Sonic CD

aka: CD Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog CD
Moby ID: 3316
SEGA CD Specs
Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

Sonic the Hedgehog and his self-proclaimed girlfriend Amy Rose travel to Never Lake, only to discover the legendary Little Planet there, tied in chains and covered by metal. It appears that Sonic's archenemy, Dr. Eggman, is using the powers of the planet to manipulate the fabric of time. He created Sonic's evil counterpart, Metal Sonic, who kidnaps Amy and disappears. Now the brave hedgehog must explore the Little Planet, collect seven jewels capable of altering the passage of time, free Amy, and defeat Metal Sonic along with his master.

Sonic CD is a fast-paced side-scrolling platform action game, similar in gameplay to other installments of the series. Sonic uses his patented spin attacks to destroy the doctor's minions and collects various items, such as protective rings, shields, and speed shoes. His special attacks include the Spin Dash and the Super Peel Out. A stand-out gameplay feature of this installment is Sonic's ability to travel to past and future versions of the stages he traverses. Depending on the player's action in the past version of a level, the future versions (which contain obligatory boss enemies) will change from "bad" to "good", having more or fewer enemies and obstacles, respectively.

Time Stones can be collected by completing special stages, in which Sonic has to shoot UFOs within an allotted time limit. The game's "good" ending can be achieved either by collecting all the seven Time Stones or by turning all future level versions into "good". The game has features that take advantage of the CD format such as CD audio, video clips, and more levels (over fifty in total).

Spellings

  • ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグCD - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (SEGA CD version)

119 People (67 developers, 52 thanks) · View all

Executive Producer
Produced by
Director
Program Director
Art Director
Sound Director
Game Designers
Character Designer
Landscape Designers
Special Stage Designers
Special Stage Programmer
Animation Programmers
Animation Visual Directors
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 43 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 93 ratings with 9 reviews)

One great game. Must be played

The Good
This game has a odd story line. To travel in time to stop the mad doc is great! The graphics is good and the music is very good.

The Bad
I didn't like how the bosses were made. They were very easy.

The Bottom Line
If you like Sonic you will LOVE it. If you hate sonic you will still LOVE it!

Windows · by Joel Chappell (2) · 2003

The best sonic game ever! Sadly forgotten due to the failure of the sega CD.

The Good
My family has been cursed since the dawn of electronic media. We always hop upon the wrong bandwagon; we had betamax, 8-Tracks, Divx discs, Laserdisc, HD-DVD, etc. Although it would see success down the road, we also rode the very early Data CD train. We had a 3D0 and a SegaCD attachment for our genesis. I actually think the system itself isn't THAT bad, sure there's a lot of crap, but that was simply developers trying their hardest to make "Interactive movies" and other such pursuits and at the time it seemed like a cool idea. Yet there were still some very, VERY good games for the Sega CD that get buried underneath the disastrous Sega CD lifespan. One of them happens to be the best Sonic game out there.

What makes Sonic CD great? Well, for one, Sonic is at the top of his game. Everyone knows that Sonic is all about speed, and Sonic CD can sometimes get dizzying at how fast it gets. It also includes a time trial mode, which is always a blast in Sonic games, even for people like me who normally aren't completionists. Like any good game the level design is great. Like other Sonic titles, levels have various routes that can take you to your goal faster or slower, and the levels here have a bit more variety. Sometimes you'll replay a level and accidentally stumble upon a route that finally gets you that bonus for beating a level in 40 seconds.

Another interesting level mechanic is the time travel feature. Scattered around the level are "Past" and "Future" posts. Pick up one of these posts and it will be saved in your inventory for a little while. In order to activate them, you have to do.. well, what else? Run really, really fast. Go top speed without losing momentum. If you come to a halt mid-travel, you'll lose the post, but the levels often have special areas tucked away that make it impossible to lose the momentum for easier time travel. This adds a lot of variety as well as replay value because the three possible time periods shake up the level design and style. One level has a dam, but in the future where Robotnik has taken over, the dam is broken and the level is flooded. Go back into the past, and there is no dam but there's streams and lakes. Another cool thing is you can get special bonuses for changing the timelines, if you find a certain spot in the past and destroy it you might make the future a better place. This once again changes the levels design up a bit. It's a creative concept, and its done well.

Although it doesn't really affect gameplay, another clever aspect of the past/present/future aspects are changes in graphics and music. The future, ruled by Robotnik, is a ravished dystopia, often with much darker and moodier soundscapes. The past is technologically underdeveloped both in theme and literal console technology, the developers added in a clever element to the past where the graphics and music are all played by the genesis rather than the Sega CD, which also shows the player the difference in graphics/music as well.

This has always been a strength in the Sonic games, at least in my opinion, but boss fights are always clever and fun. Although some may have inconsistent difficulty aspects, Robotnik's machines are still a ton of fun to see and fight against and there's still a somewhat silly sense of humour with them as well. One level you can't actually hit him, but his protective shell is being ground away by a sander and as it grinds away he starts to freak out. No two boss fight here is alike, and yet again it adds a ton to the variety.

Although it's not the greatest soundtrack in the world, there are a few cool tracks on the soundtrack (I like the main theme "Sonic Boom," even if it gets stuck in your head...), and the sound quality is awesome. Sega claimed there was a mechanic called "Q-Sound," but my theory is simply that the data was fairly small so they made use of the extra data on the disc for higher quality sounds and music. There are various classic sound effects as well as some revamped ones too.

The graphics are colourful and varied. While it's not as good looking as Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles (Though this game came before those, so it makes sense that they'd look better), the graphics look cool and the sprites are great. They also have some great animations and there's a wider variety of things happening on screen thanks to the Sega CD's extra horsepower. There are also some cool background effects and special effects that play with your mind, including an effect seen early on and later on where Sonic goes into a massive loop-de-loop and the camera turns around and it shows you a pseudo-3D effect of him running up and launching into the sky after getting off the ramp.

Great controls. They are very tight and there's a little more precision than the earlier Sonic games, you are even given a bit more control over Sonic's spin-boost move and can alter how fast the boost is. Despite the dizzying speed, you can always slow it down quick and precise if you are about to hit a spiked wall, although there will still be times that you make an unexpected stop but that's not really a negative since its always been a part of the gameplay in Sonic games.

The auto-save feature is nice.

The Bad
This is partially a problem with the Sega CD itself, but load times are a pain in the ass. The game takes awhile to boot up and sometimes level load times are inconsistent, often when loading an auto-save the game will take up to 2 minutes. Boss levels, despite often having less action on screen have an annoying load time too. I can't slight the game for this, but the load times have actually gotten LONGER over time since obviously the disc has gotten a little dirty and my SegaCD has gotten older.

There are a few bugs. Sometimes Sonic will get trapped in a confusing animation loop where he will stand still, but still move. One time he got stuck in his spinning animation loop, and I bumped into an enemy and expected it to die, but instead the spinning animation stopped in place and all the rings scattered. The framerate also takes a few hits, particularly on the 3rd act, the "Tidal Tempest" levels. When in the water, the game seems to slow down a bit and sometimes it'll even skip. This is especially annoying when fighting the third act boss, which is also underwater. That effect that distorts the background visuals is cool, but maybe they should've cut it back a bit.

The music isn't the best. A lot of the tracks annoy me a little or just sound silly. One track is comprised of annoying "Ladde-dadde-doos" and girls going "Ahh, ping pong poing" as well. It's also annoying how the songs often restart and then loop if you can't get through a level fast enough, and if you have a scratch on the disc sometimes when a song restarts you'll be treated to a skipping noise; at its worst this will actually cause the game to freeze. I've heard that the Japanese/European releases have a better soundtrack, but I wouldn't know.

God help you on the "Wacky Workbench" levels. Dear god, someone was taking a bit too much LSD on that level. It took me a literal month to figure out how to beat them when I first played the game since you constantly bounce off of the walls without any control over where you go or when you bounce or how you bounce.

The Bottom Line
Sonic CD is awesome! I know I'm not the only Sonic the hedgehog fan out there, and back in the day I played this more than I did Sonic 2 or even 3. It has tons of replay value and variety thanks to the well implemented time travel aspect, time trial, and just the fact that its really fun to play! The sad thing is not many people played it because of how the Sega CD crashed and burned, and when the game was released on Windows 95 three years later no one played it because that port sucked royal thanks to the fact that its framerate was totally busted even on a brand spanking new Pentium processor, making the game unplayable. If you are a Sonic fan and have a SegaCD or are interested in collecting a segaCD, get it with this game! This game alone is worth it! Although I am praying that Sega will re-release it on the Wii or Xbox 360 as part of their vintage collection.

SEGA CD · by Kaddy B. (777) · 2009

Dude, this game is good...not bad....

The Good
I liked the part about when Robotnik (a.k.a. Eggman) built Metal Sonic and tries to defeat Sonic the Hedgehog. It's also very fun, and I also liked the idea of making a tiny world that orbits around...well...the planet Mobius every 6 months. It's also cool that you can travel through time.

The Bad
There is no Super Sonic, nor Super Metal Sonic, or the Chaos Emeralds. Instead, they put "Time Stones". How stupid is that!?!?

The Bottom Line
Well, I'd say it would probably get a 4.1 score, rather that a 3.6. it's a lot better then that. I don't know this game all the way, 'cause I haven't beaten it. I may post another thing IF I finish this game.

SEGA CD · by Bob McNeal (3) · 2005

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Steam version Lance Boyle (1532) Feb 17, 2012
Wow. j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】 (93195) Dec 30, 2011

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.

According to Spencer Nilsen, composer of the North American version, SEGA of America wanted their products to differentiate themselves from the competition. The electronic dance friendly music in the original was deemed too popular at the time so SoA set out to try something completely different.

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

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #17 (Best 100 Games of All Time) (Sega CD version)
  • 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

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Rogee.

SEGA CD added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Alaka, Alexander Michel, LepricahnsGold, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Thomas Helsing, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, Kayburt.

Game added February 15, 2001. Last modified January 27, 2024.