Sonic 3D Blast MD, 2017 and beyond!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zmt2xIW9eU

Found that? All the others suck

 

Now that I think about it, why didn't it make it into the Saturn version?

 

Cuz that version had a completely new soundtrack made by Richard Jacques and he made original songs for the saturn release.

 

Because the entire soundtrack was a huge rush job by Richard Jacques who probably only had the final Mega Drive version tracks to listen to at best. Chances are he didn't even hear the demo tracks that Senoue had written.

 

Overlord used Merge. It's super effective.

I dig the synth. I wonder why he didn't just use that for Sonic 4 :specialed:.

 

Everything here instrumentation-wise sounds better than most of the prominent synths in Sonic 4 Episode I.

The bass, the percussion, and especially the synths used here would have been so much better choices. What gives, Jun?


That aside, most importantly, it's fantastic to see these finally being preserved publicly!

Gives me warm, fuzzy memories of when the Sonic 1 & 2 Original Soundtrack, including Masato Nakamura's Demo Versions, was made available. Such important soundtrack foundations, the original track iterations, being shared publicly, is an awesome thing. It's like a window into a crucial aspect of a game's development process.

Speaking of Masa's Demo Versions, that extended Sonic 3D intro theme isn't too dissimilar to Masa's unused full Sonic theme, in a way. :-3

 

my next instrumental cover I will practice. Jun is the man!

 

Regarding the European cover art: https://www.twitter.com/y2k_aesthetic/status/1185707174384685056

 

"Me Company", eh? Scrolling up from that, it seems that they take sculps then digitize them? Interesting. I wonder how that process goes, and what tools they use.

 

Christ, I always thought this box art was ugly. I'm glad we never got it in the US.

 

And creepy to boot. The Saturn Japanese version is the definitive box art for me. One of the few good things to come out of this game really.

 

They actually paid a company to produce that monstrosity? I thought it was just an ugly 3d render Sega whipped up.

 

Fascinating. I would have thought the act of digitising a clay model would be more time consuming than rendering one by hand, but that's 1996 for you.

It was never an awful cover - it's very "of its time" and for sure, it doesn't look much like Sonic the Hedgehog, but nobody was getting it right back in the day. It's an iconic look for what isn't often considered an iconic game (and it's not like the US one is amazing either).

 

Education yourself

Me Company, established in London in 1985. Did lots of stuff in the 90s though is most famous for working with Bjork's album covers.

Here's a thing about them:
https://archive.org/details/IdeaMagazineNo.260-SpecialFeatureWorkFromLondon/page/n11
(not sure why there's so much Japanese coverage but whatever)


https://www.creativebloq.com/3d/me-company-3059893

Chances are that Sonic was made on a Mac running Infini-D. As with most things from this era, there's not a lot to go on.

 

Really? Outside of cases like the US Sonic 3D box art, I've always thought that some of the 3d Sonic renders from the mid-90s looked pretty good and faithful and haven't aged too badly, as Sonic's simple original design doesn't call for too much detail, making it perfectly compatible with 3d renders from the time.

Perhaps an unfair comparison, since the EU S3D box art was a digitized clay model, but eh.

 

I've never got on well with the covers for Sonic 3D (US), Sonic Blast, and Sonic's Schoolhouse - they're anatomically correct but Sonic only ever seems to have one vacant expression on his face. It doesn't sell the whole "I'm cool and have attitude" of some of the 2D art (although fair enough, some of that was equally questionable).

Dunno, the impression I get with the Sonic 3D PAL art is they got it "wrong for the right reasons". Like they actually had an artistic vision in mind.

 

Knuckles theme has been revealed and it sounds pretty damn good. It's great to finally see this preserved! May have to stick Twinkle Park act 2 music on now!