Sonic Blast

For the comic, see Sonic Blast (Archie).

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Sonic Blast
System(s): Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Virtual Console
Publisher: Sega Tec Toy
Developer: Aspect M2
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code Rating JP 1996-12-13 ¥4,800 G-3385 US 1996-11 $34.99 2573 EU 1996-11 €? 2573-50 BR 1997-12 R$? 030030 JP 2012-04-18 ¥286 (300) ? US 2013-06-20 $3.99 ? EU 2012-06-14 €5.00 ? UK 2012-06-14 £4.50 ? DE 2012-06-14 €5.00 ? AU 2012 $? ?

Sonic Blast, known as G Sonic (Ｇソニック) in Japan, is a 2D Sonic the Hedgehog platform game released for the Sega Game Gear in late 1996, and was later brought to the Sega Master System in Brazil by Tectoy the following year. It is both the final Sonic game for both systems and the final Sonic game developed by Aspect Co. Ltd, who had previously developed most of the previous 2D platformers for the system as well as Tails Adventures and the Sega Pico title Sonic the Hedgehog's Gameworld.

In Japan, the game was released under the Kid's Gear branding.

Story

One day on South Island, Sonic the Hedgehog was taking a nap in a hammock with a Chaos Emerald in hand. Suddenly, the Emerald began to shine brightly, disturbing his nap. Upon waking up, Sonic sees the Emerald spin violently, then shatter into five smaller jewels that fly off in different directions. What's more, his attention was caught by Dr. Eggman's familiar laughter afterwards. The scientist had attempted to fire a laser beam at Sonic but had hit the Emerald instead, and was surprised at the results.

Believing he has already beaten Sonic, Eggman confidently retreats to build his latest fortress, the Silver Castle, and once construction is complete will he seek out the shattered fragments of the Chaos Emerald. Knuckles the Echidna, having witnessed what happened from behind a palm tree, decides to team up with Sonic, and together the two set off to find the fragments and foil Eggman's ambitions.

Gameplay

Sonic runs through Green Hill Zone.

Sonic Blast is the fifth and final "traditional" Sonic the Hedgehog game to be released on the Game Gear, and was developed during the same period of the similarly named Sonic 3D Blast (Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island outside of North America). The two share a desire to portray Sonic in a pre-rendered 3D style, similar to the groundbreaking visuals seen in 1994's Donkey Kong Country, however they are otherwise completely unrelated games with different developers and different styles of gameplay.

Sonic Blast builds on some of the ideas seen in Sonic Chaos and Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, however the game aligns itself more with the Sega Mega Drive Sonic games (Sonic & Knuckles being the driving influence). Miles "Tails" Prower is replaced with Knuckles the Echidna as a playable character, and several of the Game Gear-exclusive features of Triple Trouble are omitted, being replaced with more traditional Special Stages and boss fights.

The character select screen.

Players control either Sonic the Hedgehog (armed with a double jump performed by pressing or in mid-air), or Knuckles the Echidna (who can both glide and climb up walls) through five Zones, each with three Acts. As with Chaos and Triple Trouble, the pair can Spin Dash by holding and pressing or , however unlike other Sonic games, getting hit only deducts a maximum of 10 Rings regardless of how many they have, leading to an arguably easier experience (this function was also implemented in Shadow the Hedgehog).

Chaos Emeralds are found in Special Stages, which can be entered through Giant Rings hidden in the first two Acts of each Zone. Blast is unusual, however, in that only the Special Stages in the second Act will award the player with an Emerald - those in the first Act only reward an extra life.

Items

TVs contain the game's power-ups like with other Sonic games. However, Sonic Blast is unusual in that both 1UP monitors are treated as individual items separate from one another, and will only award an extra life if the corresponding character breaks them.

	10 Ring
	Worth 10 Rings.
	Shield
	Absorbs one hit.
	Shoe
	Temporary speed increase.
	Invincibility
	Temporary invincibility.
	Sonic 1up
	Sonic gets a 1up, Knuckles gets nothing.
	Knuckles 1up
	Knuckles gets a 1up, Sonic gets nothing.
	Marker
	Sonic or Knuckles will return to this point if they lose a life.
	Eggman
	No reward given.
	???
	Grants any of the 8 power-ups (its contents are pre-determined).

Bonus Panel

At the end of Acts 1 and 2 of each Zone, a Bonus Panel is spun, with a reward given based on what it lands on:

	Dr. Eggman
	No prize is awarded.
	Ring
	10 Rings are added to the player's final Ring tally.
	Sonic
	Sonic gets a 1-Up, Knuckles gets 30 Rings added to his final Ring tally.
	Knuckles
	Knuckles gets a 1-Up, Sonic gets 30 Rings added to his final Ring tally.
	Chaos Emerald
	A Continue is awarded.
	Super Sonic
	Both characters get a 1-Up and 30 Rings added to their final Ring tally.

Unlike other 8-bit Sonic titles, the prizes earned are entirely random.

History

Development

Main article: Sonic Blast/Development

Versions

One of the many issues in the Master System version, showing borders in the Special Stage.

The decision to use pre-rendered graphics comes at a cost in Sonic Blast, as to ensure the detail is visible, Sonic and Knuckles' sprites are bigger than their counterparts in earlier titles. This in-turn makes the game appear more "zoomed-in", and as a result, less of the level is visible at any one time during play. This can be a problem on the Game Gear, as players are often unable to see what is coming, and can be subjected to cheap hits and deaths. These problems have contributed to the game's retrospective reputation as one of the worst 2D games in the series by fans and critics.

On the Master System, the increased screen resolution mitigates some of these problems, however the Master System port is fraught with its own issues, mainly due to the slap-dash nature of the port. Menus, title cards and the Special Stages were not optimised for the Master System, and so are identical in appearance to their Game Gear counterparts, just with added borders. The in-game HUD was also not moved, and unusual artifacts can also be seen in areas normally hidden for Game Gear users.

Unlike a game such as Sonic Chaos where Master System code was ported to the Game Gear, here the reverse is true, and as Sonic Blast was designed to make use of the Game Gear's extended colour palette, the conversion to the Master System leads to less detailed and more contrasting graphics.

Comparisons

Main article: Sonic Blast/Comparisons

Also released on

• Sonic Adventure DX: Director's Cut for the GameCube and PC (2003)
• Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox (2004)
• Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Super Monkey Ball Deluxe for the Xbox (2005)
• Sonic Blast (TV game) for the Techno Source Plug and play console (2006)
• Playpal Plug and Play for the Coleco Plug and play console (2006)
• Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus & Shadow the Hedgehog for the PlayStation 2 (2009)
• Sonic PC Collection for the PC (2009)
• FunPlay 20-in-1 for the Plug and Play console (2009)
• Virtual Console for the Nintendo 3DS (2013)
• Sonic Origins Plus for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Steam and Epic Games Store (2023)

Production credits

Production

• Producer: Hiroshi Aso
• Director: Ryushin Hamada

Planning

• Planners: Katsunori Murakami, Hiroaki Suzuki
• Map Design: Akira Okamoto, Ken Sasaki

Programming

• Chief Programmer: Toshiaki Araki
• Programmer: Yoshiaki Makishima

Art

• Chief Designer: Fumikazu Sugawara
• Designer: Taro Murayama

Sound

• Sound Composer: Kojiro Mikusa
• Special Thanks: Kazuyuki Oikawa, Aspect All Staff

Source: In-game credits

---

• Producer: Bill Person
• Product Managers: Chrissie Kremer, Kristin McCloskey, Eric Dunstan
• Product Specialist: Mark Subotnick
• Package/Manual Design: Arvin Carlson, Bob Schonfisch, Eileen Sacman
• Package Illustration: Garrett Honn
• Lead Tester: Amy Albertson
• Assistant Lead Testers: Ryan Hurth, Mark McCunney, Alan Tan
• Testers: Adam Contreras, Chris Towles, Eugene R. Valenzuela, Arnold Galano, John Jansen, Pedro Ponce, Anthony Gomez, Greg Pett, Josh Simpson, Lou DiSimone
• Special Thanks: The Omega Online Group, The SEEDY Lounge, The Entire SOA Test Department

Source: US manualMedia:Sonic Blast GG US Manual.pdf

Manuals

Main article: Sonic Blast/Manuals

Magazine articles

Main article: sega:Sonic Blast/Magazine articles

Artwork

• 

  US/EU cover art

• 

  JP cover art

• 

  JP logo

• 

  JP logo

• 

  Kid's Gear logo

• 

  US/EU logo

• 

  JP story illustration 1

• 

  JP story illustration 2

• 

  JP story illustration 3

• 

  JP story illustration 4

• 

  Sonic

• 

  Knuckles

• 

  Dr. Eggman

• 

  Coconuts

• 

  Octopus

• 

  Gola

• 

  Egg Saucer

• 

  Batbot

Screenshots

Game Gear version

• 
• 
• 

Master System version

• 
• 
• 

Physical scans

Game Gear version

Reception »

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System version

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 031b9da9 MD5 56e1561d981a9a7c240cdd8d5580ccf0 SHA-1 11241be4082f6f9d057488ae75ccdd482f623f8c	1MB		Cartridge
✔	CRC32 c09ef45b MD5 7b758a3f8acd3d6fef82b163da1d2a34 SHA-1 5d9fa949aeddfc4251d7b8a58cb1122f190ecd36	512kB	1996-05-31	CD-R disc	"611" prototype		(115 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 362b186d MD5 5bffd26d4a2a6adaf2f312f9d51a002d SHA-1 e7bb20410c7ab341a3f7df7fcfee3a6996823655	1MB	1996-07-04	CD-R disc	"74" prototype		(244 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 19dad067 MD5 dc3ba92c55276f2478f185c55c701b33 SHA-1 12a8a59da110b914acde68112db691df9595d4e8	1MB	1996-08-06	CD-R disc	"806" prototype		(308 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 5eecb549 MD5 4e03b1985f36a925d0aef44ce12d06bd SHA-1 da497ae41be3fccc97eb18bd6349917e645c5179	1MB	1996-08-22	CD-R disc	"821" prototype		(394 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 e6847ac0 MD5 daa3fb567d237281448a515e7e4ee5aa SHA-1 f1a1edee0eb15faf74dd6896753f0f6abcf12a45	1MB	1996-08-28	CD-R disc	"827" prototype		(396 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 2f22a352 MD5 b4f35aec668264af115d3bd8d102406f SHA-1 8aa965b342466cc3ac4093bba61abf7d68b5ec86	1MB	1996-09-02	CD-R disc	"94" prototype		(404 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 031b9da9 MD5 56e1561d981a9a7c240cdd8d5580ccf0 SHA-1 11241be4082f6f9d057488ae75ccdd482f623f8c	1MB	1996-09-07	CD-R disc	"910" prototype		(404 kB) (info)	Page
✔	CRC32 96b3f29e MD5 ce7f314a657e0f0fe506fb7aea016f31 SHA-1 4ad77a472e98002dc0d5c1463965720a257e1b8f	1MB		Cartridge (BR)

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console page
• Nintendo catalogue pages: JP, US, UK, AU

References

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

1991  Sonic the Hedgehog     1992  Sonic the Hedgehog 2     1993  Sonic Chaos | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine     1994  Sonic Drift | Sonic Spinball | Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble     1995  Sonic Drift 2 | Tails' Skypatrol | Tails Adventures | Sonic Labyrinth | Sonic 2 in 1     1996  Sonic Blast      Demos  Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) AutoDemo | Sonic & Tails Jitsuenyou Sample | Sonic Drift (demo)  Prototypes  Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear prototype) | Sonic Chaos prereleases | Sonic Spinball (8-bit) prereleases | Sonic Triple Trouble prereleases | Sonic Blast prereleases  Unreleased  Sonic's Edusoft