Sonic Blast Man
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Sonic Blast Man
(1992 on
SNES)
Description
Players take the role of the superhero Sonic Blast Man as he has to save the day in various perilous situations.
Players get to choose from five different scenarios varying from punching a thug out to inflicting massive damage on a giant enemy crab. The arcade cabinet itself has a unique set up as the player has to don an actual pair of boxing gloves and throw a punch at a punching pad. The pad measures how hard the players' thrown punch was. The player gets three chances per scenario to throw a punch in order to clear their objective. Each scenario ends after three punches whether the goal was accomplished or not, with the appropriate ending appearing depending on whether the player was successful or not. The game then records the players max power score (the strongest punch during the three rounds) and the total punch power (the score of the three rounds combined).
The game contains both an easy and a hard difficulty setting,
The SNES version contains the arcade scenarios as bonus stages, however the gameplay mechanics have been altered to fit in with that consoles control scheme.
Spellings
- ソニックブラストマン - Japanese spelling
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 40% (based on 1 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 1 ratings)
HAHAH! I remember this game in the arcade!!
The Good
I used to love watching people pummel the "Punching pad". In fact my Aunt Tina dominated this game. She would put grown men to shame with her judo-punches. I haven't played the console version, but it can't be the same. The only appeal this game had in the arcade was the "Vent my stress on this machine" appeal. There were rumors of people actually spraining wrists in the arcade I went to. I think if a similar game was released today it would do a lot better, mainly because more and more games are trying to be more interactive. Maybe if they made better gloves with more wrist support and a softer "punching pad" this game would still be around in arcades.
The Bad
I didn't care for this game because I was too young and weak to play it.
The Bottom Line
Just another game not fit for the arcade.
Arcade · by DudeOfMonson (97) · 2007
Trivia
Recall
Around March of 1995, Sonic Blast Man was voluntary recalled from arcades in the USA. Why? The problem was that the arcade version had a huge pad and big boxing gloves that you were supposed to strap on. With the gloves on, you were suppose to slam the pad as hard as possible to "hit" your opponents in the game. Now what was the problem in this? Well, for one, kids were running up to the pads on the machines and either slamming them bare-handed or even kicking them! Sometimes kids hit them so hard that they injured themselves quite badly. After tons of complaints from angry parents, many arcades had to ditch the machines, and after a while Taito stopped producing the machines in the U.S. altogether (they did last longer in Japan, though).
By 1996, Taito of America Corp. had to pay a civil penalty of $50,000. The reason given was that between 1991 and 1994, Taito failed to report about 70 cases in which young players fractured or injured wrists and arms as a result of hitting the Blastman's punching pad. The issue can be read about here.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Alaka.
Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Rik Hideto.
Game added December 16, 2014. Last modified March 24, 2024.