While Sonic Blast is easily the greatest looking Game Gear Sonic game, it's lineancy stops it from being the most fun.

User Rating: 7.8 | G-Sonic GG
By Dalton2K5 | Review Date:
With this being the first Sonic Blast review, in which I'm not surprised about, with it being a relatively rare Game Gear game, I'll try to write it to my best ability to tell you what this game is like. But, then again, that's always how I write. Anyways, in the twilight of the most successful portable competitor to Gameboy, the Game Gear, there still was some games that were worth a look or 2. Sega decided that to maybe bring up last second sales on the Game Gear, they needed yet another Sonic game to get gamers back to the charming but bulky handheld. Sega decided to use the same idea Nintendo used with Donkey Kong Country with graphics to boost sales, and show people what they're missing with the Game Gear. Maybe Sega shouldv'e focused on gameplay as well. Sonic Blast is the only Game Gear game where Knuckles is a playable character, for starters. But, where is Tails? No one is quite sure why Sega decided to cut out Sonic's furry sidekick for the spiny anteater in this game, but it really doesn't do much to the gameplay overall, which is far from the Genesis titles. Sonic Blast's level designs are totally linear. There is almost no extra paths to go through, few loop-de-loops, and shortcuts are almost totally cut out of the game. Now, this baffles me, for the fact that they seemed to put a lot of effort into the graphics in the game, but bearly any elements of the original games that made 2-D Sonic the Hedgehog games that much more entertaining in the long haul. That fact makes the game feel almost hallow, leaving you wanting for more after you play through a level. There is also no multiplayer in the game, but since there wasn't any in all the other Sonic platformer games for Game Gear, this is excused. Sega did add a double jump in the game for Sonic, and the normal gliding and climbing walls for Knuckles, but since there really is nothing to reach by jumping high or climbing like the Genesis titles has, these moves are almost useless, except against bosses. There is, however, special stages in Sonic Blast to get emeralds and extra lives. Too bad the special stages are the most linear since the PC version of Sonic 3D Blast's special stages, with the main objective being get so many rings by the end of the stage, but unlike this special stage, there is no half pipe Sonic runs through, Sonic (or Knuckles) just runs through an empty tiled field littered with rings that pop up every now and then that you must get, and if you miss too many of them, you lose. The collision detection with the rings in this special stage is aweful, to say the least, and jumping for some of the rings in the game is an absolute chore. But, for the fact that there is special stages in the game that are relatively easy to find is a plus, no matter what. Get all the chaos emeralds and you get the good ending, and such. Oh yeah, the bosses. The bosses are quite simple. There really is no explaining other than that. The bosses have set patterns which are easy to find, even for the last boss, but none of that is new, or bad, in the Sonic world. To recap gameplay, the levels are all moderately long in size, and are still fun to play through once, but the experience will feel kind of empty. The graphics are the pride and joy of Sonic Blast, pushing the Game Gear to the absolute tip of it's power. The characters are really detailed, are large, have good animations, and the ground and enemies are also detailed and give life to the game. The special stages look excellent for a Game Gear game, with your character having excellent detail to rival the likes of Sonic 3's look. Other than that, the backgrounds themselves have very little detail among them, along with the fact that enemies are rediculously small compared to Sonic and Knuckles. But, then again, since the ground does have a lot of detail in it by itself, the background is usually overlooked, and the enemies, although small, are still as easy to hit as they would be if they were as large as the bosses themselves. So yes, Sonic Blast is easily the best looking game for Game Gear, and would be the best looking portable Sonic game until Sonic Pocket Adventure, in 1999. Sonic Blast's music is.... average. Nothing memorable, unlike most Sonic games of the time, but isn't bad though. Uhm... yeah, there is not much else to say about the music here. The sound effects are alright, with the normal jumping noises, chaos emerald jingle and what not. Simple, Sonic sounds all around. This game is far too linear to be near as fun as such Sonic Game Gear titles like Sonic Chaos or Sonic Triple Trouble, leaving you very little reason to come back after you've finished. It is just long enough to last you a good car trip, and may last you a little longer by trying to pass it with both characters, along with collecting all the chaos emeralds, like all the other Sonic games have done in the past. But, once all that is said and done, there really isn't too much else to do with Sonic Blast but to maybe pass one or two levels when bored on the next car trip. Sonic Blast is, in the end, an average platforming game. Compared to platforming games of today, this game is almost totally worthless and outdated because of it's linear level design and simple premise. But, since it is a Sonic game, and the game is just long enough for a car trip, it's perfect for the job on a quick 2-3 hour trip... if your Game Gear's batteries last that long, of course. Sonic Blast had a lot more potential than this, but it is a fitting end to Game Gear. It ended just where it started... minus Columns. Average Sonic goodness.

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