Sega Saturn - Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island

Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island

Release Date:	February 1997
Number of Discs:	1
Packaging:	Standard Case
Number of Players:	1
Simultaneous Players:	1
Languages:	English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch.
Controllers:	Standard Pad
License:	Commercial
Publisher:	Sega
Developers:	Traveller's Tales Ltd
Genre:	Platform

Trivia/Notes

Sonic 3D was very ported very quickly to the Saturn from the MegaDrive version to make up for the cancellation of Sonic X-Treme.

Screenshots

Review
By: 32bitfighter
If you’re a fan of the Sonic series, then you probably know the story behind how Sonic 3D 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 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.
Breakdown
Gameplay:	6/10 Gameplay gets quite tedious.
Graphics:	6/10 Graphics don’t real feel “32-bit”
Sound:	8/10 Great soundtrack!
Longetivety:	5/10 Only good to play in short intervals.
Originality:	6/10 Not the first isometric platformer by a long shot.

Overall:	6/10

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