If you’re a fan of the Sonic
series, then you probably know the story behind how
Sonic 3D Blast came to exist. To be brief it was
released as a way to fill the void that was left by the
cancelled game, Sonic X-Treme; a game that was intended
to be the first ‘true’ 3D Sonic game, and promised to
play a big role in helping the Saturn compete with the
Playstation and Nintendo 64. Unfortunately that plan
fell through as the game was canned, and Sonic 3D Blast
had to take the spotlight as the new 3D Sonic game.
While the game does have it’s charm, it’s regarded by
many gamers as being little more than a distraction from
the pink elephant in the room (i.e. no Sonic X-Treme),
and overall a disappointment to many fans of the Sonic
series.
In this game, Sonic travels to Flicky Island in order to
visit his friends; once he arrives on the island we find
out that Dr. Robotnik has taken all the Flicky’s on the
island and trapped them in evil robots. Now it’s up to
you as Sonic to save the Flicky’s from Robotnik and once
again thwart the genius’ evil plans. The main gameplay
is in a pseudo-3D environment; you view the game from an
isometric viewpoint while running around trying to
defeat enemies and collect the Flicky’s inside, as well
as collecting rings and completing various platforming
areas. Once you collect all five Flicky’s in a
particular area, then you can locate (and jump through)
a giant ring that will warp you to the next part of the
level, or finish the level. You can also meet with
Knuckles and/or Tails and give them your rings in
exchange for a trip to the bonus stage, and a shot at a
Chaos Emerald. If you happen to get damaged by an enemy
attack, then you will lose all the Flicky’s you had
following you along with your rings; then you must run
around and collect all the Flicky’s before they stray
too far from your position, which can get really tedious
since it’s not hard for the Flicky’s to get stuck in an
awkward spot where it’s difficult for Sonic to retrieve
them.
I found the core gameplay (from zone to zone) gets
pretty tiresome after a while, and I find it difficult
to sit down and play the game for more than 30 minutes.
The fact that there is no save feature or password
system at all – meaning you can’t start from where you
left off without a cheat device – makes it an even
bigger chore knowing that you must play through the
levels you beat already again no matter what. I did
enjoy the 3D bonus stages, they brought back memories of
the Sonic 2 bonus levels and were really fun to play;
the boss fights were also pretty fun to play, and became
a decent challenge as the game progressed. The controls
seem fine, but the game engine itself makes it feel like
Sonic is slipping and sliding on ice constantly; it also
makes some platforming areas – where precision jumping
is required – tougher. While the slippery feel does make
some areas a bit tougher in my opinion; a majority of
the game it’s not a big issue. All in all, the constant
collecting of Flickies makes the game feel a bit like a
Zelda knockoff, but not really.
The visuals in Sonic 3D look much nicer on the Saturn
compared to its Genesis/Megadrive counterpart;
everything looks clean and crisp, but it still doesn’t
really show off what the Saturn was capable of. The FMV
sequence at the beginning of the game also looks much
better in this port, but that’s to be expected when
comparing a 32-bit system to a 16-bitter. These graphics
are decent for a 3D Saturn game, but the programmers
could have done much better I feel. The audio is a
completely original CD soundtrack, and aside from
sounding a bit cheesy now and again it was really well
done. There are close to 20 unique tracks for the
various stages and areas, and they try to capture the
theme of each different zone in the game (winter-theme,
carnival-theme, future-theme, etc.) while the special
themes like in the bonus stage and during a power-up
emphasize a more fast-paced and upbeat style of music.
This is one of the more common Saturn games; it
shouldn’t cost you more than 5-10 dollars, and it’s very
abundant on the internet and at specialty game stores.
However, despite it’s low price these days the game
doesn’t last all that long; it takes about two or three
hours to complete the game, and with no extra modes or
rewards for doing so leaves little reason to play the
game repeatedly like the 2D Sonic games. While the music
is great, the rest of the package (gameplay, graphics,
value) is average at best, and it’s not a game I like to
spend hours playing (even one hour seems like a chore).
Sonic 3D on the Saturn is definitely the better port of
the game compared to the Genesis, but in the long run it
will see limited play time in many collections and spend
a majority of its time with you (the gamer) on a shelf. |
