Thanks to Xyloverse for watching me stream this and play through this game twice in one sitting. I genuinely can't believe I've known a fair amount about this game for so long yet have just now gotten to playing through it for the first time.

Sonic CD is a strange game. Not really concerned with pushing the Sonic formula forward as it is bringing its own spin on things by sidestepping straight Innovation in exchange for having some of the most experimental design in the series. Levels are twisted playgrounds of all sorts of different ideas and mechanics and feels it yearns to be more deeply explored through all the past-present-future possibilities rather than strictly sped through, with continuous speed more or less rewarding you with the ability to travel to the different times. Even outside of things mechanically being different in the same stage for the different times, I found the drastic aesthetic changes more than incentive enough to at least attempt to see every possible version of each stage. Which I wasn't able to do in two playthroughs myself so I think it speaks for itself that this game has almost endless replayability with how differently you can approach levels.

It certainly isn't without its faults as not all levels are necessarily great and some mechanics aren't as fleshed out as much as they could have been, but Sonic CD comes together as such a unique experience that I think everyone interested in video games should at least play once to at least witness its beauty in action. That and play with Japanese audio if you can, the music is way better in that version and it even has an exclusive final boss theme that was completely scrapped from the American release and replaced by the normal boss theme.