I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Sonic CD for years, I used to despise this game with a passion, but over time I have grown to appreciate more of what this game tries to do, despite the fact I still stand by most of my criticisms.

At its core it’s a classic Sonic game, Dr Robotnick has set his sights on Little Planet, where he plans to use the 7 Time Stones to turn the planet into a weapons base. Sonic sets off to stop him in the first animated cutscene to grace the franchise, which is to this day, absolutely awesome. This was the game to introduce Amy Rose as well as her kidnapper, Metal Sonic, 2 iconic characters who would be here to stay.

Sonic’s control is about the same as in Sonic 1, there is a Spindash but in the original release it was pretty bad, requiring a lot more windup for a not so stellar performance. However you can use the Super Peel Out in this game, which allows sonic to take off at a much greater speed, at the cost of not being protected from hazards… unless you just roll after using it. So do that instead.

You can play the game as you normally would, but doing that isn’t going to be very fulfilling. Stages in this game are very vertical in design, so just going left to right takes almost no time at all. Bosses are mostly pathetic, including the final one, as a classic sonic game, CD has pretty simple level design that doesn’t make for the best adventure.

But it’s the other stuff you can do that makes the game much better. CD has 2 endings, The Bad ending where you rescue Amy but Little Planet goes on to be Eggmans base as he wanted, or the good ending where Sonic saves the planet and releases it from its shackles.

In order to do this you have 2 options, the first and main choice is time travelling, but finding a sign labelled “past” or “future” and running at a consistent speed, Sonic can travel to a different time period within the level, and this is such a cool concept. In the past of every zone you must locate an destroy a robot generator, which encourages exploration. Then you can see the fruits of your labour by optionally returning to the future and seeing little planet freed from Eggman’s oppression. It’s a really satisfying gameplay/story intergration, despite time travelling being harder than necessary at certain points, especially in the original with its dodgy hit detection.

If you don’t want to do that, simple collect 50 rings and enter the levels special stage at the end of an act. These special stages were horrid in the original, and I still find them very hard. But collecting all the time stones guarantees the good ending. So you have options.

With these elements, Sonic CD becomes a much bigger and more interesting game. This is helped by how colourful the presentation is, and the INCREDIBLE Japanese soundtrack. I don’t mind the US soundtrack, it gave us “Sonic Boom”, but the Japanese OST clears.

Sonic CD is an oddball for sure. I’m not sure I can even explain why it works when the pieces seem so lacking individually. But it does work, and nowadays I really enjoy it.

Ah, "Sonic CD," a game that swings like a jazz quartet on an off night—lots of ambition but the rhythm just isn't there. Imagine if Duke Ellington sat down at the piano, poised to deliver a soul-stirring number, and instead, we got the tinny tunes reminiscent of a speakeasy band on their first gig—unpolished, unrefined, and unexpectedly underwhelming. That's the soundtrack of "Sonic CD," trying to be the Miles Davis of video game music but landing more in the realm of a forgotten lounge act.

Then there's the level design, which feels like something straight out of a Groucho Marx routine—chaotic, confusing, and running into its own punchlines. You could almost hear Groucho quipping, "Why, they've got levels going everywhere and nowhere at once, just like my love life!" The paths twist and turn with all the perplexity of a Laurel and Hardy skit, where every doorway leads to another slapstick mishap rather than to the finish line.

Navigating through "Sonic CD" is akin to sitting through a Henny Youngman one-liner marathon—after a while, the confusion isn't just part of the act, it is the act. Each level feels like it's been designed on the whims of a stand-up comic mid-routine, where not even the performer knows the ending. It's like the game is playing its own private joke, but forgot to let the player in on the laugh.

In essence, "Sonic CD" is that late-night jazz club gig you hoped would be memorable, but the band wasn't quite up to the task. The game reaches for the stars but ends up playing in the backrooms of the gaming world, where the lights are dim and the crowd is unforgiving. So here’s to "Sonic CD," a game that aspires to be the headline act but ends up as the warm-up band, still tuning its instruments as the audience files in.

Sonic cd is not a very good game. For one the game is extremely short, each stage is only 3 or 4 minutes long at most and overall I was NOT A fan of the exploration type levels in this game. They just made the game feel empty and pointless.

I liked the time travel mechanic and thought it made for an interesting difference between this and sonic 1-3. The music was super good like always, they played the same music every boss though which I wasn't a big fan of.

I also wish that metal sonic appeared more in this game, he shows up occasionally throughout the game and then you race him and he fucking explodes. It's just really underwhelming, especially with a character who had so much potential. All in all, Sonic cd is not great but has some redeeming qualities if you look hard enough.

... Sonic 2 who?
Good lord, this is such a good game. Which is funny, considering I absolutely hated it when I was little and super into Sonic.

"Sonic is supposed to be fast! What's up with the weird maps and this time traveling stuff?" I'll tell you what's up with 'em, 10 year old me: They're peak, that's what they are.
If you pick up Sonic CD expecting to take your time and explore stages thoroughly instead of trying to get to the goal as fast as possible, as I did in this last playthrough, you'll have a great time.

Beautiful FMV cutscenes, cool zones with tons of visual variety, my favorite special stages and favorite soundtrack; CD has it all.

I guess my only complaint is that the timer shouldn't really be there. Having a Time Limit system in a game where exploration is encouraged is very counterintuitive. That aside, absolutely goated. 🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐

UPDATE 28/03: Platinum'd it. This game is so good.