We also got Sonic Jam, a compilation of the 2D Sonic titles made for fans full of behind-the-scenes material. Sonic Team themselves were working on titles such as NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers but managed to bring Sonic in as a playable character in their Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams demo disc, you can watch the gameplay here on YouTube. Sonic 3D blast gave us a 2D isometric world where we could control Sonic in three dimensions, but I don’t feel it captured the same pace and excitement we got when Sonic launched on the Mega Drive.Īpart from Sonic R, we did get some other glimpses of what a 3D Sonic game might feel like on the Sega Saturn. Sonic R was developed by Traveller’s Tales after their success(?) with Sonic 3D blast. Turning Sonic into a fully 3D game wasn’t straight forward and it began life as an engine for a formula 1 racing title and retooled into a Sonic title.

Without the racing mechanic, you can really explore the stages and get to grips with some of the special abilities such as Dr Robotnik’s and EggRobo’s ability to shoot bombs. The ballon collecting stages really show off the explorative nature of the stages. There’s also a two player mode where you can race against an opponent or collect balloons. To unlock a character, you must race and beat them after collecting the coins in each stage. It’s also possible to play as Super Sonic if you can manage to collect the Chaos Emeralds in each stage. The game has a cast of Sonic characters, some of them unlockable such as Metal Sonic, Doctor Robotnik, Tails doll, metal Knuckles and EggRobo. The approach is interesting, but as a racing game the characters are difficult to control, it’s easy to get lost within the stages and the momentum quickly dies once you hit any obstacle.

There’s five stages which all feel at home in a Sonic game and through the gameplay, exploring these levels is encouraged to find shortcuts, coins and chaos emeralds. It’s a racing title featuring a cast of Sonic characters and stages designed by Sonic Team. You can read more about the development of Sonic R on SonicRetro. We got glimpses at what a full 3D Sonic platformer might look like, including plenty of tech demos and trailers for games like Sonic X-Treme which ultimately got cancelled, Sonic R stands on its own. After the slew of fantastic 2D Sonic titles available across the Sega Mega Drive and Master System (and even the 32x with games like Knuckles Chaotix), they just couldn’t manage to bring that speed and entertainment to the Sega Saturn. Sonic R is the only original, fully 3D Sonic title available on the Sega Saturn… And it wasn’t even developed by Sonic Team.

Sonic r full game