Sonic Blast

Not to be confused with Sonic 3D Blast or Sonic Blast Man.

Sonic Blast
The North American Game Gear cover art of Sonic Blast. In it, Sonic, a cartoonish blue hedgehog with red shoes, runs through a desert-like environment. The game's logo is shown atop him, while the Game Gear banner is seen on the left-hand corner with the Sega brand logo and seal of quality. In the lower right hand corner, the rating label (K-A, meaning kids to adults) can be seen.
North American Game Gear cover art
Developer(s)Aspect
Publisher(s)Sega
Tec Toy (Master System)
Director(s)Ryushin Hamada
Producer(s)Hiroshi Aso
Designer(s)Fumikazu Sugawara
Taro Murayama
Programmer(s)Toshiaki Araki
Yoshiaki Makishima
Composer(s)Kojiro Mikusa
SeriesSonic the Hedgehog
Platform(s)Game Gear, Master System
ReleaseGame Gear
  • NA: November 14, 1996
  • EU: November 1996
  • JP: December 13, 1996
Master System
  • BR: December 1997
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Sonic Blast[a] is a 1996 side-scrolling platform video game known for its use of pre-rendered visuals. To stop Doctor Robotnik from using Chaos Emerald shards to fortify his base, the player controls Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna through 15 levels. 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 bonus stages, the player must run forward and collect rings to earn one of the Chaos Emerald shards.

The game was developed by Aspect and published by Sega for the Game Gear. It was the final Sonic the Hedgehog game for the system, and has been rereleased on the Master System (1997), through three Sonic-themed compilations (2003, 2004, and 2023), 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.
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