All the S@nics - the end

[Katazuki]

I wonder why he's not playing the director's cut.

[Leet]

possibly because he has been playing the original release of every sonic game throughout the entire LP...........

[Reecer7]

*listens to intro* wow, i remember this from a future sonic game!
*listens to the music in the first zone* wow, i remember this from a future sonic game!

The Saturn version has a different OST.

*listens to this* wow, i remember this from uh, natural playboy in bust-a-groove
well, the hook at least. it's a dead-ringer to my ears.

[Leet]

This game feels like it's here late; old collections like the GCN one always packaged it along with the other "classic" Sonics, and it's coming out on the vanilla Genesis after the Sega CD and 32X have been a thing for a while. If you asked me to chart out the Sonics in my head, I'd definitely have put Chaotix long after this.

[Bean]

This game feels like it's here late; old collections like the GCN one always packaged it along with the other "classic" Sonics, and it's coming out on the vanilla Genesis after the Sega CD and 32X have been a thing for a while. If you asked me to chart out the Sonics in my head, I'd definitely have put Chaotix long after this.

You're not that far off the mark. It was like Donkey Kong Country 3 & Kirby's Dream Land 3 for the Super Nintendo in that 3D Blast was developed as a swan song for Genesis owners that hadn't moved on to the Saturn... except it was by Traveller's Tales instead of Sega themselves. Of course, the Saturn got its own and slightly better version of the game anyway with a same-day North American release.

We're in late 1996 at this point where the Sega CD and 32X had already come and gone and were considered failures, so nothing significant was going to be released on those add-ons. Case in point, Knuckles' Chaotix had already been out for more than a year and a half by this point! Kind of shows you how colossal the screw-ups were for Sega here because the Saturn had also been out for a year and a half in North America when 3D Blast arrived! To put it in perspective, both Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot were on store shelves when 3D Blast showed up!

As for the game itself, I kind of like it, but it is different and the isometric view occasionally messes with you since some foes or obstacles will pop up almost out of nowhere while you're just moving around. For those tokens off springs, you actually need to keep your Flickies around to reach some of them like you thought!

[Crow]

To put it in perspective, both Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot were on store shelves when 3D Blast showed up!

holy crap i didn't know it was quite that bad. poor 3d blast. way, way too late to ever stand a chance

[Awoo]

We haven't even got to the last Game Gear game yet, either

[Crow]

oh sonic blast is gonna be a fantastic trainwreck

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

Sonic 3D was developed primarily by the UK-based studio Traveller's Tales, with elements of the design and creative oversight handled by Sonic Team, though the oversight was fairly loose. The Head of Traveller's Tales, Jon Burton, wrote most of the code, while artistic duties were handled by James Cunliffe. The project was originally known as Sonic Spindrift, before becoming Sonic Blast' by E3 1996.

A two-player split-screen mode was originally planned for the game, but was cancelled after a fair amount of work due to the isometric perspective destroying both players ability to see anything ahead of them.

[xnamkcor]

raocow check these

Sega Logo

https://youtu.be/c-aQvP7CUAI

Intro Movie

https://youtu.be/IehwV2K60r8

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

The Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island was originally conceived as the swan song for Sonic on the system.

However, in the wake of Sonic X-treme's delay and subsequent cancellation, a Saturn version of the title was hastily commissioned to be ready in time for the 1996 holiday season. And it was incredibly hasty, being completed in only seven weeks, with both the core gameplay and level layouts left untouched.

To entice buyers into a game that was 16-bit on a 32 bit system, the graphics were given an incredible overhaul thanks to the raw power the Saturn could bless a 2D game with. Redrawn sprites with increased detail and color were thrown amongst scenery boasting fancy new animations. Weather effects were also implemented, such as fog and rain in Rusty Ruins.

Even the Special Stage got a rebuild, with the lame bridge run of the original replaced by a brand new, fully three-dimensional half-pipe stage straight from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, designed and programmed by Sonic Team.

Rounding off the upgraded port was a brand new soundtrack by Richard Jacques, along with slick FMVs, a new menu, a map of Flickies' Island appearing during Zone transitions, and a pause screen showing elements missing from the in-game HUB.

No save game feature though. That was only for the PC port, and it didn't get any fancy weather effects or super cool 3D pipe Special Stage.

[Grounder]

[KobaBeach]

The Saturn version has a different OST.

*listens to this* wow, i remember this from uh, natural playboy in bust-a-groove
well, the hook at least. it's a dead-ringer to my ears.

frida's theme sounds like mystic cave to me i swear to god

[Piesonscreations]

Sonic 3D Blast did more for Sonic's music identity than Sonic 1.

[Bean]

Yep. Knuckles and Tails are just about everywhere. They're basically playing by Sonic 2 rules in that you have to have fifty rings to go to a special stage. As you saw, you can't farm Chaos Emeralds, but you do have the opportunity to collect two of them per act if you can find them.

[SAJewers]

It might've also been noted before as well, but the Special Stages are different on the Saturn and PC versions.

Here's the Saturn Special Stage:


and the PC Special Stage:


EDIT: whoops wrong video, linked the pc one twice

[Blivsey]

I grew up with the PC version of 3D Blast, same as Sonic 3. Uses the Saturn graphics and its soundtrack by (redacted), as well as the FMVs. You think the Genesis special stages are easy? The PC special stages are damn near impossible to lose.

It's the half-pipe from Sonic 2, except you can ramp-jump off the sides and shoot several hundred feet into the air. And there's only one ring target for the whole thing. Collect the requirement, then spend the rest of your time doing sick tricks.

Also I think the wall rao was going after DID have a breakable part, but it's annoyingly precise so he didn't hit it. kek

[J. J. W. Mezun]

For the longest time when I was young, this was the only Sonic game we had, & the only Genesis game we had other than generic baseball game & generic football game, so for the longest time this was what I thought o’ when I thought o’ Sonic. I’m shocked that this came out as late as 1996, which makes me wonder how late my family bought our Genesis ( or elsewise why they bought a Genesis just to play generic baseball game & generic football game ). To this day, the “Green Grove Zone” song still feels mo’ iconic to me than the Sonic 1 “Green Hill Zone” song, which I can’t e’en remember. In my defense, this game’s music was made by the closest Sega has had to a main Sonic composer, Jun Senoue, whereas “Green Hill Zone” was just made by some J-pop band.

Though I loved this game as a kid, I have since come to admit that it hasn’t aged well. Howe’er, I would still consider this game’s soundtrack 1 o’ my favorites, under only Sonic CD’s Japanese soundtrack. The same goes for the general sound & intro cinematics to the game. Sure, games like Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 & Knuckles may be better in li’l things like controls & level design; but when I played those games, I couldn’t help being disappointed in their calm “Seeegaaa” vs. Sonic 3D Blast’s abrupt “¡SEGA!” shout. & I think we can all agree that that’s what’s most important.

While this game has worse controls, this game makes up for that by being stupidly forgiving & stupidly easy. Having played this game a lot as a kid, I know, for instance, that you can easily max out your lives @ 9 in the very 1st stage by just collecting all 200+ music notes, going to Tails or Knuckles, collecting all 200+ gems ’gain ( since they all return when you return from the bonus zone ), go to the other guy, & collecting 200+ Wumpa fruit a 3rd time for 6 1 ups.

The bonus zones are also probably the easiest in any Sonic game, since they give you a lot o’ leeway & you can just jump o’er everything. It’s basically Sonic 2’s bonus but ( ironically ) without the 3D gimmick that made it actually challenging by making it hard to see what you’re doing & making it unfair. I believe the Saturn version has the Sonic 2 version, with the unfair gimmick, but in true 3D, but I ne’er played that version ’cause it’s music is unbearably bad — & when the only truly good part o’ a game is its sound, that’s a deal-breaker. Meanwhile, this version’s perfect fairness reveals how simple & pointless these 2 bonus types are.

[xnamkcor]

Special Stage

https://youtu.be/z1mcLXEJTkA

[Leet]

Why they keep bringing back the Sonic 2 special stage forever I do not understand.

[Grounder]

[Reecer7]

Why they keep bringing back the Sonic 2 special stage forever I do not understand.

i know, they should continually bring back sonic 3 blue spheres special stage instead

except, here's a twist: put it on a hexagonal grid instead of a square grid. you can thank me in one easy payment of $100, sega.

[Crow]

ooh yeah now this is the true 3D blast experience: oh my god the flickies scattered everywhere and i keep getting hit trying to recollect them

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

If Sonic 3D Blast is hit with an error that would cause the game to crash, the game will automatically load a level select menu instead. This may seem like a tricky easter egg, but was actually a diabolically sneaky trick to bypass some of SEGA's stringent software tests. The tests could take weeks, with one of them being to simply see if the game could ever crash by leaving it on for almost a week straight.

The crucial trick here, was that if any error occured, testers would only see a "You Have Found the Secret Level Select Screen" text string, and thus believe that the game had not crashed. With all of the game's exception handlers set to jump to this screen, there was no way a SEGA tester could ever discover the trick without digging into the game's code, shaving weeks off the time it took to release.

[Bean]

A little late, but that Gold Shield marks a first for Sonic since it's the debut of what would become the homing attack. It's just called the Blast Attack in this game.

And here's another example of a level where you want to go fast at times, but you really shouldn't because obstacles pop up too quickly to react to, especially with the spikes and rotating maces while doing those spins. Yet with the fire, it was more safe to spin dash past. Go figure.