Trivia
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The 1992 Sega Summer Catalogue contained this description for the upcoming Sonic CD:
Dr.Eggman is burning with the ambition of the world conquest. The peaceful world fell into chaos by Dr.Eggman and his army corps. Super hero Sonic acquired the time travel ability and he stood up to regain peace. What is ultimate weapon "DEATH EGG"? ... What is the weak point of Dr.Eggman?...From the dinosaur-age to the future, Sonic and sidekick (Debut!) begin the adventure which transcended time.
The catalogue names the sidekick as ‘Tail’ (no ‘s’). But
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was already done by the time
Sonic CD was finished, so this was probably from when it was being developed as a remake of
Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Amy
In the U.S. version's manual, Amy is referred to as Princess Sally. This was most likely done to tie it in with the animated series. The only problem is: Princess Sally and Amy look completely different.
Chronology
Chronologically, Sonic CD takes place between
Sonic the Hedgehog and
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, effectively (and technically) making Amy Rose the first of Sonic's allies to show up, and Tails the second.
Cut content
The original second level of the game, which was set in castle ruins, was removed because of size and debugging issues. The end of level boss (with large claws and chompers) can be seen in the final cinema sequence during the credits.
Some of the levels elements were re-used for the Time Attack Bonus levels.
Development team
Despite being a flagship title for the Sega CD hardware, the game had virtually no involvement from the team that produced the first two Sonic titles other than
Naoto Ohshima. Neither
Yuji Naka nor
Hirokazu Yasuhara, both strongly associated with the series, had any involvement. It was also the first major Sonic title to not feature a soundtrack composed by
Masato Nakamura.
Inactivity
At any point in the game, if you leave Sonic standing perfectly still (without pausing the game), after three minutes he'll say: "I'm outta here!" and jump off the screen. This ends your game.
Metal Sonic
This game features the first appearances of Metal Sonic, who is by far the most popular and well-known of all the Sonic robots.
Music
Sonic CD had nearly all of its music changed during the localization process. The US version has a completely redone Redbook soundtrack compsed by
Spencer Nielsen, while the Japanese and European version feature the original soundtrack composed by
Masafumi Ogata and
Naofumi Hataya. The "past" version songs, which are played through the Sega CD's sound generator rather than being CD audio tracks, are the same in both versions.
The explanation commonly given for the change was that SOA executives at the time didn't believe Americans were "ready for techno", despite the original soundtrack being heavily inspired by Detroit techno and house music.
The game's title song from the US version,
Sonic Boom, is included alongside other Sonic songs in
Nintendo's 2008 Wii game
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Windows version
The PC version of this game had a complete and uncut anime opening sequence. This was only ever available to PC players until it was included as an extra feature on the
Sonic Mega Collection. Only on the Windows version, the game CD can be replaced with a music CD (or another game with CD music) to change the music.
Awards
- GamePro
- Vol. 6, Issue 2 - CD Game of the Year 1993
Information also contributed by
Big John WV,
Chris Chidester,
Kartanym,
M4R14N0,
Marguerite Richardson,
MegaMegaMan and
Pizzaking27
