In light of its return to the gaming scene, Sonic CD was a chronologically questioned title. Aside from being the only good game on the not-so-innovative Sega CD adapter for the Sega Genesis, this game introduced the characters Amy Rose and Metal Sonic. Outside of emulators, the Sega CD, or the Sonic Gems Collection on Nintendo Gamecube (and Sony PlayStation 2 in other areas), not many would know, let alone play it, so those who missed out, making its return as a downloadable game for consoles and mobile phones is a big deal for Sonic fans.
Things would be so much calmer if not for the exploits of Dr. Ivo Robotnik/Eggman. Once again, Sonic sets out to stop him. This time, he sees the fabled Little Planet, alongside a pink hedgehog named Amy Rose. But they see the planet chained down and covered in metal, and this has Robotnik's name all over it. Furthermore, Amy gets kidnapped by the metallic blue doppelganger bent on destroying him. Now Sonic must traverse through new zones and collect all 7 Time Stones, jewels capable of bending time itself. He'll need these to rescue Amy, crush Metal Sonic, and stop his nemesis' plans once more.
Sonic CD goes back to the solo gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog, though you have at your disposal as well the Spin Dash and the Super Peel Out, a Sonic action new at the time, and that would later return in the Sega Game Gear title Sonic Chaos. The additional gimmicks this time around were signs that could allow you to travel to the past or future. Once you flip a sign, if you can build up enough speed nonstop, you could travel through time. In addition, there was a special ramp seen at the beginning of the level, in addition to various switches found in specific stages. The original shield of Sonic 1 returns, alongside the very common (but now seldom used) Speed Up and Invincibility power-ups. By collecting Time Stones, you can have a good or bad future for whatever Zone you're in. As with Sonic The Hedgehog, your means of getting these stones is by completing Special Stages, and to access them, you must have 50 rings minimum, and jump in the giant ring at the end of the zone's act. Each Zone consist of 3 acts, with the 3rd one being the boss stage, and its appearance will vary on if you made Good futures or not, as well as if you possess the Time Stones. The historic battle would take place on the 6th Zone, with Metal Sonic making more appearances afterwards, even as an enemy in the title Knuckles' Chaotix, which was a game on the brother adapter for Sega Genesis, the Sega 32X.
It was also the first Sonic title to ever utilize internal memory, stored via built-in RAM. Its re-release to consoles gives it a place in the Sonic timeline: following the ending teaser from Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, Metal Sonic was hinted as the returning bad guy for the next installment. With this fact in mind, Sonic CD will serve most likely as a prequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. The trailer, released by them not long ago, clearly shows that Sonic CD will most likely follow Sonic 4: Episode 1 storywise. The re-release will have the same visuals as the original game, but built around a new engine, with tweaked Spin Dash animation from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The changes comes as a surprise, since they're transitioning from the 2.5D graphics of Sonic 4, to back to the 16-bit era of Sonic 1. In addition, because they went back to the solely 16-bit game, the Homing Attack, which was in Sonic 4, may not be featured in it. In fact, I'm almost certain that will be absent, since it wasn't there to begin with.
Sonic CD was hailed as the only good game in terms of the Sega CD addon, and given what I have seen based around that, the statement is REALLY saying something, given that the graphics, compared to the other games on that, looked somewhat primitive visually. Another heads up is that re-release will feature the original soundtrack from its Japanese port. Whether or not the American soundtrack will be there is questionable, but since they said "featured", I'm gonna leave that as a possibility.
Sonic CD's relaunch is another way they kick off years of Sonic the Hedgehog, even though there's still the release of Sonic Generations happening next month, which happens to be the main celebration. Back then, I would perfect grade this title, but the fact that it was the only good game on that specific platform, that would be overdoing it. For now, I say an 8.4 of 10 For Sonic CD, but I'll see just what they do with the relaunch.
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