For some reason, In recent Years in the Fanbase of Sonic, Sonic CD with has been Becoming Less liked, despite it being highly praised initially by fans, critics, and a lot of people loved it. Magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly's March 2001 issue stated it to be one of the best games in the 2D franchise, as a lot of love was given to it by fans and even received a 100% by some critics in magazines in the original version, which at the time was the HIGHEST rating for sonic games, even higher than the other ones. Honestly I'd say although this is not the best from the franchise, it is certainyl among the ranks of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (1992, Sega Genesis). And improves upon a lot from Sonic The Hedgehog (1991, Genesis)
First I Suppose I Shall start off with The storyline The games story is very well written and pieced together, It is perhaps one of the best storylines of the initial games!
The game revolves around Sonic traveling to Little Planet for a vacation when he sees it has been chained to Never Lake with a metallic shell around it. Dr Robotnik is trying to take over the planet and Sonic is followed by star-struck fan Amy Rose who gets kidnapped by Metal Sonic. Sonic must now save the planet and Amy. With the time travel mechanic, the game is able to have different layouts of each zone, with the past having a natural somewhat pre-historic feel and look to it, and the futures can show a robotic nightmarish neglected dystopia ruled by Eggman, or a beautiful place where technology aids nature which can be seen as a deeper message to helping the environment, with the graphics taking advantage of the Sega CD's capabilities.
Another thing I would like to discuss in this review is the incredible graphics of the game, The graphics are quite beautiful for a game from the early 90's, Sonic CD was released on the Sega CD which is a less known console but this allowed it to go above and beyond with the graphics.
The stages each have incredible detail to their backgrounds as well as objects and badnik designs. A good example of the backgrounds is in Stardust Speedway.
In the Present one can see a beautiful starry sky with the ground below covered in sparkling colors of stardust, in the good future one can see amusement parks and a city sparkling in bright colors and in the Bad Future it's storming and a huge city that is well detailed and beautiful to look at. The game uses these different time periods to point out how the zones and Little Planet as a whole will look under a good future scenario, where Dr. Ivo Robotnik fails to take over the zone due to the player either destroying a robot generator or gaining the 7 Time Stones in the Special Stages.
The soundtrack is another reason this game manages to gain 9 stars from me, it fits the levels perfectly for the most part, and sounds like something you'd expect in a sonic game. Both the US and JP/EU soundtracks have their own good tracks, a lot of them manage to fit the levels. Tidal Tempest, Palmtree Panic, Stardust Speedway, and even Wacky Workbench all sound amazing in both soundtracks and fit the levels well. This game has some of the best quality when it comes to how the songs sound and the OST in general of the classic series games, around on par I'd say with Sonic 3 & Knuckles! An Interesting Thing I Find about the Soundtrack is How The JP/EU one Is heavily inspired by the New Jack Swing genre, and house music with the US one being more rock themed and in tone with the atmosphere of the levels.
The level design in this game is actually genius and well done for the most part, the reason some stages are bad could be due to the fact that it was in development at the same time as Sonic The Hedgehog 2, And the teams were split one in Japan to work on CD and one in the US to work on Sonic 2. Palmtree Panic has a bunch of speed sections to where you can go fast (if you wanted to), tons to explore and lots of interaction and honestly just because the game requires exploring to find past and future signs to time travel does not make it a bad game by any means, in all honesty.
Stardust speedway is also a really good level design, obstacles here and there, some popping out of the ground with robots and speed sections, to requiring the player to not just simply hold right but to learn the layout and use cannons to get to certain parts to reach the end (like the mini maze in zone 2).
Tidal tempest is also surprisingly good when it comes to level design as well as obstacles that can kill you and pose a threat whether it be spikes, the dragon totem things that shoot blue fire that pushes you down which in certain scenarios can lead to getting crushed if not timed right (like the sections with the boxes i mean) which leads to a challenge, there are crushers, spikes, spike pits, a decent amount of enemies in each level, And more can be gotten out of the game if one puts the effort in to time travel.
And they also have speedy areas of which the player can go fast if they so choose similar to sonic 1 and the others. The goal posts at the end is basically telling the game "Im done with this stage", you have to time travel to create a good future requiring the player to put effort into doing so, exploring for the robot generator, to enter these you have to maintain sonics speed after hitting a sign post, this multi step process of travelling to the past, finding the robot generator, and exiting takes advantage of the games level design which forces the player to interact with elements.
The first step requires an understanding and skillful execution of the games mechanics. Reaching the required velocity is the hard part which poses a challenge, having to scout out the level for areas that have access to fluid movement, some are easy like two springs facing each other, others requiring the player to search around the zone and do an obstacle course (sort of going against the claims levels are too easy with no effort required to beat, unless you decide to skip everything and just stay in the present, holding right and jumping a few times) and avoiding obstacles like other sonic games. The stages were designed cleverly to both have a little challenge if you're trying to play it like how one would play sonic 1, while having maximum use and effect with a little challenge if you play it the way its meant to be played (time travelling) as you can see through how the stage loops together. Tons of spring based platforming, loops upon loops, messing with conveyor belts, and levels that take a couple minutes to reach the goal if played by putting effort in, make you learn the intricacies of the individual stage to the point you'll even learn the maps by the end of the game! If you play it just simply as you would the other classic games it isn't much a super fun way to play, you're running past genius level concepts, loop-de-loops, obstacles, and never take the time to breathe in any of the fresh new experimental concepts and interesting gameplay.
Sure the game doesn't really tell you the best way to play it, but you can get hints by finding the past and future signposts or reading the manual. Though I will say levels such as Collision Chaos, Wacky Workbench, and Metallic madness are horribly done. Metallic madness gets repetitive in each zone, and extends too long especially in the second zone. The enemies are a bit of a joke, Wacky Workbench is a good concept but is executed poorly with the bounce mechanic being very annoying and over the top.
And Collision Chaos has a hard boss fight somewhat on your first few attempts, although not in the good way it's just annoying.
The variation in levels and zones are done VERY well. This game changes up the layouts of the map, object locations, platforming, and badniks in each zone.
Some zones it can be easy to time travel, while others being hard to do so requiring the player to put effort into beating the game with the good ending, you are the one in charge of the future of THE PLANET. Each zone has different variations in the Past, and Good Future, and Bad Future. How you play in the past affects the future either resulting in a toxic environment, more obstacles sometimes than in the past or present when you get a bad future, and the Good Future having beautiful colors, and a lot of detail and care is put into each zone. They are very fun to play in, with tons to interact with when you put in the effort to time travel. You can even get a little enjoyment out of skipping time travel and just exploring and beating the Present of the stages.
The boss fights in Sonic CD in all honesty however are a huge issue. The first zones boss (Palmtree Panic) is so easy to the point it's a joke for the most part. All you need to do is jump into Robotnik when he holds still after barely stepping towards you, and doing no attacks. Collision Chaos' provides a tiny bit of a challenge but is very annoying and poorly executed. Wacky Workbenches and even the FINAL BOSS don't require much effort to beat either, with almost no danger. In fact, the danger in the final boss mainly comes to Metallic Madness zone 3 having the only bottomless pit in the game.
The only truly challenging boss fight in my opinion is the Metal Sonic race in Stardust Speedway. Metal Sonic's moveset rivals sonics and he can blast into you, making you fall behind and sometimes hit Robotnik's laser beam and having an instant death, he can electrocute you if you're behind him, and his speed can rival Sonic's easily. This boss fight takes a few attempts usually, and the spikes can stop you dead in your tracks leaving you vulnerable.
I dare say Sonic CD's special stages are a big issues as well, It takes forever to turn, and Sonic's controls being wonky and hard to understand. The water takes away too much time from your timer, and the UFO's paths are too hard to predict most of the time leading to you messing up.
Overall, Sonic CD is a great game but with some flaws and issues.
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