okay, this review may very well be cheating - i played sonic cd++, a hack that adds an sa1-style homing attack and a sonic 2-style spindash. the ability to home into enemies is a bonus, but being able to dash in the air does a lot to spruce 2d sonic. it's almost TOO good for this game; the sega cd already crushes under the weight of sonic... taking damage, and then you have this move that cause sonic to collide with terrain way too fast and (ahem) briefly fall into one of dr. robotnik's evil traps. it also trivializes metal sonic, so make of that what you will.

that said, i'd be lying if i said my opinion on sonic cd hasn't turned full around by this shiny new playthrough. maybe this is affected by my playthrough of the middling, frustrating, creatively-safe, rigid sonic pocket adventure - it was refreshing to play a 2d sonic game that tried everything it could to be NOT the usual genesis game. it doesn't all work - i'm not fond of wacky workbench act 1, still. however, i found that exploring the levels and searching for generators in the past played out much better than i remember. i didn't even hate special stages as much? look, i also used save states when i felt it was necessary, sue me.

sonic cd is a visual and auditory triumph, even with its odd us soundtrack. sonic cd is an usual 2d platformer that wants the player to indulge in its own cartoon rules. oh i can only wonder what typical Dale Crandell, member of SoA's desired 6-14 male demographic, made of such a surrealist sonic game. did he hate it? did he get confused? did he have a weird magazine-reading friend that told him about how there's a version where the music is different?

different.

yes.

sonic cd is different.

built different, even.

sonic cd is a different animal, but so am i.