2022 has surprisingly become "THE YEAR OF SONIC" for me. For my background with this little blue fuck, go check out my Sonic 1 review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/ZachSnyderProd/review/565506/
Anyways, now it's time for Sonic CD. This is a game that I know absolutely NOTHING about. Sure, I've heard of it before, but I thought it was just a spinoff. It’s not? Apparently it’s an actual sequel that introduces Amy, Metal Sonic, and the Spin Dash. But why is it called "Sonic CD"? (enter CDeez nuts joke) Ohh it was for the Sega Genesis CD Add-On.
Fortunately, continuing my journey through the 2d Sonic games has been made exceptionally easier with the Sonic Origins Collection. Through it's "Mission Mode", you can play Sonic 1, CD, 2, and 3 back-to-back - all with brand new cutscenes combining the games into a seamless experience. This, combined with infinite continues, makes this collection a worthwhile investment if you’ve never played these games before. (Though its $40 price tag is still too steep, so you should probably wait for a sale)
After my frustrated plunge through Sonic 1, it felt really good to jump into Sonic CD. This is an entirely different game. Seriously, the level design is night and day compared to Sonic 1. While Sonic 1 has multiple levels designed around slow and precise platforming, Sonic CD bathes in the glory of GOING FAST. Imagine a 2D Sonic game where your prime objective is to GO FAST. It almost sounds too good to be true.
Sonic CD is fun. That’s really all I need out of these games. Give me a fun 2-4 hour excursion through wacky and lively worlds, with kickass music, and a bit of spectacle. “Sonic CD gets Sonic.” That’s my one-sentence-IGN review for this game.
Palmtree Panic Zone is a great first stage. It’s giving Green Hill Zone, but with a more interesting aesthetic. Collision Chaos Zone has a few confusing moments, where you’re not quite sure where to go, but I love that it’s just one big Pinball game. Tidal Tempest has water sections that actually work! What a concept. Quartz Quadrant and Stardust Speedway are both solid Sonic zones. It’s hard for me to have specific things to say about them, because they were just inherently fun and I never got frustrated. There’s moments in Wacky Workbench and Metallic Madness were I did get frustrated, but it was never on the same level as Sonic 1. Even when I didn’t know where to go, at least I could have fun playing around with the large bounce pads. OH YEAH and Sonic gets tiny in Metallic Madness... Love that!
When it comes to boss fights, I’m a bit split. On one hand, they’re way more engaging than Sonic 1’s stupid simple “bosses”. In Sonic CD, spectacle plays a large part in these moments. Race Metal Sonic to the end of a large obstacle course, play pinball to reach Eggman at the very top, avoid bombs on a treadmill so that the blast reaches Eggman’s machine. Almost all of these fights are fun, engaging, and conceptually interesting… except for the final boss…
The final boss starts with the most difficult platforming section in the game. Move across bottomless pits on disappearing MegaMan 1 style platforms, while pinball bounce pads can launch you into oblivion. Follow that up with these lightning bug enemies that shoot lasers at you every 3 seconds, whose hitboxes are so sporadic, that I constantly ended up at the Eggman fight with 0 rings. Now here’s Eggman with a propeller that goes 75 MPH, where you need to attack him at just the right direction to beat him. It’d be one thing if I lost at the Eggman fight and had to redo it a few times… it’s a whole other battle to do this entire runup to him, only to have 0 rings and die, because I didn’t launch Sonic in a 45 degree angle at just the right time. It’s a final boss, so I expect it to be difficult, but the rest of the game felt so balanced in its difficulty curve, that I did NOT expect to spend 30 minutes on this section alone.
Final boss aside, I did really enjoy my time with Sonic CD. While I never wanna touch Sonic 1 again, there’s an entire mechanic in CD that I didn’t really interface with, so I’m actually interested enough in replaying it in the future. There’s these signposts that take Sonic into the Past and the Future, and by running into them, it launches Sonic into different variations of the stages. I ran into a lot of these, but I don’t quite understand which ones I entered and how they changed the stage. The cool thing is - I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. If I want to, I never have to play Sonic CD again, but if I feel the itch to play a 2D Sonic game again, I can absolutely see myself replaying it and exploring each of the levels a bit more. To me, that’s where video games are at its best.
Anyways, now it's time for Sonic CD. This is a game that I know absolutely NOTHING about. Sure, I've heard of it before, but I thought it was just a spinoff. It’s not? Apparently it’s an actual sequel that introduces Amy, Metal Sonic, and the Spin Dash. But why is it called "Sonic CD"? (enter CDeez nuts joke) Ohh it was for the Sega Genesis CD Add-On.
Fortunately, continuing my journey through the 2d Sonic games has been made exceptionally easier with the Sonic Origins Collection. Through it's "Mission Mode", you can play Sonic 1, CD, 2, and 3 back-to-back - all with brand new cutscenes combining the games into a seamless experience. This, combined with infinite continues, makes this collection a worthwhile investment if you’ve never played these games before. (Though its $40 price tag is still too steep, so you should probably wait for a sale)
After my frustrated plunge through Sonic 1, it felt really good to jump into Sonic CD. This is an entirely different game. Seriously, the level design is night and day compared to Sonic 1. While Sonic 1 has multiple levels designed around slow and precise platforming, Sonic CD bathes in the glory of GOING FAST. Imagine a 2D Sonic game where your prime objective is to GO FAST. It almost sounds too good to be true.
Sonic CD is fun. That’s really all I need out of these games. Give me a fun 2-4 hour excursion through wacky and lively worlds, with kickass music, and a bit of spectacle. “Sonic CD gets Sonic.” That’s my one-sentence-IGN review for this game.
Palmtree Panic Zone is a great first stage. It’s giving Green Hill Zone, but with a more interesting aesthetic. Collision Chaos Zone has a few confusing moments, where you’re not quite sure where to go, but I love that it’s just one big Pinball game. Tidal Tempest has water sections that actually work! What a concept. Quartz Quadrant and Stardust Speedway are both solid Sonic zones. It’s hard for me to have specific things to say about them, because they were just inherently fun and I never got frustrated. There’s moments in Wacky Workbench and Metallic Madness were I did get frustrated, but it was never on the same level as Sonic 1. Even when I didn’t know where to go, at least I could have fun playing around with the large bounce pads. OH YEAH and Sonic gets tiny in Metallic Madness... Love that!
When it comes to boss fights, I’m a bit split. On one hand, they’re way more engaging than Sonic 1’s stupid simple “bosses”. In Sonic CD, spectacle plays a large part in these moments. Race Metal Sonic to the end of a large obstacle course, play pinball to reach Eggman at the very top, avoid bombs on a treadmill so that the blast reaches Eggman’s machine. Almost all of these fights are fun, engaging, and conceptually interesting… except for the final boss…
The final boss starts with the most difficult platforming section in the game. Move across bottomless pits on disappearing MegaMan 1 style platforms, while pinball bounce pads can launch you into oblivion. Follow that up with these lightning bug enemies that shoot lasers at you every 3 seconds, whose hitboxes are so sporadic, that I constantly ended up at the Eggman fight with 0 rings. Now here’s Eggman with a propeller that goes 75 MPH, where you need to attack him at just the right direction to beat him. It’d be one thing if I lost at the Eggman fight and had to redo it a few times… it’s a whole other battle to do this entire runup to him, only to have 0 rings and die, because I didn’t launch Sonic in a 45 degree angle at just the right time. It’s a final boss, so I expect it to be difficult, but the rest of the game felt so balanced in its difficulty curve, that I did NOT expect to spend 30 minutes on this section alone.
Final boss aside, I did really enjoy my time with Sonic CD. While I never wanna touch Sonic 1 again, there’s an entire mechanic in CD that I didn’t really interface with, so I’m actually interested enough in replaying it in the future. There’s these signposts that take Sonic into the Past and the Future, and by running into them, it launches Sonic into different variations of the stages. I ran into a lot of these, but I don’t quite understand which ones I entered and how they changed the stage. The cool thing is - I don’t feel like I missed out on anything. If I want to, I never have to play Sonic CD again, but if I feel the itch to play a 2D Sonic game again, I can absolutely see myself replaying it and exploring each of the levels a bit more. To me, that’s where video games are at its best.