Sonic Blast - Gameplay

Gameplay

Unlike its pseudo-3D counterpart, Sonic Blast for Game Gear was a side-scrolling run and jump platform game. It was the last new Sonic the Hedgehog game released for the Sega handheld, and sported some of the most advanced features of the 8-bit series (although it was not very well received).

The two playable characters in the game are Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles the Echidna. The object of the game is to collect five Chaos Emeralds, in stages visually similar to the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 special stages, but instead require Sonic and Knuckles to collect rings as in Sonic the Hedgehog 2's special stages. Emeralds can only be obtained in the second act of each level. Finishing a special stage in the first act will gain the player an extra life instead. Similar to Sonic 3, special stages are entered through large rings hidden in the regular stages.

Much like Sonic Triple Trouble, when the player is hit by an enemy, he only loses some of his rings as opposed to all of them (in this game, 10 rings per hit). Sonic's maneuvers are similar to those in other games, but he has a special double-jump ability that allows him to reach greater heights, like with the electric shield in Sonic 3. Knuckles's abilities are his standard climbing and gliding, as seen in Sonic and Knuckles.