#Mario 64 CGI Model

[tpbandit05]

N64 Mario and Dreamcast Sonic

Just something I made a while ago that I felt like sharing on here. You can check more about this render on my Insta. I made both of these models btw.

[runawayspirits]

MarioKart N64 • Noé Vincent

[lowpolyparrot]

25?

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by.

A lot of really specific videogames (Mario 64, MySims, Minecraft...). I don't try to match an specific style from a game, it is inspired by the general graphics of different devices and concepts (that does not only include videogame consoles), such as old internet graphics, old CGI, demoscene, CD-ROM games, DS and 3DS, psx, old mmd models and videos, etc.

The only specific game I can say that has actually influenced is DDR because when I started making character models the general shape was inspired by the dancers.

Ask game link

[kaiserdingus]

Sonic 3D Blast - 1996 Sega Genesis/Sega Saturn Retrospective

After Sonic & Knuckles launched in 1994, the original Sonic Team decided to hang up the towel on Sonic for a while. Sonic Team leader Yuji Naka wanted to return to Japan and explore new ideas for the Sega Saturn, but Sega still wanted more Sonic games. While Naka and Sonic Team worked on what would become NiGHTs into Dreams, Sega put plans into action for new Sonic titles for all of their consoles.

Sega’s in-house studio Sega Technical Institute, which was responsible for previous main line Sonic games and spin-offs, would handle Sonic X-Treme for the Sega Saturn. Traveller’s Tales, a British studio, were hired to produce an isometric Sonic game for the Sega Genesis to be released alongside X-Treme. When Sonic X-Treme was cancelled late in the game, Sega asked Traveller’s Tales to port 3D Blast to the Sega Saturn. What was supposed to be a spin-off game now graduated to a main Holiday release for Sega.

Sonic 3D Blast was released for the Sega Genesis in November 1996, with the Saturn version following in early 1997. The game was released exclusively in North America and Europe, until 1999 when the Saturn version was released in Japan alongside the International version of Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast. The game was promoted with a Christmas special called Sonic Christmas Blast, which was originally meant to promote Sonic X-Treme and was called “An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas” originally.

For the most part the Genesis and Saturn versions are the same game with the same levels. The first thing you’ll notice is that the Saturn version has a bigger CGI opening scene, as well as higher resolution graphics. The game’s art style was made in the same pre-rendered computer graphics that brought Donkey Kong Country to life. The Sega Saturn allows for more detailed character graphics and backgrounds, as well as weather effects.

Of course the Saturn version is fondly remembered for it’s Special Stage, a 3D recreation of the half-pipe from Sonic 2 with low-poly models of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. This would be the first time Sonic would appear as a full 3D model instead of as a pre-rendered 3D image. These stages were developed by Sonic Team in Japan, lending a hand in the last minute shuffle after X-Treme’s cancellation.

The game puts a psuedo-3D pre-rendered Sonic into pseudo-3D isometric stages. Why do I say pseudo? Because the game isn’t actually in 3D. The game’s marketing emphasized the pre-rendered graphics and isometric play field relative to the 2D side-scrolling perspective of earlier games. 3D Blast was also up against Super Mario 64, so Sega was selling the idea to parents that a Super Mario 64 sized adventure was possible on older hardware. This, of course, isn’t exactly true.

Sega had a big presence at E3 1996 where they had their 3 major Sonic titles for the Holiday season on display. Sonic X-Treme for the Saturn, and Sonic Blast for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear. At this point they weren’t using the term 3D, and they were marketing both games with the same title. The Game Gear game Sonic Blast is largely unrelated from Sonic 3D Blast, as all Game Gear games that share a title with a Genesis game tend to be.

Sonic 3D Blast feels like a Sonic game from a different perspective, except instead of running through a stage and reaching a designated goal now Sonic has to collect Flickies and deliver them to a Goal Ring in the area. Each Flicky is contained within one of Robotnik’s robots, so Sonic has to destroy all the robots and lead all the Flickies to the goal. This is the sole focus of the game, and a major source of frustration for players.

When you release a Flicky it’ll follow you, and is then susceptible to the same dangers you are. If Sonic gets attacked the Flickies scatter in different directions, often going into areas Sonic can’t normally reach like in the Volcano stage. This combined with the game’s slippery controls make precise movement difficult, thus leaving the player open to mistakes. While there’s a degree of challenge to the game, most of the obstacles are more frustrating than difficult.

In 2017 Jon Burton, lead programmer for Sonic 3D Blast, released a free patch for the Genesis version of the game that fixes the game’s slippery controls, as well as adding a password save system, a time attack mode, and Super Sonic as a playable transformation. Burton made this update in his spare time, calling it a Director’s Cut. This marked the first time a Sonic game had a semi-official ROM hack from one of it’s original developers.

Sonic 3D Blast marked a low point in Sonic history, being the only mainline game released between Sonic & Knuckles in 1994 and Sonic Adventure in 1998. Even though it wasn’t intended to be a main series game, it was still marketed as such so for the purposes of this essay I’ll refer to it as one. I think if Sonic X-Treme had been released, 3D Blast would’ve been held in higher regard.

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