Sonic 3D Blast

The Good
The graphics are very nice for a genesis game. The worlds, cutscenes, and characters all look great. When this game was released on November 30, 1996 the Sega Genesis (or Mega Drive) was in it's twilight stage. So you would expect to see nice graphics. The music has a lot of effort put into it. Lots of the songs are catchy and hard to forget. But really, they're not as good as the previous Sonic Genesis games.

The Bad
The gameplay can get SO BORING! Instead of just racing to the goal, you have to get a certain number of birds called "Flickies" before you can continue or finish the stage. And since the Flickies can be so hard to find, sometimes PARTS of levels can take you 30 minutes! It should be optional. If this game had a time limit, it would've been a disaster. The controls are very weird. The game isn't a side scroller, instead Travellers Tales decided to make it an Isometric platformer making controling with the d-pad awkward. The Saturn version was better if the 3D control pad is used because it has a thumbstick.

The Bottom Line
Sonic 3D is a mixed bag. The graphics and music are good, but boring gameplay and poor controls make it fairly average. It was NOT worth $50 back in '96. Part 1/5 in my Travellers Tales saga.

DID YOU KNOW THAT: This game was released in Japan ONLY on the Saturn in 1999? By then, the Dreamcast was out!