An isometric Platform Game known in the Americas as Sonic 3D Blast, starring Sega's three-foot speed demon, developed by Traveller's Tales. The game was released for the Sega Genesis and the Sega Saturnnote in 1996, as well as for the Microsoft Windows in 1997. It was initially passed up for release in Japan until 1999, when the Saturn version was released to coincide with Sonic Adventure International; Japan would only get the Mega Drive version years later, through compilation rereleases. The Genesis version was the last brand new Sonic release for that system and second-last overall in North America, after the 1997 compilation Sonic Classics 3-in-1, which was previously released in Europe in 1995.
Remember that little blue bird that Sonic freed out of robot shells in the original 16-bit trilogy, the Flicky? It turns out they reside on Flicky Island, where they can travel through dimensions via giant rings. Learning about this, Dr. Robotnik, a.k.a. Dr. Eggman, has decided to invade the island and trap its inhabitants inside his robot army, so that he can seize the seven Chaos Emeralds and Take Over the World.
During his usual nomadic routine, Sonic pays a visit to his little pals on Flicky Island, only to discover they've all been imprisoned in robot shells. Now, our true blue hero must free his friends and stop Robotnik once again.
As noted above, Sonic 3D is an isometric platformer, with nifty pre-rendered 3D sprites, but that's not the only difference in gameplay. Beating an act is not done by reaching the goal as soon as you can; instead, you have to collect a set of five Flickies and bring them to a giant Dimension Ring; there are usually two or three Dimension Rings in an act, and once you successfully deposit each set, you beat the act. The only acts exempt from this are boss acts and an act near the end of the game which plays like a classic Sonic stage.
The Saturn version somewhat rectifies the control issues by offering the analog pad as an alternative to the D-Pad, as well as including a CD-quality soundtrack composed by Richard Jacques, additional graphical environmental effects such as fog and rain, and a polygonal Special Stage; but it lacks a save game feature (despite the Saturn featuring both internal and memory card-based saving) and has unusually long loading times. The PC port includes Jacques' soundtrack and a save game feature, but lacks some of the Saturn version's more noteworthy features such as the polygonal Special Stage and weather enhancements.
Jon Burton, founder of Traveller's Tales, announced in 2017 a Director's Cut Game Mod for the original Sega Genesis version. The beta version was released as a patch file during the Sonic Hacking Contest
, featuring several quality of life improvements and features such as a level select screen, Super Sonic and a Debug Mode. The final patch was released on Steam Workshop as a downloadable ROM patch on December 23, 2017.
Not to be confused with Sonic Blast for the Game Gear, though the games were marketed together in commercials. Also unrelated to Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
This game provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: In order to achieve 100% in the Director's Cut, you have to beat Time Trial mode in every act, collect every Sonic icon and get an absurdly high total score on top of earning all Chaos Emeralds.
- Alliterative Name: All of the zone names.note
- Amusement Park: The third stage, Spring Stadium Zone, is set in a giant fun house filled with springy and spiky floors, balloons, curved slides, and pinball bumpers. The Saturn version even has carnival music as the background music for Act 2.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The Director's Cut makes the Flickies easier to catch, tightens the feel of the controls, and improves camera behavior when moving fast or fighting Dr. Robotnik.
- Also, the Sonic 3D No Flickies ROM hack removes the requirement to actually catch the Flickies, and as such, allows you to focus on the rings and enemies and getting through the levels as quickly as you can.
- Art Evolution: Check out the artwork made exclusively for the Sega Saturn release in Japan — the style looks like a lot like the missing link between the "classic" and "modern" character designs. Particular note goes to the art for Knuckles, which if not for the lack of irises could easily be confused for some of Sonic’s early-mid 2000s promotional art.
- Award-Bait Song: The Saturn version has a vocal song over the staff credits called "You're My Hero", sung by Debbie Morris. It's implicitly sung by the Flickies to Sonic, but in practice it's a slow-placed love ballad that hits most of the award-bait marks. The song's main motif is actually a Recurring Riff through the Saturn version's soundtrack.
- Bee Afraid: The Bee enemy is a robotic bee that inhabits Rusty Ruin Zone. He buzzes around set points in erratic motions and can only harm Sonic if the hedgehog bumps directly into him.
- Bonus Feature Failure: Super Sonic is available in the Director's Cut, but forget about earning him as soon as you can, because you can only collect one Chaos Emerald per zone.
- Brutal Bonus Level: In the Genesis version, Knuckles' Special Stages are quite easy. Tails' Special Stages, in contrast, are much more difficult due to the sheer abundance of spiked balls combined with the fast pacing and frequent twists and turns. In the Saturn and PC versions, both characters share identical Special Stages, and only one gives you an Emerald per act.note
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the four Flickies are color-coded as an indication of their movement patterns:
- Blue Flickies will make a conscious effort to find Sonic, and will wander around in a tight circle if they can't find him, making them easy to catch.
- Pink Flickies behave like blue ones, but they fly around in bigger circles.
- Red Flickies constantly jump high back and forth between two close points, not making any effort to find Sonic, making them hard to catch.
- Green Flickies wander around aimlessly with no interest in finding Sonic, even sometimes appearing to try to avoid him.
- Comic-Book Adaptation: Archie Comics published a 48-page special featuring a story loosely based on the game's plot, while Fleetway's Sonic the Comic did an even more loose adaptation in issues 104-106.
- Country Switch: The Sega Genesis version detects if the console is played with its region set to North America or Europe and will change its title screen accordingly.
- Convection, Schmonvection: On the world map, anyway. Diamond Dust and Volcano Valley Zones are shown right next to each other. Why Diamond Dust Zone doesn't melt into a fog-shrouded land is a mystery.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: The setting for the Gene Gadget Zone boss.
- Demoted to Extra: While Tails and Knuckles make cameos throughout the levels and let you access the Special Stage, they have no role in the plot and you don't get to play as them.
- Dimensional Traveler: The Flickies in this game come from another dimension. They come to Flicky Island via Dimension Rings for food.
- Dreadful Dragonfly: The Dragfly enemy is a robotic dragonfly who inhabits Spring Stadium Zone. It hovers erratically at a set point and can only harm Sonic if the hedgehog walks straight into it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This game is the first Sonic game to have the Homing Attack, referred to in this game as the Blast Attack. In contrast to the later 3D games, however, which has it as part of his default moveset, the Homing Attack in this game is more akin to the elemental shield abilities from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in that it can only be used if Sonic gets the Gold Shield, which never appears after this game.
- End of an Era: This is the last original Sonic game released for the Genesis/Mega Drive
- Eternal Engine: Gene Gadget Zone and Panic Puppet Zone, the respective sixth and seventh stages, are both set in a factory.
- Excuse Plot: Robotnik is kidnapping innocent Flickies! Guess who has to save the day?
- Game Mod:
- Sonic 3D: No Flickies is a ROM hack of the game that, true to its name, redesigns the game so that you don't have to collect Flickies and can just blaze through the levels like in the original games, with the Dimension Rings just serving as checkpoints. Obviously, it makes the game a lot quicker and easier. A later mod even gives Sonic the ability to turn into Super Sonic if all of the Chaos Emeralds are obtained.
- The original designer of the game created an official game mod, Sonic 3D Blast: Director's Cut, which adds a better camera, smoother controls, a user-friendly interface, easier enemies, Super Sonic, and tons more.
- Green Hill Zone: Green Grove Zone, the first stage, takes place in a grassland.
- Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Excepting the final and true final boss, most area bosses are simple: wait for Robotnik to get in range, jump on him, repeat. On the level side, every level tries its hardest to separate you from your Flickies. Red and Green Flickies do not actively seek you out, sometimes landing them in the most precarious positions they can find. The final level combines those kinds of traps with no Flickies... and no Flickies means no Dimension Rings for checkpoints.
- Harmless Freezing: Whereas previous games averted this, this game plays it straight in Diamond Dust Zone. You're even required to be frozen to advance through an automated section.
- Human Cannonball: There are two cannons in Green Grove Zone, one in each act. The one in Act 1 takes Sonic to Knuckles, who will take him to a Special Stage if he has 50 rings, and the one in Act 2 takes him back to the beginning of the stage if there's something he missed there.
- In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass: All of the end of level battles with Robotnik until Panic Puppet Zone Act 3, where flashing lights become the new target due to not being able to hit his cockpit directly.note
- Jump Scare: The "Game Over" screen, which shatters as the final note to the recycled Sonic 3 & Knuckles game over music fades.
- Leitmotif: In the Saturn/PC version, Robotnik's normal theme is remixed into something more epic and sinister for the final boss music. It also briefly resurges in the Bad Ending.
- Lethal Lava Land: The fifth stage, Volcano Valley Zone, takes place in a volcano, complete with leaping fireballs and collapsing stone bridges.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: The loading times for the Saturn version can run for as long as 30 seconds. This was slightly shortened in the Japanese release, and substantially improved in the PC port. The Genesis version has no loading screens due to being on a cartridge.
- Logo Joke: When you start up the Genesis version, the Sega logo is drawn over a blue background. The background then turns white and a man screams "SEGA!", after which, the background turns blue again and the screen zooms in on the letters.
- Long Song, Short Scene: In the Genesis version, Green Grove Zone Act 2's song is four minutes and fifteen seconds long. If you're a real good player, you're almost guaranteed to hit an invincibility box, enter a special stage, or finish the stage before the song finishes.
- Market-Based Title: Known as Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island in the developers' home territory of Europe, and Sonic 3D Blast in the Americas. The Japanese releases use both titles — the Saturn version is Flickies' Island and the Genesis version is 3D Blast.
- Mood Whiplash:
- The Genesis version goes straight from the winter wonderland of the Diamond Dust Zone, which has very upbeat music, to the volcanic wasteland of Volcano Valley, which has either intense music for Act 1 or sad music for Act 2. Bonus points for the whole "climate whiplash" as well in going straight from the Slippy Slidey Iceworld to the Lethal Lava Land.
- The Genesis version of Panic Puppet Zone Act 1 uses the same theme as the intro, which is very upbeat, whereas Act 2 has a much more sad and dramatic tune.
- A Mischief of Mice: The Mouse enemy inhabits Gene Gadget Zone. He stands on one wheel and moves around in an erratic motion, only harming Sonic if the hedgehog runs into him.
- Multiple Endings: Didn't get all the Emeralds? Well, then, you get the Bad Ending, which alludes to Robotnik returning. Get them all? Then you gain access to The Final Fight, which is pretty self-explanatory, and if you beat it, you get the Good Ending.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The Crock enemy is a robotic crocodile that wanders back and forth along a straight line. It can only harm Sonic by bumping directly into him.
- Non-Indicative Name: Rusty Ruin Zone is mostly made of rock, which obviously doesn't rust.
- Our Founder: In Panic Puppet Zone Act 2, Sonic has to reach the top of a giant Robotnik statue through his nose. The boss fight for the stage takes place inside the statue.
- Painful Pointy Pufferfish: Spring Stadium Zone and Gene Gadget Zone both have spiky airborne pufferfish Badniks who defend themselves with their quills and can only be hit when these are gone.
- Palette Swap: Panic Puppet Zone uses the same tileset as Gene Gadget Zone, only it's beige instead of grey.
- Percussive Maintenance: Can't be bothered to input BARACUDA (B, A, Right, A, C, Up, Down, A) at the title screen of the Genesis version to unlock the level select? Just wiggle or slap your cart a couple of times. Because of the game's error-handling method (which simply kicks the player to the level select in the event of any unhandled exception) you'll get sent to the level select instead of an error screen. Of course the button input method is less...abusive.
- Pink Means Feminine: Of the four types of Flicky, Pink Flickies have the most distinctively girly design. In addition to being bright pink and purple, they have long eyelashes and Girlish Pigtails.
- Point of No Return: The final non-boss act of the game, Panic Puppet Zone Act 2, is a straight stage with no Flickies, and several points exist in the stage to prevent Sonic from backtracking, but the most notable one is at the end of the stage, where you cross several plates that fall below you. After the second one, you're left with no choice but to enter the pipe in Robotnik's nose, which ends the stage and takes you to Panic Puppet Zone Act 3, a three-phase boss fight against three separate big-armed machines. If you have all the Chaos Emeralds, The Final Fight, which is in its own stage, follows Panic Puppet Zone Act 3.
- Power Up Letdown: The Power Sneakers are not very useful in this game. They make Sonic, already slippery-moving as is, very hard to control and it makes it easy for him to collide into an enemy or obstacle by accident. The open-ended nature of the gameplay and lack of time limit also contradict the whole point of the powerup — helping you get to the end of the level faster.
- Recurring Riff: The Saturn/PC soundtrack incorporates the title theme melody into nearly every single track in the game.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The Genesis version uses the same 1-Up, Act cleared, Continue, and Game Over tracks as Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The Saturn version replaces the last two with original jingles.
- Ruins for Ruins' Sake: The second stage, Rusty Ruin Zone, takes place in ancient ruins.
- Scary Scorpions: The Scorpy enemy is a robotic scorpion who inhabits Volcano Valley Zone.
- Sequential Boss: The fight with Robotnik in Panic Puppet Zone Act 3 has three phases to it as you descend down his machine. The first tier has arms that try to crush you, the second tier has flamethrower arms, and the third tier shoots electric particles. When the arms attack, Sonic needs to hit the flashing light at its base. There are a total of six arms, and all six must be destroyed to finish the level.
- Single-Use Shield: There are basic Blue Shield and Red Shield power-ups, the latter of which protects against fire and lava but doesn't enable the Fireball Spin Dash like the original Flame Shield from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, while the former protects against electricity but doesn't provide a Double Jump and attract nearby rings like the original Electric Shield. Instead, a midair homing ability called the Blast Attack was instead redistributed into the new Gold Shield, which is a predecessor to the Homing Attack seen in Sonic Adventure.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The fourth stage, Diamond Dust Zone, takes place in snowy mountains, complete with robotic penguin and exploding snowmen badniks, as well as snowblowers that freeze Sonic in blocks of ice.
- Snowlems: There are two different kinds of snowman enemies in Diamond Dust Zone. The first ones are stationary and explode when Sonic gets near them, so Sonic has to stand out of their way when they do to avoid getting hit. Dr. Robotnik even uses them as a method of attack in the boss battle in Act 3. The second are mobile and shoot snowballs out of their hats. Sonic can defeat them by jumping on them or rolling into them. Upon defeat, they will reveal a Blue Flicky trapped in a block of ice, which Sonic must break open to free the Flicky.
- Snowy Sleigh Bells: The obligatory ice world, Diamond Dust, has light, jingling bells as part of their soundtrack.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The Final Fight theme in the Genesis version sounds oddly relaxing for a Final Boss.
- Spiders Are Scary: The Spider enemy is a robotic spider who inhabits Spring Stadium Zone. He shuffles back and forth along a straight diagonal line and can only harm Sonic if the hedgehog walks straight into him.
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Spiritual Successor: To the Flicky arcade game, which also revolved around guiding small birds to a goal while avoiding enemies. - Tactical Suicide Boss: The True Final Boss. The only time you can damage the final weapon is by hitting it when it briefly enters the platform Sonic is standing on. It will do this on every phase (you have to hit it to advance to the next phase and you have to go through each phase twice). Particularly egregious on the third phase, where you must dodge its spiked hands, as the ship isn't visible at the platform like it is on the other phases. The only time you see the boss on this phase is when it shows up for the sole purpose of being smacked and advancing the battle.
- Tornado Move: Sonic can perform this move in Rusty Ruin Zone when he steps on the spinning fans. This attack allows him to break through pillars as well as destroy badniks, but if he gets hit or jumps, he returns back to his normal state.
- True Final Boss: The Final Fight, the final Boss Battle, is available by beating the game with all the Chaos Emeralds. Beating this boss is needed to get the Good Ending.
- Unexpected Art Upgrade Moment: As this was close to the end of the Genesis/Mega Drive's lifespan, naturally this was to occur. However, what's unexpected is that for a 16-bit console, the intro logo is smooth-fading low-color 30-FPS full-motion video, and what comes next is a FULL-MOTION CINEMATIC CUTSCENE, which has been packed onto a cartridge with a full-fledged game!
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The entire game involves destroying robots to free Flickies. But then Panic Puppet Zone comes. Act 1 has you freeing them in pods. Act 2 lacks them entirely, being a traditional Point A to Point B stage. The manual handwaves it by saying that Robotnik hasn't had time to put the Flickies in the robots yet, as Sonic got there sooner than expected.
- Word Salad Title: Panic Puppet Zone. There's not even any puppets in it.
