List of Sonic the Hedgehog video games
"Sonic the Hedgehog" is a video game series. It is published by Sega, with entries developed by Sega, Sonic Team, Dimps, SIMS Co., Ltd., BioWare, and Sumo Digital. The series debuted in 1991 with the video game, "Sonic the Hedgehog", released for the Mega Drive video game console (named Genesis in North America). Most "Sonic the Hedgehog" games have either been platform games or released for Sega video game consoles and handheld game consoles (handhelds) dating from the Genesis to the eighth generation of video game consoles (2012–present). However, some of the original games were ported into versions on third-party home consoles and developed by several companies. As of February 2013, the series has collectively sold over 85 million copies worldwide across both the platform games and spin-offs.
Sonic 3D Blast
"Sonic 3D Blast" was the final "Sonic the Hedgehog" game produced for the Sega Genesis, and was developed as a swan song for the system. Sega had discontinued official support for the Genesis in 1995, but intended to produce the game for the 16-bit console because games typically sell for one to two years after their platforms' discontinuation. The game's basic concept was conceived by members of Sonic Team during the development of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3", but most of the programming was done by the British studio Traveller's Tales because Sonic Team was developing "Nights into Dreams". According to founder Jon Burton, Traveller's Tales had just finished developing a "Toy Story" game and wanted to start developing games for 32-bit systems such as the Saturn and PlayStation. Sega, impressed with their work on "Toy Story" and "Mickey Mania", approached them with "3D Blast"; as "Sonic" was extremely popular at the time, the concept "got [their] attention". In retrospect, Burton stated that he believed the game was commissioned because "Sonic X-treme", in development for the Saturn at the time, was struggling, and Sega wanted to bring Sonic into the 3D era of gaming.