I Remember: SONIC BLAST MAN

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I first remember seeing Sonic Blast Man reviewed in a issue of Nintendo Power. It was a game that attracted my attention due to the weird character and also for the fact that it looked a lot like another beat-em-up game that was available at the time: Final Fight. Sonic Blast Man’s origin actually started with an arcade release and funny enough had nothing to do with the side scrolling action featured in the SNES version of the game. Instead, the arcade game featured multiple scenarios where you wore a boxing glove in order to punch a target to cause as much damage as possible to a single enemy. Taito, the company that made this game decided to take those elements from the arcade version and make them bonus stages in the SNES version; making new side-scrolling portions for the main game.

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Shortly after the release Sonic Blast Man, I had the opportunity to rent it at my local video store. I played it multiple times, getting better at the main stages as well as the bonus stages. The game also featured some pretty catchy music tunes, my favorite being on stage 4. I certainly must’ve enjoyed the game as I do remember beating it. I acquired a boxed copy of it a few years ago and today I finally decided to sit down and play through it again. I was curious to see how well the game had held up since my last time playing it in 1993.

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Playing it again, I definitely could see resemblances from Final Fight! Sonic Blast Man’s first level looks like it was obviously ripped off from the first stage of Final Fight; only much longer. The length of the levels seem to be the main problem with this game, being overly long with not much change to the level background. It also doesn’t help that Sonic Blast Man himself moves as slow as a turtle, yet regular enemies seem move at a superfast pace. This is especially frustrating in the later parts of the game as enemies can just keep nailing you with cheap hits, taking away your energy and eventually getting you a game over. Despite these annoyances, Sonic Blast Man does have a variety of moves that show he can really dish out the pain when he finally gets his hands on his enemies. One of the most dynamic being his dynamite punch that knocks out everyone onscreen.

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The bonus games from the arcade version are still pretty fun. You have five different bonus stages to choose from: Ranging from saving a woman from being kidnapped, to stopping a giant asteroid from colliding with the earth. Stopping your opponent requires you beating on the D Pad as fast as possible and then timing your punch by pressing any one of the face buttons. The end result if you succeed is just another way to get extra lives but it’s a nice break from the main game.

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While Sonic Blast Man definitely isn’t one of the best beat-em-ups on the SNES, it’s still worth checking out. For those of you looking for a copy, the average price for the game runs around 20 bucks.