EDIT: God dammit... when I attempted to edit the post, something happened and the text was gone...

Lately, the entire Sonic series has taken a turn straight into the dumpster in terms of quality, but hard as it may be to believe, there was a time when the words Sonic the Hedgehog went hand-to-hand with quality gameplay. The first three Sonic games on the Genesis were absolute gems (with the Sonic & Knuckles falling into the 'pretty good' category), but the best Sonic game to ever grace a Sega system was released on a system that...well...no one actually bought; a game that actually has a bit of controversy (well...not really) attached to it. That game: Sonic CD.

US Sonic CD: Stage 1-1



Japanese Sonic CD: Stage 1-1



One interesting thing about Sonic CD is the fact that the game looks and plays more like the original Sonic the Hedgehog than any of the future Sonic games on the Genesis. The reason being is that unlike the future Sonic games on the Genesis (which were developed in the United States under Yuji Naka), Sonic CD was developed in Japan by the original Sonic character creator, Naoto Ohshima. Originally, Sonic CD and Sonic 2 were supposed to be the same game, but due to creative differences between the US and Japanese studio, both games would eventually go in different directions.

While the gameplay of Sonic CD has a lot in common with the original game, one unique aspect that has yet to be resurrected is its time travel aspect. Each stage of Sonic is divided into three time periods: Past, present and future. Each time period within a level has a different layout (both gameplay and graphic wise), and its own distinct musical track.

It's pretty amazing that Sega's never attempted to go back to the whole time travel as it was by far, one of the most refreshing gameplay mechanics of any of the past Sonic games. Every stage has past, present and future signs. After you run past a sign and manage to keep going at full speed for a few second, Sonic magically transports to the exact same spot, but in a different time period (similar to the Back to the Future movies). As an added touch, if you manage to destroy Dr. Robotnik's machine in the past, the actual future in that particular level will change from the dreary, hopeless cyberpunk mess, and into a happy colorful utopia where all the bad guys are replaced with Sonic's lovable friends.

Past, Present, Bad Future and Good Future (In order)...







While the style of the graphics fall more in line with the original Sonic than with the look of Sonic 2 and the CGI-type look of Sonic 3, the time travel aspect of the game brings with it a bit more variety than other Sonic games. The sub-levels (Act 1-1, 1-2 etc...) themselves are -- like the other Sonic games -- very similar graphically but are completely re-done depending on which time-period you're currently in at the moment (Past = Prehistoric, Present = Modern, Bad Future = Decrepit Mechanical Wasteland, Good Future = Utopia).

The most controversial part about Sonic CD back when it was released in 1994 was undoubtedly the music...sort of. Before I get into the whole music controversy, first a little bit of history: After the release of Sonic CD in Japan, Sega of America decided at the last minute to replace the games original J-Pop music with a soundtrack provided by Spencer Nielsen, the composer of past Sega CD games such as Ecco, Spiderman, etc... At the time, Gamefan magazine (defunct since 2000) bitched about the fact that Sega changed the music, to the point where they actually re-reviewed the game -- the original Japanese version received a near unanimous 100% score -- and docked it by 20 -- 30 points..


Looking back, the only people that really bitched about the Americanized music were Dave Halverson at Gamefan, and a few Japanese import nuts. Now that I've listened to the soundtrack of both games, I can honestly say that I prefer the Americanized music in almost every instance (the one exception is the "Sonic Boom, Sonic Boom" BS -- which needs to go).

US Sonic CD: Stage 4-1



Japanese Sonic CD: Stage 4-1



Conclusion:Usually, most classic games rarely hold up to scrutiny -- while we may have fondly remembered going to the local video arcade as a kid to play Double Dragon and other classic games while growing up -- the fact is that many of these "classic" games are better left as memories of our childhood. Fortunately, Sonic CD is one of those rare games that manages to hold up very well -- especially when you hold up this game (along with the other Genesis games) to the horrible 3D versions of Sonic.

In many ways, Sonic CD proves that the Sonic games will never be anything other than mediocre in 3D, as the speed and style of the game can only really work within the realm of the 2D world -- where you're limited to eight directions rather than the infinite number of directions that are in a three dimensional game. It shouldn't be a surprise that the only decent Sonic games that have come out since the 16-bit era were on the GBA and DS -- all of which were 2D games.

Personally, I don't know what Kat was smoking when she was playing Sonic CD, but the music (both versions) blows away anything that was produced on the SNES. Now you can argue whether the music in Sonic CD was better, composition wise, to SNES classics like Final Fantasy 6 and other game; but in terms of technical quality, Sonic CD blows the SNES away.

In conclusion, Sonic CD would end up being a instant purchase if Sega was ever smart enough to release the game for Xbox Live or the Virtual Console. Of course, with this being Sega, we'll probably see a classic port of Sonic 3D Blast (A horrible late 1996 Genesis and Saturn game) before we'll ever see a proper homage to one of Sega's most overlooked classics.