History VideoGame / SonicBlast

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Being released near the end in the console's lifespan, the game experiments with pre-rendered graphics ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' style, with limited success given the reduced horsepower behind the system. ''Sonic Blast'' is often seen as the worst of the five main ''Sonic'' platformers on the Game Gear and Master System, with its slow speed, muddy graphics, highly inconsistent difficulty and far clunkier gameplay (even with the addition of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Knuckles]] as a playable character) being common complaints. Even then, Sonic's next portable outing -- the UsefulNotes/GameCom version of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Jam}}'' that was released the following year -- is even worse in those regards.

The game can be found on ''Sonic Adventure DX'' and ''Sonic Mega Collection Plus'', and as an unlockable demo on ''Sonic Gems Collection''.

* AbsenteeActor: One of a handful of games in the franchise (not counting games that predate him) where Sonic's sidekick, Tails, is completely absent. (Justified in the west, where he is said in the manual for ''VideoGame/TailsAdventure'' to have gone his own way after the events of ''VideoGame/SonicTripleTrouble''.)

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Referenced in the western manual, which mentions Robotnik's mustache as depicted in the western-version box art of all games at the time[[note]]Barring ''VideoGame/SonicTripleTrouble'' and the Game Gear version of ''VideoGame/SonicSpinball'', which instead depict him like in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''[[/note]].

* AttractMode: Leaving the title screen alone will show short demos of the games first two acts with Sonic and Knuckles respectively, demonstrating their distinct abilities (Sonic's double jump, Knuckles wall climbing).

* BeneathTheEarth: Red Volcano Zone Act 2 and 3.

* TheCameo: While Super Sonic is not playable, he does get a rare cameo on the levels goalposts, which will grant you a 1-up and 30 rings if you get him. It's notably the ''only'' appearance of Super Sonic in the Game Gear Sonic games.
* ClassicCheatCode: There is a level select code that can be accessed at the title screen by pressing Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, 1, 2, 1, 2 (a chime will play if you entered it correctly) and then pressing start. You can access all of the levels this way, but skipping anywhere past the first act of Green Hill Zone [[NoFairCheating will make it impossible to get all of the Chaos Emeralds]], thus meaning you can't fight the TrueFinalBoss and get the good ending. And if you get a Game Over, you have to reset the game to put in the code again.

* FakeDifficulty: What little challenge the game has comes from this due to the cramped level design combined with the huge sprites and wonky hit detection, the limited view of whats up ahead and the fact that you have zero room for failure when it comes to the Chaos Emerald sidequest. Playing as Knuckles adds more due to his low jump height and his gliding ability being nerfed to the point where he can't even hurt an enemy by gliding into them anymore.
* GreenHillZone: The TropeNamer makes an appearance in this game, although it has little in common with the original level outside of a superficial resemblance. And it has shades of PalmtreePanic in it as well.

* JokeCharacter: Knuckles is, to be frank, as useless as a man's nipple in this game. The levels are clearly designed with Sonic in mind and there are few opportunities for Knuckles to truly take advantage of his gliding and wall climbing abilities. And even then, Knuckles glide has been ''heavily'' nerfed to where he can barely fly any distance at all with it, sinks like a rock in the air and can only turn around mid-air slowly, his climbing is as slow as molasses, and trying to use the glide often can actually make the game harder because of the small screen resolution combined with offscreen enemies that Knuckles can accidentally buffet into--oh and did we mention he can't hurt enemies by gliding into them in this game[[note]]with the odd exception of, ironically, Robotnik himself during boss fights[[/note]]? On top of that, Knuckles pathetic jump height means he can't reach some areas Sonic can, and some of these areas ''can't'' be accessed by either wall climbing or gliding (at least without sometimes risking getting hurt in the latters case), which defeats the whole purpose of using the abilities anyway.
* JokeItem: The Robotnik monitor, which, unlike it's Sonic 3 & Knuckles counterpart that hurts you, does absolutely nothing at all upon smashing it.
* KaizoTrap: If you run out of air during Blue Marine's boss encounter, you have to fight it all over again, even if you're in the victory pose.

* [[OneHundredCoins One Hundred Rings]]: Collecting 100 rings gets you a free one-up...but immediately resets your ring counter back to zero.

* TempleOfDoom: Yellow Desert Zone Acts 2 and 3.

* TimedMission: Each stage has a ten minute time limit. However, you wouldn't know this unless you paid attention to the pre-stage introductions, as there's no clock in the game's HUD. During the last 30 seconds of the time limit, the words '''[[StalkedByTheBell HURRY UP!]]''' appear onscreen and the music becomes more frantic. Then, during the last ten seconds, '''HURRY UP!''' appears onscreen three more times and the last ten seconds tick away before Sonic or Knuckles loses a life.

* UnderwaterBossBattle: Blue Marine Zone. Extra air is only provided by the enemy striking the ground.

* WarmUpBoss: The Green Hill Zone boss, where Eggman just launches a boomerang at you while he floats in place and occasionally changes position. Predictably, his attack is easy to dodge and he goes down in seconds.

* ExcusePlot: The game follows the typical barebone "Eggman is up to no good, and Sonic (or Knuckles) has to save the day" story. The japenese story slightly elaborates on it by making it so that the plot is kicked off by Robotnik accidentally blasting a Chaos Emerald into five pieces while trying to shoot Sonic while he's resting, and Robotnik impulsively wants to collect them to power his new Silver Castle base. Knuckles, who saw the event play out, offers to help Sonic defeat Robotnik.

Being released near the end in the console's lifespan, the game experiments with pre-rendered graphics ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' style, with a limited success given the reduced horsepower behind the system. ''Sonic Blast'' is often seen as the worst of the 5 ''Sonic'' platformers on the Game Gear and Master System, with it's slow speed a common complaint (though the next year's Game.com version of ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Jam}}'' is even worse in that regard.)

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Bits of FakeDifficulty, Blue Marine and the tough TrueFinalBoss aside, the game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic Game Gear titles, even ''VideoGame/SonicChaos'', due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.

''Sonic Blast'' (''G Sonic'' in Japan) is a 1996 UsefulNotes/GameGear ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' game, and the second-last game Creator/{{Sega}} released for that system, preceding ''VideoGame/TheLostWorldJurassicPark''. (As usual, it was also converted to the [[UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem Master System]] for the Brazilian market.) The title allows the player to pick from Knuckles, with his signature gliding and climbing, or Sonic, who can double jump. An oddity of the game is the amount of rings one loses from a hit varies from 10 to 30 depending on the source of damage, as well as [[BigBad Dr. Robotnik]] (aka [[IHaveManyNames Dr. Eggman]]) [[InCaseOfBossFightBreakGlass only taking damage of he gets hit on the windshield of his Egg Mobile]].

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Bits of FakeDifficulty, Blue Marine and the tough TrueFinalBoss aside, the game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic Game Gear titles, even ''VideoGame/SonicChaos'', due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and the fact that theres no longer a 10 minute time limit and you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.

* TimedMission: Ten minutes for each act.

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: Referenced in the western manual, which mentions Robotnik's mustache as depicted in the western-version box art of all games at the time[[note]]Barring ''VideoGame/SonicTripleTrouble'', which instead depicts him like in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog''[[/note]].

* JokeCharacter: Knuckles is, to be frank, as useless as a man's nipple in this game. The levels are clearly designed with Sonic in mind and there are few opportunities for Knuckles to truly take advantage of his gliding and wall climbing abilities. And even then, Knuckles glide has been ''heavily'' nerfed to where he can barely fly any distance at all with it, sinks like a rock in the air and can only turn around mid-air slowly, his climbing is as slow as molasses, and trying to use the glide often can actually make the game harder because of the small screen resolution combined with offscreen enemies that Knuckles can accidentally buffet into--oh and did we mention he can't hurt enemies by gliding into them in this game[[note]]with the odd exception of, ironically, Robotnik himself during boss fights[[/note]]? On top of that, Knuckles pathetic jump height means he can't some reach areas Sonic can, and some of these areas ''can't'' be accessed by either wall climbing or gliding (at least without sometimes risking getting hurt in the latters case), which defeats the whole purpose of using the abilities anyway.

* NoFairCheating: Using the level select cheat code to skip anywhere beyond Green Hill Zone Act 2 will keep you from getting all of the Emeralds and thus preventing you from fighting the TrueFinalBoss and getting the Good Ending.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Bits of FakeDifficulty and the tough TrueFinalBoss aside, the game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic Game Gear titles, even ''VideoGame/SonicChaos'', due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and the fact that theres no longer a 10 minute time limit and you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: The game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic Game Gear titles due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and the fact that theres no longer a 10 minute time limit and you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: The game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic game gear titles due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and the fact that theres no longer a 10 minute time limit and you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.

* ShoutOut: The Yellow Desert Zone boss fight has Robotnik's mech patterned after Sun Wukong, a character from the Chinest epic ''Journey to the West''.

* JokeCharacter: Knuckles is, to be frank, as useless as a man's nipple in this game. The levels are clearly designed with Sonic in mind and there are few opportunities for Knuckles to take advantage of his gliding and wall climbing abilities. And even then, Knuckles glide has been ''heavily'' nerfed to where he can barely fly any distance at all with it, sinks like a rock in the air and can only turn around mid-air slowly, his climbing is as slow as molasses, and trying to use the glide often can actually make the game harder because of the small screen resolution combined with offscreen enemies that Knuckles can accidentally buffet into--oh and did we mention he can't hurt enemies by gliding into them in this game? On top of that, Knuckles pathetic jump height means he can't reach areas Sonic can, and some of these areas ''can't'' be accessed by either wall climbing or gliding (at least without sometimes risking getting hurt in the latters case), which defeats the whole purpose of using the abilities anyway.

* FakeDifficulty: What little challenge the game has comes from this due to the wonky hit detection, the limited view of whats up ahead and the fact that you have zero room for failure when it comes to the Chaos Emerald sidequest. Playing as Knuckles adds more due to his low jump height and his gliding ability being nerfed to the point where he can't even hurt an enemy by gliding into them anymore.

* JokeCharacter: Knuckles is, to be frank, as useless as a man's nipple in this game. The levels are clearly designed with Sonic in mind and there are very few opportunities for Knuckles to take advantage of his gliding and wall climbing abilities. And even then, Knuckles glide has been ''heavily'' nerfed to where he can barely fly any distance at all with it and sinks like a rock in the air, his climbing is as slow as molasses, and trying to use the glide often can actually make the game harder because of the small screen resolution combined with offscreen enemies that Knuckles can accidentally buffet into--oh and did we mention he can't hurt enemies by gliding into them in this game? On top of that, Knuckles pathetic jump height means he can't reach areas Sonic can, and some of these areas ''can't'' be accessed by either wall climbing or gliding (at least without sometimes risking getting hurt in the latters case), which defeats the whole purpose of using the abilities anyway.

* EternalEngine:Silver Castle Zone, which from the outside is very similar to the Death Egg in appearance.

* HoppingMachine: Robotnik's device in the third act of Red Volcano is this coming off the bottom of the screen.

* NonIndicativeName: Red Volcano has more of a purple-pinkish color palette than red.

* TheCameo: While Super Sonic is not playable, he does get a cameo appearance in the ending signpost. It's notably the ''only'' appearance of Super Sonic in the Game Gear Sonic games.

** Red Volcano has Rexons and Gohla like enemies (though unlike
their Sonic 2 appearance, they won't change direction and only have one flame circling them respectively).

** Silver Castle's exterior is identical to the [[VideoGame/Sonic3AndKnuckles Death Egg]], although the inner level design and setpieces are new to this game.

** Green Hill Zone has bee robots that resemble Buzzers, which fly through the air and occasionally shoot at you.
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** Blue Marine Zone has Crabmeat like enemies that slowly move back and forth, but won't attack the player.
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* ShoutOut: The Yellow Desert Zone boss fight has Robotnik's mech patterned after Sun Wukong.

* ShiftingSandLand: Yellow Desert Zone Act 1.

* ClassicCheatCode: There is a level select code that can be accessed at the title screen by pressing Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, 1, 2, 1, 2 (a chime will play if you entered it correctly) and then pressing start. You can access all of the levels this way, but skipping anywhere past the first act of Green Hill Zone will [[NoFairCheating make it impossible to get all of the Chaos Emeralds and get the good ending.]] And if you get a Game Over, you have to reset the game to put in the code again.

* ClassicCheatCode: There is a level select code that can be accessed at the title screen by pressing Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, 1, 2, 1, 2 (a chime will play if you entered it correctly) and then pressing start. You can access all of the levels this way, but skipping anywhere past the first act of Green Hill Zone will [[NoFairCheating make it impossible to get all of the Chaos Emeralds and get the good ending.]]

* ClassicCheatCode: There is a level select code that can be accessed at the title screen by pressing Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, 1, 2, 1, 2 (a chime will play if you entered it correctly) and then pressing start.

* JokeCharacter: Knuckles is, to be frank, as useless as a man's nipple in this game. The levels are clearly designed with Sonic in mind and there are very few opportunities for Knuckles to take advantage of his gliding and wall climbing abilities. And even then, Knuckles glide has been ''heavily'' nerfed to where he can barely fly any distance at all with it and sinks like a rock in the air, his climbing is as slow as molasses, and trying to use the glide often can actually make the game harder because of the small screen resolution combined with offscreen enemies that Knuckles can accidentally buffet into--oh and did we mention he can't hurt enemies by gliding into them in this game? On top of that, Knuckles pathetic jump height means he can't reach areas Sonic can, and some of these areas ''can't'' be accessed by either wall climbing or gliding, which defeats the whole purpose of using the abilities anyway.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: The game is significantly easier than the previous Sonic game gear titles due to Sonic's double jump, the sparse level design and the fact that you only lose 10 rings per hit, with the only real challenge coming from the tricky Chaos Emerald sidequest and the Blue Marine stage.