Lost in the hype of
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 was the Blue Blur’s final outing on the Sega Genesis:
Sonic 3D Blast. Co-developed with UK-based Traveller’s Tales, the game differed from its predecessors by utilizing an isometric perspective and pre-rendered sprites to made it appear three-dimensional. Unfortunately, the game received mixed reviews from critics. While it received praise for pushing the graphical limits of the aging Genesis hardware and the music by Jun Senoue, most were not impressed with the somewhat slippery controls. Still, the game was commercially successful and a fine sendoff to the system that challenged Nintendo’s dominance.
The same could not be said about its Game Gear counterpart. While
Sonic Blast’s prerendered graphics should’ve been a marvel for the handheld, but received disdain from critics who also disliked the sluggish controls and rushed presentation. As such, the Sega portable died with a whimper while the February release of
Pocket Monsters Red and Green injected new life into its competitor, the Game Boy. With the cancellation of Project Venus [1], Sega put those resources into the Game Gear’s successor: Project Titan, named after Saturn’s moon.
This time Sega would mimic as much of its rival’s design philosophy and overcome the technical shortcomings that plagued the Game Gear such as its atrocious battery life. Takao Miyoshi, who produced
Sonic 3D Blast would be assigned to the planned “Sonic Titan” project—however, Sega realized that the system would need more than the company mascot to get the new portable off the ground. The immense popularity of the Tamagotchi virtual pets during the 1996 holiday season did not go unnoticed by the company, particularly Tom Kalinske, who convince Hayao Nakayama to meet with Bandai to hammer out a licensing agreement.
Indeed, under the utmost secrecy, Sega and Bandai would not only co-develop a
Tamagotchi game for Project Titan, but also one for its upcoming virtual pet:
Digital Monsters. [2]
Lastly, the runaway (no pun intended) success of
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 finally convinced Sega to finally announce the start of production on a Sonic film. While Kalinske had been wary of damaging the brand after the financial and critical failures of
Super Mario Bros. And
Street Fighter, but ultimately gave the green light. Little was known about the project other than that Richard Jefferies wrote the screenplay and its tentative Summer 1998 release with Sony Pictures as co-producer. [3]
[1] Or the Sega Nomad as we know it OTL.
[2] With
Tamagotchi marketed towards girls and
Digimon marketed to boys.
[3] Sega partnered up with MGM for the Sonic film in 1994 OTL, but Sony had won the film rights as part of their partnership with Sega on the Saturn TTL.
