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Sonic the Hedgehog CD or simply know as Sonic CD, is a platform game and the 3rd installment in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It marked the first official appearance of the characters Metal Sonic and Amy Rose. It was released for the Mega-CD in Japan on September 23, 1993, in Europe in October 1993, and finally in North America for the Sega CD (the North American name for the Mega-CD) on November 19, 1993. The game was ported to PC CD-ROM in 1996.
After a long adventure, presumably after the events of the first game, Sonic arrives in Never Lake where the fabled Little Planet is said to appear on the last month of every year. Joining him is a female pink hedgehog named Amy Rose. They arrive to find the planet tethered to a rock by a chain and completely covered in metal, and before long a robot kidnaps Amy. It doesn't take long for Sonic to realise his arch-enemy Dr. Robotnik is responsible for the chaos, along with his latest creation, Metal Sonic, who is behind the abduction. Sonic must traverse the Little Planet and collect the Time Stones, seven jewels capable of altering the passage of time itself. With their power he can manipulate time throughout various locations on the planet, defeating Robotnik's minions in the process. His pursuits lead to confrontations with Robotnik and Metal Sonic, culminating with a race against the latter, to save Amy, and a showdown with the former.
Good Ending: Sonic collects all the Time Stones; he destroys Robotnik's power over the planet and leaves Amy in Never Lake as he watches the planet shake in a shower of stars, displaying a Sonic face. The planet then rises before mysteriously disappearing to show a question mark.
Bad Ending: Sonic doesn't collect all the Time Stones; he leaves Amy in Never Lake and watches the planet hanging in the sky as Robotnik escapes on his craft with the Time Stones. He throws a stone at Robotnik, sending him off in a cloud of smoke with a Robotnik face.
Sonic's gameplay remains similar to that of Sonic the Hedgehog but with the addition of the Spin Dash and the Super Peel Out, which lets him zoom into a quick speed from a standing point. The game's physics (acceleration, jumping, braking, rolling) are also rather different from the Genesis games.
The main innovation of this chapter in the Sonic series is the manner in which the player can travel to four different versions of each zone, each a different time period of the same location: Present, Past, Good Future and Bad Future. This is accomplished by speed posts scattered around the level, bearing the labels "Past", and "Future". After running through one of these posts, the player has to run at top speed for a few seconds without stopping, to travel into the respective time period. Because these teleports are relative, there are no "Past" signs in the Past, and no "Future" signs in the Future; that is, warping to the past in the future returns the player to the "present" time and vice versa. Each stage has three "Acts" (Although they are called "zones" in this game, see below), the third of which always takes place in the future.
After the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 1, Lead Programmer Yuji Naka had grown dissatisfied with the rigid corporate policies at Sega, so he moved to the United States to work with the Sega Technical Institute. Incidentally, a large number of the original design team of Sonic (already known as Sonic Team) also left for the U.S., to help instruct the American developers. With half of Sonic Team and two of its most important creators present, the Sega Technical Institute eventually got the job to develop Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Meanwhile in Japan, Sonic the Hedgehog CD (or at this point, "CD Sonic" as it was first known) was handled by a separate development team, headed by Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima. Initially, as revealed in interviews and magazine clippings, Sonic CD, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System and Game Gear were supposed to be the same game. However, during development, Sonic CD evolved into a vastly different type of game. Eventually, the gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 would be favored for the future games, but this explains why the theme and handling of Sonic CD are different, as well as the use of most of the original Sonic the Hedgehog's sprites for the latter title. The time posts also had sprites similar to Knuckles' Chaotix. However, some vestiges of the original tie-in remain.
Sonic CD was released after Sonic the Hedgehog 2 but before Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Reviews for Sonic CD were generally positive, with a consensus that it was the best game for the Sega Mega-CD. The game was praised for its innovative time-travel based gameplay, presentation and music. Despite this critical acclaim, however, the game failed to emulate the commercial success of other Sonic installments, due to the unpopularity of the Sega CD. Copies of Sonic CD were at one time distributed through a free mail-in offer to buyers of the later, top-loading version of the Sega CD (in addition to the Sewer Shark pack-in game) as a promotion for the Sega CD.
Reviews for the PC version were subpar. Many reviewers didn't like how it played on PCs at the time compared to the smooth gameplay of the SEGA CD version. The PC version also didn't work on computers running later Windows OS systems Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 due to some missing files (though it worked on Windows Me and Windows 2000 OS). However, a program called "Sonic CD PC Fix" solved most of these problems.
Sonic CD was awarded Best Sega CD Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. It was also listed at the #1 on the best Sonic game article on ScrewAttack's "Best and Worst Sonic games".
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