Sonic Blast

Sonic Blast is a 1996 platform game developed by Aspect and published by Sega for the Game Gear. The player controls Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna, who venture through 15 levels to stop Doctor Robotnik from using Chaos Emerald shards to fortify his base. As a Sonic the Hedgehog series platformer, the characters run and jump to reach the end of a level while defeating enemy robots and collecting rings. In separate special stages, the player must run forward and collect rings to earn one of the Chaos Emerald shards. The game was the final Sonic the Hedgehog game for the system, utilizing pre-rendered visuals to maximize the graphical potential of the decreasingly popular handheld console. It was rereleased on the Master System exclusively in Brazil in 1997, various compilations in the series, and the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console (2012). Despite their similar titles and coinciding releases, Sonic Blast and Sonic 3D Blast have little in common. Retrospective reviewers generally had little praise for Sonic Blast and have deemed it one of the series' worst games. Although some considered its graphics impressive when considering the technological restrictions of the Game Gear, most found its animations and colors mediocre. The level designs and slow gameplay were also criticized.