Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic 3D Blast is a platform game presented from an isometric perspective. Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, whose goal is to save the Flickies, collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, and defeat Doctor Robotnik and his robot army. Sonic retains most of his abilities from prior games: he can jump and spin in mid-air to defeat robots or hop on platforms, perform a spin-dash on the ground to gain speed, and collects rings as a form of health. Sonic can also collect power-ups, such as elemental shields, speed shoes, or invincibility, by breaking television monitors containing them.

The game is split into several levels called zones. Every zone has three acts: two standard levels, where the player must collect Flickies by defeating robots in order to proceed; and a boss fight against Robotnik, without any Flicky-collecting involved. In normal levels, once the player collects all five Flickies from each section of an act, Sonic is either further advanced into the act or taken to the next act. If Sonic and the following Flickies are hit by an obstacle or enemy, the Flickies and the rings Sonic collected will scatter.

Doctor Robotnik discovers mysterious birds called Flickies that live on an island in an alternate dimension. He learns they can travel anywhere using large rings, so he exploits them by turning them into robots to help him search for the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic arrives at the island only to discover the presence of Robotnik, and he is tasked with saving the Flickies and defeating his nemesis.

Sonic travels through the island, saving the Flickies and clashing with Robotnik in his various machines. If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic proceeds into a black void, where he engages in a final battle with Robotnik, who pilots a large robot. Sonic manages to destroy the robot's weapons and defeats Robotnik, freeing the Flickies. If the player fails to collect the Emeralds, Robotnik escapes with it in his possession.

Sonic 3D Blast was the final Sonic the Hedgehog game produced for the 16-bit Sega Genesis, and was developed as a swan song for the system. Sega had discontinued support for the Genesis in 1995, but produced the game because games typically sell for one to two years after their platforms' discontinuation. The basic concept was conceived by members of Sonic Team during the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994), but most of the programming was done by the British studio Traveller's Tales because Sonic Team was developing Nights into Dreams (1996) at the time. According to founder Jon Burton, Traveller's Tales had just finished developing a Toy Story game and wanted to start developing games for 32-bit systems such as the Saturn and PlayStation.

Sega, impressed with their work on Toy Story and Mickey Mania, approached them with 3D Blast; as Sonic was extremely popular at the time, the concept "got their attention". In retrospect, Burton stated that he believed the game was commissioned because Sonic X-treme, in development for the Saturn at the time, was struggling, and Sega wanted to bring Sonic into the 3D era of gaming.

Reception to the Genesis version of Sonic 3D Blast was generally positive upon its original release. While Dan Jevons of Mean Machines Sega was initially skeptical of the first 3D Sonic game appearing on the Genesis, he proclaimed Sonic 3D Blast to be "a legitimate addition to the Sonic series, and a smart game in its own right". He and Angus Swan of the same publication were grateful for the change in gameplay style, which they said added depth to the structure of the series formula. They additionally praised the music, controls, and sense of inertia in Sonic's movement.

Ed Lomas of Computer and Video Games considered Sonic 3D Blast to be "the first essential Mega Drive game in years", and remarked that the new gameplay style would appeal to all fans of the series, as well as those who "couldn't be bothered with running right all the time". Although Art Angel of GamePro considered the levels cleverly designed, he was initially frustrated by the isometric perspective, which he felt steepened the learning curve for the controls; Dan Hsu of Electronic Gaming Monthly experienced a similar adjusting period. Shawn Smith and Sushi-X, also of Electronic Gaming Monthly, admired the size of the levels, though Hsu wished for a map due to becoming sidetracked on occasion, and found the level designs too similar. Lomas and Electronic Gaming Monthly's Crispin Boyer observed a lack of secret locations to discover in relation to previous Sonic entries, which the former felt lowered the replay value.

Archie Comics published a comic book adaptation of Sonic 3D Blast for a 48-page special in December 1996, written by Mike Gallagher. A loose adaptation of the game also appeared in issues 104 through 106 (May through July 1997) of Sonic the Comic.

Senoue re-arranged two of his musical pieces from the Genesis version for Sonic Adventure (1998), saying he wanted the Japanese market to hear them as the Genesis version was not released in Japan. He also used a cut theme as the boss theme in Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I (2010).