HUH. TURNS OUT IF YOU ACTUALLY LOOK UP HOW TO PLAY THIS GAME IT’S A LOT MORE FUN. WHO WOULDA THUNK IT.
Like, okay. It’s understandable that the first time I played this (going in thinking, “Oh, sweet, a classic Sonic game I haven’t played!!”) I had a bad time. Like. Sonic games are usually shockingly brilliant at teaching you how to play them? And Sonic CD kinda just... doesn’t do that at all? I guess if I had taken the time to look at the instruction manual and figure out how the time travel mechanic works instead of just being like “huh, that’s a confusing thing that I can’t figure out intuitively what to do with it, oh well!” like I did the first time, it mighta helped. But, yeah! I didn’t do that! So I decided that Sonic CD was just The Only Bad One.
Now, it’s a whole new ballgame! I don’t know where I’m gonna land on this thing as of yet, just to be clear. But if my experience playing the first zone is any indication, there’s a decent chance I’m gonna have a good time.
Before we get to that, though. Let me just also say that one thing my feelings didn’t change about was that opening cinematic. That one was love at first sight, and yeah. I mean. The whole point of it is basically, “Sonic is so cool oh my gosh look how cool he is!” So. Kinda hard to imagine not getting my buy-in on that one.
Palmtree Panic Zone (2/13)
Okay technically this is “Palmtree Panic Round,” and the acts are called zones, because Sonic CD is weird!! But I get stubborn about dumb shit sometimes and I’ve decided to make this one of those things, so, we’re gonna call them zones anyway! Deal with it. (I don’t know who I’m telling to deal with it. The game I guess? You probably don’t care XD)
So, yeah! I played through Act 1 once without reading up on how time travel actually works, and it turns out when you finish this zone in the present right before you get to the goal plate Amy gloms onto you and you have to escape to finish the act. Yikes! I also saw the bad future in that first playthrough and the whole zone was basically roboticized (not actually the right term for this but you get the idea) and polluted, so that sucked!
Anyway, at this point I’m like, “Y’know what? I bet this whole time travel thing is important. I’m gonna read up on it and start over.” And WOW was that ever a great idea!! This time around I got good futures for both Acts 1 & 2, and picked up a time stone in a Special Stage after Act 1. I also collected 3 extra lives in Act 1 and 2 in Act 2, ending the zone with a total of 8! So that kinda ruled.
So, yeah! I’m understanding now that the gameplay in this one is really a lot more interested in exploring the zones fully! Or at the very least going back to the past to destroy the robot transporter, unlocking the good future! And you don’t have to go forward to the future once you do so, but it’s super helpful because you can run around the zone with no Badniks whatsoever, collecting rings and extra lives (I got over 200 rings in Act 1!). So, yeah. It seems like a good idea! And also something I totally missed when I was trying to play this like a usual Sonic game, where yeah getting plenty of rings and whatnot is great and all, but it’s still a very linear experience where you’re just trying to get to the goal relatively fast.
Palmtree Panic is your usual Green Hill-esque starting level, but there’s a lot going on here that makes it super unique! Probably due to greater capabilities of the Sega CD, the layout of the zone is way more complex. But yeah, like these opening zones pretty much always are, it’s just totally gorgeous! It feels like a pretty great introduction to the game.
The boss here is super easy. I remember not really finding any of the bosses in this game particularly challenging, but yeah. It’s basically an AT-ST-looking bipedal mech with bumpers for arms. These arms move very fast and can knock you back when you try to hit the machine, but it doesn’t really do a lot offensively and it’s pretty easy to hit it with some experimentation. And it only takes three hits--one for each of its arms, and then another when it’s unprotected. So, yeah. Super easy!
All in all, this is a pretty darn good zone. I’m looking forward to reevaluating the others!
Collision Chaos Zone (2/13)
I’m worried that these entries for Sonic CD zones are gonna start sounding kinda samey since I just don’t have much history with this game and I’m really only just learning how to play it properly? Um this one is kinda a pink forest (the wiki entry says “possibly psychedelic” which is neat I guess!) with a bunch of pinball mechanics.
Oh, I guess the fact that the level is hella pink themed is kinda appropriate since the beginning of Act 1 is where Amy gets kidnapped. She runs after Sonic all fangirly, then Metal bashes out of a wall and nabs her. It’s actually rather well-animated.
And, uh. Embarrassingly, I... got a little jealous. So. Yeah. Not that I WANT to be kidnapped or anything! Especially not by Metal. But like. If I’m not gonna be a playable character in a game and someone is gonna get kidnapped to provide motivation for Sonic anyway ¯\(ツ)/¯
Uh. Yeah. I’ll stop embarrassing myself now. The boss for this one is hella easy. I think I remember that being a theme in this game. But yeah, you’re in a pinball machine and Robotnik kinda lazily lobs bombs at you while you use the flippers to hit him a few times. It’s not hard. And it’s not that fun to look at, either. While the first boss was also super easy at least it was interesting to look at. Shrug!
Anyway, I finished with 10 lives, and unfortunately failed to get a time stone after either act. These UFO special stages take some getting used to! But I’ll get there. I think. Honestly as long as I keep getting good futures on every act (and I have so far, btw) apparently that unlocks the good ending anyway, so yeah! But I do wanna collect all the stones anyway, because why not?
Tidal Tempest Zone (2/13)
... it’s an underwater level. You already know what I’m feeling, I don’t need to say it.
I got stuck on the second act for an embarrassingly long time because the only way to get to the past is by using a past time warp sign that’s in a hidden room next to a pair of sideways springboards pointed at each other, and I got hyperfocused on trying to find my way back to those springboards after getting a red herring past sign later in the act. Blarg.
It’s still kinda hard to compare this to other 2D Sonic levels because it’s like apples and oranges. But yeah. Judging Sonic CD by its own standards, all of the zones have been pretty good so far I guess? I’m finding I don’t actually have a lot else to say with this game, probably just the lack of familiarity.
Oh, speaking of broken records, the boss was hella easy again but this one was at least kinda fun conceptually? You chase the Egg-O-Matic through an underwater labyrinth, hit it a few times, and eventually catch up and fight the Egg-O-Matic while it’s surrounded by air bubbles that you breathe instead of hitting him. And he shoots projectiles at you. But yeah, once you get an opening in the air bubbles, it takes literally one hit to defeat. Shrug.
Quartz Quadrant (2/13)
Yeah, I mean. I guess what I’m starting to run into here is a lot of these zones just kinda blur together. I’m glad I know how to play the game more now, but Sonic CD is still just very... Sonic CD. Like, it’s hard to relate anything in here to any of the other 2D games because this game is just very... itself. All I really feel like after finishing a Sonic CD Zone is, “Yeah, that’s a Sonic CD Zone.” So While I like this game a lot more than I did in the past, it still just doesn’t really hit me in the places Sonic games often do. It’s not a bad game and I’m having fun playing it, but it’s just hard to get much of substance out of it right now. At least for me.
The boss for this one was kinda interesting conceptually, finally! Robotnik is in this seemingly indestructible booth and has a bomb launcher that drops bombs at you while you run on a conveyor belt with spikes behind you. You just keep avoiding the bombs while the conveyor belt wears down Robotnik’s booth from below. I really liked this boss because it seemed like a really realistic trap Robotnik would set for Sonic, and a very believable way to escape it! So, yeah. Hard to say for sure given how weird these bosses have been, but probably my favorite boss of the game so far? Maybe.
Wacky Workbench Zone (2/14)
Okay this one is just bad.
Look, I've been very intentionally trying to play this game with an open mind but this one actually almost broke me. It's just so poorly designed and the whole gimmick where touching the ground bounces you up and all of it is just so hecking dumb.
I'm at least gratified that as I've looked around online I've found nigh universal hate for this zone. I thought maybe it was a Me problem, because I pretty much always assume things are a Me problem, but nope.
The boss for this one is Eggman in a kinda cool rocket-looking thing, but the gameplay is just as boring as the other bosses have been so far. Shrug.
Stardust Speedway Zone (2/16)
So if you’ve heard of one Sonic CD zone it’s probably this one. And honestly that’s mostly because of the boss fight against Metal. The zone itself is... eh. Honestly the longer I spent with this game, the more I kinda got bored with the relatively unchallenging, non-linear zones. Find past signpost. Find somewhere you can run uninterrupted. Time travel to past. Find robot generator. Destroy. Repeat for Act 2. Fight ridiculously easy boss. Rinse. Repeat.
Honestly? Despite being the flagship zone of the game, there is really nothing special about Stardust Speedway. (Again, until you get to the boss.) The background does look gorgeous, so there is that. But the zone itself is honestly kinda boring. It’s just a bunch of I guess highways? That look basically like the vines you see in like Mushroom Hill or whatever. Y’know. Zones that usually have a lot more besides just that.
The fight with Metal is even a little underwhelming considering that it’s just a race, but like I’m not gonna be a total downer here. It’s still pretty dang cool. One of the highlights of the game, for sure.
Metallic Madness Zone (2/16)
Okay, honestly? This one kinda rules.
Like. Yeah, at a base level you’re still following that time travel/destroy thing/repeat pattern that I’m super bored of at this point. But the zone itself is an upgraded Scrap Brain Zone. And it’s genuinely challenging! I timed out a couple times on Act 2!
This one didn’t hit me as hard in the kinfeels department as its predecessors, mostly because I was too caught up in being relieved that this game actually has good zones sometimes!!
Oh, but don’t get me wrong. There’s still disappointment to be had. The final boss, while somewhat difficult to get to, is boring personified. It’s just Robotnik in an Egg-O-Matic-ish vehicle with four blades spinning around him. And it only takes four hits to destroy!
Still, on the whole, this is pretty easily the best zone in the game. Honestly, if you took this zone and gave it the previous zone’s boss fight, it would stand comfortably with a lot of the better zones in these games, but alas.
Ending
I mean, we get another fully animated cutscene, which rules! More Amy than I woulda liked, but y’know. And to be clear, Ames is cool in other contexts, just... please stay away from my hedgehog? I mean, not away-away, unless he wants that, but like. Stop bein’ a creeper!
When I sit here and try to compose final thoughts about this game I just... don’t have a lot. I started this playthrough with a lot more optimism than I’ve felt about this game in a long time, and I just... didn’t really end up thinking much of it. And I’m pretty disappointed about that. Especially considering it had way more system resources available to it than any other Sonic game of its era and it really just feels like it wasted them.
Like, don’t get me wrong. I had a much better experience playing it this time than I did the first time. I’m not saying it’s worthless trash or anything. It just doesn’t click with the rest of the games, and I don’t think that’s just because I didn’t play it growing up. I think it’s because there was parallel development going on with this and Sonic 2, and Sonic 2 took the franchise in better directions.
And I know I don’t need to connect with every piece of Sonic media on an intimate level for it to be worthwhile, but I just... remember how excited I was when it came out on PC in 2011 and I thought, “Finally! I can play a classic Sonic game I haven’t played before!” And the gap between what I thought that meant and what it ended up meaning is just always going to be disappointing, and I think I need to accept that that’s okay, and that I’m allowed to feel that way.
As is traditional, let’s rank some stuff! A quick note on that first, though. THERE WERE ALMOST SIXTY TRACKS OF SOUNDTRACK FOR ME TO RANK FOR THIS ONE! THAT IS A LOT! It took forever, and like, at the end of re-listening to the entire soundtrack for the third time to double check my order, I decided that I really don’t need to be super accurate about how I rank the C-Rank and D-Rank stuff? Like, I’m sorry, at the end of the day who actually cares whether a song is my 51st or 52nd favorite song on the Sonic CD soundtrack? I already spent longer on this than any reasonable person would. So, yeah. Just keep that in mind I guess!
Zones
1. Metallic Madness Zone (B-Tier)
2. Palmtree Panic Zone (C-Tier)
3. Collision Chaos Zone (C-Tier)
4. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
5. Stardust Speedway Zone (C-Tier)
6. Quartz Quadrant Zone (C-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)
Bosses
1. Metal Sonic (S-Tier)
2. Quartz Crystal Zone (C-Tier)
3. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
4. Metallic Madness Zone (C-Tier)
5. EGG-HVC-001 (C-Tier)
6. Collision Chaos Zone (D-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)
Soundtrack
1. Sonic Boom (Theme), USA (A-Rank)
2. Sonic Boom (Ending), USA (A-Rank)
3. Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
4. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, USA (A-Rank)
5. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
6. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
7. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
8. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, USA (A-Rank)
9. Metallic Madness Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
10. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
11. Metallic Madness Zone Past (A-Rank)
12. Final Fever, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
13. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
14. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
15. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
16. Boss, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
17. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, USA (B-Rank)
18. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
19. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, USA (B-Rank)
20. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
21. Cosmic Eternity - Believe in Yourself, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
22. You Can Do Anything, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
23. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
24. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (B-Rank)
25. Palmtree Panic Zone Past (B-Rank)
26. Stardust Speedway Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
27. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
28. Wacky Workbench Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
29. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
30. Special Stage, USA (B-Rank)
31. Final Fever, USA (B-Rank)
32. Boss!!, USA (B-Rank)
33. Stardust Speedway Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
34. Special Stage, JP/PAL (C-Tier)
35. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
36. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
37. Metallic Madness Zone Present, USA (C-Rank)
38. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
39. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
40. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
41. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
42. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, USA (C-Rank)
43. Stardust Speedway Zone Past (C-Rank)
44. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
45. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
46. Wacky Workbench Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
47. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
48. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
49. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
50. Quartz Quadrant Zone Past (D-Rank)
51. Tidal Tempest Zone Past (D-Rank)
52. Collision Chaos Zone Present, JP/PAL (D-Rank)
53. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
54. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
55. Wacky Workbench Zone Past (D-Rank)
56. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
57. Collision Chaos Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
58. Collision Chaos Zone Past (D-Rank)
59.Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
Like, okay. It’s understandable that the first time I played this (going in thinking, “Oh, sweet, a classic Sonic game I haven’t played!!”) I had a bad time. Like. Sonic games are usually shockingly brilliant at teaching you how to play them? And Sonic CD kinda just... doesn’t do that at all? I guess if I had taken the time to look at the instruction manual and figure out how the time travel mechanic works instead of just being like “huh, that’s a confusing thing that I can’t figure out intuitively what to do with it, oh well!” like I did the first time, it mighta helped. But, yeah! I didn’t do that! So I decided that Sonic CD was just The Only Bad One.
Now, it’s a whole new ballgame! I don’t know where I’m gonna land on this thing as of yet, just to be clear. But if my experience playing the first zone is any indication, there’s a decent chance I’m gonna have a good time.
Before we get to that, though. Let me just also say that one thing my feelings didn’t change about was that opening cinematic. That one was love at first sight, and yeah. I mean. The whole point of it is basically, “Sonic is so cool oh my gosh look how cool he is!” So. Kinda hard to imagine not getting my buy-in on that one.
Palmtree Panic Zone (2/13)
Okay technically this is “Palmtree Panic Round,” and the acts are called zones, because Sonic CD is weird!! But I get stubborn about dumb shit sometimes and I’ve decided to make this one of those things, so, we’re gonna call them zones anyway! Deal with it. (I don’t know who I’m telling to deal with it. The game I guess? You probably don’t care XD)
So, yeah! I played through Act 1 once without reading up on how time travel actually works, and it turns out when you finish this zone in the present right before you get to the goal plate Amy gloms onto you and you have to escape to finish the act. Yikes! I also saw the bad future in that first playthrough and the whole zone was basically roboticized (not actually the right term for this but you get the idea) and polluted, so that sucked!
Anyway, at this point I’m like, “Y’know what? I bet this whole time travel thing is important. I’m gonna read up on it and start over.” And WOW was that ever a great idea!! This time around I got good futures for both Acts 1 & 2, and picked up a time stone in a Special Stage after Act 1. I also collected 3 extra lives in Act 1 and 2 in Act 2, ending the zone with a total of 8! So that kinda ruled.
So, yeah! I’m understanding now that the gameplay in this one is really a lot more interested in exploring the zones fully! Or at the very least going back to the past to destroy the robot transporter, unlocking the good future! And you don’t have to go forward to the future once you do so, but it’s super helpful because you can run around the zone with no Badniks whatsoever, collecting rings and extra lives (I got over 200 rings in Act 1!). So, yeah. It seems like a good idea! And also something I totally missed when I was trying to play this like a usual Sonic game, where yeah getting plenty of rings and whatnot is great and all, but it’s still a very linear experience where you’re just trying to get to the goal relatively fast.
Palmtree Panic is your usual Green Hill-esque starting level, but there’s a lot going on here that makes it super unique! Probably due to greater capabilities of the Sega CD, the layout of the zone is way more complex. But yeah, like these opening zones pretty much always are, it’s just totally gorgeous! It feels like a pretty great introduction to the game.
The boss here is super easy. I remember not really finding any of the bosses in this game particularly challenging, but yeah. It’s basically an AT-ST-looking bipedal mech with bumpers for arms. These arms move very fast and can knock you back when you try to hit the machine, but it doesn’t really do a lot offensively and it’s pretty easy to hit it with some experimentation. And it only takes three hits--one for each of its arms, and then another when it’s unprotected. So, yeah. Super easy!
All in all, this is a pretty darn good zone. I’m looking forward to reevaluating the others!
Collision Chaos Zone (2/13)
I’m worried that these entries for Sonic CD zones are gonna start sounding kinda samey since I just don’t have much history with this game and I’m really only just learning how to play it properly? Um this one is kinda a pink forest (the wiki entry says “possibly psychedelic” which is neat I guess!) with a bunch of pinball mechanics.
Oh, I guess the fact that the level is hella pink themed is kinda appropriate since the beginning of Act 1 is where Amy gets kidnapped. She runs after Sonic all fangirly, then Metal bashes out of a wall and nabs her. It’s actually rather well-animated.
And, uh. Embarrassingly, I... got a little jealous. So. Yeah. Not that I WANT to be kidnapped or anything! Especially not by Metal. But like. If I’m not gonna be a playable character in a game and someone is gonna get kidnapped to provide motivation for Sonic anyway ¯\(ツ)/¯
Uh. Yeah. I’ll stop embarrassing myself now. The boss for this one is hella easy. I think I remember that being a theme in this game. But yeah, you’re in a pinball machine and Robotnik kinda lazily lobs bombs at you while you use the flippers to hit him a few times. It’s not hard. And it’s not that fun to look at, either. While the first boss was also super easy at least it was interesting to look at. Shrug!
Anyway, I finished with 10 lives, and unfortunately failed to get a time stone after either act. These UFO special stages take some getting used to! But I’ll get there. I think. Honestly as long as I keep getting good futures on every act (and I have so far, btw) apparently that unlocks the good ending anyway, so yeah! But I do wanna collect all the stones anyway, because why not?
Tidal Tempest Zone (2/13)
... it’s an underwater level. You already know what I’m feeling, I don’t need to say it.
I got stuck on the second act for an embarrassingly long time because the only way to get to the past is by using a past time warp sign that’s in a hidden room next to a pair of sideways springboards pointed at each other, and I got hyperfocused on trying to find my way back to those springboards after getting a red herring past sign later in the act. Blarg.
It’s still kinda hard to compare this to other 2D Sonic levels because it’s like apples and oranges. But yeah. Judging Sonic CD by its own standards, all of the zones have been pretty good so far I guess? I’m finding I don’t actually have a lot else to say with this game, probably just the lack of familiarity.
Oh, speaking of broken records, the boss was hella easy again but this one was at least kinda fun conceptually? You chase the Egg-O-Matic through an underwater labyrinth, hit it a few times, and eventually catch up and fight the Egg-O-Matic while it’s surrounded by air bubbles that you breathe instead of hitting him. And he shoots projectiles at you. But yeah, once you get an opening in the air bubbles, it takes literally one hit to defeat. Shrug.
Quartz Quadrant (2/13)
Yeah, I mean. I guess what I’m starting to run into here is a lot of these zones just kinda blur together. I’m glad I know how to play the game more now, but Sonic CD is still just very... Sonic CD. Like, it’s hard to relate anything in here to any of the other 2D games because this game is just very... itself. All I really feel like after finishing a Sonic CD Zone is, “Yeah, that’s a Sonic CD Zone.” So While I like this game a lot more than I did in the past, it still just doesn’t really hit me in the places Sonic games often do. It’s not a bad game and I’m having fun playing it, but it’s just hard to get much of substance out of it right now. At least for me.
The boss for this one was kinda interesting conceptually, finally! Robotnik is in this seemingly indestructible booth and has a bomb launcher that drops bombs at you while you run on a conveyor belt with spikes behind you. You just keep avoiding the bombs while the conveyor belt wears down Robotnik’s booth from below. I really liked this boss because it seemed like a really realistic trap Robotnik would set for Sonic, and a very believable way to escape it! So, yeah. Hard to say for sure given how weird these bosses have been, but probably my favorite boss of the game so far? Maybe.
Wacky Workbench Zone (2/14)
Okay this one is just bad.
Look, I've been very intentionally trying to play this game with an open mind but this one actually almost broke me. It's just so poorly designed and the whole gimmick where touching the ground bounces you up and all of it is just so hecking dumb.
I'm at least gratified that as I've looked around online I've found nigh universal hate for this zone. I thought maybe it was a Me problem, because I pretty much always assume things are a Me problem, but nope.
The boss for this one is Eggman in a kinda cool rocket-looking thing, but the gameplay is just as boring as the other bosses have been so far. Shrug.
Stardust Speedway Zone (2/16)
So if you’ve heard of one Sonic CD zone it’s probably this one. And honestly that’s mostly because of the boss fight against Metal. The zone itself is... eh. Honestly the longer I spent with this game, the more I kinda got bored with the relatively unchallenging, non-linear zones. Find past signpost. Find somewhere you can run uninterrupted. Time travel to past. Find robot generator. Destroy. Repeat for Act 2. Fight ridiculously easy boss. Rinse. Repeat.
Honestly? Despite being the flagship zone of the game, there is really nothing special about Stardust Speedway. (Again, until you get to the boss.) The background does look gorgeous, so there is that. But the zone itself is honestly kinda boring. It’s just a bunch of I guess highways? That look basically like the vines you see in like Mushroom Hill or whatever. Y’know. Zones that usually have a lot more besides just that.
The fight with Metal is even a little underwhelming considering that it’s just a race, but like I’m not gonna be a total downer here. It’s still pretty dang cool. One of the highlights of the game, for sure.
Metallic Madness Zone (2/16)
Okay, honestly? This one kinda rules.
Like. Yeah, at a base level you’re still following that time travel/destroy thing/repeat pattern that I’m super bored of at this point. But the zone itself is an upgraded Scrap Brain Zone. And it’s genuinely challenging! I timed out a couple times on Act 2!
This one didn’t hit me as hard in the kinfeels department as its predecessors, mostly because I was too caught up in being relieved that this game actually has good zones sometimes!!
Oh, but don’t get me wrong. There’s still disappointment to be had. The final boss, while somewhat difficult to get to, is boring personified. It’s just Robotnik in an Egg-O-Matic-ish vehicle with four blades spinning around him. And it only takes four hits to destroy!
Still, on the whole, this is pretty easily the best zone in the game. Honestly, if you took this zone and gave it the previous zone’s boss fight, it would stand comfortably with a lot of the better zones in these games, but alas.
Ending
I mean, we get another fully animated cutscene, which rules! More Amy than I woulda liked, but y’know. And to be clear, Ames is cool in other contexts, just... please stay away from my hedgehog? I mean, not away-away, unless he wants that, but like. Stop bein’ a creeper!
When I sit here and try to compose final thoughts about this game I just... don’t have a lot. I started this playthrough with a lot more optimism than I’ve felt about this game in a long time, and I just... didn’t really end up thinking much of it. And I’m pretty disappointed about that. Especially considering it had way more system resources available to it than any other Sonic game of its era and it really just feels like it wasted them.
Like, don’t get me wrong. I had a much better experience playing it this time than I did the first time. I’m not saying it’s worthless trash or anything. It just doesn’t click with the rest of the games, and I don’t think that’s just because I didn’t play it growing up. I think it’s because there was parallel development going on with this and Sonic 2, and Sonic 2 took the franchise in better directions.
And I know I don’t need to connect with every piece of Sonic media on an intimate level for it to be worthwhile, but I just... remember how excited I was when it came out on PC in 2011 and I thought, “Finally! I can play a classic Sonic game I haven’t played before!” And the gap between what I thought that meant and what it ended up meaning is just always going to be disappointing, and I think I need to accept that that’s okay, and that I’m allowed to feel that way.
As is traditional, let’s rank some stuff! A quick note on that first, though. THERE WERE ALMOST SIXTY TRACKS OF SOUNDTRACK FOR ME TO RANK FOR THIS ONE! THAT IS A LOT! It took forever, and like, at the end of re-listening to the entire soundtrack for the third time to double check my order, I decided that I really don’t need to be super accurate about how I rank the C-Rank and D-Rank stuff? Like, I’m sorry, at the end of the day who actually cares whether a song is my 51st or 52nd favorite song on the Sonic CD soundtrack? I already spent longer on this than any reasonable person would. So, yeah. Just keep that in mind I guess!
Zones
1. Metallic Madness Zone (B-Tier)
2. Palmtree Panic Zone (C-Tier)
3. Collision Chaos Zone (C-Tier)
4. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
5. Stardust Speedway Zone (C-Tier)
6. Quartz Quadrant Zone (C-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)
Bosses
1. Metal Sonic (S-Tier)
2. Quartz Crystal Zone (C-Tier)
3. Tidal Tempest Zone (C-Tier)
4. Metallic Madness Zone (C-Tier)
5. EGG-HVC-001 (C-Tier)
6. Collision Chaos Zone (D-Tier)
7. Wacky Workbench Zone (D-Tier)
Soundtrack
1. Sonic Boom (Theme), USA (A-Rank)
2. Sonic Boom (Ending), USA (A-Rank)
3. Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
4. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, USA (A-Rank)
5. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
6. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
7. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
8. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, USA (A-Rank)
9. Metallic Madness Zone Present, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
10. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
11. Metallic Madness Zone Past (A-Rank)
12. Final Fever, JP/PAL (A-Rank)
13. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
14. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
15. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
16. Boss, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
17. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, USA (B-Rank)
18. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
19. Palmtree Panic Zone Present, USA (B-Rank)
20. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
21. Cosmic Eternity - Believe in Yourself, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
22. You Can Do Anything, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
23. Metallic Madness Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
24. Palmtree Panic Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (B-Rank)
25. Palmtree Panic Zone Past (B-Rank)
26. Stardust Speedway Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
27. Metallic Madness Zone Good Future, USA (B-Rank)
28. Wacky Workbench Bad Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
29. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (B-Rank)
30. Special Stage, USA (B-Rank)
31. Final Fever, USA (B-Rank)
32. Boss!!, USA (B-Rank)
33. Stardust Speedway Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
34. Special Stage, JP/PAL (C-Tier)
35. Palmtree Panic Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
36. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
37. Metallic Madness Zone Present, USA (C-Rank)
38. Stardust Speedway Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
39. Stardust Speedway Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
40. Tidal Tempest Zone Bad Future, USA (C-Rank)
41. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
42. Collision Chaos Zone Good Future, USA (C-Rank)
43. Stardust Speedway Zone Past (C-Rank)
44. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, JP/PAL (C-Rank)
45. Wacky Workbench Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
46. Wacky Workbench Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
47. Wacky Workbench Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
48. Quartz Quadrant Zone Good Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
49. Quartz Quadrant Zone Bad Future, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
50. Quartz Quadrant Zone Past (D-Rank)
51. Tidal Tempest Zone Past (D-Rank)
52. Collision Chaos Zone Present, JP/PAL (D-Rank)
53. Tidal Tempest Zone Good Future, USA (D-Rank)
54. Tidal Tempest Zone Present, Sonic CD USA (D-Rank)
55. Wacky Workbench Zone Past (D-Rank)
56. Collision Chaos Zone Bad Future, USA (D-Rank)
57. Collision Chaos Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)
58. Collision Chaos Zone Past (D-Rank)
59.Quartz Quadrant Zone Present, USA (D-Rank)