Sonic the Hedgehog CD is basically…the Majora's Mask of the series.
Let's start with the gameplay: It's quite challenging and diverse from what we usually see in a Sonic game. The emphasis on speed is not as big, but to a certain extent essential. Instead of just running straight through the acts, you're actually going back in forth, searching for time posts (a la Majora's Mask). This is actually the heart and fun part of the game. The main goal is to create a good future for each stage by going into the past and destroy Dr. Robotnik's machines.
What makes the part challenging is that in order to travel through time, you have to hit the post, then without stopping or slowing down, run for 5 seconds. The REALLY challenging part is finding pathways to help you stay in motion for that long. Well, it's not too bad, but takes some time to find some. However, you can just skip the whole task and just run straight through…but there are consequences. Not making a good future in all of the stages will obviously lead to a bad one, which will be filled with more badniks and paths are more dangerous. If you do go through the trouble of finding and destroying the machines in the past, it's well rewarding. Less baddies and easier pathways will occur when you go into the future. Overall, it's great and allows a nice opportunity to explore the stages.
The special stages are back as well, and pretty different somewhat. It's a fun 3D free roam where you have to destroy UFO's to get time stones. It's actually not really hard, except that once you start moving, you can't stop. The stage shows endless mercy with extra time that you can jump for when running out of it. Also, the stones are essential to ease the burden in the game with the bad/good future results.
The bosses of Sonic CD provide good challenges. Many of Robotnik's are easy. Yet, the death race with Metal Sonic is no doubt one of the most fun, challenging, and unique boss battles ever. I can why it earned its recognition as one of the famous moments in Sonic's history.
Back then, stories in gaming were simple and pretty great. Sonic CD's was quite interesting, as it led to some great moments and debuts. It becomes a simple semi-love story with awesome action. Metal Sonic enters the stage and definitely takes it by force. He proves himself to be a worthy rival of the beloved blue blur and makes the plot a bit darker and entertaining than the genesis games.
The graphics of the game is nice. For the intro, it's a good cinematic moment watching the hero dashing to save the world again. For the stages, I approve the great display of the foreground and background animation. Also, I love how the stages changes depending whether you're in the past, present, good or bad future. Each has a unique design and color, though you can see how they aged from the present or looked back then in the past. It's really good overall.
The music will always be one of Sonic's greatest attributes. I really prefer the entire Japanese soundtrack over the American. Like Sonic 3, the music changes, except it is by time era and not by acts. It contains a great mix of smooth, electronica, rock, and hip-hop instrumentals that will soothe and move you as you listen. Of course, along with the famous death race, the music for it is quite memorable.
For a game divulging from the series, Sonic CD provides some pretty good aspects. There are a few flaws though. The Wacky Workbench level is proved to be one of the most frustrating out of the whole game. In a sense, it entirely strips a walking pathway and instead places a floor that will constantly bounce you to the very top of the stage as soon as you land on it. As a result, you have to travel back down through narrow pathways and deal with traps and badniks surrounding you. In addition, it barely has paths to allow you to travel through time, making it one of the hardest levels to deal with.
The features of the game are limited, but enjoyable nonetheless. I wished for the 2011 version (which I have) there were more added like a 2 player with the addition of unlocking Tails. Also, it's fun to choose soundtracks and listen to them. Time attack is available, but removes the past and future posts, making it only challenging to beat everything in the bad future.
Regardless, Sonic CD is a fantastic game. It has a unique gameplay that doesn't emphasize speed, but makes it useful somehow. Metal Sonic and Amy made great debuts to the series. The stages are well designed and displayed. And the music is a great listen. I recommend Sonic CD for anyone who wants to try something other than just running in a simple path. It's no ordinary platforming, but definitely fun to try out.