Sonic Blast

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Sonic Blast
System(s): Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Aspect Co. Ltd
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code Rating EU 1996-11 €? 2573-50 US 1996-11 $34.99 2573 JP 1996-12-13 ¥4,800 G-3385 BR 1997-12 R$? 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 $? ?
Sega ELSPA Tectoy

For the comic, see Sonic Blast (Archie).

Sonic Blast, known as G Sonic (Ｇソニック) in Japan, is a Sonic the Hedgehog platform game released for the Sega Game Gear in late 1996. It was later brought to the Sega Master System in Brazil by Tectoy.

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 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.

Players control as either Sonic the Hedgehog (armed with a a double jump (press 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, 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's game).

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

• 10 Ring: Worth 10 Rings.
• Shield: Absorbs one hit.
• Speed Shoes: 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: You return to this point if you lose a life.
• Eggman: No reward given.
• Question mark boxes: Grants any of the 8 power-ups (it isn't random however).

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.

Comparisons

Main article: Sonic Blast/Comparisons

Versions

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.

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.

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)

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

Manuals

Main article: Sonic Blast/Manuals

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  Game Gear, US

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  Game Gear, JP

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  Master System, BR

Magazine articles

Main article: Sonic Blast/Magazine articles

Artwork

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Screenshots

Game Gear version

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Master System version

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Physical scans

Game Gear version

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart File:Sonic Blast GG US Manual.pdf Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart File:SonicBlast GG JP manual.pdf Manual

Master System version

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart File:SonicBlast SMS BR manual.pdf 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