Sonic 3D Blast, known as Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island (ソニック３Ｄ フリッキーアイランド Sonikku Surīdī Furikkī Airando) in Japan and Europe, is an isometric platform game and the second 3D game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, after Sonic the Fighters. It was developed in the United Kingdom by Traveller's Tales and published by Sega. Primarily developed as the last Sonic game for the Sega Genesis, it was later ported to the Sega Saturn and Microsoft Windows, and later re-released on many compilations and digital distribution platforms as well.
A separate game, titled Sonic Blast, was also released for the Sega Game Gear in the same year. However, much like the Game Gear versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, they are similarly titled but decidedly different games.
In contrast to the other Sonic games released for the Sega Genesis, which were 2D sidescrolling platformers, this game is played from an isometric viewpoint in a 2D environment and uses pre-rendered 3D sprites, displaying pseudo-3D graphics.
In the game, Doctor Robotnik discovers mysterious birds called flickies that live on an island in an alternate dimension. He learns that they can travel anywhere using large rings, so he decides to exploit them by turning them into robots to help him search for the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic must find and destroy these robots located around the zones, and bring the flickies inside them to large rings. Once he collects all five flickies from each section of an Act, he is either further advanced into the Act, or taken to the next Act. Every Zone has three Acts, 2 involving standard levels, and the third Act being a boss fight against Robotnik, without any flicky-collecting involved.
If Sonic or the flickies are hit by an obstacle or enemy, the flickies scatter. Each individual flicky's color determines how it behaves. Blue and pink/orange ones make an effort to find Sonic, while green and red ones wander off at random, the latter even jumping about, making them harder to re-collect.
As in previous Sega Genesis Sonic games, special stages are the means to collecting the Chaos Emeralds. In order to access these stages, either Knuckles or Tails must be located within the regular levels. When stood next to, they take all the rings currently in Sonic's possession. If Sonic has over fifty rings, or supplies them with fifty rings or more with multiple visits, he is warped to a special stage.
There are three different versions of the special stages among the different versions of the game, but all three involve the same basic premise as the special stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Sonic runs down a pre-set path and must collect rings while avoiding obstacles that, when run into, make him lose rings. A certain number of preset rings need to be obtained to continue through the stage, and ultimately be able to make it to the end and be rewarded with a Chaos Emerald. If all 7 Chaos Emeralds are collected, the Special Stages can still be played for extra lives.
Collecting all 7 of the Chaos Emeralds is the only way to reach the "Final Fight" level, consisting of the final boss fight and good ending of the game.
