Difference between revisions of "Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island"

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Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island

System(s): Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Saturn, Windows PC
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Traveller's Tales
Genre: 3D Platform

Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island, released on the Sega Genesis and Saturn in 1996, also released later on the PC. In the opinions of many, this was a fairly mediocre Sonic game, due to the sluggish gameplay and rather boring aspects that haunt the stages of the game. The music in the Genesis version, however, is widely considered to be some of the greatest in the series, and has spawned numerous remixes across the web.

The game was released in Europe for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in November 1996. The Sega Genesis version was released in North America later that month. The game was released on the Sega Saturn in North America in the very same month to make up for the cancellation of Sonic X-treme; the game was literally ported in a month with FMVs, highly spruced up graphics (including an all 3D special stage, considered by many fans to be the best special stage in the series) and an entirely new, Red Book audio soundtrack. It was then released in Europe for the Saturn in February 1997. The Saturn version of the game was released for the PC in North America in September 1997, with the videos and soundtrack intact, as well as the notable addition of a save feature, but lacking some of the Saturn's effects (like the fog in Rusty Ruins) and a less graphically complicated special stage, using sprites from the Genesis version but with the basic concept of the Saturn version. The PC version came to Europe on September 25, 1997. Finally, the game came out for the Saturn in Japan on October 14, 1999.

The game places Sonic in an isometric projection view in a de facto 2D environment. He must collect Flickies and bring them to the big warp ring in order to advance in a stage. There are 10 or 15 Flickies to rescue in each Act, except Act 3 of each zone, where you face Dr. Eggman.

The ROM used on both sides of the pond is exactly the same. The title differs depending on which country the game is in. In North America, the title is Sonic 3D Blast. In Europe, the title is Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island. The European title was used in Japan. The PC version, if minimized (for instance, if a user Alt+Tabs), uses a combination of both names, though the combined name is rarely used, with people generally favoring one region's name over the other.

The Saturn version of the game featured an entirely different Special Stage from the Genesis version, though both shared the same basic mechanics of the special stages of Sonic 2. It also featured many graphical improvements over its Genesis counterpart, such as the aforementioned fog effects.

Archie Comic Adaption

Published in January 1997. Dr. Robotnik roboticizes the Flickies, and instead of helping him track the Chaos Emeralds, they prevent Sonic, Tails & Rotor from heading to the Flickies' Island until they were returned to normal with salt water.

Manuals

Levels

Special Stages

The games special stages were accessible if you found Tails or Knuckles hidden in the level. (Note: These were the only times that those characters would ever appear in Sonic 3D). The Genesis special stages were played out on a giant bridge (the Tails special stage sharing a visual resemblance to the final section of Windy Valley in Sonic Adventure), where Sonic grabs rings while dodging bombs at a frantic pace. This stage had a general lack of difficulty stemming from the high number of rings actually present in the level, and general infrequence of bombs. The Saturn special stages, however, were more strictly tied to the Sonic 2 half-pipe special stage format, except with true 3D effects, as well as tunnels, springs, and dash zones, though with what is often considered a lower difficulty than the originals. The PC stages also took place in a half pipe but only had a single stage and copious amounts of rings that led to a lack of difficulty in the stages.

Production Credits

Credits

Program Design and Implementation: Jon Burton (Travellers Tales)
Head Artist: James Cunliffe (Travellers Tales)
Program Conversion: Steve Harding, Neil Harding (Travellers Tales)
Head Designer: Takao Miyoshi (Sega Enterprises Ltd.)
Producer: Kats Sato (Sega Europe Limited), Mike Wallis (Sega of America Inc.)
Senior Producer: Yutaka Sugano (Sega Enterprises Ltd.)

Travellers Tales

Program Design and Implementation: Jon Burton
Head Artist: James Cunliffe
Code Conversion: Neil Harding, Steve Harding, Jon Burton
Graphic Conversion + Additional Artwork: Neil Allen, David Burton, James Cunliffe, Jeremy Pardon, Jon Rashid, Alex Szeles, Barry Thompson, William Thompson
Utility Programming: Gary Ireland, Neil Harding, Gary Vine, David Dootson, Andy Holdroyd
Project Management: Jon Burton
Production Support: Karen Roberts
Moral Support: Helen Musk

Sega

Game Concept Design (SOJ): Kats Sato, Takao Miyoshi, Kenichi Ono, Takashi Iizuka
Playfield Design (SOJ): Takao Miyoshi, Hirokazu Yasuhara
Saturn Version Enhancement Design (SOJ): Takashi Iizuka, Hirokazu Yasuhara
3D Modelling (SOJ) : Toshiyuki Mukaiyama

Special Stage Development

Game Designers (SOJ): Takashi Iizuka, Daisuke Mori
Programmers (SOJ): Tetsu Katano, Yasuhiro Takahashi, Atsutomo Nakagawa, Kazuhiko Hattori
Artists (SOJ): Kazuyuki Hoshino, Yuji Uekawa, Nobuhiko Honda, Shinichi Higashi, You Nishiyama, Sachiko Kawamura

Movie Development

Movie Creation (SOJ): Norihiro Nishiyama
Movie Processing (SOJ): Yuji Sawairi
Music (SOE): Richard Jacques
Sound Effects (SOE): Richard Jacques, Thomas Szirtes
Closing Theme "You're My Hero": Richard Jacques (Music), Debbie Morris (Voice)

Technical Support

Additional Programming (SOE): Ed Hollingshead, Thomas Szirtes
Additional Support (SOE): Tamer Tahsin, Colin Carter
Document Translations (SOA): Osamu Shibamiya
Lead Tester (SOE): Jason Cumberbatch
Assistant Lead Testers (SOE): Dave Thompson, Roberto Parraga
Lead Tester (SOA): David Wood
Assistant Lead Tester (SOA): Mark McCunney, Ian McGuiness, Tony Borba
Marketing (SOE): Andy Mee, Jo Bladen, Mark Maslowicz
Marketing (SOA): Chrissie Kremer, Eric Dunstan, Kristin McCloskey, Mark Subotnick
Advisors (SOJ): Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima
Special Thanks To Genesis Version Music SFX Composers: Tatsuyuki Maeda, Jun Senoue, Masaru Setsumaru, Seiroh Okamoto
Producers (SOJ): Yoji Ishii, Yutaka Sugano
Producers (SOE): Kazutoshi Miyake, Kats Sato
Producers (SOA): Manny Granillo, Mike Wallis
Executive Producer: Shoichiro Irimajiri

Cheats

Sega Genesis version

To access level select, press B, A, right, A, C, up, down, and A (Baracuda) on the title screen. After entering this cheat, you may skip levels by pressing Start + A during gameplay.

Sega Saturn version

Hold on C+Start at the title screen to access the cheats. To cheat, press start, then press:

X - Gain one life

Y - Gain one medal

Z - Gain all chaos emeralds

A - Skip an act

B - Skip a stage

C - Skip to boss of stage

PC Version

While playing the game, hold on M and press escape to access a hidden menu, which lets you change many weird features of the game. You can change the refresh rate or load custom saved games. A 'Motion Smoothing' option is also available which will make the game run smoother. To make the Motion Smoothing functioning correctly you may need to first go to the Return to Title option first.

Resources

Box Art

Megadrive

US cover
S3d-box-eu.jpg

EU cover

Saturn

US cover
EU cover
JP cover

PC

EU cover

Sonic the Hedgehog games for the following systems

1991 Sonic the Hedgehog | Sonic Eraser 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog CD | Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine | Sonic Spinball 1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | Sonic & Knuckles 1995 Chaotix | Sonic Classics 1996 Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island

@@ Line 117: / Line 117: @@
 ===PC Version===
-While playing the game, hold on M and press escape to access a hidden menu, which lets you change many weird features of the game.
+While playing the game, hold on M and press escape to access a hidden menu, which lets you change many weird features of the game. You can change the refresh rate or load custom saved games. A 'Motion Smoothing' option is also available which will make the game run smoother. To make the Motion Smoothing functioning correctly you may need to first go to the Return to Title option first.
 ==Resources==