Dan Geeks Out: Video Game Review #386: Sonic Blast

Sonic Blast

Game Gear

Nostalgia Factor:

Believe it or not, I had never played a single Game Gear title in my life until just now. I never owned a Game Gear and I never knew anyone with a Game Gear growing up. I always wanted a Game Gear, seeing as how I was such a Sega loyalist, but it just never worked out that I would get one.

How would my introduction to the handheld system fare? Let's find out!

Story:

Unless there is something in the game's instruction manual, Sonic Blast seems to have no story whatsoever. No cutscenes, nothing. You just fight through a series of stages, beating Robotnik at the end of each stage. At the end of the game when you beat him, you see his hideout crash into the water as it crumbles apart. The end.

Gameplay:

If you've played literally any Sonic game made back in the 90s, you should have a pretty good idea what to expect here. You choose to play as Sonic or Knuckles. You run. You jump. You spin dash. You collect rings. You lose rings when you get hit. You fight Robotnik. This game follows the tried and true Sonic formula to a tee.

There are four zones in this game, and each zone is comprised of three acts. The first two acts are typical Sonic stages while the third one ends in a fight with Dr. Robotnik. So that's twelve stages to play through in total. If this were a console Sonic game, I'd say that is too few a number of stages. For a handheld game, you have to expect something on a much smaller scale. So I think twelve levels for this game seems just about right.

The limitations of being for the Game Gear make themselves known immediately. We'll get to the graphics later, but the presentation is not good. The controls are sluggish. Sonic and Knuckles seem to move like they're walking through molasses. The classic Sonic feeling of speed is noticeably absent in this game. Even when you've fully charged your spin dash it feels like you can barely make it through the loop de loops and over the peaks and hills. It's embarrassing.

The entire first half of this game is extremely easy. I didn't die once until I hit the third zone. It takes place underwater, and consists of pipe mazes that zip you around the level at light speed. My mind, for whatever reason, could not wrap itself around these mazes. The game came screeching to a halt for me. I swear it took me a half hour to make it through the third zone when the first two zones combined had taken me half that time. It completely ruined whatever fun I had been having with this game.

Now look. I know this isn't a good game. But I am easily entertained. This is a Sonic game from the 90s that I had never played before. Same tried and true Sonic formula. 14-year old Dan would have loved the chance to play this game. And despite its numerous flaws, I have to say I couldn't help but enjoy it at some level.

Graphics:

This is an ugly game. Normally I like to go easy on retro games for their graphics, because they did the best they could with what they had at the time. And at the time most of these games looked awesome. But not this one.

The characters have a very strange, grainy look that I've never seen before in a Sonic game. At the same time they almost look shiny, as if they're covered in wax. It's weird. I don't know what they were going for here. Were they trying to bring the characters from Sonic 3D Blast to the Game Gear (graphically downsized) and put them in a 2D platformer? Were they trying to emulate the look of Donkey Kong Country, which was a popular look around this time? No idea. Whatever they were going for, it didn't work.

The backgrounds in this game are dull and ugly too. Just had to get that in.

Sound:

This game's music sounds as bad as its graphics look. Generic, chintzy. Absolutely nothing memorable about it. It's like they didn't even try. The sound effects are good, I guess. It's hard to mess those up in a Sonic game.

Overall:

Am I glad I played this game? You bet I am. I had never played any of the Game Gear Sonic titles before, and it has always been one of my goals to check them out. But listen, I know that this game isn't good. It's slow, it's choppy, it's ugly, and its pace comes crashing to a halt about midway through the game. But you know what? It's still Sonic. There's still some part of me that had a good time with this game, no matter how flawed I realized it was.

I can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone. If you've never played it before, you are missing nothing if you don't check it out. And if you do decide to check it out, there's a great chance you won't like it. This will have to go down as a guilty pleasure of mine. I know this game is absolutely awful, but part of me still likes it anyway. But I know I'll never play this again, nor do I really want to. For those reasons, I can't give it any higher than a C. And even that I think might be a bit too generous. Take it and run, Sonic Blast - before I change my mind!

THE GRADE:

40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:

1982 reviews:

1983:

1984:

Frogger II: Threedeep!