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!

Posted in: Sonic Reviews