Sonic CD – Review
Ever thought Sonic games should be harder?
Well, look no further.
Sonic CD is a title that’s seen little action outside of Japan, which is mostly because we poor sods who were around the age of ten when it debuted on the Mega CD console couldn’t afford it – and parents were more concerned with silly things like school.
Thanks largely to the success of earlier Sonic games on Xbox Live Arcade and the appreciation fans have shown for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, SEGA have now unleashed this relative unknown for download at the cost of 400 Microsoft Points.
Although it was a success story in itself at the time, today Sonic CD is easily the most overlooked of the blue hedgehog’s early adventures.
Playing through and comparing it to other titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic and Knuckles, it isn’t difficult to see why. The game is quite clearly designed by Japanese developers for a Japanese audience; you can tell by the overly festive fast-beat pop music tracks, the outrageous level designs, and not least of all the Special Stages where Sonic has to negotiate a (flat) 3D landscape and destroy several U.F.O.s (we kid you not) in order to grab a Time Stone.
Ah, yes, the Time Stones.
You see, there’s this small planetoid imaginatively dubbed “Little Planet” that appears in the sky over Sonic’s home world every so often. Having turned up to witness this miraculous event, Sonic discovers that his arch nemesis Dr. Robotnik has chained the planet up and covered it in a metal shell, with the intention of using its miraculous time-altering powers to become unstoppable.
The big twist in Sonic CD is that every zone is split into ‘hard’, ‘normal’, and ‘easy’ difficulties which can be accessed through time gate posts placed throughout labelled ‘Past’ and ‘Future’.
Travelling to a zone’s past means there’ll be less obstacles and enemies between Sonic and the goal. It’ll also mean that you have a chance to change the course of time and stop Robotnik from ever taking control of Little Planet, by destroying his mechanical devices hidden in each zone.
Travelling to a zone’s future straight off the bat will result in a mechanised nightmare, armed to the teeth with pit falls, spikes, and robots.
You can always stay in a zone’s present time, of course, which will give Sonic a healthy dose of enemies to deal with and some obstacles to overcome, but the idea is that players will attempt to change the past in each zone before moving on.
This is trickier than you’d think. In order to travel through time, Sonic has to pass through the appropriate time post and keep his momentum going, which is no easy task considering the amount of trickery lurking beyond the screen. If you succeed you’re whisked away to the past or future accordingly.
Creating a good future for all stages is the ultimate goal here, and in order to do this effectively and quickly Sonic has to capture all of those aforementioned Time Stones. By ensuring he carries fifty or more rings to the zone goal, a giant ring gateway will be present for Sonic to jump in. This will take him to the 3D realm where he has to smash through the U.F.O.’s in time so that he can reach his prize.
As you can probably tell by now, this is a hardcore Sonic experience. You will need to learn the stages, the enemies, the traps, the time posts, ring stashes – EVERYTHING – inside out in order to achieve that ultimate goal. Fans of the Japanese Shooter will feel quite at home here in many respects, since it requires that degree of training and perfect execution. Fans of the original and arguably Westernised Sonic games might just find that the experience borders on frustration.
There’s nothing to prevent you running through every level haphazardly avoiding certain death as you did with the other Sonic games, though. But if that’s all you’re interested in you may end up disappointed.
The stages don’t quite reach the heights of the iconic classics we know and love from other early Sonic games. Backgrounds seem messy, verging on downright garish, and for long periods there’s almost nothing for us to distinguish one zone from another with absolute clarity. Palm Tree Panic and Stardust Speedway are the two zones you’ll remember most of all, and the former will only be because it reminds you of Green Hill Zone.
Differences between past, present and future are much more substantial and it’s in one extreme or the other that things tone down a bit and the landscape makes more sense, if only for the briefest of instances before you hurtle past the goal post.
Overall, the zones feel more punishing than your average Sonic fan is used to and a heck of a lot more random. Is there another early Sonic game with a zone on par with “Wacky Workbench” for sheer lunacy? We very much doubt it.
Most of the bosses, too, are a cut below the majority of nasties Dr. Robotnik has thrown our way. One or two of them are good enough to excuse the others, though, such as the race between Sonic and his robot rival, “Metal Sonic”, through Act 3 of Stardust Speedway.
The visual presentation of Sonic CD has seen a good sharpening through high-definition, but allows the purists to keep their pixels if they must. As an added bonus, you can switch the music tracks from Japanese to American versions depending on your preferences. Last but not least, when you finish the game once you’ll unlock Tails as a playable character.
It’s hard to say whether Sonic CD was more of a step forward than Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or even if it was a step backward from Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s more of a sideways leap, an exploration of Sonic as a hardcore action adventure speed demon.
If you’re a complete Sonic CD virgin but are open to new experiences, it’s worth exploring this piece of the blue hedgehog’s history. Should you succeed in letting go of your inhibitions, this is a game whose intricacies will test, infuriate, entertain, and reward you in equal measures.
Successes:
- Interesting ‘time’ mechanic.
- Lots of zone variations to explore.
- Speed, precision, and timing.
- Some memorable boss battles.
- Hardcore players will be impressed.
Failures:
- Heavy learning curves.
- Special Stages are just weird.
- Some messy levels.
- Unforgiving traps.
- Demands more than average players will give.
Score: 7/10
- Alex ‘Alaric’ Lemcovich
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