Intro

Sonic, traveling around through time! Yea, the Blue Hedgehog has had a time-travelling game, but a well-done one. When I got my Sega-CD I was looking and got Sonic CD shortly after, I couldn’t find any with it bundled in. It didn’t take long, but I got it and loaded it up with joy. The game offers something a little different from the Sonic games of that era. I sat down to play the game again to write this review and found myself quite lost in a trance, just lulling me to play more and more. If it weren’t for the call to write this review, there’d be more interruption in writing this to play the game some more honestly.

Story

For one month of each year, the Little Planet appears over Never Lake. On this tiny world rest the Time Stones, which possess the power to manipulate time, both past and future. Dr. Robotnik has found his way to the tiny world and has begun to try and take it over. It’s up to Sonic the Hedgehog to get there, save the animals and the Time Stones from his clutches.

Gameplay

This game is somewhat deceive initially in what you’d expect in terms of the levels. While there are 3 acts per zone, there are at 3 different versions of any given stage you’re going through. Sonic in this game has gained the ability to travel through time by hitting a Time Post and running fast for a time. Using this ability, Sonic needs to find the Robot Generator hidden in each Past level by Dr. Robotnik. Doing so changes the Future version of the stage into a much more rural and vivid scene with animals and smooth sailing. Missing this part of the stage or going forward in time before destroying the Generator hidden in the Past yields a mired version of a stage. There are more monsters, more hazards and major polluted version in it. Each stage has one hidden Robot Generator and it does take a bit of patience to locate each one. Still, the time invested pays off in that it makes the stage ultimately easier to clear and slightly more aesthetically pleasing as well.

In this game, Sonic Team introducing something the Gamers came to know as the Spin-Dash, just there are two versions, one done crouching (we all know this one) and one done standing. Neither can be revved as much as the Spin-Dash in Sonic 2, but it definitely works as an earlier version of the move. This does help quite a bit in the game so that it’s easier to reach some areas where you simply don’t have the room to get the running start needed. In the standing version, Sonic simply starts running in place, using the full-speed animation (done as a side-ways figure-eight).

This game also has a Ram-backed save file, a first in the Sonic series. After beating the game, you gain access to Time-Trial, which is useful for going back, and getting the missed Stones and Robot Generators. As it is the first it does have some problems. It can only support one save file at a time, so much sure your friends use your save and do not start a new game of their own. I didn’t know this and let a friend of mine play, starting a new file. Later, I went to play to destroy one of the last Robot Generators only find that all my work had vanished.

Multiplayer

Not here.

Controls

Sonic, as simple as ever. D-pad to move around, A, B and C all jump. By pressing up or down and A, B or C, Sonic will rev-up.

This is potentially the first game that ever had his Spin-Dash, and two versions, one that got forgotten over time.

Graphics

The color scheme is strongly reminiscent of the Original Sonic the Hedgehog, with Sonic as a Light Blue, opposed to his later, deeper Blue. Still, the Sega-CD could pull off some amazing things graphically. The backgrounds are very diverse and quite beautiful for the time, in some ways, still around the level of the Original Sonic the Hedgehog, but showing some very obvious improvements. As well as each stage has multiple versions of its own background based on what the Player has managed to do in the Past. By default, the Past and the Present are generally a warmer color while the Bad Future, not finding the Robot Generator, is murkier and dulled. The graphics convey the changes that are invoked by Sonic destroying the hidden generator very well. That it takes the level of importance that it is decidedly merits this twist in the graphics. Also, it is worth noting that Sonic in this game runs using a Figure-Eight style opposed to just his standard circle of the time. It’s an interesting little difference of all other Sonic games that I’ve played. It does show a minor difference there, but not something that everyone will always notice.

The game also has an animated opening as well, and at least for the US version, the song “Sonic Boom”. It is the earlier version of Sonic, not SatAM, that we see running onto the Little Planet to square off against Metal Sonic and Dr. Robotnik.

Sound Effects & Music

“Sonic Boom” itself merits some mention all on its own. It’s the opening song to this game and it’s very Sonic. The music for this game is delightful as well. Each Zone has a good tune to it that fits the tone of the level. It does change, from what I can tell, in Time-travel. This makes for a much more diverse sound-scape than one would expect initially from a game of this time, but here it is.

Obscurity

Sonic CD, much like the Sega-CD faded into obscurity quite a while ago (then again, the Sega-CD’s $600 price tag at launch didn’t help any matters in the least). It takes a bit of research to find out a little about this game for sure, though it did see a re-release in the Sonic Gems Collection.

Summary/Author’s Take

This is a Sonic game for people to remember. It has a very diverse background and it has an incredible amount of function for the time it was released in. While I did get mine much later (and for much cheaper because of it), I still enjoyed it as though I were a child in the early 90’s.