- For the comic, see Sonic Blast (Archie).
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 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.
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10 Ring
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Worth 10 Rings.
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Shield
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Absorbs one hit.
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Shoe
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Temporary speed increase.
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Invincibility
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Temporary invincibility.
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Sonic 1up
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Sonic gets a 1up, Knuckles gets nothing.
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Knuckles 1up
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Knuckles gets a 1up, Sonic gets nothing.
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Marker
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Sonic or Knuckles will return to this point if they lose a life.
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Eggman
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No reward given.
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???
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Grants any of the 8 power-ups (its contents are pre-determined).
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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:
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Dr. Eggman
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No prize is awarded.
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Ring
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10 Rings are added to the player's final Ring tally.
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Sonic
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Sonic gets a 1-Up, Knuckles gets 30 Rings added to his final Ring tally.
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Knuckles
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Knuckles gets a 1-Up, Sonic gets 30 Rings added to his final Ring tally.
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Chaos Emerald
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A Continue is awarded.
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Super Sonic
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Both characters get a 1-Up and 30 Rings added to their final Ring tally.
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Unlike other 8-bit Sonic titles, the prizes earned are entirely random.
History
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
Also released on
Production credits
Manuals
Magazine articles
Artwork
Screenshots
Game Gear version
Master System version
Physical scans
Game Gear version
Game Gear, US
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Cover
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Cart
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Game Gear, EU
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Cart Manual
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Master System version
Master System, BR
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Cover
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Cart
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Technical information
ROM dump status
System |
Hash |
Size |
Build Date |
Source |
Comments |
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|
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✔
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CRC32
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031b9da9
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MD5
|
56e1561d981a9a7c240cdd8d5580ccf0
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SHA-1
|
11241be4082f6f9d057488ae75ccdd482f623f8c
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1MB
|
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Cartridge
|
|
|
|
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
c09ef45b
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MD5
|
7b758a3f8acd3d6fef82b163da1d2a34
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SHA-1
|
5d9fa949aeddfc4251d7b8a58cb1122f190ecd36
|
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512kB
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1996-05-31
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CD-R disc[13]
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"611" prototype
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(115 kB) (info)
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Page
|
✔
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CRC32
|
362b186d
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MD5
|
5bffd26d4a2a6adaf2f312f9d51a002d
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SHA-1
|
e7bb20410c7ab341a3f7df7fcfee3a6996823655
|
|
1MB
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1996-07-04
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CD-R disc[14]
|
"74" prototype
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(244 kB) (info)
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Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
19dad067
|
MD5
|
dc3ba92c55276f2478f185c55c701b33
|
SHA-1
|
12a8a59da110b914acde68112db691df9595d4e8
|
|
1MB
|
1996-08-06
|
CD-R disc[15]
|
"806" prototype
|
|
(308 kB) (info)
|
Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
5eecb549
|
MD5
|
4e03b1985f36a925d0aef44ce12d06bd
|
SHA-1
|
da497ae41be3fccc97eb18bd6349917e645c5179
|
|
1MB
|
1996-08-22
|
CD-R disc[16]
|
"821" prototype
|
|
(394 kB) (info)
|
Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
e6847ac0
|
MD5
|
daa3fb567d237281448a515e7e4ee5aa
|
SHA-1
|
f1a1edee0eb15faf74dd6896753f0f6abcf12a45
|
|
1MB
|
1996-08-28
|
CD-R disc[17]
|
"827" prototype
|
|
(396 kB) (info)
|
Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
2f22a352
|
MD5
|
b4f35aec668264af115d3bd8d102406f
|
SHA-1
|
8aa965b342466cc3ac4093bba61abf7d68b5ec86
|
|
1MB
|
1996-09-02
|
CD-R disc[18]
|
"94" prototype
|
|
(404 kB) (info)
|
Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
031b9da9
|
MD5
|
56e1561d981a9a7c240cdd8d5580ccf0
|
SHA-1
|
11241be4082f6f9d057488ae75ccdd482f623f8c
|
|
1MB
|
1996-09-07
|
CD-R disc[19]
|
"910" prototype
|
|
(404 kB) (info)
|
Page
|
✔
|
CRC32
|
96b3f29e
|
MD5
|
ce7f314a657e0f0fe506fb7aea016f31
|
SHA-1
|
4ad77a472e98002dc0d5c1463965720a257e1b8f
|
|
1MB
|
|
Cartridge (BR)
|
|
|
|
|
External links
References
- ↑ https://www.mtwo.co.jp/development/retrogame-2/#tab-4 (Wayback Machine: 2014-04-03 00:26)
- ↑ File:SonicBlast GG EU Box Back.jpg
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/gamegear/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-12-07 04:57)
- ↑ [gamepro, issue 98, page 62 gamepro, issue 98, page 62]
- ↑ Press release: 1996-11-14: Sonic covers all the bases as "Sonic Blast" hits Game Gear
- ↑ [segamagazin, issue 36, page 83 segamagazin, issue 36, page 83]
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 http://vc.sega.jp/3ds/gsonic/ (Wayback Machine: 2012-06-14 22:58)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://www.nintendo.com:80/games/detail/YlqRZdPPY_N0dnOGmxsp9TWHUbGPOhZt (Wayback Machine: 2013-06-23 00:11)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.fr/Jeux/Console-virtuelle-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Blast--275847.html (archive.today)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 http://www.nintendolife.com:80/games/gamegear/sonic_blast (Wayback Machine: 2017-09-09 21:49)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Virtual-Console-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Blast--275847.html (archive.today)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.de/Spiele/Virtual-Console-Nintendo-3DS-/Sonic-Blast--275847.html (archive.today)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (May 31, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Jul 4, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Aug 6, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Aug 21, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Aug 27, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Sep 2, 1996 prototype)
- ↑ Hidden Palace: Sonic Blast (Sep 7, 1996 prototype)