As Sonic the Hedgehog, the player embarks on a journey to save the Flickies, birds enslaved by Doctor Robotnik.

Most of the programming was outsourced to the British studio Traveller's Tales, as the Japanese Sonic Team staff was preoccupied with Nights into Dreams (1996).

The game was commercially successful and received positive reviews for the Genesis version; critics welcomed the new gameplay style as well as the graphics and music.

Retrospective reviews criticized the isometric gameplay, controls, and pace, although reception to the visuals and soundtrack remained positive.

[3][4][5] Players control Sonic the Hedgehog, whose goal is to save the Flickies, collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, and defeat Doctor Robotnik and his robot army.

[3][6] Sonic retains most of his abilities from prior games: he can jump and spin in mid-air to defeat robots or hop on platforms, perform a spin-dash on the ground to gain speed, and collects rings as a form of health.

Sonic can also collect power-ups, such as elemental shields, speed shoes, or invincibility, by breaking television monitors containing them.

Every zone has three acts: two standard levels, where the player must collect Flickies by defeating robots in order to proceed; and a boss fight against Robotnik, without any Flicky-collecting involved.

[9] To access these stages, the player must find one of Sonic's friends (either Tails or Knuckles the Echidna) hidden within a level, and stand next to them with at least 50 rings collected.

A certain number of rings need to be obtained at certain checkpoints to continue through the stage, and ultimately be able to make it to the end in order to receive a Chaos Emerald.

Sonic arrives at the island only to discover the presence of Robotnik, and he is tasked with saving the Flickies and defeating his nemesis.

If the player collects all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic proceeds into a black void, where he engages in a final battle with Robotnik, who pilots a large robot.

[12] Sega, impressed with their work on Toy Story and Mickey Mania, approached them with 3D Blast;[12] as Sonic was extremely popular at the time, the concept "got their attention".

[17] Towards the end of development, Traveller's Tales began to expand its scope, and Burton passed the rest of programming to his employees.

While it does feature graphical changes, such as weather effects and higher resolution textures, the game largely plays the same as the original version.

Sonic Team filled in for development of the special stage in the Saturn version of the game, which includes polygonal graphics as opposed to sprites only.

He and Angus Swan of the same publication were grateful for the change in gameplay style, which they said added depth to the structure of the series formula.

[43] Although Art Angel of GamePro considered the levels cleverly designed, he was initially frustrated by the isometric perspective, which he felt steepened the learning curve for the controls;[47] Dan Hsu of Electronic Gaming Monthly experienced a similar adjusting period.

[46] Lomas and Electronic Gaming Monthly's Crispin Boyer observed a lack of secret locations to discover in relation to previous Sonic entries, which the former felt lowered the replay value.

[43][46] Jevons and Swan regarded the difficulty as somewhat low for experienced gamers,[49] with Art Angel likewise finding the game easy to beat upon mastering the controls,[47] whereas Lomas deemed it to be harder and longer than most other Sonic titles.

[43] The graphics were widely praised,[43][46][47][49] with Lomas finding the game's rendered intro and fluid animation impressive for the console.

[43][49] Art Angel approved of the eclectic music selection, which he described as ranging from techno pop to contemporary jazz,[47] and the Mean Machines Sega reviewers cited the remixes for the second act of each stage as a positive point.

[49] Mike Wallis, an employee of Sega at the time, recalled in an interview that the Genesis version was successful for the company, eventually selling over 700,000 copies.

[54] The staff of GameSpot saw the PC version as similar to the others, but pointed out some slowdown effects while the camera scrolled, attributing these to its wide colour palette.

Lucas M. Thomas of IGN lamented that "the sense of speed and intense action that Sonic's name was built on is absent here, replaced by, essentially, a looping, lazy fetchquest".

[58] Besides the game's goals, Shau and Thomas criticized the controls, particularly in the area of Sonic's overly slow-paced movement and slippery deceleration.

[58] Damien McFerran of Nintendo Life stated that its repetition was broken only by its boss battles and special stages,[59] the latter of which Shau wrote off as "childishly easy".

[60] Brett Alan Weiss of AllGame voiced a similar opinion, feeling it was a "nice departure" from the style of the side-scrolling Sonic games.