Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Dreams of a Sonic Adventure are Cast Act 1

Then Sega President Bernie Stolar remarked at 1997’s E3 show, “Sega Saturn is not our future.” By 1998 this was more prevalent than ever as both Nintendo and especially Sony had left them in the dust and with no viable attention getting game being released on the Saturn, both Sega and Sonic were fast becoming ancient relics of the past as far as the North American market was concerned. That remark was either a concession of Sega’s eventual retirement from the video game industry to come, or perhaps a slight hint of something major to come. Now that the Sega Saturn was essentially abandoned and everyone jumped ship, where did Sega turn? Behind the scenes Sega was working furiously on a new console that would put all others to shame. Sega had finally learned their lessons with three failed consoles underneath their belt. With the Saturn being the largest failure of them all, it was put up or shut up time for Sega. This was their final chance. Sega was determined that this time, things would be different. The first item of business to create this successful console was to finally give people what they had been wanting for several years now, a true successor to the Genesis Sonic games, headed up by the Sonic Team themselves, and so once again, they turned to Yuji Naka.

Naka had expressed a discontent for the slew of bad Sonic spin-offs that had resulted after Sonic and Knuckles and had begun to lose interest in the franchise he himself had created. In 1995 he worked on Ristar and later in 96 and 97 spent most of his time developing the NiGHTS games. However, when word came down that Sega expressed interest in developing a new Sonic title Naka had renewed interest. Upon hearing of the creation of a 128 bit console that Sega was working on Naka decided to take Sonic in a new direction and finally create that 3D game he had been thinking of doing years ago. This time he would expand the Sonic Universe and create an almost RPG like atmosphere. No doubt having been inspired by what Nintendo did with Mario in Mario 64 Naka no doubt had aspirations to take Sonic on his own 3D romp. This was Sonic the Hedgehog and a whole lot more. This was Sonic Adventure.







Fast forward to 1999. The Sega Dreamcast had been making waves in Japan despite some serious problems during the console launch and most of the gaming industry had declared this as Sega’s return to form. By the time September rolled around it was time for Sega to unveil the Dreamcast to the United States market. Now the big question would be answered. Was the US ready to give Sega one more chance? For me, who had been jaded by several years of lousy Sonic games and three failed systems and was ready to swear off Sega forever; just two minutes of playing Sonic Adventure at the store kiosk made me instantly bury my growing loathing and hatred for a company I once loved and I felt the same as I did when I first played Sonic on the Genesis nearly a decade prior. The next evolution of Sonic the Hedgehog was here. On my birthday a month later that year I finally received a Sega Dreamcast and Sonic Adventure.


Sonic Adventure was like no other game that came before it. This wasn’t just a new Sonic game, it was a series reboot. Many changes were made besides the obvious shift from 2D to 3D. For starters, Sonic himself had been given his now familiar modern look. He was more lean, has buckles on his shoes and green irises were added to his eyes. This game wasn’t simply a romp between stages collecting rings. This game had a fully developed story, complete with a voice cast and cutscenes with dialogue. This was the Sonic cartoons from the early 90s come to life in videogame form. This story picked up right where the Genesis Sonic games left off. Sonic was given a new move, the homing attack which allowed the player to automatically target enemies and made the problem of striking enemies that occurred in Sonic 3D Blast a thing of the past. The music was vastly different. This time the music was more rock based instead of the usual pop/techno from the previous games. Each character had their own vocal theme. While most I didn’t particularly care for, I felt that “It Doesn’t Matter” was a great theme for Sonic and one that he honestly should still have to this day. I think it fit the Sonic franchise as a whole very well and it’s a song they should revisit. Also, this marked the first Sonic game where not only were different characters selectable, they had different play styles and objectives as well. Tails had to keep up with Sonic in stages, Knuckles had to search for missing pieces of the Master Emerald. Amy Rose returned this time as a playable character. This time two new characters were introduced as well….




























Gamma was certainly an interesting concept. The ability to play as one of Robotnik’s goons this time around was a nice little spin on the series and certainly felt interesting to battle Sonic instead of play as him. However the other new character marked the first time in the series that I felt they had created an absolutely lousy character, Big the Cat. Big the Cat was an abject failure. I found no fun in this whatsoever. He was slow, boring and stupid; three things that Sonic the Hedgehog was never meant to be about. If I wanted to play a boring fishing game I would have put in River King. Couple that with an absolutely idiotic story about his lame quest to find his pet “FWOGGEEEEE” and you have a recipe for disaster. Seriously, this was the first but certainly not the last of many missteps made by the Sonic Team for years to come.


But don’t get me wrong, there’s still plenty to like about this game and for as many changes as were made to the game the spirit of the old Sonic games was still intact. Dr. Robotnik, who had begun to start being referred to as his Japanese name of “Eggman” was up to his usual tricks. Knuckles was still as dumb as ever falling for his schemes. Tails was sending Sonic flying on the tornado, and Amy still had a crush on Mr. Hedgehog. Many Easter eggs and jokes were present, old versions of Metal Sonic could be seen in Eggman’s lab, and some stages had variations of past stage themes from previous Sonic games. Overall I had fun right up until the very end when Super Sonic destroyed the game’s true Final Boss, Chaos.

Sonic Adventure had an incredible amount of replay value. Stages could be replayed to get a higher rank at any time and should you get bored of that, little creatures named Chaos could be raised.




Feeling the need to jump on the monster raising bandwagon that was all the rage in the late 90s, Sega too decided to craft their own version of that by creating the little critters known as Chao. While I feel that this was an unnecessary addition to the Sonic franchise many disagree with me and had fun raising the little buggers. I always thought it was a waste of disc space myself.



Sonic Adventure was the first foray into the realm of 3D and in my humble opinion, was a fantastic success. Here’s to Sonic Adventure, a groundbreaking game and a revival for Sonic the Hedgehog. But the question still remains, did it revive Sega?

Thanks to a vastly superior marketing campaign and of course a flagship Sonic game at the helm, the Sega Dreamcast was a commercial success for Sega. Finally after years of flops and bad decisions Sega made all the right moves and had a console that outperformed everything else at the time. Sega was once again the industry pioneers by allowing Dreamcast to be the first console with online capability. It had every reason to be a successful console for years to come…..but it wasn’t. Sony was well at work on it’s next big console that would release a year later.




Yup, it finally arrived and the Dreamcast had no chance. Unlike Sega Sony made all the right marketing decisions in the 90s and promised to continue those successes into the next decade. No one was willing to give Sega a chance. Too many failed missteps and bad ideas in the early 90s finally took their toll. They could not escape the trauma of their past and not many were willing to forgive them for their bad mistakes and eventually just two short years after Sonic and Sega looked ready to take the gaming world by storm once again, they were right back to where they were in 1997, a fledgling company with a franchise hanging on by a thread. But that didn’t mean they didn’t give it the old college try. Sega still had Sonic Adventure 2 up their sleeve.

Dreams of a Sonic Adventure are Cast Act 2

Well, at this point its summer of 2001 and Sega had pretty much abandoned the Sega Dreamcast. It was a commercial failure despite a few months of early success. But this time I wasn’t angry or upset with them. They made all the right moves with the Dreamcast and it’s not their fault no one could see what I saw in a great console that sadly never got the chance it deserved. Still, I clung on to my Dreamcast for the follow up to the first Adventure game, Sonic Adventure 2.




This game was probably the last of the decent Sonic storylines before it’s eventual descent into madness and gave us probably the last decent new character of the bunch as well, Shadow the Hedgehog and his companion Rouge the Bat. While many old school Sonic fans weren’t very receptive to Shadow I didn’t mind him so much. Mario has Wario and now Sonic has Shadow. Of course, I do get some of the criticisms. Shadow’s background is somewhat overdone and a tad too dark for a Sonic game, and Sonic already had two rivals previous in Metal Sonic and later Knuckles. Still after ten years I think resentment towards Shadow has died somewhat and he’s slowly been accepted into the Sonic universe by even a few of the older fans now. Looking back on it given the characters they’d come up with after Shadow, his really wasn’t all that bad in retrospect. Oh and Rouge? She can take a long walk off of a short pier.

At least you aren't Big the Cat I guess...

While Sonic Adventure 2 was a marked improvement over the first game, refining the gameplay in areas where the original was a little rough, this was also the first major Sonic game Yuji Naka wasn’t a major part of and the game feels like a disconnect from the past Sonic games as a result. My feelings on it are a mixed bag. It’s both the swan song to the respectable era of credibility that Sonic and in fact Sega once had as well as the game that ushered in this loathsome new era we’ve been subjected to for the past 10 years. Still overall, this is still to this day my favorite of the 3D Sonic games and while none of the Adventure games can compare to the Genesis originals I still felt that Sonic was overall my favorite videogame franchise and I was excited to see where Sega would continue to take it.

Well, despite a short history the Sega Dreamcast produced two new outings for Sonic the Hedgehog and created a successful reboot for the series as it garnered a whole new generation of Sonic fans. Just when times seemed at their most bleak, Sonic pulled through and closed out the decade that he made his own and ended it in spectacular fashion. The Sega Dreamcast had every reason to rule the world and Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 were classic games. Give yourselves a pat on the back Sega you did right by me and re-instilled my faith and hope in you for at least two years. Fast forward ten years later and the Dreamcast is often on many peoples favorite consoles lists and for good reason. It paved the way for the next decade to come as they were simply ahead of their time, but their own reputation wasn’t enough to save them and they were eventually done in by the juggernaut known as Sony. Sega announced that they would no longer create consoles but would now focus on just software for existing platforms. Well, at least this is good news for Sonic fans right? Now we can continue to get our Sonic fix on multiple platforms. Sonic will live forever! Glory be to Sonic!





……Right?




Next Time: The dark ages begin. Sonic becomes the laughing stock of the gaming industry and the butt of several jokes as many wonder what in the hell has become of our famous Hedgehog, culminating in their biggest disaster ever. Yup, I’m talking about that game. And boy do I have a rant for that one you won’t wanna miss.

Sonic and Shadow argue over who is responsible for Sonic 06.

Fourth Time's a Charm (Sonic 4 Review)

If I were to think of one word that could sum up Sonic 4 it would be simplicity. Sonic 4 is in many ways back to basics. Its in my humble opinion a welcome return to form that this series has been needing for a very long time. While Mario has improved and benefited from a 3D format, I think Sonic is perhaps best in his 2D incarnation. Sonic 4 is back to old school basics and gameplay. It’s simple. You travel generally from left to right picking up rings as you go between various Zones and Acts. It’s the basic Sonic formula many old school fans have come to know and love. Bearing a graphical style similar to that of Sonic Adventure, this is perhaps the game that should have been on the Dreamcast to start with. Many of the things cluttering and plaguing the series over the past decade have been stripped away to make things less muddled or confusing. Gone are the unnecessary abundance of characters. Gone are the zany, melodramatic plots. Gone are silly gimmicks designed to make the formula seem more fresh or new than it is. Sonic 4 focuses on what matters; dashing through hoops collecting rings and smashing into things curled into a ball. It’s the reason we all fell in love with Sonic to start with and Sonic 4 mercifully focuses on that and nothing else.




That’s not to say that the 3D Sonics have nothing to bring to the table. Included is the homing attack present from the 3D games as well as the ability to pick and choose any stage to replay at any time. Anyone familiar with the Sonic Rush titles developed by Dimps should already feel at home here. The controls feel somewhat sluggish at first but it just takes getting used to and you’ll come to find that the controls are actually pretty tight and responsive. Level design has improved from the Rush games as well, placing more emphasis on platforming and timing than making Sonic zip at insane levels of speed, although there are plenty of moments that have that as well. In addition to retro level design the game boasts a retro soundtrack as well with musical selections that are highly reminiscent of the Genesis classics. This is just personal opinion but this style of music just fits Sonic the Hedgehog better. It’s timeless and adventurous and just encapsulates the feeling of just having fun, which is what the series initial intention was.



If Sonic 4 has any failing it’s that it doesn’t feel like Sonic 4. A more apropos title would have been “This is Your Life Sonic the Hedgehog” as the game feels more like a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Many stages were clearly inspired and in the case of the Casino Zone, outright ripped straight out of Sonics 1 and 2. Every boss battle with Robotnik, excuse me Eggman is generally a rehash of boss battles you’ve had before in those games as well and even the level designs often employ the same tricks as the Genesis games. Veterans should easily be able to spot many of the level design tricks employed here and as a result it makes the game seem somewhat too easy as a result. While tugging at nostalgic heart strings is never really a bad thing per se, it helps to bear in mind that this is supposed to be a sequel. While the spirit of the originals should be kept in mind with the design it’s important to make us feel that this in fact Sonic 4, a brand new adventure with the spirit of the originals intact. Nothing in Sonic 4 makes it seem vastly original or different than the ones that came before it and it has no identity as a result. The developers of Mega Man 9 understood this concept perfectly, it’s one that Sega and Dimps should have kept in mind.

Haven't I seen this somewhere before?




Yep.

Even still despite it’s short length at only 4 Zones each with 3 Acts Sonic 4 doesn’t feel like a terrible game at all and is a welcome game that is at least 10 years overdue. Most average players can beat the game in about a day, but the real fun and challenge of Sonic 4 is replaying the levels trying to get that high score or beat that level just a bit faster. It’s an old school philosophy of gaming in mind, one that seeks to challenge and test you rather than tell a grand epic story. Some games work better that way. I would love to see a grand sweeping tale from Red Dead Redemption. When it comes to Sonic I just want a fun, vibrant platformer with catchy tunes and colorful backgrounds. This is only Episode I of Sonic 4, so here’s hoping that Sega continues it with an Episode II and maybe adds Tails or Knuckles or even Shadow as playable characters and gives us some more original stages and boss battles. All the same Sega, allow Dimps to design your Sonic games from now on. They’ve done more for this series with one simple downloadable game than you have with 6.

Thumbs up for Sonic 4.

Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Three

Chapter 3 Act 1: The End of an Era

The years of 1992 and 93 were ones of lucrative successes for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was at the height of his popularity. There were not one, but two Sonic cartoons in circulation. There were Sonic T-shirts, coloring books…freakin’ Pez dispensers of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was one of the most popular videogame series at the time, if not the most popular. Naturally a Sonic 3 was being prepared behind the scenes and Sega would attempt to make it their biggest Sonic game yet, even employing Michael Jackson to lend his talents to the soundtrack. While this collaboration was never finished, his influence on the game’s music is still very apparent. The game and the project was so ambitious that it had to be split into two parts, with the second half of the story to come at some later date. However, in early 1994, we finally got Sonic 3.



Unfortunately for Sonic 3, its release date came at an awkward time. Nintendo was beginning to regain its footing by 1994, having one of the best years that console ever had and following the commercial disaster that was the Sega CD, Sega now had to scramble to try to regain its strong lead and thus do I think Sonic 3 was hastily rushed to store shelves. To add further fuel to the fire Sega failed to outright state that this was a part of a two part series and reaching the end of the game forced a lot of gamers, including myself to scratch their heads thinking “That was it?” The game was pretty short with a cliff hanger ending this side of Halo 2. As a result this game was not as critically well received as previous games.


But that doesn’t mean that Sonic 3 was a terrible game by any means. The original idea the team had for the game was to design a 3D sonic game but that idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of another traditional side scrolling adventure. In order to avoid rehashing the same game as the 3 that came before it, Sonic 3 attempted to create a little more back-story for the game than previous ones. Picking up immediately where Sonic 2 left off Dr. Robotnik’s Death Egg crash-lands on the Angel Island where a legendary Master Emerald is being held. Sonic and Tails fly off towards him in pursuit. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic in a strange bit of continuity for a side scroller before he is stopped dead in his tracks by a new character, Knuckles the Echidna who quickly nabs your Chaos Emeralds you worked so hard to get in part 2. (Or at least I worked hard to get, most other gamers likely had a life and didn’t bother collecting them all or they used a Game Genie to get Super Sonic in which case you suck.) Anyway, putting the fact that Knuckles somehow stopping Sonic in his tracks with one blow makes no sense at all, this was still a really memorable way to introduce a new character and Knuckles quickly became accepted into the Sonic universe and was an instant success.

Knuckles pre Sonic Adventure. Bad rap song not included.

Sonic 3 was fun right from the start. As soon as I began zipping through Angel Island I could see that this game was easily on par with past Sonic games and the graphics were jaw dropping for a Genesis game at the time and still is one of the most gorgeous 2D plat formers today. Every sprite got an updated look that looked even better than Sonic CD in some ways. A lot of gameplay additions were made as well. Sonic now had several shields in addition to the usual one and that protected you from different elements. A fire one that allowed you to walk over lava, a lightning shield that allowed protection from thunder or shocks and had an added benefit of attracting any nearby rings to you and a water bubble that offered unlimited breathing underwater. The bonus stages were redesigned in what I felt were my most favorite style and even Tails got an upgrade as now you can fly anytime you want to add a different dynamic to gameplay when playing as Sonic. Acts were still limited to 2, but this time each act had a different look to it and even a remix of the act’s music played to accompany it. Sonic 3 had the best soundtrack of any Sonic game in my opinion up to that point and still does. It was a fantastic game that sadly had the major flaw of being too short. That would be fixed with the release of….

Later that same year, Sega would finally release Sonic and Knuckles and the conclusion to Sonic 3. This game came out just in time for my birthday and I rushed to my room instantly to start it up. If Sonic and Knuckles had any failing is that it was essentially more of the same since technically it is part of the same game that Sonic 3 was supposed to be. However this addition did have a few added benefits. For one thing the popular character of Knuckles was now playable. Knuckles had become an instant fan favorite and being able to play as him was a nice boost to the game. He could also access areas that Sonic could not by climbing or punching his way through areas and making new pathways. Of course the true strength of Sonic and Knuckles came in the form of Lock-On Technology.



In what could be considered one of the coolest things like, ever at the time putting a copy of Sonic 3 on top of a specially designed cartridge for S&K gave you Sonic 3 and Knuckles which allows you to play Sonic 3 and go straight into S&K without interruption. This also unlocked Tails as a playable character for the game and gave you access to the true ending for S&K. Even more odd was sticking a copy of Sonic 2 would mod the game and allow you play as Knuckles in that game for even more awesomeness. Sadly, this is only possible by actually playing a Genesis cart of the game or downloading a ROM as any subsequent Sonic 2 or Sonic and Knuckles re-releases do not allow you to play this.


Well, for the fifth time I took down Dr. Robotnik (or Metal Sonic if you were Knuckles) and had a blast, only this time it just didn’t seem quite as fun. Sonic 3 and Knuckles didn’t feel quite as good as the other games to me. Stages seemed designed to trap the player and based more on speed and memorization than exploring. But most of all the stages were too long. Some stages could run anywhere from 6-7 minutes and by the second act of a lot of them I was ready for it to end already. It was clear that while Sonic was still fun, the series was starting to lose some of it’s magic and by the end of 1994 I was more into my Super Nintendo than my Sega Genesis. The Golden Age of Sonic had finally come to a close.

Chapter 3 Act 2: Where In the World Is Sonic the Hedgehog?

Sonic the Hedgehog had 5 main titles as well as a slew of spin offs and Game Gear ports. Even the character of Knuckles got a game for the much maligned 32X another awful add on idea that Sega had apparently learning nothing of the lessons of the Sega CD. Even less people bought that and it remained on the market for barely a year if that even. Not even Sonic could save a console anymore and people were just starting to get sick of Sega while on the Nintendo front they had one of their biggest years ever in 1994, ending with the release of Donkey Kong Country which blew anything the Genesis had graphically out of the water. By 1995 the Sega Genesis had seemed like an old dog that was desperately needing to be put out to pasture. Sega would give disc based gaming another try as it was obviously the direction gaming was headed but this time they had to do it right. The Sega CD flopped because they failed to make a game that really showcased the power of the hardware with a fun likeable character in an eye catching game. Their Sega Saturn would launch later that same year and did they manage to do that? Well….sorta.

Sega had to really rush the Saturn out there before they were really ready to do so. They were quickly falling behind and they had to get their system out first before the Sony Playstation. As a result the Sega Saturn released months before it was supposed to and it was the Sega CD all over again. While at least they didn’t have bad FMV games, the US Saturn was filled with nothing anyone wanted to play or games that were also available on other platforms. As a result the Sega Saturn was fast becoming another Sega CD or 32X in the long line of failed consoles. Sega just couldn’t find a way to duplicate the success that the Genesis did. However, the Saturn was flying off of the shelves in Japan. Great classic original games were selling like hotcakes but the US Saturn still sat collecting dust on store shelves. So did Sega finally address this issue and start importing some of these original titles?

Well, what do you think?

Sega president Tom Kalinske at the time felt that 3D gaming was the way to go and that 2D was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Saturn’s greatest strength was in processing 2D graphics and couldn’t handle 3D as well as its rival the Playstation or later the Nintendo 64. As a result a lot of really lousy slow loading poop was released for the thing instead of what everyone really wanted, a 32 Bit 2D Sonic game in all of its glory.

Well, we didn’t get that. We got Nights.

To be fair, Nights wasn’t a terrible game by any means, but unfortunately Sega was an enemy of its own successes as many shunned it because well, it wasn’t Sonic. And that’s what we all really wanted to see. Sega had really been banking on Nights being the commercial success that Sonic was and tried to get us to buy into a new mascot for the Saturn and repeat the success of the Genesis. That never happened. By the time Sega finally came crawling back to Sonic in late 96 with Sonic 3D Blast an awful game that wasn’t even designed by the Sonic Team themselves (they were too busy with Nights) it was too late. Nintendo had unveiled their Nintendo 64 and Mario’s long silence was ended and he came back with a vengeance in the form of Mario 64. Sonic was for all intents and purposes, finished. There wouldn’t be another Sonic game proper for almost four years. Even my interest in Sonic the Hedgehog was over. I watched as I played lousy racing games like Sonic R and just laughed at Sega’s ineptitude and stupidity. 1991 seemed like such a long time ago. Both Sonic and Sega needed some time to bounce back and recover and for once do things right.

Yes, just what Sonic needed in response to Mario 64; a slugglish, ugly slow moving fighting game.

Next Time: Sonic awakens from his long slumber and takes us for not one but two great adventures as a new generation of Sonic fans are born.

Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Two

The success of Sonic the Hedgehog propelled Sega to heights the company had never seen before and it was now time to take control of the console game market in 1992. The original Sonic was a smash success and many fans including myself were definitely wanting more. Sega was already hard at work producing a sequel that looked to be even better than the original. At the time I couldn’t really see how you could top the original game but pretty soon Sega would give me my answer in the form of Sonic 2.

Chapter Two: The Sonic Boom

Sonic the Hedgehog was an amazing financial success for Sega and for the first time they had momentum going into 1992. They would have to deliver a final crushing blow to Nintendo and their SNES if they hoped to continue to their success. While this never happened, they did become the market leaders when Sonic 2 was released. Sonic 2 was an even bigger success than the original and to this day it is still the best selling Sonic game to date selling over 6 million copies worldwide. The original game was amazing, but Sonic 2 could only be met with silent awe and admiration. Sonic 2 absolutely demolished the original in every possible way and gave us a new character, Miles “Tails” Prower.

Sonic now has a Robin to his Batman

The best just got better. Everything in Sonic 2 was better. Better music, better graphics, better level design. That nasty spike glitch was mercifully addressed. (You know that one where if you jump on the spikes you keep hitting it until you die with no way to recover…ugh.) Sonic was given a new ability, the Spin Dash which helped immensely. No longer did you have to run backwards and pick up speed just charge in place and plow through the enemies. Although Zones were reduced from 3 to 2 levels per Zone, more Zones were added to increase variety. Dr. Robotnik was back to challenge you in every level but this time his contraptions were more varied and challenging. Special stages were altered from that awful headache inducing rotating pinball machine thing from the original in favor of a much more fun “rollercoaster” style run in which you simply collect enough rings and avoid taking damage from bombs to collect the Chaos Emeralds. Speaking of Chaos Emeralds….

Nabbing all of the Chaos Emeralds didn’t really do much in the original game. It just slightly altered the ending somewhat. Not in Sonic 2. If you were skilled enough to grab them all in Sonic 2, a really nifty reward happened when you were able to grab 50 rings in a stage. Sonic transformed into a super fast yellow form and became Super Sonic. All your hard work paid off. Any level as Super Sonic was a joke as long as you could keep collecting enough rings before the effect diminishes. Needless to say I thought this was the coolest thing ever and felt like I didn’t waste my time trying to collect them all. In fact I played Sonic 2 to the death. Me and my brother would have hours of fun playing this game. If there was any game I mastered in life, this was definitely one of them. Everything led to the game’s epic conclusion with Sonic and Tails flying into space to face Robotnik one last time. But not before he forced you to fight one of his creations, Metal Sonic. I remember as a kid seeing this nice little surprise and thinking, oh crap when it prepared to charge. I miraculously survived the battle only to discover that Robotnik was a far greater challenge. To this day I still say this game has the hardest final boss out of any of the Sonic games and when it was finally said and done my palms were sweaty and I just kicked back and watched the credits. Epic finish to an epic game.

Sadly, the game wasn’t exactly perfect either. A two player mode was added to the game but sadly it was utterly awful with its split screen and slowdown. This felt like a last minute tacked on addition to the game as an excuse to delete some of the unused stages from the game. Actually this game had a lot of things in it that were unused. This game was a very ambitious project and multiple ideas including time travel even were excised. In fact, Sonic 2 was originally being developed for a new game console Sega was working on that used a compact disc format instead of cartridges but much of those ideas were scrapped. So what did happen to a lot of those ideas? Well, they took them and applied them to what in my opinion is the greatest Sonic game of all time.





It’s now 1993. Sega has taken a firm hold over the home console market and just recently unveiled their Sega CD add on the public. This was made to compete with the success of the Neo Geo and Turbo Duo disc based consoles which were a huge success in Japan. They hadn’t really taken off in North America and with the Sega brand a big name in NA, they would practically run unopposed in that market. The decision was a pretty smart one for Sega in theory. They had a leg up on Nintendo and there shouldn’t be any reason the public wouldn’t buy this new technology right? Sega had marketed the Genesis brilliantly. They banked on the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and it paid off in spades. Sonic was bundled with every console and it sold an impressive amount of units and put them on even footing with Nintendo. So now that Sega had this new disc based hardware it was time to send them packing right? A new Sonic game for the CD was in development and released for the console but instead of showing off that game which truly used the power of the hardware they opted instead to advertise stuff like this…



Yeah, Sega stupidly instead chose to focus on grainy FMV games that looked ugly back then and most certainly haven’t aged well today. As a result the Sega CD became the first real major blunder in the companies history as it was forgotten almost a year after it released. It didn’t take long for people like me to realize most of it’s games were shit and instead of doing the intelligent thing and bundling Sonic CD with the console, most bundles came with a horrible FMV game called Sewer Shark. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with the Sega CD and realized it was going to be a failure after a few months. But hey, at least I had Sonic CD.

Oh what a game Sonic CD was. To this day, still the best Sonic game ever. The best parts of Sonic 1 and 2 were meshed to create this one. Tails wouldn’t be around for this one but instead we did get introduced to a new character, Amy Rose and Sonic’s nemesis Metal Sonic would return in his most recognized incarnation and wouldn’t you know it he’d capture Amy for whatever reason and now you have to save her. Robotnik is back to his old tricks of course and this time he’s not after the Chaos Emeralds, but instead the Time Stones which allows a person to travel in time to any moment he wishes. Why on earth this hasn’t been used in future Sonic stories is beyond me. It’s a neat idea and Sega should revisit it. Lord knows they could use some good ideas, but let’s save that rant for future chapters of this blog series shall we?

The debut of Amy Rose. A moment of celebration for some, dismay for others.

While she wasn’t a playable character and this game regressed back to a 1 player game with just Sonic, this game more than made up with that shortcoming. This game could do things that the other Sonic game could only dream of doing with the new disc based technology. I remember putting in the disc and being treated to the opening movie and heard a really cool song and realized this game was going to blow the other two out of the water.



Sonic now had more animations than ever before. In addition to the Speed Dash Sonic now had the ability to run in place and build momentum. A feature to this day still unique to Sonic CD. This made Sonic even faster than he was in Sonic 2. Thanks to CD technology, Sonic now had a voice for the first time ever. Sonic CD has some of the most interesting level designs in the series. Challenging, yet fun this is also the most replayable Sonic game out of the originals thanks to the time feature. Certain gates marked with Past or Future signs would send Sonic into those respective eras if he built up enough speed. Going into the past and destroying Robotniks machines would allow for a good future in Zone 3 which altered the stage and even the stage music. Speaking of the music, this game had a great soundtrack thanks to the CD quality of the music and oddly enough the music for the American version was very different than that of the original. But who cares! While the Japanese music was good, the music of the American version has aged much better overall and was simply outdone. This is one of those rare times where we did something better than the Japanese in my opinion. The music in this game was a bit different than what you would normally hear out of a Sonic game at that time but nowadays it would fit perfectly. It was just a bit ahead of its time. The special stages were in Mode 7 style and offered the first glimpse into what a 3D Sonic game would be like. Everything about Sonic CD was ahead of its time.

As such Sonic CD was the best selling Sega CD game well, ever and was still enjoyed a fair amount of success and is hailed as a cult classic today. Sadly due to Sega’s mismanagement they took what could have been future success with this disc based add on and future Sonic games could have thrived on this format. Sega was clearly out of touch with what the consumers wanted and had to end the Sega CD experiment shortly thereafter and a true Sonic sequel would be relegated to the Genesis again. Well there’s always the old lovable Genesis I guess, right?

Sonic's reaction to Sega's marketing decisions in the mid 90s

Next Time: The Golden Age of Sonic finally comes to a close and Sonic takes a strange hiatus from the gaming world when Sega gives disc based gaming another go.

Every Girl Crazy Bout A Sharp Dressed Man

Seriously EA, fire your cover designers already.