Sonic Boom: The 25th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog CD

American Cover

Sonic Boom: The 25th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog CD
September 20, 2018
By Ryan Porzl

Since 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog has been Sega's mascot and one of the greatest franchises in video game history. For over 27 years, the Sonic franchise has produced one classic after another with the first years being arguably being the golden age. One of the early games was Sonic the Hedgehog CD which was released on the infamous Sega CD in 1993. Now considered one of, if not, the best Sonic game in history, Sonic CD was also a highlight on the Sega CD, an add-on that had it's share of critics. Unfortunately, many probably missed the game at first due to the somewhat bad reputation of the Sega CD and people not wanting to pay the same amount for an add-on they would for the system. To celebrate the upcoming 25th anniversary, we'll take a look at Sonic the Hedgehog CD.

European Cover

Japanese Cover

Characters

Sonic The Hedgehog- The main protagonist. In the game, Sonic journeys to Little Planet which Dr. Robotnik is using to build a new robot army to stop him and prevent him from getting the time stones which would allow him to alter history. Along the way, he must also save Amy and face his robotic doppelganger Metal Sonic. Like other games, Sonic can run at high speeds, jump on enemies, and do a spin dash. He can also break monitors that include more rings, sneakers that make him run faster, magic that makes him invincible for short time, grant extra lives, and bubbles that can take one hit while allowing him to keep the rings he has or prevent death.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik- The main antagonist. Robotnik chains up Little Planet to a mountain and sets up camp there building a new robot army. While doing this, Robotnik seeks the time stones, creates Metal Sonic, and sends him to the past with the task of altering time with the hopes of ruling the future. As is the case in other games, Robotnik appears in the final zone of every level with a vehicle he tries to use to stop Sonic with the exception of Stardust Speedway.

Amy Rose- A competitive, cheery pink hedgehog who considers herself as Sonic's girlfriend though he doesn't reciprocate. She follows Sonic to Little Planet and is captured by Metal Sonic resulting in Sonic having to rescue her.

Metal Sonic- A robotic counterpart to Sonic created by Dr. Robotnik. Metal Sonic is sent to the past by Robotnik with the purpose of changing time so Robotnik can rule the future. Along with his resemblance to Sonic, Metal Sonic is also capable of mimicking Sonic's moves and even reaching speeds that Sonic isn't even able to achieve.

Plot
At the last day of every month, an alien planet named Little Planet emerges around Never Lake. The planet contains seven magic stones named Time Stones which have the power of controlling the passage of time. Dr. Robotnik decides to capture Little Planet by chaining it to a mountain and intends to use it to build a massive fortress where he can create a new robot army. Robotnik then creates Metal Sonic and sends him back in time to alter the past which would allow Robotnik to rule the future. Sonic heads to Little Planet while being pursued by his self-proclaimed girlfriend Amy Rose who then gets captured by Metal Sonic. Now, Sonic must travel through time, fix the past to create a good future, collect the time stones, save Amy, confront Metal Sonic, and stop Robotnik's latest scheme.

Gameplay
Sonic the Hedgehog CD plays like most Sonic games in that it's a platformer where you start at the beginning of a stage and get to the end while dealing with robot enemies called "Badniks" and avoiding holes & spikes. Along the way, Sonic can collect rings which can keep him alive whenever he gets hit while getting hit without rings kills him. Like other Sonic games, collecting 100 rings grants the player an extra life. The game has some similarities to Sonic the Hedgehog 1 in that each level has 3 zones or acts with the third featuring a Robotnik boss fight (except Stardust Speedway as you race Metal Sonic) and that if the player has 50 or more rings when they finish a zone, a giant ring will show up at the end of the first two zones which the player can jump in to go to a special stage. The game has 7 levels in total including Palmtree Panic, Collision Chaos, Tidal Tempest, Quartz Quadrant, Wacky Workbench, Stardust Speedway, & Metallic Madness in that order. Like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the spin dash is back but along with a different animation and two ways to use it. Like Sonic 2, the player can hold down and press one of jump buttons and release resulting in Sonic going at faster speeds while curled up like a ball. However, the player can also do a "Super Peel Out" or also called a "Strike Dash" or "Figure 8" (the latter due to the animation of Sonic's feet when setting it up) which the player can do by holding up and pressing one of the jump buttons before releasing. Each has an advantage as the spin dash can attack badniks that get in the way but takes a little longer to charge while the super peel out can charge faster but Sonic can't run through enemies and will take damage if he touches one though this problem can be solved in the player presses down after Sonic begins running. The monitors are back and contain the usual. The ring monitors give Sonic ten rings, the sneaker monitors allow Sonic to run faster for a brief period, the magic monitors give Sonic a brief period where he's invincible, the Sonic monitors give Sonic an extra life, and the bubble monitors give Sonic a bubble which allows him to take a hit without either losing his rings or dying.

Sonic CD also has many unique features not seen in the previous or future games or was the first to do it. Unlike other Sonic games where if the player destroys a badnik or the prism eggs at the end of every level and flickies (small animals) come out, Sonic will instead release plants. With the game being on CD instead of a cartridge, Sega took advantage of it. One is with some 3D angles and Full Motion Videos at the beginning and ending of the game. The game's special stage also takes advantage of this with the special stage being a 3D environment with the object being that Sonic must destroy a number of UFOs before time runs out but the clock will go faster if Sonic goes out of bounds like touching water. Unlike other Sonic games, Sonic doesn't collect chaos emeralds but time stones. Of course, the biggest and most well known feature in this game is the ability to travel through time. In the first two zones of each level, there are signs that read "past" & "future". When Sonic runs past one of these signs, he then has to speed up and run fast for a brief period without hitting something and will then travel through time. The areas are mostly the same with the present looking normal depending on what level you are at. The past is more colorful and almost ancient with buildings and factories being under construction, & the future starts as dystopian but can be more beautiful if you create a "good future". If Sonic doesn't create 2 good futures then the third zone against Robotnik will be a "bad future" but if Sonic creates 2 good futures, then the third zone will be a "good future" as every Robotnik fight takes place in the future. To get the best ending, the player has to collect every time stone and go to the past each of the first two zones of every level. In the past, each of the first two zones have two things that need to be destroyed. One is a projector of Metal Sonic while the second is a robot generating machine. If Sonic destroys both, then that would create a "good future" that is colorful and vibrant instead of dark and dystopian. Another notable feature is if the player doesn't move Sonic in four minutes, he'll say "I'm Outta Here" and jumps off screen killing himself and the player gets a game over regardless of how many lives they have left. Sonic CD was also the first to have a save feature thus beating Sonic the Hedgehog 3 by six months. This was accomplished thanks to the back up memory of the Sega CD.

Behind the Scenes
Sonic the Hedgehog CD has an interesting history behind it. After the release of the first Sonic the Hedgehog and the huge success that came with it, lead programmer Yuji Naka became unhappy with Sega's rigid corporate policy and decided to move several members of Sonic Team to the United States and they teamed up with Sega Technical Institute to work on Sonic the Hedgehog 2. While this was happening, Sega began making plans to release the Sega CD add-on for the Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive and wanted a Sonic sequel on the Sega CD to demonstrate the Sega CD's advanced capabilities. As a result, the members of Sonic Team that remained in Japan worked on Sonic the Hedgehog CD. The director was Naoto Ohshima who made his debut as director for a game. Ohshima had previously served as the designer of Sonic & Robotnik in the first Sonic while having previously worked as a designer for the first two Phantasy Stars and Tommy Lasorda Baseball. Meanwhile, the rest of the team consisted of Sega employees who developed games like Golden Axe 2, Streets of Rage, & Revenge of Shinobi.

Original plans for the game was as an enhanced port for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega CD under the codename "Super Sonic". Given the Sega CD's capabilities, the enhanced port would feature more levels, sprite-scaling effects, animated cutscenes, & a fully orchestrated soundtrack. However, Sonic 2's sales in Japan were weak and that along with the team having their own vision decided to switch gears and make it into a game instead of a port. Originally, the game was to be called "CD Sonic the Hedgehog" before changing it to "Sonic the Hedgehog CD". Sonic 1 had a balance on speed and platforming while Sega had expanded upon the speed with Sonic's more focused level designs in Sonic 2. Sonic CD had more focus on platforming and the exploration while according to Eurogamers, Art Director Hiroyuki Kawaguchi "went all out" to make the levels more colorful than the other contemporary games. The game used the original code as a base to create it.

All these things do explain a lot of things. Despite Sonic CD being released a year after Sonic 2, it comes off like somewhat of a step back as the spin dash was not the same as Sonic 2, there was no Super Sonic, getting to the special stage required 50 or more rings by the end of the stage while jumping in a giant ring, & Tails wasn't playable nor did he appear in the game. Sonic CD also uses the Sonic sprite from Sonic 1 as both use a lighter blue while Sonic in Sonic 2 has a darker blue.

Sonic the Hedgehog CD marked the debuts of both Metal Sonic & Amy Rose, with both being designed by artist Kazuyuki Hoshino. Sonic CD was Hoshino's first run in the Sonic franchise as he later worked as a character designer, special stage artist, art supervisor and supervisor for other Sonic games including Knuckles Chaotix, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, Sonic Jam, the two Sonic Adventures, the two Sonic Rivals, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, the Sonic Boom games, Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games & Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS & Wii U while also serving Project Support for Sonic Lost World & Sonic Runners. Hoshino also did work on the NIGHTS franchise. Amy previously appeared in the Sonic magna but was redesigned with Hoshino creating her look while others offered ideas. The headband & sneakers came from Ohshima while Hoshino created her mannerisms with traits he was looking for in women at the time. Hoshino created Metal Sonic due to his desire to create a strong enemy for Sonic. Hoshino already knew what he wanted the character to look like immediately after he was briefed and the design came only after a few sketches.

To no surprise, Ohshima claimed the time travel was inspired by Back to the Future. Originally, Ohshima wanted a "sonic boom" effect to instantly change the time period but the programmers said it was impossible and instead created a loading sequence with Sonic traveling through a vortex. Each stage had four variants in present, past, bad future, & good future. Unlike the team behind Sonic 2, the team behind Sonic CD didn't have as much pressure put upon them by Sega which Ohshima attributed to the fact it wasn't a numbered sequel and considered it a recreation of Sonic 1. Sonic CD had far more game data as it had 21 Megabytes while Sonic 2 only had 1. The animated cutscenes were done by Toei Animation who had done animes like Tiger Mask, all of the Dragon Balls, & all of the Sailor Moons.

The Japanese Soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata who previously worked on the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which was released on the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear. There were two vocal tracks for the game which were "Sonic - You Can Do Anything" & "Cosmic Eternity - Believe In Yourself" with both being sung by Keiko Utoku who also did Sonic's voice samples for the game. The soundtrack was inspired by club music with Hataya being inspired by Frankie Knuckles, the KLF, & C+C Music Factory. However, the soundtrack was changed for the North American release with it being written and composed by Sega Technical Institute's David Young & Spencer Nilsen along with Mark Crews. Young & Nilsen also composed the first two Ecco the Dolphin games as well as the Sega CD version of The Amazing Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin. Sega of America wanted a more "rich and complex" soundtrack and had all the songs replaced except the "past" timeline stages because they were unable to due to the songs being sequenced PCM Audio rather than streamed Mixed Mode CD audio. A new theme song was created by Nilsen called "Sonic Boom". Because of the changed soundtrack, Sonic the Hedgehog CD's NA release was delayed by two months.

Sonic CD became the flagship game for the Sega CD and ultimately was the only Sonic game to be released on the add-on. Originally, there were plans for more games including an enhanced version of Sonic the Hedgehog but it never happened. One of the games planned would be called "Sister Sonic" and star Sonic's long lost sister with Sega making a Sonic localization game out of a Japanese game called Popful Mail. Basically, it would been like when Nintendo took the Japanese game Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic and made another version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (or Super Mario USA in Japan) in 1988.

One other notable change in the North American release was the manual naming Amy Rose "Sally Acorn" who was a character in the Archie Comics Sonic series at the time along with the Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog (or Sonic SatAM so as not to confuse people with the syndicated Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog which came out at the same time) which came out at the same time Sonic CD came out and the change was supposedly to help garner support for the show.

Release
Sonic The Hedgehog CD was originally released on September 23, 1993 on the Sega CD in Japan followed by a European release in October 1993 and a North American release in November 1993. Upon release, the game was widely praised and sold 1.5 million copies making it the highest selling Sega CD game. It scored an 85/100 from CVG, a 9/9/8/8 from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), a 92% from Electronic Games, 87/100 from Sega Magazine, 90% from Sega Pro, 85% from Sega Force Mega, & A- from Entertainment Weekly while later winning the Best Sega CD Game award of 1993 from Electronic Gaming Monthly. The game's visuals, audio, & presentation were all praised though the game was criticized for not taking full advantage of the Sega CD's capabilities. Critics also loved the gameplay along with time travel concept and it along with the expanded environment added replay value. The soundtrack change was polarizing with some ok with it while others hating the change with Gamefan editor Dave Halverson calling the change "an atrocity that remains the biggest injustice in localization history" while a reviewer for GamesRadar claimed to have shut their Gamecube off immediately in disgust when attempting to play Sonic Gems Collection upon realizing the game featured the North American soundtrack instead of the Japanese/European version. When responding to the critics, Nilsen said in a 2008 interview that "I think the critics were looking for a way to bash the game.. it was like we replaced the music for Star Wars after the movie had been out for a while."

Later re-releases were mixed as GameSpot considered the 1996 Windows release to have been inferior to the original due to it's poor technical performance as well as uninspiring & monotonous gameplay. The Sonic Gems one received better reviews with IGN claiming to be a major selling point and a standout. The 2011 re-release got good reviews on the consoles while it got critical acclaim on the iOS. Sonic CD has been considered not only one of the greatest Sonic games as well as platforming games but some fans would argue it's the best game in the Sonic the Hedgehog catalog.

Aftermath
Since the original release, Sonic CD has been released many times since then. It was first released on Microsoft Windows on August 9, 1996 in Japan, September 26, 1996 in North America, & October 3, 1996 in Europe. It was re-released as part of the Sonic Gem Collection on Gamecube on August 11, 2005 in Japan, August 16, 2005 in North America, & September 30, 2005 in Europe & on Playstation 2 on August 11, 2005 in Japan & September 30, 2005 in Europe. It was then released on Playstation 3, XBox 360, & Android worldwide on December 14, 2011, on iOS on December 16, 2011, Windows Phone on November 14, 2012, & Apple TV on March 31, 2016. For the 2011 re-release, Sega seemed to correct certain things along with adding including allowing players to choose between the NA or JPN/EU soundtracks, allowing the player to choose either the Sonic CD or Sonic 2 spin dash animation, & Tails was playable after the player beats the game.

Since it's release, Sonic CD's story was adapted into several comics including Archie Comics & Fleetway Publications. Both Amy Rose & Metal Sonic have made appearances in games since then with Amy Rose appearing in almost every Sonic game since then with the exception of 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles as well as 1996's Sonic 3D Blast while having since become a playable character in later games. Metal Sonic has since appeared in 1995's Knuckles' Chaotix, 2003's Sonic Heroes, 2011's Sonic Generation, & 2012's Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Part 2. The animation sequences would later appear as a bonus in 1997's Sonic R and the Sonic Boom song was re-used as one of Sonic's songs in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl. 2011's Sonic Generation, which was released in celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary, remade aspects of various past games and one was a re-imagined version of the Metal Sonic battle. 2017's Sonic Mania, released in celebration of the 25th anniversary, featured updated versions of the Metal Madness & Stardust Speedway levels as well as the Metal Sonic boss battle.

It's now a quarter of a century since the release of Sonic the Hedgehog CD and for a game to still be loved, played, and re-released for 25 years and counting, it shows what a classic it is and why it's worth celebrating such a milestone anniversary.