Sonic 3D Blast the Hell outta Eggman!
Bah, it's Eggman in his Death Egg! Spindash 10 times into his nose to destroy the weak machine!

After MANY games on the Genesis, Sonic made his way into the world of 3D gaming. The result was isometric 3D, but 3D is better than nothing. Made by the good people at Travellers Tales and Sega Institute of America, Sonic 3D was the last official Sonic game on the Genesis. Saturn owners had yet to see Sonic on their system, so Sonic X-Treme was scrapped (by SoJ), and so Sonic 3D was ported over with new sound, special stages, and slightly improved graphics.

The less history stuff the better. How did Sonic 3D play? Was it like Sonic Spinball, or more like Sonic 3 and Knuckles? Erm... not so much the latter, but it plays MUCH better than Sonic Spinball did. On with the review.

Usually, I talk about how good the graphics are first, but I felt like saying something else here. So there.
The sound on Sonic 3D is much better than anticipated. Even the cartridge version had some nice effects to it, but the Saturn and PC versions had completely redone digital sound! The jumps and boings are still there, making Sonic 3D seem like it's ancestors.

OK... NOW the graphics! Sonic 3D looks SUPER COOL in the graphics department. All the sprites and environments are 3D modelled and rendered. Even the cartridge version had a rendered introduction, which was souped up on the Saturn. Sonic moves smoothly, although his running looks stupid (strangly enough, Sonics running was copied from here and put into Sonic Adventure 2). Theres no backgrounds in the main stages of Sonic 3D, so very little parallax scrolling was needed.

Any features in Sonic 3D? There are, but nothing that hasn't been seen before in another Sonic game. Same old Level Select option (which can be achieved on cartridge by pushing the game a little bit backwards TRUTHFULLY!). Sonic now has a homing attack when he grabs a gold shield... but who cares? So moving swiftly on...
So disapointing about Sonic 3D is its simplicity. You destroy the Badniks, collect the flickies, and put them into a giant ring. Doesn't seem that entralling does it? It isn't really... it's just TOO easy! The Sonic Veterans out there will have completed this game in about... oohh... an hour? WITH all the Emeralds, even on the Saturn version with the ROCK hard Special Stages.

It's Knuckles! The disapointment of Knuckles being in Sonic 3D is having him reduced to having 10 frames of animation...
Suck Sonic Spin Frosty!

So like... how did Sonic 3D play? Quite smoothly actually. After getting used to the controls (A and C jump, B Spin-Dashes but this can be changed) and the isometric viewpoint, you can dash around the Zones at Sonics top speed. Unfortunatly, the Genesis Special Stages were about as interesting as floor boards, but the Saturns are much like Sonic 2's used to be (and that was the ONLY good part about that game). If you had the choice, get the Saturn version, or indeed the PC version, because they are just that lil bit better.

Sonic X-Treme shouldn't have been cancelled. I'm sure as Hell I would have bought a few copies! This doesn't even compare to what Sonic X-Treme could have been. Still enjoyable, but not enough to it to get anyone to wet their pants over. Tell ya what... email Sega of Japan with a subject of "Who told you to dump Sonic X-Treme?" after playing this. Hopefully, someone who can read will answer, and we might see it on the GameCube or on a Sonic Compilation disk.

"What was that song he sung on the Kellogs Fruit and Fiber ad...?" (It's late and I'm tired...)

Graphics: 10 - Nice 3D rendered job. Even the Genesis diserves a 10 because it showed itself off with this and Toy Story.
Sound: 7/9 - Enjoyable sound on Genesis (7), kick ass sound on the Saturn (9).

Originality: 7 - There was nothing like this on the Saturn, but the Genesis had other games too similar to this.
Lifespan: 3/6 - 3 if you have played Sonic to death, 6 if you have never played a Saturn or Genesis game in your life.

Final Percentage: 86% (less than Sonic 2!!!) - Well presented, but not enough to take me away from worse looking games that play better (eg. My Hero on Master System).

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