Sat, 03 Nov 2007 by Damien McFerran
The evil Dr. Eggman stumbles upon an alternate dimension where some odd birds called Flickies have the ability to travel anywhere.
After producing three Sonic titles for the Genesis/Megadrive Sega decided to do something a little different – instead of creating another platformer they produced an isometric adventure with CGI rendered graphics, and farmed the development out to highly talented UK studio Traveller’s Tales (who more recently have been responsible for the Lego Star Wars franchise).
The result is a game that divides Sonic fans.
Starting with the positives – the CGI visuals are stunning considering the hardware, the animation is excellent and the level design is colourful and varied. Although Sonic has lost much of his trademark speed, the game controls well generally. The boss battles are great fun and improve on the rather predictable encounters previously seen in other Sonic titles, and the special bonus stages really push the Megadrive as far as it could possibly go.
Sadly, Sonic 3D Blast is ultimately undone by a catalogue of negative points.
The gameplay is extremely repetitive – your aim is to collect Flickies and this becomes very dull after prolonged play, with only the boss and bonus stages breaking the monotony. The isometric viewpoint makes judging some jumps difficult and generally the game deviates a little too much from what makes Sonic great – something that we would sadly see more of in later Sonic titles.
1. cheeseman
26 Feb 2009, 16:47 GMT
Graphics-wise this game looks like the Super Mario RPG of the Genisis. But Super Mario RPG is better at every other aspect. Considering they both cost 800 Wii Points, you should ignore this and get Super Mario RPG instead.
2. Roo
27 Feb 2009, 11:39 GMT
First time I've ever seen Sonic 3D compared to Super Mario RPG. Unusual.
Anyways, this doesn't deserve the critisism its recieved over the last decade. A slower-paced Sonic game, yes, but a more thoughtful one too. Plus, its a graphical beast on Mega Drive. All in all, a good effort.
3. Digiki
27 Feb 2009, 14:06 GMT
I think a 6 is an accurate score, it's what I'd give it. It certainly doesn't deserve to be bashed like it does.
4. Shinnok
27 Feb 2009, 23:07 GMT
This review is spot-on, though I would have given it a 5/10. It's easily the worst Sonic game on the Genesis.
5. Hyper-Shan
12 Apr 2009, 23:04 BST
Even though it is slower than the previous games, it still really has it's fun points in my opinion!:
I never had the game but I borrowed this off a friend around 10 years ago... & I absolutely loved it!
I know that many people critisize this game a lot (like Sonic Spinball) & they would probably critisize me, but sometimes people try to expect more on the SPEED of the Sonic games too much that if everything in a new game is alright apart from that specific feature, then people would imediatly would think it sucks!
It does my head in sometime when some people think that way! >=( There IS speed in the game, not exactly like the 2D version but it is there; some people forget about the spindash speed! >_>
Overall, I would give this game an 8/10, not just for nostalgic reasons but for just about having fun! I accepted what was there, I actually enjoyed it despite it not being properly 3D!
If you have spare points & wanna try something a little different from the usual Sonic games, I would recomend you could give this a shot! =)
6. redflicky
20 Aug 2009, 21:53 BST
Honestly, this is a great game!
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