Forgotten Gaming- Sonic CD

Developer- Sega/Sonic Team

Original Platform- Sega CD

Ported To- PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iOS, Android

Originally Released- Fall 1993

Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut in 1991 and took the world by storm. His success gave the Sega Genesis a rightful place on the world stage and seriously threatened Nintendo’s dominance on the home console market. However Sonic was far from a one-hit wonder, and sequels were immediately put in the pipeline. Back in the early 1990s, Sega was a notoriously fractured company between its Japanese and American divisions, with America’s fast ideas and aggression contrasting Japan’s more methodical, chess-like business practices.

How fitting, then, that their Sonic sequels reflect those ideologies to a T.

Sega of America was given the reins of Sonic 2, a direct sequel for the Sega Genesis featuring more speed and more action than the original game. At first this may come off as a suspicious gift from Sega of Japan (letting their fair-weather partners get the numbered sequel), but Japan had a trick up its sleeve. They would instead work on a Sonic game for their newest, most advanced hardware darling: the Sega CD add-on. America was given the mainstream vapidity while Japan was able to redefine the potential of what a Sonic game could be, coupled with cutting-edge technology.

America got the last laugh, as Sonic 2 grew to become the Genesis’ top-selling game, while 
Sonic CD (up until only very recently) was doomed to misunderstandings and obscurity.

Sonic CD featured the first cartoon appearances of the blue blur.

Sonic CD has been hailed by some as the greatest Sonic game ever made, yet others dismiss it as obtuse. There’s no doubt about it; Sonic CD is very different from its numbered-game brethren. It was made with only the original Sonic 1 to look back at for reference, and is essentially vacuum-Japan’s idea of what a first sequel could be. Shockingly little contact was made between the Sonic 2 team and the CD team, and where America thought up a sequel of excess, Japan came up with a sequel of intellect.

Sonic CD is the thinking-man’s Sonic game.

Sonic CD’s main goal is not the same as most Sonic games: to get to the end of the stage as quickly as possible. Instead the goal is to create a “good future” for every stage. This is achieved via time travel. Passing by “Past” or “Future” signposts and maintaining a constant speed will warp Sonic into the past/future version of the stage. Each of the game’s 21 stages has four variants: past, present, good future, and bad future. Using the expanded storage of compact disc, each variant has its own graphics, music, layout, and obstacles. Though each stage has four layers, so to speak, the stage itself must only be cleared once; the time traveling between layers en route to the end is wholly of the player’s discretion. Players of other Sonic games may just blitz through the game like it were any other, staying mainly in the present with the occasional time travel, and then finish the game feeling underwhelmed.

Playing Sonic CD this way, not knowing at all of its deeper gameplay elements, would be disappointing. Instead, the game’s stages should be seen not as races to the finish, but as large, expansive adventure fields full of secrets to explore. Consider that Sonic CD’s stages, with rare exception, are designed to be fully backtracked through, with no way to not reach the beginning from the end. Any one-way path moving forward will always have an analog path moving back. That said, here is how the game should be “properly” played:

1. Starting in the present, travel into the past.
2. In the past, scour the level for a robot generator. These unmistakably look like electric black machines that should be destroyed. They can even be seen in the present, inactive, as a clue to their position. Destroying this generator will erase all enemies from the past and result in a good future.
3. Once the generator is destroyed, optionally search the past further for a Metal Sonic hologram. Destroying this hologram will allow small animals to populate the stage in all its variants, adding to the triumph of good.
4. From here, the stage can be cleared. However, for the full effect of the game, time travel to the present and again to the good future, enjoying the music and graphics of the utopia.

Certainly much more to do in each stage than simply going to the end!

In order: Bad Future, Good Future, Past, Present. Note the subtle layout differences between the time periods.

Bosses are found in every third act of a zone, and always take place in the future—whether that is a good or bad future depends on if a good future was made in the first two acts. Going on the premise that Sonic CD requires more brain than brawn, even Sonic CD’s bosses are more cerebral than those of the other games. Instead of hitting Robotnik’s capsule eight times within his various contraptions, Robotnik in Sonic CD requires very few hits but much more strategy. One boss takes place in a pinball arena where defeating Robotnik is tantamount to making it all the way to the top. Another takes place underwater, where the air bubbles keeping Sonic alive double as Robotnik’s shield. Yet another places Robotnik in a booth on top of a conveyor belt, and Sonic’s running upon it burns away the floor of the booth. Finally, who can forget the iconic race between Sonic and his metal doppelganger, forcing a gauntlet along a speedway of spikes? Though Sonic CD’s bosses are never difficult, they invoke a level of intuition and genius that no other Sonic game has come close to matching. 

The Special Stages truly showcased the added power of the Sega CD.

Like the original Sonic the Hedgehog, collecting 50 rings and finishing the stage gives the option to enter the Special Stage. These free-roaming 3D stages task Sonic in destroying six UFOs hovering around the stage before time runs out. The 3D plane and sprite scaling in this stage are made possible only with the Sega CD; the Genesis alone is not able to generate these kinds of special effects. Successfully completing these stages award Sonic not with Chaos Emeralds like in the mainstream games, but with Time Stones. These serve as an alternate way to achieve good futures, as collecting all seven will invoke good futures automatically for the rest of the game, and will play the “good ending” movie. Yes, that’s right, Sonic CD features animated prologue and epilogue movies. Another of the Sega CD’s advantages over the stock Genesis is the ability to play full-motion video clips. Though the quality of the Sega CD’s video codec is infamously poor and grainy, the simplicity of Sonic CD’s color saturation results in a decent quality.

There is one last feature in Sonic CD to mention, and it is arguably the most engrossing besides the main game: Time Attack. Sonic CD is the first (and conspicuously one of the few) Sonic game to feature a time attack mode, where every stage previously completed is selectable to race through. In this mode, the object of the game reverts to that of mainstream Sonic: get to the end as fast as possible. All time traveling signposts are removed and the game remains in the default time period. The best three times are saved in the Sega CD’s internal memory, allowing those runs to be immortalized and cherished long after the console is powered off. This mode also hosts a meta-game—it records individual stage records as well as an aggregate best time for the whole game. Knocking this master time down unlocks bonus features such as sound and pencil tests. Although this whole review focused on how atypical this Sonic game is, this time attack mode is the great equalizer, allowing this spinoff game to return to its roots in grand fashion.

Sonic CD had a confident sense of visual style not common in its era.

Sonic CD’s success was always limited by its platforms. The Sega CD was seen, then and now, as an expensive add-on of empty promises. Though Sonic CD was always considered one of the diamonds in the rough, few sought out the required Genesis, add-on, and game disc combination. The game was ported to PC in 1997 which expanded its audience somewhat, but computer gaming was more niche than it is now. Later it found its way to the Sonic Gems Collection compilation for GameCube and PS2 (Japan/Europe only) as a butchered port of the PC version. Finally, a completely remastered version was coded by a very gifted fan and released as a downloadable title for Xbox 360, PS3, iOS and Android. This is the most complete version of Sonic CD, with a widescreen presentation, both soundtracks (the original US release featured a completely different soundtrack), a stabilized frame rate of 60fps (most noticeable in the Special Stage), even an unlockable option to play as Tails! What once was an obscure Sonic game is now one of the easiest to acquire and enjoy.

Sonic CD serves as a lateral slice of Sonic history, featuring so many fresh and new ideas despite being over 20 years old. It’s a diversion to the series that if had seen success, would have been more representative of the series. However, the game’s appreciation has always remained a low buzz and not a resounding roar. So instead the game can be appreciated as it is, and as it stands alone. One can only wonder how the series would have evolved if Sonic CD, not Sonic 2, was seen as the official successor, not the spinoff, to the series’ lineage.