Retro Review: Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic's games are a funny experiment in watching its main house studio flop around like a Magikarp trying to figure out what best way to get gamers buying their products. The earliest 'experiment' I fondly remember playing was Dr.Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and..well.....I don't own that game anymore because of how meh it played. Sonic's 3D Blast however was a way of showing "Hey we have an idea and it may be rough around the edges...but play it and see what you think!" and you know what? It's pretty good still to this day.

No longer do you jump into light posts or giant rings for special stages.
Now you gotta pay up Knuckles or Tails 50 rings.

So at first playing the game is weird to anybody that grew up with the original 2D titles NOT because it's 3D but because it's an isometric 3D game on the SEGA Genesis...so controlling a character with Sonic's "speed" in said environment would actually make the game slow. In this game you do not traverse in the same mannerism as you would in previous games but it gives out a moderate effort in trying: loops, slopes, springs, and multiple power ups and rings are abound everywhere for you to collect. It will just feel awkward trying to collect all of these things because AGAIN, it's in an isometric 3D setting. That being said this game is more of a "If you didn't like it in concept you may not like it in execution"...or more easily said: a niche hit. 

For some reason though I can always go back to Sonic 3D Blast yet I almost never want to touch Sonic Lost World which, somehow, gave me the same vibes as this Genesis game. The difference being that 3D Blast was trying to be its own thing and succeeded while Lost World has literally no identity of its own...and both games are awkward to play on their control schemes but I feel 3D blast works better.

But enough comparisons.

The idea of 3D Blast is that you go from each level defeating 6 enemies in a set area to collect the animals inside (Named "Flickies" here) and touching the goal ring in every set area to send them home until you get to the final section. The Chaos Emeralds you collect ONLY ensure that you get the best ending by approaching the final battle with Dr.Robotnik. Otherwise the game ends prematurely once completing all 3 acts of Panic Puppet Zone. Like previous games you need 50 rings to get into any Special Stage but now that the Special Stages are unlocked through touching Knuckles and Tails you have to know a few restrictions now. If you already did a Special Stage under any of them then you can't do another one in the same act by them. If you got 1 Chaos Emerald you can get another but by finding Tails and doing the same thing. This was changed in the PC/Saturn version unfortunately where you only can do one Chaos Emerald per act.

Other than the cosmetic differences of the levels themselves (IE: PC/Saturn has different textures, weather effects, entirely different colored areas) they also sport completely different special stages. On the Genesis, players run across a flat bridge collecting rings and jumping over spikes and merely steering left or right. On the Saturn/PC, Sonic is air-lifted from Tails into a half pipe similar to Sonic 2 with full polygonal 3D visuals.

While 3D Blast has the weirder presentation in Special Stages, it gets a few things the Saturn/PC version does not. It has an intro to the story mode, an intro to the final boss, and an arguably much superior soundtrack to every level in the game including the boss fights. It's merely taste but to "see" all of what 3D Blast has to offer one should check out both versions if possible. Except the Game Gear version. We won't even touch that version.

It's odd coming here though with the intention of giving a review for something as weird as 3D Blast: I can say I honestly love playing the game but to the average gamer or someone who is a collector looking to complete their collection? I'm not sure if that would work. Maybe it could end up for the better though: maybe you'll see why some people enjoy it.