Thanks to Hamada for helping with edits.
I’ve been a Sonic fan for most of my life, discovering the series through DiC Entertainment’s mediocre cartoons. Then, one day, while my parents were shopping at a department store, I first laid eyes on a SEGA Genesis—which was demoing a game starring that cool cartoon character! Though I’d have ways to sample Sonic’s following adventures (several friends owned SEGA’s Genesis and Dreamcast consoles), I couldn’t purchase any… until the company’s cataclysmic (and, frankly, inevitable) departure from the hardware market.
Quickly settling in Nintendo’s ecosystem, two titles starring SEGA’s mascot hit their former competitor’s GameCube console: Sonic Adventure 2: Battle and Mega Collection. They were essential, letting me catch up with Sonic’s flagship games—except two. One was Sonic Adventure, which scored a slapdash re-release the following year.
Sonic CD was developed concurrently with Sonic 2 (and another, lesser Sonic 2). Its placement within the series’ chronology was debated for years, though Sonic Origins confirms it’s set between Sonic 1 and 2. (Image: SEGA)
Sonic the Hedgehog CD was my other blind spot, one Mega Collection made all the more glaring by featuring its opening and closing animations. Though it may be hard to imagine now, CD was elusive once. Originally released for the Genesis’ SEGA CD add-on in 1993, the game scored imperfect ports for computers in 1996 and the GameCube (via Sonic Gems Collection) in 2005; none of these were huge releases. And perhaps because of this scarcity, a mystique grew around CD. “It’s arguably the best Sonic game,” some fans exclaimed. James Rolfe, speaking through the guise of the Angry Video Game Nerd at the peak of their popularity, even supported that notion. Who could refute them?
In 2011, Sonic fan game programmer-turned-pro Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead collaborated with SEGA, releasing an updated version of CD for most gaming platforms of the time. This remains the game’s definitive version, adding extra content—most notably Sonic’s sidekick, Tails, as a playable character (he only scores two missable cameos in the original)—and is the one SEGA worked into their latest compilation, Sonic Origins. Since tomorrow marks Sonic CD’s twenty-ninth anniversary, let’s evaluate if it truly deserved that praise.
2D Sonics feature distinct Zones, which host multiple levels, dubbed Acts, each. Oddly, CD calls them Rounds and Zones, respectively, but I’ll stick with the usual terminology. (Image: SEGA)
CD is a kosher Sonic side-scroller. The mascot’s signature abilities, spin jumping and rolling, return. While rolling, Sonic can achieve breathtaking speeds and is invulnerable to most enemies at the cost of finer maneuverability. Two additions to his kit are an unpolished version of the Spin Dash (Whitehead’s remake also includes 2’s version) and the faster Super Peel Out. Both chargeable techniques serve the same basic function—propel Sonic forward—with the former also whisking him off as a ball (though you can immediately roll after releasing a Peel Out). Rings, which dot every stage, remain Sonic’s life source. If you’re hit while holding at least one, Sonic survives, but his collection scatters. Gathering one hundred Rings rewards players with an extra life, and additional lives can be found in the open. The self-explanatory shield and Speed Shoes power-ups return, too.
Structurally, CD copies Sonic 1: Zones have three Acts apiece, the third of which closes with a boss fight. At one point during development, CD was even meant to be “more of a CD version of the original Sonic,” which greatly informs the final game. Of its seven Zones, five are effectively more eccentric takes on Sonic 1 settings. Now, I enjoy Sonic 1 more than most, but it’s rough. Three of its Zones—Green Hill, Star Light, and Spring Yard—exemplify the series’ potential, the former two through speedy spectacles and the latter its “pinball physics.”
CD isn’t a numbered sequel, but it’s important nonetheless. Series stalwarts Amy Rose and Metal Sonic debut here, and plenty of later games reference this one. (Image: SEGA)
Where Sonic 2 hones in on those strengths, CD retains their predecessor’s clumsiness. Sonic 1 has plenty of awkwardly-placed traps, a flaw CD exasperates; plenty of springs can fling you into spikes that are just off-screen (something also true of later, worse Sonics). Wacky Workbench Zone is frustrating, never letting you feel in control or secure. Overall, CD’s stages feel like hodgepodges of… things, set pieces and gimmicks that rarely coalesce into a satisfactory flow. CD’s Acts do feature multiple routes, though exploring gets cumbersome; if you see something interesting on a higher path, you’ll need to backtrack—assuming CD lets you—to get up there. Also, CD’s earlier releases feel… slower and sloppier than its numbered brethren; you can tell programming wunderkind Yuji Naka wasn’t involved.
Sonic CD’s defining mechanic is time travel. Its setting, the Little Planet, shifts between the past, present, and future—there are even Bad and Good Futures, and every third Act is set to whichever one you’ve earned. Obtaining the latter requires securing all seven Time Stones (the remake adds a bonus eighth one) or destroying every robot transporter, which are found in the past versions of each Zone’s first two Acts. The prehistoric iterations of CD’s first six Zones also host holograms of Metal Sonic harassing the wildlife. Breaking these makes the animals prance happily.
CD’s bosses are inventive but comically simple fights, especially the absurdly anticlimactic final one. Only the race against Metal Sonic stands out. (Image: SEGA)
Traveling between eras first requires hitting a Time Post, which say “Past” or “Future.” Then Sonic must sprint uninterrupted for several seconds (a trail of sparkles tails him, adding cosmetic flair). Should Sonic stop running for whatever reason, he’ll lose the charge and must find another Time Post. CD’s Acts reliably have a section you can exploit to safely maintain your momentum, however. Finding them—and those transporters and holograms—is a reward for exploring, and that’s CD’s goal; its levels are trying to be large playgrounds, ones that require practice and mastery of Sonic’s momentum. This isn’t a perfect system; traveling through time is cumbersome, there’s little practical benefit to visiting either future, and you can ignore this hoopla altogether if you want.
But I don’t. Changing time periods adjusts an Act’s visuals and layouts (if you see Rings floating in a wall, a route’s there in a different era), enhancing CD‘s replayability; multiple playthroughs can be very different. This concept even furthers the classic titles’ industrialization theme. Sonic keeps pace with and undos the damage done by Dr. Eggman, who encases hapless animals in robots and whose bases are grim, dark factories. CD runs with this, showing what would happen if Eggman ever won. Bad Futures are depressing, turning Little Planet’s gorgeous landscapes into polluted, dystopian wastelands. Even his Badnik robots are in disrepair and look miserable. Good Futures, conversely, are utopias where technology and nature work in harmony, supporting each other.
Entering Special Stages, where you earn Time Stones, is done by beating a non-boss stage with fifty or more Rings and jumping through the giant Ring. CD’s abstract art is heightened here, as Sonic roams Mode 7 boards in pursuit of six UFOs. (Image: SEGA)
CD’s time traveling mechanic informs its music, too. Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata are responsible for the original score, while Spencer Nilsen and David Young were hired by SEGA of America to compose a new one for their territory. Debates over which one is better continue today, though I favor the Japanese one. It’s cohesive; every Zone has a core melody, and each era gets a variation suited to it. Plus, the vibrant Little Planet meshes brilliantly with Hataya and Ogata’s bouncy, electric tunes. Technical limitations prevented Nilsen from replacing the past tracks, however, which are inharmonious with his present and future ones. And the American score’s soft rock echoes Bruce Falconer’s Dragon Ball Z score; it… clearly isn’t the original vision. Still, Nilsen and Young’s work is also a valuable, valid interpretation, and their ambient Bad Future tracks excel at conveying the decay of Eggman’s reign. Thankfully, modern releases of CD contain both soundtracks—we don’t have to choose!
Sonic CD has other positives. There’s a small but nifty collection of extras you can unlock by breaking records in the “Time Trial” mode. A “Time Trial” mode is itself a great inclusion, since replaying stages is part of Sonic’s appeal. Toei’s cinematics are wonderful, enthusiastically conveying Sonic’s capable, cocky character. And though the collision detection is a little shaky in the Special Stages, I still enjoy them.
Running on water slows Sonic down and drains you of time. A bonus blue UFO appears if you only have twenty seconds left, which gives you an extra thirty seconds upon being broken. (Image: SEGA)
Nevertheless, CD isn’t the apex of the franchise. It’s absolutely worth trying, though, especially for fans of Sonic’s Genesis trilogy; there is fun to be found here. It’s also my favorite game in the franchise behind Sonic Mania (which revisits two CD Zones, Stardust Speedway and Metallic Madness). Where the series gradually grew more “realistic” under Naka (both Adventure games even feature normal-looking humans), CD offered a glimpse into a timeline where Sonic embraced its abstract stylings. And no Sonic game captures my imagination like CD does. Its visuals, music, theming, and energy are unlike anything else—and the fact that CD never got its Sonic 2, a sequel that refines its ideas, will always be a shame.
SEGA’s ‘hog will be hogging up more space on Source Gaming next month! We’re tackling the whole Sonic 4 saga through a different type of article. (Image: SEGA)
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