Jun Senoue – the only member of the OST team to carry over from Sonic 3 and 3D all the way to Sonic Adventure (1999) – had his day with full instrumentation with the latter (just as Kondo did in Mario 64). This emphasis on riffs and rock rhythms anticipates the music that would come to predominate in the forthcoming Sonic games for at least a full decade. Instead, the Genesis Sonic 3D relies much more on rock.

Its adventurousness is reduced to a few fun bits like the techno in “Gene Gadget Zone” and “Panic Puppet Zone”. Overall, however, it is much slower, much less experimental and eclectic, opting to pull back from Sonic 3’s wackier elements. The Genesis OST is groovy and thick with basslines, a bit like in Sonic 3, although the beat complexity is higher (even when the technology was the same as in 3). This entails yet another comparative layer for our purposes, so I will try to be brief. Part of the Japanese team of Sonic 3 was brought back for the Genesis version of Sonic 3D, while the Saturn one was entrusted to British composer Richard Jacques. This meant a certain technological divide, meaning not one but two soundtracks were created (an interesting rarity in the videogame world).

Sega was quite ambitious with Sonic 3D, releasing it on both its new console, the Saturn, as well as on its predecessor, the Genesis. In 1996 came the first forays into “3D” by both franchises, with Sonic 3D Blast on Sega’s side and Super Mario 64 on Nintendo’s. Receding Experimentalism: CD-Quality Sound *Press A* is an article series on A Closer Listen celebrating the finest the medium has to offer, past to present. Videogame soundtracks continue to rise in quality and prominence, with many now available digitally or physically to appreciate as stand-alone works.

Sonic casino zone jazz songï»¿