Unique but Flawed - Sonic CD (Sega CD, 1993) Review
NOTE: This review is part 3 in a retrospective on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective
Well guys, because of the Coronavirus I’m going to be stuck in my house for the next couple months, all of my college classes are online only now, so with all that extra time I have, I should go do what I do best - write about my awful opinions on the internet.
So, when I was first getting into the Sonic franchise and fandom, I remember Sonic CD being often touted as the best game in the series. I mean, at the very least I remember it being #1 on ScrewAttack’s old Top 5 Best Sonic Games list, but over time I feel like that regard has pretty much completely declined as time has gone on. A lot more people have become more critical of the game in recent years, and many would argue it doesn’t hold up very well compared to the original Genesis trilogy.
And I can say that I remember liking this a lot when I first played it - I had gotten it on my brother’s Xbox 360 around March or April 2012, and for a while I considered my second favorite classic game and probably my second favorite Sonic game of all time. But I can also say that over time that position has fallen. As time has gone on I feel like my enjoyment of the game has lessened and I don’t find myself going back to it as often as I used to for one reason or another.
I should start off by saying this game has a bit more of a story to it compared to 1 and 2, where Sonic finds “Little Planet” chained to the Earth, the result of Robotnik/Eggman using it for his robot army. He goes into the planet while being followed by Amy Rose, who is captured by Metal Sonic leading Sonic to now have to save her on top of the planet. It’s still a pretty simple story overall, but still more than what Sonic 1 or 2 had. This is also the introduction of both Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, two of my personal favorite characters in the series, so there’s that too.
But one thing I’ve always liked about this game is it’s presentation. With the use of CD technology, they were able to do more with the higher storage capacity and it allowed for stuff like FMV and CD-quality audio. Granted on the original Sega CD, the FMV looks like garbage, but I can definitely say I’ve always liked the intro to this game - Sonic just running through open fields with an anime art style with Sonic Boom or Toot Toot Sonic Warrior playing in the background, I do think that it really captures the essence of the character and franchise in general. I still consider it potentially one of my favorite game “intros” ever and possibly my favorite out of the Sonic series in general.
I also did talk about how Sonic 1 and 2 managed to give Sonic himself a lot of personality, and I think this game does add to that, not only with the intro, but also within the game itself of course. From what I can tell, this is the first time Sonic ever had a voice (at least in the games anyway since Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog existed). It’s not really used outside of a couple voice lines, but he does say “Yes!” every time you get an extra life, and after three minutes of leaving the game idle, he shouts “I’m outta here!” before jumping out of the screen, which I still find to be a funny Easter Egg. Honestly I would’ve really appreciated it
Graphically, I do find the game to be generally a step up from the first two Genesis games. At the very least, I would say the environments “pop” a lot more with a bigger color palette while also generally being more detailed. I have heard some people consider it to be a bit much, but I’ve always liked this game’s art style and it definitely feels like they built off the series’ look prior to this game.
The soundtracks are also pretty great too. There are two different soundtracks, one being used in Europe and Japan with the other being used in North America, and while I do have a preference for the Japanese soundtrack (potentially being one of my favorite soundtracks in the series in general), the North American soundtrack is pretty good too.
But, with presentation aside, I’m now left to look at the gameplay itself. It’s about the same as the first two Sonic games, although despite coming out after Sonic 2 I’ve always felt this game felt like more of a sequel to Sonic 1 then a sequel to Sonic 2. And playing it again while also looking at other reviews for the game on top of researching about the game’s development leaves me to believe this game was built off of Sonic 1’s overall design moreso than Sonic 2’s. This game feels a lot more designed around platforming and exploration, compared to Sonic 2 which generally had more of a focus on speed and learning the overall “flow” of the levels while also looking out for branching pathways that change the dynamic of each level. And as someone who generally prefers that Sonic design philosophy… I do have to say that Sonic CD isn’t always my personal cup of tea.
I think one big gripe I have about Sonic CD’s level design overall is that, well, I think the first 2 games were generally designed better around the multiple ways people would play a Sonic game. I mean, Sonic 1 feels a lot more like a platforming-based game than a speed based game but I still feel there’s enough room for speed and flow once you really learn the ins and outs of the level. Sonic 2 has more of an emphasis on speed but it’s still a lot of fun to replay the game to find alternative paths to go through and stuff like that. But I think with Sonic CD is that the levels are primarily designed around the exploration of the levels first and foremost… but aren’t well designed around anything else. And playing the game again, it kind of hit me that playing the game like a normal Sonic game and just going through the levels normally feels a bit more shallow compared to Sonic 2 and even the first game. The game often punishes you for trying to speed through the levels with it’s placement of walls and hazards, and I just don’t really feel the need to learn the actual “flow” of the levels which is something I liked doing in Sonic 1 and 2. And compared to the satisfaction I get from completing a level in either of those games, I often just feel nothing when I finish a level in Sonic CD. And I think this just ends up being a consistent issue I have with Sonic CD in general.
Now, it does seem like there were some intentions to design the game around speed and momentum. The “Super Peel Out” is a new ability that allows for Sonic to get a boost of speed when pressing the up button and one of the face buttons at the same time, although unlike the spin dash is unable to take out robots or enemies. This didn’t really become a mainstay Sonic ability, but it would be used in some of the Game Gear games as well as Sonic Lost World U and Mania. However, the spin dash is also here and while from what I can tell the “Super Peel Out” is faster I almost never feel like there’s any real reason to use it. Again, these levels just aren’t designed for speeding through and don’t really have much of a flow, and when I want to get a boost of speed I’d rather just get a slightly slower boost from the spin dash that can also take out enemies than a slightly faster boost from the Super Peel Out that can’t. Honestly I feel like this move had more of a reason to exist in Sonic 2 as well as some of the later Sonic games that would use more of a flow and speed-based design philosophy like Advance or Rush than it really did in this game, and at least here it just feels kind of pointless.
To be fair to this game, I am judging it more or less how I would typically play a Sonic game, and Sonic CD is trying to be unique on a certain front by having bigger levels more open to exploration. And on this front… truth be told I still find it somewhat flawed. This game has a unique feature to it with it’s time travel mechanic. If you go past a sign that says “future” or “past,” maintain a level of consistent speed you’ll be transported to that time period, and there’s four different variations of each level consisting of a “present,” “past,” “bad future” and “good future,” the latter two changing depending on whether you have A. all the time stones or B. have taken out the robot generators in each “past” level. The third act with the boss always ends up being one of the two different future variations depending on whether you’ve filled one of those criteria.
Now, the time travel mechanic with it’s dynamic levels is a concept I like, and one thing that really helped the game stand out to me. I’ve always been interested in time travel as a concept and theoretically this just adds more replay value to this game. However, I’m not entirely fond of it’s implementation here. Like I said, you have to maintain a consistent speed to access the past or future after going past their respective sign posts, but with my already stated issues with the level design this is easier said than done. There are sometimes little areas that compensate for carrying a consistent speed (typically small pits with springs on both sides) but the game doesn’t really do this that often from what I can tell and otherwise trying to maintain that speed feels like you really have to master the flow of each level in order to do so especially as you go through the game and it makes this element of the game feel kind of tedious overall.
I’m just going to say that when replaying this game for review, I tried to look for and destroy the robot generators and Metal Sonic holograms in each level and complete the game that way, but I ultimately just gave up after the third or fourth zone or so. One reason for this was trying to maintain that level of speed for a period of time while the game is really just not designed for that sort of thing and there were even times where I swear I kept a flow of speed yet it simply didn’t work for whatever reason. I mean, if you just make one tiny mistake at the end while trying to maintain that speed flow, Sonic just won’t travel through time. It really feels like you have to do it perfectly, and again, with how the game’s designed it just feels a lot easier said than done.
And even when I did manage to go back to the past, well… exploring the levels for the generators and holograms just kind of felt like a chore in of itself. Sonic CD’s levels in general are massive and once you get into the exploration aspect it’s pretty easy to get lost in the stage looking for the generators. Trying to hunt them down can take a pretty long time depending both on the stage itself and whether you know the ins and outs of the stage. I mean, I remember when I first played Sonic Adventure 2 and found the treasure hunting stages to be annoying and stuff but it’s basically nothing compared to trying to hunt down the generators and holograms in this game. I mean, I guess at least there you had a radar which wasn’t perfect but still helped.
And honestly, one of my issues with this is that I really just don’t see much of a reason to go for the generators or holograms. I guess having the “good future” in the first few levels is a nice reward but at the same time all that really comes down to is the color palette changing and even then you can still unlock at least the rest of the game’s good future stages by completing the special stages within the first 3 zones and first act of the fourth as well as the good ending and on that front, the “good” ending isn’t really that different from the “bad” ending aside for the final scene showing Little Planet either still being tethered to the Earth or restored to its original place.
And as far as the levels themselves go, they can also be a mixed bag on their own front. Some levels are pretty great, others are just solid but uninteresting but there is one level I definitely feel is annoying and that’s Wacky Workbench. You’re constantly being pushed upwards by the floor while these electric hazards in the background hurt you. And there are times where the higher paths just end in a dead end, so ultimately the biggest obstacle and hassle of these levels is just trying to stay close to the bottom. And other than that, this level just feels a bit too empty, there’s not really much in the way of enemies and there’s not really much of an advantage to taking the top paths over the other, at the worst those paths being more of a disadvantage than anything.
I guess that’s kind of another issue I have with Sonic CD’s level design though, where there’s just a lot of times where I feel the levels are kind of… empty. I initially thought my issue was that the levels were too big and convoluted but in retrospect that’s just kind of one part of a bigger issue I have with the levels in general. Like I said previously, I often just feel empty whenever I complete a level in Sonic CD compared to the first 2 games and I think the issue there is that the levels are massive yet… don’t really have much substance to them. It’s not just that their big, but they're big yet just don’t actually have much to them aside for some exploration. There are other Sonic games that would incorporate exploration as a part of the gameplay, namely Sonic 3 & Knuckles as well as Sonic Mania, and I think that both of those games refined this element while also not completely alienating other playstyles, but I guess I’ll get to those eventually.
So, up to here it looks like I’m being pretty negative towards Sonic CD, but at the same time, but all of my issues with it… I still did enjoy playing it again. I’d still probably consider it my least favorite out of the Genesis platformers, but the good moments were definitely there and memorable. Some stages - particularly Stardust Speedway - were still fun to play through regardless of other design issues and I would still go as far as to say that this game does have some of my favorite moments of the Sonic franchise in general such as the intro as well as the Metal Sonic race.
And while this game is fairly polarizing among Sonic fans, it still does have it’s fans and while it may not be my personal cup of tea I can still understand where there is appeal to this game, particularly it’s style and just overall unique feel compared to other 2D Sonic games. Some really enjoy the particular focus on exploration, and to those fans of the game who consider it among their favorites - well, I’m glad you enjoy it. It may not be my personal favorite Sonic game but the appeal is there and some will get more of a kick out of it than I did.
All things considered too, is that overall I still enjoy this game. Even if I don’t enjoy it as much as Sonic 1, 2 or 3 & Knuckles myself, I can still go back to it from time to time and find plenty of things to like about it myself. I’d probably say ranking the Sonic games this game would still probably fall into the “B” category for me which means while it’s not my favorite, I can still get a kick out of it. And I’d probably say it’s worth playing. You can get the 2011 remastered version of this game on Steam, PSN or XBLA for $5 or on mobile with ads for free and I’d definitely consider it the best way to play this game. There is the original Sega CD version too but most people probably don’t have a Sega CD and buying one now can be a bit on the pricey side. There’s also the GameCube Gems Collection versions and 1996 PC versions but at that point I would just recommend the 2011 version.
Well guys, because of the Coronavirus I’m going to be stuck in my house for the next couple months, all of my college classes are online only now, so with all that extra time I have, I should go do what I do best - write about my awful opinions on the internet.
So, when I was first getting into the Sonic franchise and fandom, I remember Sonic CD being often touted as the best game in the series. I mean, at the very least I remember it being #1 on ScrewAttack’s old Top 5 Best Sonic Games list, but over time I feel like that regard has pretty much completely declined as time has gone on. A lot more people have become more critical of the game in recent years, and many would argue it doesn’t hold up very well compared to the original Genesis trilogy.
And I can say that I remember liking this a lot when I first played it - I had gotten it on my brother’s Xbox 360 around March or April 2012, and for a while I considered my second favorite classic game and probably my second favorite Sonic game of all time. But I can also say that over time that position has fallen. As time has gone on I feel like my enjoyment of the game has lessened and I don’t find myself going back to it as often as I used to for one reason or another.
I should start off by saying this game has a bit more of a story to it compared to 1 and 2, where Sonic finds “Little Planet” chained to the Earth, the result of Robotnik/Eggman using it for his robot army. He goes into the planet while being followed by Amy Rose, who is captured by Metal Sonic leading Sonic to now have to save her on top of the planet. It’s still a pretty simple story overall, but still more than what Sonic 1 or 2 had. This is also the introduction of both Amy Rose and Metal Sonic, two of my personal favorite characters in the series, so there’s that too.
But one thing I’ve always liked about this game is it’s presentation. With the use of CD technology, they were able to do more with the higher storage capacity and it allowed for stuff like FMV and CD-quality audio. Granted on the original Sega CD, the FMV looks like garbage, but I can definitely say I’ve always liked the intro to this game - Sonic just running through open fields with an anime art style with Sonic Boom or Toot Toot Sonic Warrior playing in the background, I do think that it really captures the essence of the character and franchise in general. I still consider it potentially one of my favorite game “intros” ever and possibly my favorite out of the Sonic series in general.
I also did talk about how Sonic 1 and 2 managed to give Sonic himself a lot of personality, and I think this game does add to that, not only with the intro, but also within the game itself of course. From what I can tell, this is the first time Sonic ever had a voice (at least in the games anyway since Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog existed). It’s not really used outside of a couple voice lines, but he does say “Yes!” every time you get an extra life, and after three minutes of leaving the game idle, he shouts “I’m outta here!” before jumping out of the screen, which I still find to be a funny Easter Egg. Honestly I would’ve really appreciated it
Graphically, I do find the game to be generally a step up from the first two Genesis games. At the very least, I would say the environments “pop” a lot more with a bigger color palette while also generally being more detailed. I have heard some people consider it to be a bit much, but I’ve always liked this game’s art style and it definitely feels like they built off the series’ look prior to this game.
The soundtracks are also pretty great too. There are two different soundtracks, one being used in Europe and Japan with the other being used in North America, and while I do have a preference for the Japanese soundtrack (potentially being one of my favorite soundtracks in the series in general), the North American soundtrack is pretty good too.
But, with presentation aside, I’m now left to look at the gameplay itself. It’s about the same as the first two Sonic games, although despite coming out after Sonic 2 I’ve always felt this game felt like more of a sequel to Sonic 1 then a sequel to Sonic 2. And playing it again while also looking at other reviews for the game on top of researching about the game’s development leaves me to believe this game was built off of Sonic 1’s overall design moreso than Sonic 2’s. This game feels a lot more designed around platforming and exploration, compared to Sonic 2 which generally had more of a focus on speed and learning the overall “flow” of the levels while also looking out for branching pathways that change the dynamic of each level. And as someone who generally prefers that Sonic design philosophy… I do have to say that Sonic CD isn’t always my personal cup of tea.
I think one big gripe I have about Sonic CD’s level design overall is that, well, I think the first 2 games were generally designed better around the multiple ways people would play a Sonic game. I mean, Sonic 1 feels a lot more like a platforming-based game than a speed based game but I still feel there’s enough room for speed and flow once you really learn the ins and outs of the level. Sonic 2 has more of an emphasis on speed but it’s still a lot of fun to replay the game to find alternative paths to go through and stuff like that. But I think with Sonic CD is that the levels are primarily designed around the exploration of the levels first and foremost… but aren’t well designed around anything else. And playing the game again, it kind of hit me that playing the game like a normal Sonic game and just going through the levels normally feels a bit more shallow compared to Sonic 2 and even the first game. The game often punishes you for trying to speed through the levels with it’s placement of walls and hazards, and I just don’t really feel the need to learn the actual “flow” of the levels which is something I liked doing in Sonic 1 and 2. And compared to the satisfaction I get from completing a level in either of those games, I often just feel nothing when I finish a level in Sonic CD. And I think this just ends up being a consistent issue I have with Sonic CD in general.
Now, it does seem like there were some intentions to design the game around speed and momentum. The “Super Peel Out” is a new ability that allows for Sonic to get a boost of speed when pressing the up button and one of the face buttons at the same time, although unlike the spin dash is unable to take out robots or enemies. This didn’t really become a mainstay Sonic ability, but it would be used in some of the Game Gear games as well as Sonic Lost World U and Mania. However, the spin dash is also here and while from what I can tell the “Super Peel Out” is faster I almost never feel like there’s any real reason to use it. Again, these levels just aren’t designed for speeding through and don’t really have much of a flow, and when I want to get a boost of speed I’d rather just get a slightly slower boost from the spin dash that can also take out enemies than a slightly faster boost from the Super Peel Out that can’t. Honestly I feel like this move had more of a reason to exist in Sonic 2 as well as some of the later Sonic games that would use more of a flow and speed-based design philosophy like Advance or Rush than it really did in this game, and at least here it just feels kind of pointless.
To be fair to this game, I am judging it more or less how I would typically play a Sonic game, and Sonic CD is trying to be unique on a certain front by having bigger levels more open to exploration. And on this front… truth be told I still find it somewhat flawed. This game has a unique feature to it with it’s time travel mechanic. If you go past a sign that says “future” or “past,” maintain a level of consistent speed you’ll be transported to that time period, and there’s four different variations of each level consisting of a “present,” “past,” “bad future” and “good future,” the latter two changing depending on whether you have A. all the time stones or B. have taken out the robot generators in each “past” level. The third act with the boss always ends up being one of the two different future variations depending on whether you’ve filled one of those criteria.
Now, the time travel mechanic with it’s dynamic levels is a concept I like, and one thing that really helped the game stand out to me. I’ve always been interested in time travel as a concept and theoretically this just adds more replay value to this game. However, I’m not entirely fond of it’s implementation here. Like I said, you have to maintain a consistent speed to access the past or future after going past their respective sign posts, but with my already stated issues with the level design this is easier said than done. There are sometimes little areas that compensate for carrying a consistent speed (typically small pits with springs on both sides) but the game doesn’t really do this that often from what I can tell and otherwise trying to maintain that speed feels like you really have to master the flow of each level in order to do so especially as you go through the game and it makes this element of the game feel kind of tedious overall.
I’m just going to say that when replaying this game for review, I tried to look for and destroy the robot generators and Metal Sonic holograms in each level and complete the game that way, but I ultimately just gave up after the third or fourth zone or so. One reason for this was trying to maintain that level of speed for a period of time while the game is really just not designed for that sort of thing and there were even times where I swear I kept a flow of speed yet it simply didn’t work for whatever reason. I mean, if you just make one tiny mistake at the end while trying to maintain that speed flow, Sonic just won’t travel through time. It really feels like you have to do it perfectly, and again, with how the game’s designed it just feels a lot easier said than done.
And even when I did manage to go back to the past, well… exploring the levels for the generators and holograms just kind of felt like a chore in of itself. Sonic CD’s levels in general are massive and once you get into the exploration aspect it’s pretty easy to get lost in the stage looking for the generators. Trying to hunt them down can take a pretty long time depending both on the stage itself and whether you know the ins and outs of the stage. I mean, I remember when I first played Sonic Adventure 2 and found the treasure hunting stages to be annoying and stuff but it’s basically nothing compared to trying to hunt down the generators and holograms in this game. I mean, I guess at least there you had a radar which wasn’t perfect but still helped.
And honestly, one of my issues with this is that I really just don’t see much of a reason to go for the generators or holograms. I guess having the “good future” in the first few levels is a nice reward but at the same time all that really comes down to is the color palette changing and even then you can still unlock at least the rest of the game’s good future stages by completing the special stages within the first 3 zones and first act of the fourth as well as the good ending and on that front, the “good” ending isn’t really that different from the “bad” ending aside for the final scene showing Little Planet either still being tethered to the Earth or restored to its original place.
And as far as the levels themselves go, they can also be a mixed bag on their own front. Some levels are pretty great, others are just solid but uninteresting but there is one level I definitely feel is annoying and that’s Wacky Workbench. You’re constantly being pushed upwards by the floor while these electric hazards in the background hurt you. And there are times where the higher paths just end in a dead end, so ultimately the biggest obstacle and hassle of these levels is just trying to stay close to the bottom. And other than that, this level just feels a bit too empty, there’s not really much in the way of enemies and there’s not really much of an advantage to taking the top paths over the other, at the worst those paths being more of a disadvantage than anything.
I guess that’s kind of another issue I have with Sonic CD’s level design though, where there’s just a lot of times where I feel the levels are kind of… empty. I initially thought my issue was that the levels were too big and convoluted but in retrospect that’s just kind of one part of a bigger issue I have with the levels in general. Like I said previously, I often just feel empty whenever I complete a level in Sonic CD compared to the first 2 games and I think the issue there is that the levels are massive yet… don’t really have much substance to them. It’s not just that their big, but they're big yet just don’t actually have much to them aside for some exploration. There are other Sonic games that would incorporate exploration as a part of the gameplay, namely Sonic 3 & Knuckles as well as Sonic Mania, and I think that both of those games refined this element while also not completely alienating other playstyles, but I guess I’ll get to those eventually.
So, up to here it looks like I’m being pretty negative towards Sonic CD, but at the same time, but all of my issues with it… I still did enjoy playing it again. I’d still probably consider it my least favorite out of the Genesis platformers, but the good moments were definitely there and memorable. Some stages - particularly Stardust Speedway - were still fun to play through regardless of other design issues and I would still go as far as to say that this game does have some of my favorite moments of the Sonic franchise in general such as the intro as well as the Metal Sonic race.
And while this game is fairly polarizing among Sonic fans, it still does have it’s fans and while it may not be my personal cup of tea I can still understand where there is appeal to this game, particularly it’s style and just overall unique feel compared to other 2D Sonic games. Some really enjoy the particular focus on exploration, and to those fans of the game who consider it among their favorites - well, I’m glad you enjoy it. It may not be my personal favorite Sonic game but the appeal is there and some will get more of a kick out of it than I did.
All things considered too, is that overall I still enjoy this game. Even if I don’t enjoy it as much as Sonic 1, 2 or 3 & Knuckles myself, I can still go back to it from time to time and find plenty of things to like about it myself. I’d probably say ranking the Sonic games this game would still probably fall into the “B” category for me which means while it’s not my favorite, I can still get a kick out of it. And I’d probably say it’s worth playing. You can get the 2011 remastered version of this game on Steam, PSN or XBLA for $5 or on mobile with ads for free and I’d definitely consider it the best way to play this game. There is the original Sega CD version too but most people probably don’t have a Sega CD and buying one now can be a bit on the pricey side. There’s also the GameCube Gems Collection versions and 1996 PC versions but at that point I would just recommend the 2011 version.
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