Plot

For one month out of every year, the aptly-named "Little Planet" materializes over the shores of Never Lake. It is said that the flow of time on Little Planet shifts irregularly and unpredictably due to seven "Time Stones" located on it. Whoever controls the Time Stones is granted the ability to control time itself. Never one to miss an opportunity for world domination, Doctor Eggman travels to Little Planet, tethering it to a nearby mountain to ensure it never vanishes. Utilizing the weak temporal boundaries, he begins conquering the past, giving him an iron grip on the future. Foreseeing trouble ahead, he begins to construct a special robot to guarantee his success...

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sonic the Hedgehog just so happened to be on his way to Never Lake to see Little Planet for himself. Upon arrival, Sonic is shocked to find Little Planet covered in smoke-belching factories and other such dangerous materials. Knowing only one person who would do such a thing, he quickly runs up the tether and on to Little Planet in order to liberate it from Doctor Eggman.

But Sonic is not alone; hot on his trail is Amy Rose, a pink hedgehog who believes Sonic is destined fall in love with her after foreseeing it in her tarot cards. She slowly follows Sonic to the surface of Little Planet, unaware of her role in what is about to play out...

Levels

• Palmtree Panic Zone
• Collision Chaos Zone
• Tidal Tempest Zone
• Quartz Quadrant Zone
• Wacky Workbench Zone
• Stardust Speedway Zone
• Metallic Madness Zone

Rounds

Typically, sonic games refer to the distinctive levels as 'zones.' This was hanged for Sonic CD, where what was once a zone is now called a round. An example of this would be Palmtree Panic, known as Round one. There are a total of 7 rounds in the game which the player must complete, each one with a past, present, and future for Sonic to explore. The first two areas of each round allow the player to go through each time period, however, the third area is always set in the future. The third area will change appearance based on the player's performance on the previous areas. In total, there are 70 different level designs, with the futures being contingent on a player's actions.

Soundtrack

Sonic CD was the first Sonic game to feature full CD-quality redbook audio, and two versions of the soundtrack exist; the original Japanese soundtrack composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, and the American-exclusive soundtrack composed by Spencer Nilsen and the female vocal group Pastiche. Sega of America felt that gamers would be too alienated by the original Japanese soundtrack's more techno-pop sound, so they had Spencer Nilsen construct a more American-pop-friendly replacement. Despite this, each song's "p-mix" (Past Mix) version is the same universally across all regions. The Japanese soundtrack contains two vocal tracks:

•  "Cosmic Eternity" by Dreams Come True
•  "You Can Do Anything" by Dreams Come True

The American soundtrack contains a single vocal track that is re-used both for the game's intro and ending sequences:

• "Sonic Boom" by Spencer Nilsen, featuring Pastiche

The song "Sonic Boom" is also featured on the soundtrack of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. It is played on Sonic's stage, Green Hill Zone.

Development History

Sonic CD originally started its life simply as an enhanced port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega CD. The project was lead by Naoto Oshima, the original designer of both Sonic the Hedgehog and Doctor Eggman. With the majority of SonicTeam in America working with Sega Technical Institute for the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 2, Naoto Oshima was forced to go with a new team of artists and designers to work on the Sega CD project (contributing to the game's unique flavor). As time progressed, Sonic 2 CD began to drift farther and farther in its own direction and eventually, Sega felt it would be best if the game became a stand-alone title.

It was originally intended to launch before the Sega Genesis version of Sonic 2, but Sega felt Sonic 2 was more important and Sonic CD's release date was pushed back almost an entire year.

Trivia

• Viewing the contents of the Sonic CD disc on a Windows PC reveals that at least one level was cut during production: the level data for each stage is arranged in numbered folders, starting at 1 but then jumping directly to 3 and continuing on as normal (4, 5, 6, and 7). This suggests that the second level was removed at one point in development. Several hints around the game suggest what this lost level could have looked like: Little Planet Artwork available from the game's "D.A. Garden" sound test displays a cactus-filled desert region, and during the game's animated credits montage, Sonic is seen leaping through vine-choked ruins dodging a massive robotic ant lion (similar to the first boss in Sonic 2 for the Game Gear). Neither location is ever seen in Sonic CD.

• Upon entering the game's "Debug Mode" Cheat Code, you see artwork of Miles "Tails" Prower standing next to a jeep with the text, "See you next game - Judy Totoya". Judy Totoya was a pen name sometimes used by Yasushi Yamaguchi, original character designer for Tails. "See you next game" is in reference to the game's original release date.

• In an effort to tie Sonic CD to the upcoming wave of Sonic the Hedgehog comic books and TV shows, Sega of America renamed Amy Rose in the original English Sonic CD game manual to "Princess Sally". This was eventually retconned by the aforementioned comic books, who restored her name back to Amy Rose.

• The character of Amy Rose is likely based off of a character introduced in the Japan-exclusive Shogaku Yonensei Sonic the Hedgehog manga; in it, Sonic had a girlfriend named Amy.

• Anywhere in the game, if you happen to leave Sonic idle for more than three minutes, he will proclaim "I'm outta here!" and jump off screen, eliciting an instant Game Over.

Credits

Executive Producer

Hayao Nakayama

Producers

Minoru Kanari
Makoto Oshitani

Director

Naoto Ohshima

Program Director

Keiichi Yamamoto

Art Director

Hiroyuki Kawaguchi

Sound Director

Yukifumi Makino

Game Designers

Hiroaki Chino
Kenichi Ono
Yuichiro Yokoyama
Takao Miyoshi
Akira Nishino

Character Designer

Kazuyuki Hoshino

Landscape Designers

Hiroyuki Kawaguchi
Takumi Miyake
Masahiro Sanpei
Masato Nishimura
Hideaki Kurata

Special Stage Designers

Kazuyuki Hoshino
Yasushi Yamaguchi

Special Stage Progammer

Keiichi Yamamoto

Animation Programmers

Yuichiro Mine
Eiji Horita

Animation Visual Directors

Hiroyuki Kawaguchi
Masahiro Sanpei

Visual Design

Kazuyuki Hoshino
Takumi Miyake

Chief Programmer

Matsuhide Mizoguchi

Programmers

Yuichi Matsuoka
Hiroshi Takei
Tatsuya Satoh
Noritaka Yakita

Animation Producers

Yasuo Yamaguchi
Mutsumi Kido

Chief Key Animator

Hisashi Eguchi
Key Animators
Tetsuya Kumagai
Toshiyuki Komaru
Yasuyuki Shimizu
Ichiro Furuichi
Kenji Kajiwara

Animation Art Director

Shinzou Yuki

Animation Camera Director

Masaru Banzai

Animation Asst. Production

Kouichi Hirose

Animation Production

Kohji Sekiguchi

Animation Director

Yukio Kaizawa

Music

Naofumi Hataya
Masafumi Ogata

Lyrics

Casey Rankin

Vocals

Keiko Utoku

Sound Effects

Yukifumi Makino

Sound Programmer

Yukifumi Makino

Promoter

Hiroyuki Tanaka