I was once told I was "the Blue Spheres guy," whatever the hell that means. Not that I don't value the recognition of my deep and unwavering love for Get Blue Spheres, the best special stage in the classic Sonic the Hedgehog series. Thankfully, Sega knew little freaks like me would want to play more than the meager 14 levels found across the entirety of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, so some genius at Sonic Team devised a way for Sonic & Knuckles to look at the ROM header of games locked onto it and generate new Blue Spheres levels based on what it finds. You know what that means?

UNLIMITED BLUE SPHERES!

Now, imagine being a kid in 1994, frequently using the level select cheat in Sonic 3 & Knuckles to play the special stages for fun. One day you pop in Sonic the Hedgehog thinking, I don't know, maybe it'll finally put Knuckles in the game this time, because you're 7-years-old and dumber than a brick. Of course it doesn't, but as you mash the buttons on the controller out of frustration, you happen to tap A+B+C simultaneously, unlocking the full Blue Sphere experience. I felt like I had broken out of the Matrix.

The way this all operates is pretty smart. As mentioned, Sonic & Knuckles looks at the ROM header of attached games, and based on the numerical value of the header, different prefab parts of a Blue Sphere stage are assembled. In total, there's 134,217,728 possible combinations, and when playing with Sonic the Hedgehog locked on, the player can freely edit the values of a header located on the bottom of the screen to play through them all (or they can be played sequentially.) So, how do you "beat" Blue Sphere? Conventional wisdom would say you have to clear over a hundred million levels, but that's just not feasible, so instead I locked on every single Genesis cart I own and beat the resulting levels. I feel like this is good enough to mark it as complete, but it should be a federal crime to log this game as "mastered" if you don't play and perfect all 134,217,728 levels. As the resident "blue sphere guy" I should be deputized and given the authority to ban people who fail to comply.

As a mode, Blue Spheres is unsurprisingly my favorite among the classic Sonic special stages. These were always designed as technical set pieces, more concerned with showing off than creating something particularly fun to play, but Sonic Team finished strong with this one. Each level is its own puzzle to figure out, and in the case of the "stand alone" game, the interlocking nature of each stage's prefabricated parts heightens the level of problem-solving involved due to how confounding some of the resulting layouts can be. I find this to be pretty engaging, though some presets seem to be more common than others, and when you have a stack of 26 games to go through, you'll probably start to see some levels with a few too many repeating parts.

Not that this totally kills my enjoyment, of course, as I can always use my increasing familiarity with certain stage elements as an excuse to begin perfecting runs. I think it was a really smart move to put this additional layer of ring collecting on top of grabbing blue spheres, as it challenges the player to consider how to collect every ring before ending the stage early, and getting a "perfect" provides a means of marking the player's skill that prior special stages did not.


None of this would work if the player felt like they lacked control over Sonic, and any dip in performance that resulted in colliding with a dreaded red sphere would make the whole thing come crashing down. Thankfully, Sonic Team was able to push beyond the choppy nature of Sonic 2's halfpipes and awful performance of Sonic CD's UFO hunts, and though it runs at a compromised 30fps, Blue Spheres is at least consistent and predictable. I also love the theme music. Probably one of my favorite tracks in the entire series, and I am endlessly amused by it being reused from SegaSonic Bros, (not that this series is any stranger to recycling music.) Some of my earliest memories are of my parents on the cusp of divorce arguing in the next room, and me cranking the volume up while playing Blue Spheres so the music would drown them out.

Thank you for being part of my childhood, Blue Spheres!

God this game slaps my nuts off. The worst I can say about it is that it's way too easy to overlevel yourself and the last few chapters do seem kinda rushed in terms of pacing, but those are barely even complaints when the rest of the game's so damn good. The areas are all fun and engaging to explore, the characters are lovable, the music goes hard, and the battle system's easily the best we've ever had in a Xenoblade game (though I still prefer 2's Chain Attacks just a bit). The story may not be as mind-blowing as 1's, but it certainly has a lot less tropey filler than 2 and a lot of the lategame scenes had me feeling some kinda way. Overall, a brand new zenith for this incredible series. Monolith Soft LITERALLY cannot miss.

this game you have to be in the right mindset in to fully enjoy. if youre looking for a sweeping, multifaceted political tale that is thoughtfully built, you have found your game. it isnt very character driven, which is somewhat unusual for the modern switch tactic/strategy games, but more than makes up for it with how enveloped the story gets.
my first playthrough was about 35 hours, which i completed in a period of 3 days. it was easy to get lost playing the game. the first 3 chapters are story heavy, but most of it is voiced and is used to setup story points to be used later. there is also supplemental material if you wish to read more about the world.
of the four main characters, frederica stands out by far. there is an element of fantasy racism here, though i argue it is one of square enix's better attempts at it. shes also one of the best voiced characters in the game. the voice acting can be all over the place, but it was nice to see that emma balentine do such a great job with the most compelling character in the story.
the branching path element is also a welcome edition. i know it isn't the best game to compare it to, but it did a LOT better than three houses in terms of branching story and replayability. the maps, characters you get, and story reflects the decisions you make which is very refreshing. the choices are also hard to make, there isnt an obvious good and bad paths. this also extends to the main endings. i made what i thought was the best choice on my first playthrough, but i still felt awful about how some things turned out at the end. and thats great! war is complicated and not everything will turn out great.
as for gameplay, i think the difficulty settings are great, it doesnt feel like theres a huge jump from easy to hard. it is harder than a typical strategy game, but there are ample settings. replayability gameplay wise is great, as you keep your levels/items/characters you got from your previous playthrough in ng+, and its easier to see where your alignment is at any given time.
the HD-2D graphics are perfect for this game, with gorgeous lighting effects. the soundtrack is also amazing, especially the rosellan themes ones.
the only complaints i really have is the at times lackluster voice acting, especially with serenoa. there can also be a bit of clunk with the camera controls in battle, but these are really minor compared to the game as a whole.
tldr great game great story, just play it with the expectation that youre going to get less character stuff
adding half a star for having a woman with pink hair