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• Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island

Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island .:: Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island

Name:
Sonic 3D Blast - North America
Sonic 3D Flickies' Island - Europe
Sonic 3D Flickies' Island - Japan

Other Names (Nicknames): N/A

Release Dates:
November, 1996 - North America
February, 1997 - Europe
October 14th, 1999 - Japan

Quality: 32-Bit, 3D Isometric gameplay Platformer

Game System(s): Sega Saturn

Also released on:
(1). Sega Mega Drive/Genesis- Sonic 3D Flickies' Island
(2). PC - Sonic 3D Flickies' Island, Realplayer Arcade
(3). Gamecube/Playstation/X-Box - Sonic Mega Collection (Plus)

Developer(s): Traveller's Tales

Character Introductions: N/A

Region Game Takes Place On: Flicky Island.

Concept Introductions: Sonic 3D Flickies' Island introduced four different looking flickies next to the conventional rosy-cheeked blue one. The new ones included a pink female-like one, a fat green one, an extreme-looking red one, and a special orange, frilled flicky that was only found in the Volcano Valley Zone of the game. Sonic 3D Flickies' Island was also the first Sonic game that truly introduced the homing attack, which was an ability Sonic could use only when you are using a golden shield powerup.

Concept Deductions: Checkpoint markers were replaced with ring portals that take you to various levels of the one stage where you can travel back and forth from. Conventional special stage access was changed to bringing 50 rings to an idle Tails or Knuckles that is hidden somewhere in each act. The Chaos Emeralds also look different (in a VERY bad way) in the Mega Drive/Genesis version.

Storyline:

          Flicky Island is home to the rare Flicky Birds, which are apparently closely related to the Chaos Emeralds, which intrigues Sonic into investigating. Eggman immediately took this to his advantage as well, also finding out that the Flickies are rarely seen because they live in a parallel dimension and teleport through ring portals. Using his new Dimensional Ring Generator, Eggman takes the Flickies from their home dimension and turns them into mindless robots.

          Sonic arrives to see all of his Flicky friends turned into robots, so it was up to him to save them from the wretched hand of Dr. Robotnik, while getting those blasted jewels along the way!

Personal Criticism/Opinion:

           Sonic 3D Flickies' Island was released at the most depressing point in Sonic's career, when sales were down and he was being beaten left and right by the opposition known as the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. In spite of the fact that many think this is one of Sonic's suckiest games, I personally think Traveller's Tales did an okay job. Afterall, Naka and Ohshima still did advise the creation of this game. And it was a virtual stepping stone for the blue blur, as it was the first 3-Dimensional Sonic game. … Okay, maybe not REALLY 3D, but it still wasn't a sidescroller. It utilized isometric gameplay, which is a form of two point perspective without orthogonal degrading towards a vanishing point. It is not really a 3D game though, since the Sonic you play as is not a model, it's a sprite, along with the enemies and all of the objects on the gameboard.

           Sonic 3D's gameplay is a toughie to adjust to, especially when it comes to destroying enemies. Playing this game on a ROM with a keyboard is not advised. Sonic 3D Flickies' Island was also the very first Sonic game that was ported to another system with enhancements at a much later date (3 years later for Japan). Game porting became a rather famous trend of Sonic Team in this day and age. The Sega Saturn version of the game has graphical enhancements ranging from new objects in the zones, a new, more higher quality Sonic sprite, realistic tiling on the floors, and a totally redesigned Special Stage. (The Special Stage was remade for a third time on the PC version, which otherwise is identical to the Saturn version.)

           The level system was much more complex in this game. Each zone consisted of three acts (the first two being the actual stage while the third is the boss fight), as usual. Each act, however, consisted of two to four partitions, and in each partition, you had destroy 5 enemies and recover 5 Flicky Birds which you bring over to a ring portal to activate it, transporting you to the next partition. Ring portals that have been activated can be re-used, enabling you to backtrack allover the entire zone. This type of gameplay craps ALLOVER Sonic's border-legendary high speed style of gameplay, yet even in this isometric scrolling game, Sonic's speed, spindash, spinball jump, and roll were still maintained. Like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, elemental shields are once again used in Sonic 3D Flickies' Island. However, their appearance isn't nearly as representative to their particular element. The fire shield is just a red shield, while the electric shield is just a blue one. And then there was a special gold shield that enabled Sonic to use a special homing attack on the enemy. Take it from me, it is QUITE useful for destroying enemies.

           The bosses of Sonic 3D Flickies' Island are still similar to the other games when it comes to general gameplay style. Just hit Robotnik as many times as you can to destroy him. Except it was done in an arena and you had to wait for the right time to hit him. What's cool about the boss battles here is that it actually shows the progressive damage you do to Eggman's vehicles each time you hit it, such as broken glass, burn marks, etc., etc. Overall, Sonic 3D Flickies' Island, contrary to popular belief is an okay Sonic game, but still far from good.

Let's see some GAMER'S PERSPECTIVE:

Replay value? Eh, it's not that good. This game is very long and outmoded, and can be tedious when it comes to collecting the Flickies. And since this is isometric gameplay, there is no chance to even see a nice background or scenery which is also a turn off. I only played this game like… twice in a 5 to 7 month increment about two years ago — haven't played it since. There are no prizes or unlockable things that require replaying the game either, so that's not helping.

Graphics? The Saturn version's graphics of the game are excellent! Everything is well-sprited and drawn down to the very tiling in each zone. The tiling, Sonic's sprite, the entire final stage, and even the entire special stage have been remastered for the game. And Sonic 3D Flickies' Island for the Saturn was the very first home console Sonic game to feature a full 3D environment — the Special Stages. The Mega Drive's graphics were depressingly bad, ESPECIALLY the opening sequence.

Music & Sound Effects? With the visual makeover came an audio makeover for the Saturn version as well. The music was remastered by Richard Jacques, who later composed the music for Sonic R. A title theme song was also made and sung by Debbie Morris. Trust me, you DON'T want to hear it. Vocalized music for Sonic games should like… just not exist, I'm sorry. The BGM for the zones and bosses and what not is pretty okay. Very catchy, particularly Gene Gadget Zone's. The sound effects were ported from the Mega Drive version as well. Or were they ported from HERE to the Mega Drive? Both versions of this game were released in North America at the same month, so who knows. The music from the Genesis/Mega Drive version is very similar to Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Chaotix's since Jun Senoue was in the sound team for the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island.

Storyline? Let's face it, they could have done a hell of a better job with the storyline on Sonic 3D Flickies' Island. Instead, it was just another "turn the animals into robots and nab the Chaos Emeralds" ploy. Oh well, I am assuming we'll see quite a few more ahead. The storyline is what disappoints me the most about this game and most Sonic games in general.

OVERALL RATING? I rate Sonic 3D Flickies' Island as a 5/10.