Sonic Blast was the last Sonic game to be released on the Game Gear. While it was released alongside the similarly titled Sonic 3D Blast, the games are different; much like Sonic 1 and 2 were.
There are two playable characters: Sonic or Knuckles, each with slightly different behaviour. Sonic can double-jump whereas Knuckles can glide and climb walls.
Sonic and Knuckles' adventure takes them through five worlds in search of 5 Chaos Emeralds and culminates at Dr Robotnik's Silver Castle.
The graphics have been revamped, this time using pre-rendered graphics as seen in Donkey Kong Country. Although this should improve the graphics, the style doesn't suit Sonic's world and I think the game partly suffers for it. The colour palette looks a bit on the dull side, and Sonic's sprite looks a bit fat. The viewpoint seems really zoomed in, and Sonic usually stays fairly central, meaning you can't see very far ahead. The levels often form maze-like structures, so it's not a case of just running left to right, but moving fairly slow and changing direction.
As usual, you can collect rings, but often the collision detection seems a bit off. Some rings seem in-line with your running path, but Sonic will just run straight through, so you often have to jump at the rings even when they seem in reachable distance. When your character is hit, you lose 10 rings, rather than all of them like in standard Sonic games.
The Zones are pretty bland and aren't as interesting or difficult as previous Sonic games. Blue Marine zone is an abomination. It's an underwater maze where you have to travel though pipe after pipe in order to try and work out the correct path. It's so frustrating, and travelling through the pipes takes way too long.
The bosses in the game barely have any variety. Robotnik usually attacks, moves off-screen and repeats the pattern. You have to jump and hit his wind-screen until it breaks. The last boss is different, but even less fun and seems really out of place. You run on a treadmill to move a shield in order to block Robotnik's attacks which is repeated ten times or so. I expected a multi-stage final boss, but that's all there is to it.
I have no idea where the game's title came from, because it doesn't seem relevant to the game-play, and it definitely isn't 'a blast' to play. Sonic fans usually say the modern Sonics aren't as good as the old ones, but they must have forgotten about this one.