Sonic 3D Blast is a total letdown and a embarrassment to the Sonic franchise.
Genre: Adventure
Developer: Traveler's Tales
System: Steam (PC)
Total Score: 57/100
Value Score: 5.7/10
• Story: 5/10
o Sonic the Hedgehog's friends the Flickies have been captured by Dr. Eggman and now he must go to their island and rescue them from the clutches of Dr. Eggman.
• Characters: 5/10
o Only Sonic and Dr. Eggman initially appear in the overall game. Both Tails and Knuckles make an appearance but they are standalone NPCs which take you to bonus games. The enemy designs in the game are completely different and are a bit bland compared to the other Sonic games. Poorly designed models plague the game.
• GamePlay: 6/10
o The game plays similar to Super Mario RPG without any of the RPG aspects. The immersion of 3D feels forced and doesnt do so well with the overall game. There may be points where it seems like you hit the enemy but in the end you end up touching a side of the enemy that can hurt you. You collect rings like the in other sonic games however you can trade the rings to Tails and Knuckles to start up a bonus game to collect chaos emeralds or 1ups. The shields have returned although they may seem different color, they only offer sonic basic defenses against things like electricity and fire/lava depending on the color of the shield - absolutely no attacks or special powers such as absorbing rings like in other Sonic games. There are 8 zones with about 2 acts and a 3rd act being the boss battle. In order to complete each act Sonic must defeat five enemies in each area and collect the flickies and bring them to the finishing goal point. Some acts may have 2-3 areas which may make you go back and forth in exploration - pretty much making this game more of a exploration game rather than the typical run along sonic game. The boss battles are bland compared to the older sonic games where they forced you to strategize before you jump into the boss who may have multiple phases while in this game the bosses have no phases and always move the same.
• Graphics: 5/10
o Sonic 3D Blast was the first fully 3D Sonic game however due to the limitations of the hardware there were many horrible colorization in the game such as the opening cutscene where it looks completely horrible. The 3D aspects look nice while in game however there was no variety in the overall design as you can easily see that the developers pretty much copy and pasted each cell in the entire game. Even the enemy designs were repetitive of each other.
• Sound: 7/10
o Sonic 3D Blast however retains the usual sound effects known and loved by the fanbase. Pretty much the only GOOD thing about the game itself other than the music.
• Music: 8/10
o Sonic 3D Blast uses different types of music tones from the original sonic games - although a lot of people were turned off by the decision to use a different type of musical score from the original games, the OST overall isnt that bad and fits well with the game's revolutionized style despite how bad the presentation may be, the music makes it playable if nothing else.
• Length: 3/10
o Sonic 3D Blast is a really short game with about 8 zones with 3 acts each (the first 2 acts are actual acts which can take anywhere between 3 to 7 min while the 3rd act is a boss battle which takes no more than a few seconds to a min). Although the game seem to be as long as the other sonic games, one can easily rush through and finish the game even within a hour.
• Replay Value: 3/10
o Sonic 3D Blast contains absolutely no replay value other than the fact that you can replay the game again although you might not want to due to the poor controls and view of the game.
• Player Value: 5/10
o Sonic 3D Blast is possibly the worst Sonic game to be ever made. It plays nothing like the other Sonic games and was too early for its time to be pushed into the 3D Realm. The poor controls and views of the game will make you want to quit at any time and the fact that the game is a slower pace may be a turn off for those who enjoyed the usual Sonic games. Beware when playing this game - only play it if you are a hardcore diehard fan of the Sonic series who just want to experience a piece of history of the Sonic series.