The year is 1996. Sonic & Knuckles was awesome. Sonic 3D Blast is set to be... well, a thing.
But what of the old Game Gear? It�s still totin� around an old 8-bit processor...
keep in mind, the N64 had released a couple months before... but don�t tell it that.
It�s got to go out in its own way. Thus behold, Sonic (not 3D) Blast, the last Game
Gear title. (In Japan, anyway.) And... unfortunately, it tried too hard to go above and beyond itself.
Sure, there were new and interesting tricks making their way into gaming, like 3D-modeled
sprites. Those weren�t just for the likes of Sonic 3 and Donkey Kong Country and Super
Mario RPG, though. Sonic Blast wanted its piece of the action. And... well, it�s shiny,
but shinyness does not an awesome game make.
Let�s get this clear: This is as close to the �modern� Sonic console experience
as the Game Gear would ever get. Sega�s handheld always had a strange off-the-mark
interpretation of the blue hedgehog, hamstrung by its weaker architecture in the face of
the Mega Drive�s power. Sonic Blast, though, does everything in its power to bridge this
divide. As such, you get to play as either Sonic or Knuckles, whose sprites have been
adapted directly from 3D models, running through series-standard stages in an attempt to stop
Dr. whatever-Sega-calls-him-in-this-one. I�ve lost track completely. Anyway, while it�s
a brilliant attempt at pushing the power of the Game Gear to the absolute limits... that
ambition comes at a rather drastic cost. Sure, the sprites are huge and detailed... but as
the Game Boy Mega Man series can show you (and as Mega Man and Bass makes abundantly
clear), when sprites get larger, the rest of the game is usually made to suffer. You�re
losing context as the ratio of �Your Dude� to �Everything you can see� increases.
And in the case of a platformer, especially one where speed is of such a concern, losing
that context usually means you�re gonna be face-planting walls quite often.
A drastic change - such as the inclusion of huge sprites and all the spin-dashing action
you expect from a Genesis Sonic game - begs for a certain kind of level design. Unfortunately,
that�s not what you�re gonna get. The color-themed zones run through your standard
gamut of Green Hill, water, volcano, and even an unfortunately-vertical desert zone, which
makes me think that they didn�t realize Sandopolis was the most annoying thing ever.
Hidden throughout these areas are giant rings that take you to the obligatory bonus stages,
in which the five (and yes, there are only five this time) chaos emeralds can be obtained.
These stages... um, they look like Sonic 3, in that you�re on a giant checkered ball
running. They play like Sonic 2, in that you�ve gotta grab a certain number of rings and you�re
limited to running in one direction. Mix them together, though, and... well, it doesn�t
work all that well. Especially since you�re completely devoid of depth perception at this
angle, so you can�t really tell where that ring above you is in relation to your current
position. It�s woefully frustrating.
But for all its shortcomings... this is an 8-bit Sonic game that STRIVES. It serves as
the ultimate testament of just what the Game Gear can do. And aside from a little bit of
sprite flicker at times, the game itself - design decisions notwithstanding - holds up commendably.
Also, I�ve got infinite respect for Robotnik pullin� out a Goku-styled robot. Complete
with cloud and pole! I do have to take issue, though, with the wannabe Opa-Opa styled boss
from the first zone. Let�s leave such ripoffs in the Fantasy Zone, please. We�ve got serious
hedgehog business to attend to, here.