Fanmade PC remake of "Sonic 3D Blast" gets a pre-alpha release
The classic era of Sonic games is still held dearly for many, many Sonic fans, and while most usually list one of the main Sonic classic trilogy (1, 2 and 3&K) as their favourites, (with Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 topping those lists), there is another Sonic title from that era that's usually ignored, with that title being "Sonic 3D Blast" (or "Sonic 3D Flickies' Island" as it was known in Europe).
Sonic 3D Blast was originally released for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive and eventually released on the Sega Saturn) deviating from the traditional high-speed platforming that its predecessors like Sonic 1 and 2 had to instead focus on exploration inside an isometric-view, which sees Sonic travel through different zones in a diorama-like style, searching for his friends, the Flickies', which are bird-like creatures that have been encased by Dr. Robotnik inside robots. Defeating the robots frees the Flickies, and then Sonic must carry them into a ring to save them.
The title itself didn't have good reception, with many citing its weird gameplay, lack of a save feature and a perspective which strayed away from the traditional Sonic mechanics, although one thing that can't be argued about is how good the soundtrack is for the game (with the Genesis' OST version being one of my own personal favourites Sonic OSTs), and it's worth mentioning that both the Genesis and Saturn releases had their own unique OSTs. The original Genesis release of Sonic 3D Blast release saw a romhack/revision back in 2017 by one of its original developers from Traveller's Tales, Jon Burton, with aimed to fix many of the game's issues, as well as improve other aspects of the game, with the final project titled "Sonic 3D Blast: Director's Cut".
However, even with the Director's Cut hack, that still left the Sega Saturn release in the dust, but that didn't stop developer SegaSonicSaturn from Twitter to try to revitalize the title.
SegaSonicSaturn has been working privately on a full-on 3D remake of Sonic 3D Blast (or Sonic 3D Flickies' Island) for the PC, and today, the first pre-alpha version of the remake, with the very first level being playable, and right from the get-go, the amount of detail and love put into the project is shown in full.
The remake itself is based artistically on the vastly graphically superior Sega Saturn version of the game, which featured richer and more vibrant scenarios compared to the Genesis release, but this remake doesn't only recreate the environments in a pseudo-3D environment like the original, but rather it recreates the entire game in a full 3D environment, meaning all 3D stages, characters and assets, and the author makes sure to showcase this by changing perspectives on-the-fly while in gameplay, with the perspectives changing from the original's isometric view, to a full 3D third-person-like camera that follows Sonic around and can be rotated 360 degrees, giving much more freedom and an incredible way of experiencing this beloved classic. The details in the 3D models is superb, capturing the original game's character design to its fullest extend, with Sonic's 3D model looking almost a 1:1 recreation of his 3D Blast official artwork.
Not only is the game fully recreated in 3D, but the author has also gone above and beyond including not only the 2 different OSTs (Genesis and Saturn) as options for the game, but also fully remastered OSTs of both the Genesis and Saturn OSTs as well! So players have an incredible number of 4 OSTs (Genesis, Saturn, Genesis Remastered and Saturn Remastered) to choose from when playing through the Remake, and the soundtracks can also be toggled on-the-fly, giving the player the option to change the soundtrack at will at any point of the game!
As a personal closing statement, and as an avid Sonic 3D Blast fan since the game's original release back in 1996, it's such a joy and a delightment to see one of my childhood beloved games to be amazingly recreated and remade with such detail, care, love and passion, and I highly recommend and encourage anyone even remotely interested in Sonic games, or Sonic in general, to give this fan remake a try!
Best of wishes to the author and his team, so that this remake can see a full release down the road!
