By now, if you happen to like Sega's flagship series (which probably shouldn't be any more, considering its history of mismanagement) you've already heard that Sonic the Hedgehog CD (or just Sonic CD) has been re-released for XBLA, PSN, Steam and iOS. And if you're in the sub-camp of Sonic's fanbase that thinks Sonic CD is the pinnacle of human endeavour, you've probably already bought it, beaten it and started another argument about which soundtrack is better. If you've only just heard about the re-release (or the game) from me just now, though, allow me to back up a bit.
Gotta love 90s' box art.
Sonic CD was made by the people who worked on the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but didn't move over to America to make Sonic 2. The game was designed for Sega's ill-fated add-on, the Sega CD (or Mega CD if you don't live in America) and was based a lot more on the first game than on its American cousin. Although most games for the Sega CD were designed to show off its FMV (which nobody really likes) at the cost of making an actually decent game Sonic CD could only be told apart from a Genesis game from its clearer sound, longer load times and something that looks like Mode 7 in a couple of areas.
I've rambled long enough about technical stuff, let's get to the actual review. And just for fun, I'll use Yahtzee's new "context, challenge, gratification" system. Why? Because I feel like it, that's why.
Visually speaking, Sonic CD's level design is mostly based on the original Sonic the Hedgehog - five of its seven zones (called 'rounds', with 'zone' replacing 'act' - for clarity's sake I'll use the original terminology) being based on zones from its predecessor. However, it's almost immediately noticeable that the visual design is a lot more...trippy than in Sonic 1 - for instance, Palmtree Panic Zone (pictured above) has a lot of star-shaped plants, waterfalls, cliffs, and more stuff Green Hill Zone wouldn't be seen dead in. And it only gets stranger...If you're tired of generic Eastern European cities as seen through a greyscale filter, Sonic CD is a decently large step in the other direction - though it may be too large for some people.
Yes, Amy really used to look like that.
As for the story...what story? This was 1993; games didn't have stories unless they were RPGs. Having said that, though, there are a few things added to the player's motivation besides "Sonic good, Robotnik bad". In case you haven't worked it out yet, Amy is in this game - and gets kidnapped early on by Metal Sonic, who also made his first appearance in Sonic CD. Amusingly enough, though, in the American manual Amy was named "Princess Sally" to promote Sonic SatAM - even though Sally looked nothing like Amy.
As you might have picked up before, Sonic CD actually has two different soundtracks - Sega of America didn't like the Japanese soundtrack's "dance" vibe and had a guy named Spencer Nilsen make a new one. The American soundtrack is generally considered to be much darker and moodier than the happy, vibrant Japanese one - and they both give radically different feels to each zone. It's mostly personal preference as for which is better - but the Past soundtracks are the same in both versions, creating a weird dissonant effect in the American one...They're both still good, but nostalgia or a preference for one genre will probably sway your opinion as to which is better.
Sonic moves around just like in the other Genesis games - gaining momentum, jumping over spikes and crashing into stuff you couldn't see because you were moving too fast. And this game has an awful lot of traps for an unwary player - springs that send you the wrong way, spikes, enemies and - in one case - a magnetic floor that rockets you upwards, when the only way forward is closer to the bottom of the stage. Compared to surviving this storm of crap, though, the boss fights are nothing to write home about - find Robotnik's weakness, hit him a few times and it's off to the next zone. About the only notable fight is the one with Metal Sonic, and even then it's mostly because it's rather more difficult than any of the others.
This was what passed for 3D back then.
Like the original Sonic, special stages can be accessed by carrying 50 rings across the goalpost and jumping through a giant ring that then appears above it. In these, you run around a pseudo-Mode 7 environment, crashing down UFOs and trying not to touch the water. The main trick to it is that the jumps are very difficult to time properly - even moreso later on, when the UFOs move faster and more erratically. If you miss one, though, it's no big deal - it'll loop back to the ones you missed after you've been through all seven once.
Yeah, uh, wanna make this not happen?
Funnily enough, Sonic's speed works into the game in ways besides showing off the blast processing - time travel. To travel through time, find a "past" or "future" signpost and find a flat (or reasonably flat) stretch of land, then run at 88MPH for a bit without bumping into anything. Once you've done that, copy Back to the Future again by finding a robot generator in the past and break it. Repeat this for every act until you go insane, beat all the special stages or decide that it's too hard and sod the whole business - but if you do that, you won't get the best ending, and in the meantime you'll get to see what happens to the Little Planet if you don't stop Robotnik from misusing it. Which leads me to...
Mostly, the reason you'd want to find those robot generators is to see what the "Good Future" of each stage looks like - an idyllic paradise where technology is used for the benefit of nature, rather than in opposition to it. All the boss fights do take place in the future, but there's only aesthetic differences to the battles. On top of that, you'll get a "better" ending if you either clear all the special stages or break every robot generator. You'll also unlock some extras for doing well in the game's time attack mode, but they really are just extras - if you want that debug mode you'll have to put in a code for it.
Most of Sega's ports of their old Genesis games weren't very well-done, to the point where getting an emulator would actually make the game run better (I don't condone this myself, by the way.) Somewhat to that end, a fan named Christian Whitehead made his own engine and rebuilt the game from scratch, adding in a few things. For starters, the game runs natively in 16:9 widescreen, meaning that there's no stretching effect. There's also a better main menu, a choice of the two different soundtracks, how pixelated you want the game to be, and they've even added a secret unlockable character. However, most of the modern amenities don't make much of a difference either way.
We've gone through everything else; now comes the point where I say whether Sonic CD is worth your $5 (or $7) or not. And for most people, I'd say it is - but if you already own the game on Sega CD, you don't really need to buy it again. However, if you own any of the other versions (most of which aren't as good) or don't have the game at all, it's definitely worth the asking price. Buy it, play it, love it.
And make sure you try out both soundtracks so you can join in those arguments as well.
(NB: The screenshots were found on Google Images, so they're from several different platforms - including the original game. They still all represent pretty much the same thing, though.)
Gotta love 90s' box art.
Sonic CD was made by the people who worked on the original Sonic the Hedgehog, but didn't move over to America to make Sonic 2. The game was designed for Sega's ill-fated add-on, the Sega CD (or Mega CD if you don't live in America) and was based a lot more on the first game than on its American cousin. Although most games for the Sega CD were designed to show off its FMV (which nobody really likes) at the cost of making an actually decent game Sonic CD could only be told apart from a Genesis game from its clearer sound, longer load times and something that looks like Mode 7 in a couple of areas.
I've rambled long enough about technical stuff, let's get to the actual review. And just for fun, I'll use Yahtzee's new "context, challenge, gratification" system. Why? Because I feel like it, that's why.
Context
It's in the environments more than the exposition.
It's in the environments more than the exposition.
Visually speaking, Sonic CD's level design is mostly based on the original Sonic the Hedgehog - five of its seven zones (called 'rounds', with 'zone' replacing 'act' - for clarity's sake I'll use the original terminology) being based on zones from its predecessor. However, it's almost immediately noticeable that the visual design is a lot more...trippy than in Sonic 1 - for instance, Palmtree Panic Zone (pictured above) has a lot of star-shaped plants, waterfalls, cliffs, and more stuff Green Hill Zone wouldn't be seen dead in. And it only gets stranger...If you're tired of generic Eastern European cities as seen through a greyscale filter, Sonic CD is a decently large step in the other direction - though it may be too large for some people.
Yes, Amy really used to look like that.
As for the story...what story? This was 1993; games didn't have stories unless they were RPGs. Having said that, though, there are a few things added to the player's motivation besides "Sonic good, Robotnik bad". In case you haven't worked it out yet, Amy is in this game - and gets kidnapped early on by Metal Sonic, who also made his first appearance in Sonic CD. Amusingly enough, though, in the American manual Amy was named "Princess Sally" to promote Sonic SatAM - even though Sally looked nothing like Amy.
It's kind of hard to provide screenshots for music.
As you might have picked up before, Sonic CD actually has two different soundtracks - Sega of America didn't like the Japanese soundtrack's "dance" vibe and had a guy named Spencer Nilsen make a new one. The American soundtrack is generally considered to be much darker and moodier than the happy, vibrant Japanese one - and they both give radically different feels to each zone. It's mostly personal preference as for which is better - but the Past soundtracks are the same in both versions, creating a weird dissonant effect in the American one...They're both still good, but nostalgia or a preference for one genre will probably sway your opinion as to which is better.
Challenge
The bosses aren't really that imposing, or difficult.
The bosses aren't really that imposing, or difficult.
Sonic moves around just like in the other Genesis games - gaining momentum, jumping over spikes and crashing into stuff you couldn't see because you were moving too fast. And this game has an awful lot of traps for an unwary player - springs that send you the wrong way, spikes, enemies and - in one case - a magnetic floor that rockets you upwards, when the only way forward is closer to the bottom of the stage. Compared to surviving this storm of crap, though, the boss fights are nothing to write home about - find Robotnik's weakness, hit him a few times and it's off to the next zone. About the only notable fight is the one with Metal Sonic, and even then it's mostly because it's rather more difficult than any of the others.
This was what passed for 3D back then.
Like the original Sonic, special stages can be accessed by carrying 50 rings across the goalpost and jumping through a giant ring that then appears above it. In these, you run around a pseudo-Mode 7 environment, crashing down UFOs and trying not to touch the water. The main trick to it is that the jumps are very difficult to time properly - even moreso later on, when the UFOs move faster and more erratically. If you miss one, though, it's no big deal - it'll loop back to the ones you missed after you've been through all seven once.
Yeah, uh, wanna make this not happen?
Funnily enough, Sonic's speed works into the game in ways besides showing off the blast processing - time travel. To travel through time, find a "past" or "future" signpost and find a flat (or reasonably flat) stretch of land, then run at 88MPH for a bit without bumping into anything. Once you've done that, copy Back to the Future again by finding a robot generator in the past and break it. Repeat this for every act until you go insane, beat all the special stages or decide that it's too hard and sod the whole business - but if you do that, you won't get the best ending, and in the meantime you'll get to see what happens to the Little Planet if you don't stop Robotnik from misusing it. Which leads me to...
Gratification
Perhaps the most balanced 'green Aesop' ever? (Balanced better than Sonic, anyway.)
Perhaps the most balanced 'green Aesop' ever? (Balanced better than Sonic, anyway.)
Mostly, the reason you'd want to find those robot generators is to see what the "Good Future" of each stage looks like - an idyllic paradise where technology is used for the benefit of nature, rather than in opposition to it. All the boss fights do take place in the future, but there's only aesthetic differences to the battles. On top of that, you'll get a "better" ending if you either clear all the special stages or break every robot generator. You'll also unlock some extras for doing well in the game's time attack mode, but they really are just extras - if you want that debug mode you'll have to put in a code for it.
Addendum: Porting
Most of Sega's ports of their old Genesis games weren't very well-done, to the point where getting an emulator would actually make the game run better (I don't condone this myself, by the way.) Somewhat to that end, a fan named Christian Whitehead made his own engine and rebuilt the game from scratch, adding in a few things. For starters, the game runs natively in 16:9 widescreen, meaning that there's no stretching effect. There's also a better main menu, a choice of the two different soundtracks, how pixelated you want the game to be, and they've even added a secret unlockable character. However, most of the modern amenities don't make much of a difference either way.
Conclusion
We've gone through everything else; now comes the point where I say whether Sonic CD is worth your $5 (or $7) or not. And for most people, I'd say it is - but if you already own the game on Sega CD, you don't really need to buy it again. However, if you own any of the other versions (most of which aren't as good) or don't have the game at all, it's definitely worth the asking price. Buy it, play it, love it.
And make sure you try out both soundtracks so you can join in those arguments as well.
(NB: The screenshots were found on Google Images, so they're from several different platforms - including the original game. They still all represent pretty much the same thing, though.)
I'm definitely buying this on Steam when I get paid. A nice review there, and I was unaware of the two different soundtracks, so I will definitely need to check out the American one when I get the chance.