Quick Look: Sonic CD

Once again Jeff proves that he knows everything about video games.

sonic boom 4 lyfe? HELL YEAH.

Not many people know this but SEGA was founded by an American to sell pinball machines to GIs in Japan after the war. So SEGA America is not that crazy.

@Max_Hydrogen said:

Oh man! That level select background and menu screen are SO early 90's. I mean real pre-O.J.

I have always held that there should be a fiction where the O.J. Simpson trial was the calendar separation for civilization going forward.

I will agree the Special Stages and Wacky Workbench are dumb,, but otherwise it's an alright game!

Also the engine was redone by a member of Sonic Retro, so you know it's gotta be good!

5 bucks? Sold.

One of the most overrated games ever. Sonic CD is definitely not as good as 2,3 and Knuckles.

I enjoy hearing the industry gossip and '90s gaming minutiae. Plus decent music makes this a pretty good quick look,

@dvand987 said:

What is the point of Sonic? Get the rings, go fast, I get that; but if you really wanted to get into it, what are the subtle nuances that you need to know? A big reason why I never liked the Sonic games is because I couldn't wrap my head around the actual goal of the game. Can someone enlighten me please?

1) Find the Special Stages

2) Beat the Special Stages x7

3) Collect 50 Rings

4) Jump in the air. Jump once more while still airborne

5) Go Super Saiyan Sonic.

6) Fuck shit up.

7) Win.

I never enjoyed playing classic Sonic. I don't like the style of movement. I don't like the ring mechanic. I don't like the character design or the whole too-cool-for-school marketing. The levels, especially the machine-looking levels here in Sonic CD, look garbled and overblown; it's too hard to keep up with what's happening on the screen. The music and sound design, however, is aces (which is typical of Sega games, I feel).

Game's awesome!

@dvand987 said:

What is the point of Sonic? Get the rings, go fast, I get that; but if you really wanted to get into it, what are the subtle nuances that you need to know? A big reason why I never liked the Sonic games is because I couldn't wrap my head around the actual goal of the game. Can someone enlighten me please?

It's a platformer.

You beat one level to progress to the next. Like other games you can speed run it/try and get better scores. There are secret stages. I didn't know someone needed a 'goal' explained to them when it comes to a platformer game.

dont know if anyone already mentioned this, but there was no spin dash in the original Sonic CD.

dont know if anyone already mentioned this, but there was no spin dash in the original Sonic CD.

@Melos said:

I never enjoyed playing classic Sonic. I don't like the style of movement. I don't like the ring mechanic. I don't like the character design or the whole too-cool-for-school marketing. The levels, especially the machine-looking levels here in Sonic CD, look garbled and overblown; it's too hard to keep up with what's happening on the screen. The music and sound design, however, is aces (which is typical of Sega games, I feel).

Took the words right out of my mouth. I loved the games when I was a kid, but I can't play them now because of how they've aged.

As someone who has never owned a Sega machine, my favorite Sonic game is actually Sonic Advance 2. It had lots of running to the right which, if you kept going long enough, allowed you to catch enough speed to go partly off the screen, It also had special tricks that let you quickly get back to the floor from a jump (without losing your momentum) or gain extra height.

There were 8 hidden rings in every level you had to get to go into the Special Zones. You had to eventually plot a course through the stage to get them all and then succeed in the mini game to get one of the emeralds. Getting all the emeralds with one character unlocked more stuff.

There were 5 characters, Sonic was the worst one because he was the only one besides Amy (whom you only unlocked by getting all chaos emeralds with every other character) who couldn't do some kind of gliding or flying.

There was a chao garden, the mechanics of which I've forgotten. I do remember it being neat.

It also had the most satisfying bosses I've ever fought in a Sonic game. It was all about maintaining just the right amount of speed and timing your attacks.

Pretty good music too.

Funny thing, I always thought that there was no Super Sonic in this game, but looking at videos of this on Youtube proved me wrong. Now I feel kinda bad for never finding it..

Hey, look, it's the 3rd/4th best Sonic game.

The thing that makes original Sonic good and what makes the others forgettable is an impossibly subtle mix of going fast but the game not playing itself. The the other half that people forget is that the game has to have those signature visual and musical elements from the 16-bit era in order to make the slow parts still awesome.

If you track the progression of Sonic past and even including 3 you get away from that original level design that made the game work and the graphics/music changed. Unlike Mario where you can be taken to new places and gameplay mechanics, Sonic for better or worse peaked as a result of being released when it was on the Genesis. A perfect example of being a product of its time but unable to escape that. Some games have that design problem much like trying to make a modern platformer from those N64 era ones. You just can't except re-release them in HD.

In fact I bet the only thing they could do for me to care is re-draw the sprites from the first two in HD.

Played this for the first time ever last week and I gotta say, it is really different to any other sonic game.

I don't much like the original Sonic the Hedgehog from an aesthetic standpoint, and Sonic CD (for obvious reasons) is similar, and maybe an even bigger offender. CD is probably the best from a gameplay perspective, but that hardly matters because they're all lacking as platformers. 2, 3, and Knuckles are the salvageable ones only because of the superior, vibrant locales and melodic music, but they're better remembered than actually played. It actually astonishes me that the popular opinion of the series seems to favor the style of the original game.

I guess people like this game because it's fairly unknown? Always hated Sonic CD, especially compared to 2.

@christ0phe said:

Sonic's kinda dumb

Sonic is really dumb, but this game is fun to play sooooonic boooom

So, CD was best from a gameplay standpoint -- not so much on the art direction or music. Jeff praising the US audio is blasphemous. Masato Nakamura is and will always be the king of genesis music, man.

@ll_Exile_ll said:

@adny2 said:

dont know if anyone already mentioned this, but there was no spin dash in the original Sonic CD.

There was, the animation was just dumb as hell.

It is referred to by SEGA as the Super Peel Out. It gives you maximum spin dash speed but with Sonic upright, legs crossing in a figure eight pattern.

@NXH said:

Played this for the first time ever last week and I gotta say, it is really different to any other sonic game.

Sonic 3D Blast is the "most different" of any Sonic game hands down.

Now if you want to include Knuckles into this argument...

When Jeff started talking about weird Genesis/Mega Drive stuff, I was just waiting for him to talk about Brazil.

I'm brazilian and only after the internet I realized how crazy that time was around here, my first contact with Street Fighter was a TecToy abomination for the Master System. Good lord.

Also, a friend had a similar version of the "portable" Genesis Jeff talked about, but was also a Master System. Just beautiful.

@steevl: Having a bit of exploration in Sonic games would be fine, the problem is that there's none of that here. The levels are just messy, filled with loops, bouncing floors, springs, stoppers and other junk. Combine that with messy graphics and you have a really bad game on your hands.

I played this game back when back when it was first released and was very confused when it suddenly gained a big reputation as being "the best Sonic game". I think it came from the fact it was a pretty rare game that not many had played, so it gained a bit of a hipster following. I'm glad there's finally more people seeing it for what it is.

It does seem to be a great port though, it's good that they put some effort into it and they didn't use Backbone again, who absolutely butchered the games they ported, and the price is great.. but I can definitely believe the rumours of Yuji Naka not wanting the game to be released because he didn't like it.

@ll_Exile_ll said:

@adny2 said:

dont know if anyone already mentioned this, but there was no spin dash in the original Sonic CD.

There was, the animation was just dumb as hell.

It is referred to by SEGA as the Super Peel Out. It gives you maximum spin dash speed but with Sonic upright, legs crossing in a figure eight pattern.

That japanese music is so much better! It actually makes the game seem better.

OMG! How come they didnt show the best bit of the game! The Mo Fo Animation Intro!

Just bought for droid for 1.99. Plays great with the keyboard. Great buy.

@barberforce said:

OMG! How come they didnt show the best bit of the game! The Mo Fo Animation Intro!

Still one of my favorite openings to any game ever. : )

I am the Egg Man. They are the Egg Man.

I remember as a kid those special stages were tough, especially after you get the first two time stones. Still tough today.

Totally agree about US soundtrack. I loved that one. Never saw the JP appeal. Sonic Boom baby. Used to take the game and put it in the CD player and just play the music. Ecco CD also had a great soundtrack.

@barberforce said:

OMG! How come they didnt show the best bit of the game! The Mo Fo Animation Intro!

One thing that kinda sucks about this game is that the Japanese soundtrack was edited. You Can Do Anything and Cosmic Eternity (songs for the intro and outro anime sequences) lack lyrics.

I'll stick to Donkey Kong Country and Mario.

@PerfidiousSinn said:

@barberforce said:

OMG! How come they didnt show the best bit of the game! The Mo Fo Animation Intro!

One thing that kinda sucks about this game is that the Japanese soundtrack was edited. You Can Do Anything and Cosmic Eternity (songs for the intro and outro anime sequences) lack lyrics.

Yeah. The only reason those lyrics don't appear is because the person who wrote them died in 2009 and the rights to use them are in legal limbo.

This is my first time seeing this game and I have to say I like the US soundtrack much better. It is super chill. The Japanese soundtrack is really frantic.

Got to play it for the first time with this release. It's not quite the game I expected - and certainly not what I would characterise as the best Sonic game ever - but it seems alright. Maybe it'd grow on me if I replayed it as much as I did the Mega Drive games when I was younger.

Sonic, Sonic CD, Sonic Spinball and Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine are the only good sonic games as far as I'm concerned. Since Sonic 2 it has felt like the levels were designed for you go really fast and nothing else meaning that they had to come up with stupid gimmicks like Tails, Knuckles, in 3d, actually in 3d and two Sonics to sell the games. Also don't forget that at some point they changed the physics to the point that now when they want to do some actual platforming it plays absolutely terrible.

OH SNAP it totally did sell well in Brazil. Everybody had either a master system or a megadrive when I was a kid. LOL Jeff how in the world do you know that?

@RuthLoose said:

@Max_Hydrogen said:

Oh man! That level select background and menu screen are SO early 90's. I mean real pre-O.J.

I have always held that there should be a fiction where the O.J. Simpson trial was the calendar separation for civilization going forward.

Dude! Your user picture is totally Kunoichi from The Ninja Warriors Again which makes you FUCKING AWESOME!!

Also, yes, the O.J. Simpson trial marked a change in society and think for the worst.

(b.t.w. robot ninjas totally fucking rule!)

@Max_Hydrogen: Correction: Robot ninja women totally fucking rule!

KUNOICHI + THE NINJA WARRIORS (SNES) 4 LIFE!

Hmm, if they really want some end of year content, why not play some Star Wars: The Old Republic? I'm guessing a lot of us are sitting on the fence about that one. Are they already so sick of it from the beta?

Only older Sonic game that I haven't played. Only 400MS points as well.

My absolute favorite Sonic game. So glad they released this version. Widescreen looks great, controls are spot on and both sound tracks! Switched mine to the US version and it was like I was back in '94 when I first fell in love with this game. At $5 this is a steal.

@damswedon: I grew up on a Mega Drive and with Sonic i have to say i disagree. Sonic 2 being made to go faster in Level Design is to do what Sonic is about! He likes to run hell'a fast! Sonic 2 will always be the best Sonic in my heart, as it had the best look out the Sonic's and the Fact Chemical Plant Zone is the BOMB! Though the combination of Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles is also a great Sonic Experience, forget playing as Knuckles. The extended boss battles at the end is awesome and a joy to beat.

Wish Jeff had shown off the time travel. Rather than immediately try to go fast as soon as you get a time travel sign, you're supposed to look for a part of the level designed with time travel in mind. When Jeff was in that rotating circle he could've stayed in it and time travelled. He also passes two springs pointed right at each other at one point, which is another apot designed for time travel.

On the subject of the soundtrack, Japanese all the way. Sonic Boom is fantastic, but outaide of that and the varriations on it the American soundtrack kind of just sounds like noise. A lot of songs just sounds like a bunch of instruments with no real melody to them. The different tracks for different eras also don't sound much like each other, unlike the Japanese OST. Plus the past tracks on the American OST are unchanged from the Japanese OST, so they feel super out of place.

No intro what the fuck