive an attack by Robotnik's weapon, jump into it while it's vulnerable, move on to the next area, rinse and repeat. You must smash into it 10 times in total before it dies.
When you finally beat the ever-loving shit out of Robotnik, you'll get the good ending. Yay! Pretty rainbows and unicorns! The world is saved!
Well, that's about all I have to say about this game. It's not much, but it's definitely a gem. Thanks for reading this essay about a garbage game nobody talks about. Until next time.