Sonic 3D Blast is neither 3D or a blast. Sega wanted to milk their aging hardware, and by 1996 3D gaming was the big new thing. A lot of late era 16-bit games tried to do some sort of pseudo-3D tripe in a desperate bid to keep kids playing, at least those who couldn't afford the brand new consoles (or maybe in the case of the Saturn, couldn't find a retailer willing to carry the damn thing.) In Sonic's case, you end up with a shitty looking isometric platformer where every jump is a clumsy shot in the dark.
Sonic controls like a melting slab of ice, slip sliding into lava pools and beds of spikes at the slightest touch of the d-pad. It doesn't help that completing levels is no longer a simple equation of getting from point A to point B. No, Sonic has to save his stupid animal buddies by bashing open every badnik in the level, collecting the freed Flicky, then doing his very best not to collide with a hazard or else all his Flicky friends will run away. What this means for you, the unfortunate player in this tragic comedy, is that you'll frequently be running all over the place to recollect those little bastards because Sonic feels rotten to control.
It is then a bit ironic that the special stages in this game can be beaten even with your eyes plucked out. They're the least impressive part of the game from a technical level, and are so braindead simple to play that the only obstacle standing between you and all seven chaos emeralds is whether you're capable of holding on to fifty rings to enter the special stages to begin with. Robotnik boss battles are also a clunky ill-conceived affair. It's hard to judge your jumps when fighting Robotnik, and you're just as likely to land a hit on him as you are to misjudge and smack into the side of his egg-o-matic or get beaned by a projectile you thought you were able to clear.
I can't stress enough that not a single part of this game feels good. Traveler's Tales made some very impressive looking games, but even by 1996 3D Blast underwhelms. At least the soundtrack rules, that's the one thing keeping me from rating this 1 star.
Sonic controls like a melting slab of ice, slip sliding into lava pools and beds of spikes at the slightest touch of the d-pad. It doesn't help that completing levels is no longer a simple equation of getting from point A to point B. No, Sonic has to save his stupid animal buddies by bashing open every badnik in the level, collecting the freed Flicky, then doing his very best not to collide with a hazard or else all his Flicky friends will run away. What this means for you, the unfortunate player in this tragic comedy, is that you'll frequently be running all over the place to recollect those little bastards because Sonic feels rotten to control.
It is then a bit ironic that the special stages in this game can be beaten even with your eyes plucked out. They're the least impressive part of the game from a technical level, and are so braindead simple to play that the only obstacle standing between you and all seven chaos emeralds is whether you're capable of holding on to fifty rings to enter the special stages to begin with. Robotnik boss battles are also a clunky ill-conceived affair. It's hard to judge your jumps when fighting Robotnik, and you're just as likely to land a hit on him as you are to misjudge and smack into the side of his egg-o-matic or get beaned by a projectile you thought you were able to clear.
I can't stress enough that not a single part of this game feels good. Traveler's Tales made some very impressive looking games, but even by 1996 3D Blast underwhelms. At least the soundtrack rules, that's the one thing keeping me from rating this 1 star.