Sonic CD

The Good
Sonic CD was the first and only Sonic The Hedgehog game to be released on Sega’s excellent and underrated Sega CD console. It is not the best Sonic game, but it is hardly the worst.

On a small planet outside of a Mobius, time stones have been discovered that as the name implies have the power of time. The evil Dr. Robotnik plans to steal these gems. It is up to Sonic to foil his nefarious scheme. Sonic CD spans time and space. And pits Metal Sonic up against Sonic. And introduces Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog that has the hots for Sonic.

The most unique element of Sonic CD is the time traveling aspect. In any given level Sonic can visit the Past, Present, or Future. To truly complete the game Sonic must conquer all time periods and collect all the Time Stones.

The Graphics in Sonic CD are good. They seem to be slightly better than Sonic 2. Yet not as good a Sonic & Knuckles. The graphics are gorgeous in a 16-bit kind of way.

The music and sound effects are good. As we would expect from and old-skool Sonic game. The main theme “Sonic Boom” is the first Sonic song to feature lyrics. It is a far cry from the lame songs of the Sonic Adventure games. But this is a good thing.

The Game plays like all classic Sonic titles. The action is fast and furious. And very fun. Each stage boss has a unique strategy you will need to employ in order to defeat. Collecting Time Stones replace collecting Chaos Emeralds and add and extra challenge.

The Bad
The bad of this game comes from it’s unbalanced difficulty. I do not mind a challenge. But I hate when games go from easy to difficult suddenly. This game jumps in difficulty in the last two stages. Why do game developers always pull this shit?

The Bottom Line
Sonic CD is a welcome addition to the series. Sega CD gamers could do worse than to add Sonic CD to there library.