Format: Cartridge
Genre: 3d Platformer
Developer: Travellers Tales
Publisher: Sega

As a very late Genesis release, Sonic 3D Blast pulls out all of the stops, with fully pre-rendered characters and stage art. It even has a lengthy pseudo-FMV animated intro! The framerate is buttery smooth: watching Sonic rapidly flow through the pipes in "Gene Gadget Zone" is almost surreal. The clever way in which the stages are drawn deserves a lot of appreciation: in one section, Sonic can go above or below a level segment, and the art is drawn to look scaled when he goes beneath it! The only fly in the ointment is that the art is a little grainy due to the Genesis' sixty-four simultaneous color limit.

This game was a strange cooperative effort between the UK's "Travellers Tales" and Sega of Japan, with the former providing the art and programming, while the latter contributed the music, testing, and some of the design. About the audio more specifically, the famous Jun Senoue and Tatsuyuki Maeda-- who later when on to do the Saturn's "Dragon Force" music-- headline the soundtrack. Most of the melodies are somewhat forgettable unexpectedly, though "Sonic Adventure" fans will recognize a couple which were recycled for that game. On the positive, the same "sound driver" from "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" was re-used, so the sampled drums and sound effects are present here as well.

As a young child, this reviewer dreamed of an isometric Sonic game, then lo and behold "Sonic 3D Blast" arrived-- albeit, his Genesis had long-since been sold by that point. Oh well! The perspective makes accurately landing jumps a bit frustrating, and unlike the flat "Sonic Labyrinth", the ever-present slopes and hills here slow Sonic down rapidly, sometimes making the pace a bit plodding. On the flip side, the levels are very well laid out, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore, while the core premise and even bonus stages are fun to experience.

In some ways, Sonic 3D Blast feels like the Genesis's "Donkey Kong Country", with its technology-pushing pre-rendered sprites. But gameplay wise, it's more of a "what would a 16-bit 3d platformer be like" concept, with all of the good and bad such an approach entails. Interestingly, Jon Burton re-visited the game in 2017, releasing a "Director's Cut" edition, with numerous gameplay tweaks and even save support-- something which is much-needed given the game's lengthy playtime. While it can't hold a candle to the mainline 2d Sonic games released on the platform, 3D Blast is a fun diversion with some awesome programming tricks.