It's very easy to say that Sonic CD, in all of its weird and misshapen glory, is the black sheep of the Genesis / Mega Drive series. Something that I feel has become harder to say as time has gone on is that it's the most boring one. On occasion, whenever I come back to this, I have almost always gotten a new way of appreciating this monolith of a CD-based add-on crutch. Today's playthrough made me realize how important the future stages are in the overall level design, driven either as a punishment for falling down the rabbit hole too early and missing out on a generator or as a prize for making your way through the maze that promptly stops the endless horde of robots from pounding your head in.

And that's when it all sort of clicked in my head for me. The dueling soundtracks, the good and bad futures, the boss fights? They all fit into this mold of constant rivalry, a yin-&-yang, to reinforce the big storytelling theme of this game. Little Planet is in a constant state of ruin and renaissance, fighting for control of its own life against our mutual friend, Dr. Robotnik. While this is a plot point for practically all of the games in the franchise, CD cranks it up to eleven with not only its environmental storytelling (Twelve levels per act btw!), but also the scratches that it leaves in the whole series moving forward. Take, for instance, the two new heads from this game, Amy Rose & Metal Sonic, the former also happening to be one of the most lively and loving characters in the cast, and the latter being one born out of pure hatred and spite of a certain blue protector of life.

It's a struggle to say that, despite all the hardships that this game seemed to make me put up with and how much people deride it for not sticking to the series' core philosophy, I think there's a lot here that Sega could learn to look into in regards to not only continuing its Classic series but maybe something within the 3D games as well. It proves that having faith in something, even if it doesn't look quite right from the outset, means you get to live a life of power. Down to its art design, amazing music, and effortlessly beautiful sprite work, I dare say this is more than simply just the Best Worst Sonic Game (TM).

After all, a worse game wouldn't have the will to take that first step...

Tears well up in my eyes as I write this. I couldn't believe what I had just played and platinumed just two minutes ago. I had screamed to myself, "Humans made this" like some insane mantra while the credits scrolled past my eyes. The wicked mix between photo-realistic graphics and a beautiful, dream-like painting hiding in its art direction. The charming yet heartwrenching character stories and dialogue pieces that constantly open themselves up through the manuscripts and profiling, like digging into a wound. The haunting yet similarly dance-worthy music selection that gave us not one, not two, but THREE new songs from my Old God friends from 13 years back. All wrapped up in a package that feels like Remedy had to sign a contract with the Devil himself to make a reality, yet one I'm glad happened either way if it meant I got to experience this game. Nigh, this series. Nigh, this developer's whole back catalog full of classic after classic. The sole critique I could give this game is the jumpscares do get in the way of the game's suspense and did leave me genuinely angry at a few points, but I found the game more than made up for that in genuine atmosphere.

Suffice to say I never knew what "peak" really meant until I played this.

I don't know how they did it, but by some miracle, HAL managed to pull a near brand-new formula off, with nearly everything that we knew about the series staple mechanics and mainstays either reworked or even gone like dust in the wind, perfectly with almost zero scrapes and bruises by the time I 100% completed it.

Everything felt so... right about Forgotten Land. The level design encouraged exploration and wasn't braindead easy a la Star Allies, the unlockables hooked me right back in just when I thought I was done for the day, and the bosses... lemme tell you, they are the closest thing I'll ever have to a full-on Kirby hack-and-slash and I love them for that.

Only real major grudge I have with this game is that the soundtrack for the most part was a tad... forgettable??? At least the main stage themes, but I dunno. Not as many catchy tunes as the previous entries, but still a lot of good bangers either way.

In other words, man am I glad this got people talking positively about Kirby again. Suffice to say the 10 year wait that I had for the series to get into 3d was worth it by the end.