Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993) Review

 

So, just so you know, these aren't gonna be professional reviews. I want to simply give my thoughts out on these games and why I like/dislike them. With that in mind, welcome to my second Sonic Review, for Sonic CD from 1993!

I know it's a bit strange to do this game before the obvious true sequel but I intend to do these games in chronological order and what makes sense to me, so we're doing CD first.

Some Background Info

Sonic the Hedgehog CD (often called Sonic CD) is a 2D platformer game released for the Sega CD add-on to the Genesis released on September 23rd, 1993. As Sonic had already gained his success on the Genesis with Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, Sonic CD was the other sequel to Sonic 1 released as the killer app on the Sega CD. The Sega CD still failed as this was probably the only good game ever released for it...

After the success of Sonic 1, some developers at Sega of Japan (such as the game's programmer Yuji Naka) moved to the US at Sega of America to create the Sega Technical Institute or... STI. S. T. I. WHY IS IT CALLED "STI?!" And I thought STD on that one AVGN episode was bad enough, Jesus Christ.

Anyway, the developers at STI (lmao) got to work on an official sequel to Sonic 1, which was Sonic 2. But the developers that stayed at Japan worked on their own sequel, Sonic CD.

How do I play Sonic CD?

The best and easiest way to play Sonic CD is through the mobile decomp of the Taxman port from 2011. This allows you to get crispy graphics in the game. There is also a mod for that decomp called Sonic CD Miracle, which has a ton of mods and adjustments for the game. But since I couldn't get miracle to work, we're playing on the classic decomp.

In the game, you might notice and option to have either the US soundtrack of the game, or the JP/EU soundtrack of the game. JP is selected by default, and I heavily prefer it. In fact, the Sonic CD JP OST is the best Sonic soundtrack of all time, and might be up there with Black Mesa as one of my favorites in general.

The Story

The story of this game is still quite simple but a little more fleshed out than Sonic 1, mostly because we get starting and ending FMVs animated by Toei Animation, and it's an excellent and nostalgic anime style. Not to mention they were all upscaled for the 2011 remake!

The story involves Sonic living his normal life when seeing a little planet called well.. little planet, chained onto Sonic's planet by Robotnik. Sonic travels up the chain and reveals Robotnik is once again trying to turn this planet into a metallic machine. But this time Robotnik has a new trick up his sleeve, Metal Sonic. An artificial evil version of Sonic that is just amazing and I can't get enough of him in terms of design.

Sonic must travel through each zone and go past these signposts that either say "past" or "future" The past ones are what you want, and when Sonic gets past the past signpost, once he's going at his max speed and can maintain for long enough, he'll travel into the past where he must destroy a big machine and projections of Metal Sonic abusing the animals. If he does this, Sonic will have created a good future in that zone. A good future is bright with colors and animals everywhere. A bad future is dark, technological and foggy. Sonic must create good futures in each zone to get the good ending. But, I'm not going to do that. Honestly I don't care about the time travel bullshit when I play this game. I'll just get through all the zones normally because it's more fun that way for me. 

Also, the game features a new character called Amy Rose, a young pink hedgehog girl who is obsessed with Sonic, and you'll see what happens to her...

The Game - Special Stages

However, special stages and giant rings return from the first game, and in these special stages you have to run around and destroy these UFOs while not touching the water, which is usually quite easy. If you do that, you'll get one of 6 time stones. Getting all time stones guarentees good futures for each zone.

The Game - Palmtree Panic

The first zone in the game is Palmtree Panic, this game's Green Hill Zone. It's a good starting zone and immediately we are hit with huge colors and designs utilizing the superior hardware of the Sega CD to Sonic 1 and 2. There's a lot of exploration and ways to go fast here as always. Sonic has 2 new moves in this game: The Spin Dash and Super Peel-Out. The Spindash allows Sonic to curl in a ball to get an instant burst of speed. While the Spin Dash was executed better in Sonic 2 it's still present here. There's also the Super Peel-Out, which allows Sonic to charge his speed again with his legs moving in a figure 8, allowing him to go faster and instantly reach max speed for time traveling. At the end of the first act we see Amy Rose who hugs and kisses you.

The boss of this stage is pathetic. You can dash behind him as he comes down and get free hits on him, killing him instantly.

The Game - Collision Chaos

The second zone is Collision Chaos, another crazy pinball level like with Spring Yard Zone from the first game. Right as the act starts, Metal Sonic swoops in and takes Amy, and as you progress throughout the level there's a lot of chaos, and collision. There are also some insanely annoying badniks here, like a new version of the Slicers from Sonic 2. The boss is also weird, with you having to pinball yourself up to hit Robotnik.

The Game - Tidal Tempest

The third zone is the water level Tidal Tempest, and is thankfully much better than Labyrinth Zone in the first game. It's a pretty big and open level, with not a lot of gimmicks. The boss I've always though was cool though, Robotnik covers himself in air bubbles underwater as he shoots bombs at you.

The Game - Quartz Quandrant

The fourth zone is a crystal mining level called Quartz Quadrant, and is the second best looking level in the game, like my god this is beautiful. There's not too much about this zone that's significant, just a lot of conveyor belts and mining badniks. The end boss is cool though, you run on at treadmill which shreds up Robotnik's machine while bombs are thrown at you.

The Game - Wacky Workbench

Oh god. You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. The worst level in Sonic CD and maybe the worst Sonic level of all time besides Labyrinth Zone. The level has you constantly bouncing all over the floor trying not to get hit by the dangers up above. Good luck getting a good future here! The boss is alright, you stand on these rocks as they get launched upwards to hit Robotnik.

The Game - Stardust Speedway

The sixth zone is my favorite and best looking level in the game, Stardust Speedway! A very fast cool non-linear easy level that is just meant to be chill and amazing. Like honestly, I think this is everyone's favorite level in the game, but it also has the best boss in the game, a race with Metal Sonic! You must race against Metal Sonic to the end while trying not to get hit by some of his bullshit gimmicks which is quite easy if you jump while doing a Peel-Out. At the end you can free Amy Rose. So Metal Sonic is dead, Amy is free, so that's the end right?

Wrong.

The Game - Metallic Madness

The seventh and final level in the game is Metallic Madness, and it's not very hard (besides the third act) just long. There are a lot of cool gimmicks here like Tiny Sonic as well as the best soundtrack in the game. But the third act. Oh my god. The third act has few rings and has you running on those spinning platforms to get to the light bugs, these asshole badniks that you barely get a chance to hit as they appear and disappear so quickly upon shooting a laser. I thankfully found the secret to them though, they can only be hit when shooting their lasers and they have to be low enough that you can get a hit on top of them.

The final boss is just weird. You can't get the first hit on him without losing rings and he goes around with these flaps on his machine that hurt you upon touching them. Every time Robotnik gets hit, he loses a flap. When no flaps are left, you escape out of the zone and the game ends and Little Planet is saved.

My Final Thoughts

While Sonic CD has its issues and is probably my least favorite classic game I still highly recommend it. If you ignore all the time travel shit like I did the game becomes insanely fun and just as great as the classic games.

Thank you for reading!

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Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) Review

So, just so you know, these aren't gonna be professional reviews. I want to simply give my thoughts out on these games and why I like/dislike them. With that in mind, welcome to my first Sonic Review, for Sonic the Hedgehog from 1991!

Some Background Info

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2D platformer game released for the Sega Genesis on June 23rd, 1991. At the time, Nintendo had an iron grip over the entire industry, and Sega was the first of many to break that with this game. Sonic was created with the intent of giving a cool hip mascot for all the 90s kids to rival Mario. And I would say Sonic and his wonderful character design achieve that greatly. But the way you look at this blue bundle of joy might be different depending on where you live.

Sonic's Design in America

Sonic's Design in Japan/Europe

Sonic was tweaked to be more appealing for American audiences by Greg Martin at Sega of America. But as an American myself, I'm not big on this design. American Sonic looks weirdly shiny, over-exaggerated limbs and expressions, and that stupid mohawk look. Overall it's your preference but most prefer the Japanese look as well as Sega themselves these days. (Also, the JP box art was cool as fuck)

But that wasn't the only localization change Sega made. The game's villain, Dr. Eggman, was called Dr. Robotnik in America becuase that sounds more menacing.

But enough of all this.

How do I play Sonic 1?

While the original Genesis version is great, I recommend Sonic Forever by Team Forever. It's in widescreen, with plenty of adjustments and improvements from the later games, so I played that for this review.

The Story

Sonic 1, like many platformers of the era, has a pretty bare bones story. The evil Dr. Robotnik (or Eggman) has been snatching animals and putting them inside robots, to turn the whole world into a dystopian metallic machine! Our hip and cool hero, Sonic the Hedgehog, with his super speed must blaze through the zones of his world and defeat Robotnik! I'll be referring to Eggman in the classic games as Robotnik but modern Eggman as Eggman.

The Game - Green Hill Zone

The first zone in Sonic is the iconic Green Hill Zone, one of the most iconic first levels in any game.

This is the best zone in the game. Good amounts of speed, good amounts of platforming and it is just perfect in my opinion. It's here where we see all of Sonic's moves. He can roll into a ball and jump, and you can only defeat enemies in your ball form. The game also has rings, which you can collect and as long as you have at least 1 ring you can survive any hit from enemies but when you do get hit, all your rings go flying out of you. If you get 100 rings, that's an extra life! And if you drown or get crushed you'll die no matter how many rings you have (which is kind of bullshit in my opinion). Each zone has 3 acts, and on the third act you fight a boss. 3 acts is a little too long, especially for some of the other zones you'll be seeing here.

The game also has shields, which you can get hit once without losing any rings. All the badniks (robot enemies that animals come out of when killed) are usually your basic game goons but can get more advanced later on.

The game is gorgeous. All the colors pop and the soundtrack is just incredible for all the zones. I don't think any of this game is difficult per se but it has its intense moments (you'll see)

Green Hill Zone is perfect and it shows you everything Sonic is about. Each zone also has a boss with Robotnik at the end, all of which besides 3 are pretty pathetic in my opinion. Especially GHZ's boss is just a ball and chain.

At the end of a zone if you have 50 rings there will be a giant ring at the end signpost and if you jump in it you'll get access to the special stage for your chance to nab a Chaos Emerald.

The Game - Special Stages

The special stages in Sonic 1 are OK. They're better than Sonic 2's for sure. Sonic rolls into a ball and you have to navigate this acid trip maze thing while trying not to fall into the goal balls and slowly getting to the Chaos Emeralds. Getting all Emeralds gets you more flowers during the ending. Yippee. 

I don't hate this part of the game but compared to the reward you get in Sonic 2 (which I won't spoil here, but you probably already know it) it's definitely lacking.

The Game - Marble Zone

After Green Hill Zone we get Marble Zone, which is much slower and more about platforming than speed.

Now I still think this zone is a lot of fun, sure it's slower but I still think it's engaging. It has a lot of cool gimmicks like the lava explosion and spike chandeliers. Not really a lot to say here.

The boss is pathetic once again. He sprays down fire on 2 platforms and you have to jump to the other one. It's just stupid.

The Game - Spring Yard Zone

The action ramps up again with Spring Yard Zone, which is the first of many Pinball-related Sonic gimmicks, which are plentiful throughout the series. You can bounce around on all the bumpers, which sounds fun but they're usually placed to get in your way. However, the zone is super fast, and there are a lot of alternate open paths you can take, which as a fan of non-linear level design I like a lot. The boss is actually pretty difficult as he slowly destroys the ground for you. Good zone overall and better than Marble Zone.

The Game - Labyrinth Zone

Oh god. You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. The only zone I actually despise in this game. Labyrinth Zone. This zone mostly takes place underwater and Sonic can't breathe so you have to pick up air bubbles on your journey or you'll drown. Not to mention how slow and long this zone is, it's just awful. However, the boss is... interesting to say the least. Rather than trying to destroy Robotnik you chase after him up this obstacle-filled mess of a corridor and if the water catches up to you, which slows down your physics and jumps, you can kiss your sorry hedgehog ass goodbye.

The Game - Starlight Zone

After that mess, Starlight Zone, the second best zone in the game, almost feels like a reward. While it's very dark, I love this zone. It's super fast (which is what the whole GAME should have been) and lots of interesting badniks. The boss is my favorite in the whole game. He drops bombs on these teeter-totters and you have to launch them back in the air at him which is really fun.

The Game - Scrap Brain Zone

We finally made it to the end. Scrap Brain Zone is the last zone in the game and you know what? I love it. It's difficult, but uses some of the most fun and interesting gimmicks in the game as well as a great aesthetic. The boss... well... let's talk about it. Act 3 of the zone is not like the others. It's instead a super hard version of Labyrinth Zone. YES. YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT. The worst zone in the game repurposed super-hard for the final act. Now this is a nightmare, but there's an easy shortcut you can do  by running off the platform at the start of the act which leads you to an underground route that is significantly quicker and faster.

The Game - Final Zone

Final Zone is a 1 act zone and features a very pathetic final boss. You have no rings, but it's very easy to not get hit. Robotnik will come from one of these pillars in the stage and you have to hit the one with him in it. After that, these purple power balls come down to kill you but there's always a noticable gap between them you can avoid. A very easy boss.

The Game - Ending + My Final Thoughts

At the end we see Sonic running across Green Hill Zone with animals (and flowers if you got all the Chaos Emeralds) everywhere and him jumping into the screen as shown above.

Now, I love this game. It has problems but it's still one of my favorite sonic games and is endlessly replayable due to its quick length, more than its sequel, actually! The game is gorgeous and even at the worst times with Labyrinth Zone I still loved the soundtrack and it kept me going. This is game is wonderful, so please ignore all the shitty Nintendo fans on youtube saying this game "hasn't aged well" and that "it becomes bad after Green Hill Zone" Those people have no game taste and don't know it like I do. 

Thanks for reading, and have a good night!

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Welcome back! + UltraBot

 Alright, so it has been a long time since I posted anything here, and I apologize for that. However, none of this was my fault or me being lazy. My friend Damien (who goes online by AlphaGameDev) ran the old site for me and has been recently encountering server issues, so the site is broken. I don't know how long it will remain like this, but until it's fixed I'm posting on here.

A lot has happened in the 2 months I've been gone. Most importantly, I would like to reveal UltraBot to the world! UltraBot is a discord bot that I started back in December and has over 100+ commands and is the ultimate multi-purpose bot with plenty of commands for moderation and fun, and he's being updated almost every day!

To invite him to your server, you need to invite UltraBot and UltraBot X to your server. The reason for this is that my platform for him (Bot Designer for Discord) only allows 100 slash commands per bot. So I have to make another one to hold the rest of my commands. It's no big deal, just invite both of them.

UltraBot is, as of the making of this, entirely written in BDScript, a flavor of JavaScript made for making Discord bots! It's insanely easy to use and uses the framework is BD.js.

Another thing I'm planning to do is Sonic reviews. I don't know if I've ever said this before but I love Sonic the Hedgehog. It's not on the same level as Half-Life for me but it's damn close. So I want to do small reviews giving my thoughts on the games I have experience with. I'll be ignoring games that I hate and don't want to play such as Unleashed or maybe Advance 3. The rest should get a good look.

Thank you everyone and welcome back!

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