Sonic 3D Flickies Island

story
While scouring the ocean with a reconnaissance satellite, Dr. Eggman detects the presence of the seven Chaos Emeralds on the mysterious Flicky Island, a small oasis named after the colorful Flicky birds often seen in its jungles. Upon his arrival, however, Eggman is surprised to find no trace of the namesake birds. Just as he's wondering if he's landed on the wrong island by mistake, the Doc's eye is drawn to a sparkle in the distance: a Big Ring materializes from thin air, and a flock of Flickies emerges from its center. The birds gorge on nuts and berries before disappearing back into the Ring. With this chance observation, Eggman determines that the Flickies are able to warp through space by using Big Rings as dimensional gates. With this knowledge, the mustachioed villain excitedly begins construction of a Big Ring generator: as Flickies begin popping through the artificially created gates, they're captured one-by-one and transformed into robot slaves. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, unaware of Eggman's ambition, arrive on Flicky Island after hearing of the Chaos Emerald legend.

The trio are shocked to discover the island in pandemonium, but fortunately, the Emeralds yet remain hidden from the iniquitous

Eggman. Sonic sets off to locate the gems and free the hapless Flickies.

game play
Sonic's encore appearance on the platform that spawned him borrows mechanics both from its immediate lineage and the

ancestral Flicky, an early 80's Sega coin-op (and former mascot contender). While Sonic still clips through his isometric world at a

fair pace, high speeds take a backseat to exploration. Despite some admittedly well-rendered environments (particularly

pressing the D-pad and remains constant unless Sonic screeches to a complete halt. (Note that the default action button

commands can be toggled in the options menu.)

Eggman's robots: pop the baddie with a spin to free the bird. Tag the liberated tweeter before it wanders too far and it will follow

Sonic in baby chick fashion: lead the feathery entourage to the Big Ring and they'll gleefully warp to freedom. Each individual

Flicky is worth 100 points at the exit, but the bonus doubles for each bird rescued in one sweep: 100, 200, 400, 800, or a sweet

1,600 for all 5 Flickies at once. A Flicky Bonus is awarded at the end-of-Act score tally, and can be worth as much as 10,000

points based on how many birds are freed in succession.

break away from the procession and fly around aimlessly. If Sonic himself sustains damage, all collected Flickies break away.

Color determines how the birds behave when flying loose:
 * Blue Flickies struggle to follow Sonic even before they've been tagged. Stand still to let them catch up.
 * Pink Flickies fly in large, irregular circular patterns, but still home in on Sonic.
 * Red Flickies don't travel far, but leap around high into the air, making them difficult to tag.
 * Green Flickies make no effort to follow Sonic whatsoever and wander aimlessly across the entire board.

There are a total of 7 Zones, each with 3 Acts. The first 2 Acts of each Zone are further subdivided into 2 or 3 Areas,

each containing 5 Flickies to be rescued. There are no time limits, but points are awarded based on how quickly you

were able to complete each Act. The third Act of each Zone consists of the boss fight and nothing more. There are a

few Rings sprinkled around each boss arena, but use them sparingly because there are no replacements. Conquer the

boss contraptions for 10,000 points a piece.

Tails and Knuckles can be found hiding in the first two Acts of every Zone except Gene Gadget and Panic Puppet.

Sonic must usually pass a trigger point before they appear, so backtrack thoroughly to locate them. Tag one with at

least 50 Rings on-hand and you'll be whisked away to the Special Stage. In the Special Stage, Sonic runs along a

pseudo 3D peninsula filled with Rings and mines. The goal is to nab the requisite number of Rings to pass each

checkpoint while avoiding mines, which subtract 10 Rings from your total. Pass the third checkpoint to be rewarded

with a Chaos Emerald and a 10,000 point bonus. (Note that Tails and Knuckles each have a unique set of stages, so

there are a total of 14, though only 7 Emeralds to collect.) Clear a Special Stage once all Emeralds have been collected

to be rewarded with a 1up. Nab all 7 of the precious stones and clear Panic Puppet to access the secret final boss.