Sonic 3D Blast, also known as Sonic 3D Flickies' Island in Europe and in Japan, is an isometric platform game and the first 3D game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was developed in the United Kingdom by Traveller's Tales and published by Sega. Primarily developed as the last Sonic game for the Sega Genesis, it was later ported to the Sega Saturn and PC, and later re released on many compilations and digital distribution platforms as well.
In contrast to the other Sonic games released for the Sega Genesis, which were 2D sidescrolling platformers, this game is played from an isometric viewpoint in a 2D environment and uses pre-rendered 3D sprites, displaying pseudo 3D graphics.
In the game, Doctor Robotnik discovers mysterious birds called flickies that live on an island in an alternate dimension. He learns that they can travel anywhere using large rings, so he decides to exploit them by turning them into robots to help him search for the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic must find and destroy these robots located around the zones, and bring the flickies inside them to large rings. Once he collects all five flickies from each section of an Act, he is either further advanced into the Act, or taken to the next Act. Every Zone has three Acts, 2 involving standard levels, and the third Act being a boss fight against Robotnik, without any flicky collecting involved.
If Sonic or the flickies are hit by an obstacle or enemy, the flickies scatter. Each individual flicky's color determines how it behaves. Blue and pink/orange ones make an effort to find Sonic, while green and red ones wander off at random, the latter even jumping about, making them harder to re collect.
It's disappointing, and the rest of the experience does little to redeem it, as the pseudo 3D bonus levels aren't all that impressive and the supporting cast is lifeless, mute and immobile. Tails and Knuckles just stand there, in place, looking bored, if you find them in a level. And it's not surprising to see they're stuck in a game that could have been better.
