An Ode to Sonic CD

Sonic the Hedgehog has been my favorite game series since I was a kid. The First game I can remember playing was "Sonic The Hedgehog 2" when I got a Sega Genesis for Christmas when in elementary school.

Since then, I've played almost every Sonic game I can get my hands on. One game always seem to elude me however, "Sonic CD." Thankfully, Xbox Live gave me the opportunity to finally play this game, and it was worth the wait.

I always thought "Sonic CD" was released a year or two after "Sonic & Knuckles," but it actually was released a year after "Sonic 2." Back when there wasn't the internet at my finger tips, I had no idea that the two major people responsible for the first sonic game couldn't agree on the second. So they broke up and decided to make their own sonic games.

Since the Sega CD console wasn't cheap, more people played "Sonic 2." However, "Sonic CD" was released to good acclaim and became a hidden treasure. I never knew why, but after playing it the past week, I see why it is.

"Sonic CD" in the grand scheme of old sonic games pretty much embodied the trend in the videogame industry at the time. Sega was in an arms race with Nintendo for video game supremacy. Both companies were trying to one-up each other with games and gadgets. So "Sonic CD" took the first sonic game and tried to do as many new things as they could leading to the story, game play and atmosphere being innovative.

When you think of a Sonic game, the story is pretty simple. Sonic defeats the mad scientist Robotnik and his machines to keep the world clean and natural. "Sonic CD" actually played that out without anyone having to read a manual to understand it. The opening cinematic sums up the story well enough. Sonic finds a small world Robotnik is trying to control.

The player then finds out the new game play mechanic that makes this game special. Sign posts throughout the game labeled "past" or "future" allow sonic, when traveling at a constant high speed, to go into the past or future of the level.

This added a completely new angle to playing sonic. Sure, getting through the level as fast as possible was still there, but it came with a cost. It would lead to the "bad future."

This leads to the atmosphere. With Robotnik and his robots on the planet, he wants to turn the world into one huge industrialized mechanic nightmare. If player's reach the bad future, the background and level become polluted with smog and poisoned water. The level's music even gets somber and more mechanical, destroying the once beautiful land.

However, going to the past, the level is prehistoric, untouched by modern technology. The music is simpler and there are less hazards and enemies. There is a machine creating the robots, and if Sonic destroys it, it makes the good future where the world is in perfect balance with machine and nature.

It makes finding the past sign posts, and avoiding the future ones a challenge. No other Sonic game from the Genesis era played like this. Most levels followed a linear straight forward path. "Sonic CD" challenged that and made huge levels to explore. It's a nice mix of speed and exploration, a unique experience in a retro Sonic game.

It's also fun to see each level in the past, present and good/bad future. The same level can look drastically different. Another level, tidal tempest, is a water level at the foot of a volcano in the present. There are structures in the background resembling a shrine.

In the past, the level looks as if it's now in a cave of a volcano, before man has changed it. In the good future, the level now looks like a clean futuristic temple. The rock formations blend in smoothly with the added metal, like it belongs together. In the bad future, no more natural rock remains, replaced with decrepit structures and Robotniks face everywhere.

The attention to detail was second-to-none and it really makes "Sonic CD" stand out. This game also brought us Metal Sonic and Amy Rose, two characters represented in the modern Sonic games.

It's amazing to look back and see what game developers accomplished with the limited technology they had. Playing it now, it really doesn't feel like the game has aged. I felt that rush of playing a new game, even though it was released 20 years ago.

I'm glad I've been able to play and appreciate this game. There are still a few other Sonic games I need to play, but being able to cross this game off the list has been a rewarding and entertaining experience.