Sonic CD – Seriously, Just Play It
Posted: December 22nd, 2011 | Author: Alex | Filed under: Fun and Games | No Comments »
Sonic hasn’t had all that great of a run for most of the past ten years or so. The franchise was handed off to a bunch of different teams in the 2000s, each of which had their own vision of what a Sonic game should look like. Unfortunately, each of those visions was more mediocre than the last. Recently though, the future’s been looking a little brighter for our spiky blue hero. Sega put a new guy in charge of Sonic’s future direction last year, and one of the first things his team did was pull all the recent “average” Sonic titles from the shelves. Shortly thereafter, they released Sonic Colors, Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic Generations, and they all got pretty good reviews (for next-gen Sonic titles, anyway). Sonic 4 Episode 1 and Sonic Generations both attempt to re-attract the “older” generation of Sonic gamers who remember a time when Sonic titles were known for being good instead of, well, laughably awful.
The next big thing in Sonic’s “everything old is new again” renaissance is the re-release of Sonic CD on PC, XBox 360, PS3 and iOS devices. I’ve already played through Sonic CD several times (in emulators and on the Sega CD), but I bought it again for XBox 360, and I’m really glad I did.
Sonic CD is in many ways the spiritual successor to the original Sonic the Hedgehog, even though it was released a few months after Sonic 2. Most of Sonic’s sprites are re-used from Sonic 1, special stages are accessible at the end of the level rather than at checkpoint lampposts, and each zone has three acts rather than two. Sonic CD takes advantage of the ill-fated Sega CD’s hardware, sporting a CD-quality soundtrack (which was a novelty in 1993) and levels that are absolutely massive by comparison to those in the first couple Sonic games.
The big novel gameplay mechanic in Sonic CD is time travel (because really, what series doesn’t get better with the inexplicable addition of time travel?) Each level in Sonic CD is playable in three time periods: past, present, and future. Sonic gets between time periods by hitting a Time Warp sign (conveniently labeled Past or Future) and then running at top speed for a few seconds without stopping. The future is further subdivided into the “good” future and the “bad” future. Dr. Robotnik has put a machine in the past on each level that powers his badnik army; if Sonic travels to the past, then finds and destroys this machine, the future is saved (unlocking the “good” future); if not, Robotnik has taken over in the future and it isn’t a very happy place (the “bad” future). If you unlock the good future in every level or collect all the Time Stones (the stand-ins for that classic Sonic macguffin, the Chaos Emeralds), you get the good ending.
Sonic CD is pretty much tied with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my list of the best Sonic games of all time. The fact that every level is essentially four levels is a testament to the enormous amount of room the designers had to work with on the Sega CD. The different time periods aren’t just palette swaps either; they actually went through the effort to modify the graphics and level design and write different background tracks for each one. The soundtrack (while very ’90s) is pretty great in both Japanese and English versions (the Japanese boss music is by far my favorite). The “go really fast for a while without stopping” requirement for time travel actually inspired some really inventive level design; speed traps and loops that were just nuisances before become things the player actively seeks out. Seeking out Dr. Robotnik’s machines in the past puts a much larger emphasis on exploration, although you can still race through the levels at full speed if you want. It’s got “replay value” in spades.
What really sets Sonic CD apart from any other Sonic game from that era are the boss battles.
Typically a boss battle in a Sonic game is a pretty standard affair. Dr. Robotnik shows up in some kind of mech whose design is inspired by the level’s overall theme (i.e. if you’re in an ice level, that mech’s gonna have a freeze ray), you hit him seven or eight times while dodging his attacks, most of his mech explodes and he runs away. Sonic CD’s bosses are in that same vein, but are a lot less conventional. You’re still fighting Robotnik in a mech most of the time, but in one level he’s at the top of a giant diabolical pinball machine and you only have to reach him and hit him once to end the whole thing. In another, he locks you in a room containing a fearsome death trap and watches in mounting dismay as the death trap slowly tears itself (and his conveniently placed adjacent control room) apart. In still another, he traps you underwater only to make the critical mistake of making a shield for his mech out of air bubbles. Really inspired and original stuff, some of the best of the whole series.
Oh, and did I mention that in one level there’s a shrink ray?
Yeah, in one level? There’s a shrink ray.
To their massive credit, Sega has really done Sonic CD justice with this re-release. Rather than sticking a huge border around the old VGA graphics like a lot of 16-bit game conversions, they actually took the time to port it to 16:9 native. Many people think the US soundtrack wasn’t as good as the Japanese soundtrack, so they included both soundtracks. They even added Tails in as a playable character. I mean seriously. That’s pretty awesome.
Seriously. Play this game. It’s well worth the $3-$5 you’ll pay for it on your platform of choice.
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