Support NeoGAF

[iavi]

Stay on dry land (upper part of the level) towards the end. Very obvious.

Lol, you're right, thx. I actually found it right after posting. Pretty convenient placing since they pretty much placed it on a racing strip, and a sign to the past below it. Metal sonic's projector was also only a few feet behind it.


---

Side note: For those who playing on Androids with older chipsets like the Evo4G. Overclock your cpu if you know how. I bumped my Evo from 998 to 1.14gz and the game doesn't dip in framerate at all anymore. I'm actually surprised such a small bump did the job.

 

[dtrack]

It's beautiful.

Just updated to the latest CM alpha (v. 3.5), running at 60FPS now!

 

[Nocturnowl]

Had a time out death searching for Wacky Workbench act 1 generator, and now I see why this place is hated, i'm not even sure i'll also be taking 50 rings to the exit either with all the random shit that damages you in this zone.
The funky US track for this stage is the only redemption right now, it soothes my soul.

Edit: Following claviertekky's hint drop earlier I went against all logic and got "crushed" into a secret room with the generator, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHO THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A GOOD AND LOGICAL IDEA?!

 

[iavi]

Had a time out death searching for Wacky Workbench act 1 generator, and now I see why this place is hated, i'm not even sure i'll also be taking 50 rings to the exit either with all the random shit that damages you in this zone.
The funky US track for this stage is the only redemption right now, it soothes my soul.

Edit: Following claviertekky's hint drop earlier I went against all logic and got "crushed" into a secret room with the generator, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHO THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE A GOOD AND LOGICAL IDEA?!

Yeah, I just hit wacky workbench myself... This is the level I'd hit when playing as a kid and say fuck it. Fully understanding the game's mechanics, I find it a bit better this time around, but the shit's still bad. The game didn't need yet another factory themed level when Quartz Quadrant handled the theme beautifully.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

The wait for the PSN/Steam version is just excruciating.

 

[celebi23]

So, anyone have huge problems when downloading the game's files on Android? I'm still stuck on file 2 of 8 and have been on that screen for about an hour >_< On the plus side, I got to play a bit of the iOS version. Man, I'm not one for on-screen controls but, they felt perfect I hope Sega uses the Retro Engine more.

 

[A Huge Battleship]

Just got the PS3 version (EU) and it's absolutely breathtaking. Sega, do this for the other Genesis Sonics and you will have my money before you can say Gotta Go Fast.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Right, done with the hunting, good future everywhere with the best "good future" of all being my own in which I don't see myself bothering to go for those generators and time stones ever again! That's a good future right there (so as you may imagine I didn't find the hunting particularly riveting)
To make things harder on myself I had to get the last time stone from the last possible stage, so on metallic madness act 2, goddamn at trying to grab 50 rings, find the generator and survive, it was breaking me down, screw those bomb enemies.

And my kingdom for a good sonic bonus stage! I swear they are all flawed and not really enjoyable with the possible exception of Sonic 3 & Knuckles bonus stages.

 

[alf717]

If you destroy the hologram and generate in the past and time runs and you don't hit that "ding dong" thingy are they still destroyed?

 

[chemicals]

I just need to say... I booted up this little gem last night. There's something special about being able to play Sonic CD. I was in high school when the Sega CD peripheral came out and I've been drooling over the game ever since then. The platforming is second to none here... the first water stage I came across was near perfection. Freaking awesome $5 game!

 

[alf717]

I just need to say... I booted up this little gem last night. There's something special about being able to play Sonic CD. I was in high school when the Sega CD peripheral came out and I've been drooling over the game ever since then. The platforming is second to none here... the first water stage I came across was near perfection. Freaking awesome $5 game!

I feel the same I just finished up a play through with tails and there is something about this game that just feel right. This is an all new Sonic for me since I never played it before.

Protip:

You can't get achievement as Tail. )8<

 

[Dachande]

Going for a Good Future run. Got all the Time Stones.

The Metal Sonic race is shit. It's a great idea in theory, but they completely fucked it.

 

[mr_chun]

I posted this in the Android gaming thread as well, figured I'd ask and see if any of you guys knew. This thread seems infinitely more active haha.

Anyone know if Sonic CD is Xperia PLAY optimized?

Some sources are reporting yes, some no. But no one has been like "I'M PLAYING IT RIGHT NOW AND IT IS/N'T LOL".

 

[jooey]

Going for a Good Future run. Got all the Time Stones.

The Metal Sonic race is shit. It's a great idea in theory, but they completely fucked it.

It's DEFINITELY a product of its time. On the flip side if this were a modern 3D or Dimps game it'd have all sorts of artificial excitement and boost strips and huge leaps and all that bullshit.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

So I double dipped on my X360 and just downloaded it to check it out on my Galaxy Nexus. The only problem is it seems to run in slow motion 75% of the time...in other words, it ran slow the first time I booted it up (music is normal speed, but game and timer are slow), then the next time it ran at perfect speed, then after that it's been slow. I tried to search the thread but didn't see anyone else having this issue. Any ideas?

 

[Diablohead]

It's DEFINITELY a product of its time. On the flip side if this were a modern 3D or Dimps game it'd have all sorts of artificial excitement and boost strips and huge leaps and all that bullshit.

The generations version is a good attempt but it became too scripted, the race should really be like the original but with less full stops via hitting spikes and more use of slopes to gain speed and outrun metal sonic some what, like rolling down hills.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Going for a Good Future run. Got all the Time Stones.

The Metal Sonic race is shit. It's a great idea in theory, but they completely fucked it.

??? In what way?

 

[Lijik]

It's DEFINITELY a product of its time. On the flip side if this were a modern 3D or Dimps game it'd have all sorts of artificial excitement and boost strips and huge leaps and all that bullshit.

I dunno, the race-battles in generations 3DS were fucking boring as hell. I wish those had artificial excitment

 

[Dachande]

??? In what way?

Metal Sonic's speed is really poorly paced. His speed-ups are placed at just the wrong moments that catch you out at the worst of times to the point of being unavoidable if you're really unlucky, which is frequent because the 'course' layout generally sucks (keeping in theme with Sonic CD's level design being pretty bad all-round):

It's full of sharp upcurves you get caught on and lose all momentum on. I even glitched out on one of them twice in a row and got propelled straight into Eggman's death laser thing.

The alternate route at the top goes almost completely unused and trying to get to it often results in you smacking in a block and losing all your speed, which is simply bad design.

The placement of the spikes is bad: they're simply an annoying, unfun hindrance, especially in the last quarter of the course, because you get that series of platforms at the top you can use but if you fall from there, you often can't react to the spikes on the ground in time to avoid them. Once Metal Sonic is in front of you in the last 10 seconds, you might as well just restart the zone.

It's a terrible boss, which is a shame because Metal Sonic himself (itself?) is great.

To put a finer point on it - it's shit because it relies on cheap level layout traps and dubious enemy mechanics to artificially toughen the boss fight and cap the player's speed in an attempt to control the 'race', instead of actually having a proper lengthy race between the two characters where the player has genuine path options to gain back precious seconds and has to keep full momentum up as much as possible. It's not fun, and badly designed.

 

[andymcc]

is there a proper level select outside of the time attack mode?

edit: n/m figured it out

 

[rozay]

So I double dipped on my X360 and just downloaded it to check it out on my Galaxy Nexus. The only problem is it seems to run in slow motion 75% of the time...in other words, it ran slow the first time I booted it up (music is normal speed, but game and timer are slow), then the next time it ran at perfect speed, then after that it's been slow. I tried to search the thread but didn't see anyone else having this issue. Any ideas?

There's a Force GPU rendering option in the phone's settings, try enabling/disabling that and see how it runs.

is there a proper level select outside of the time attack mode?

edit: n/m figured it out

Is there?

 

[andymcc]

Is there?

yes. apparently you have to clear all of the special stages in less than 4 min under time trial.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Metal Sonic isn't hard to figure out.

If you're well ahead of him he does the torpedo attack, which will put him ahead of you.
If you're behind him he'll do the lightning, which causes him to slow down like crazy and most likely get behind you.

He performs either move at set intervals.

You deal with him just the same as the rubberband AI in the average racing game. Keep pace, never stray ahead unless it's absolutely necessary, and go for the lead near the end. It's pretty obvious when the end of the race is coming. The whole thing takes maybe less than a minute.

The tricky part is knowing the path, but it still shouldn't take more than a few tries to get the no-damage achievement.

Finished a write-up(guess you could call it a review if you like) of the game. Dunno when it'll get posted since that sort of thing is out of my hands.

 

[iavi]

The issue with the race against Metal Sonic isn't Metal Sonic himself, as much as it's the horrible track layout. Thing is, it definitely seems intentional, as it's basically designed for you to lose all momentum, screw yourself up on a hill trying to recover some lost ground, and use your remaining momentum against yourself--tossing you back into eggman. Still, it all feels very cheap.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

Ok this is my first time really playing sonic cd and beat it real quick..but after playing through Tidal Tempest theme sounds alot like deeper from sonic adventure 2 is it sampled from it or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpo3TmMnx3E Tidal Tempest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGC59jMQRB8 Deeper

 

[jooey]

Ok this is my first time really playing sonic cd and beat it real quick..but after playing through Tidal Tempest theme sounds alot like deeper from sonic adventure 2 is it sampled from it or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpo3TmMnx3E Tidal Tempest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGC59jMQRB8 Deeper

uh, it sounds a little like it.

 

[iavi]

Ok this is my first time really playing sonic cd and beat it real quick..but after playing through Tidal Tempest theme sounds alot like deeper from sonic adventure 2 is it sampled from it or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpo3TmMnx3E Tidal Tempest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGC59jMQRB8 Deeper

It sounds to be in the same key, and share a motif or two with Tidal Tempest. Not sampling, but it does look like someone when back into the series' history looking for inspiration.

On that note:

This was my first time going through the game with the JP soundtrack. What an amazing OST.
Hearing this makes me long for the days that Senoue didn't have the say to shove his guitar down every game's throat.

 

[Stat Flow]

Holy shit why am I just hearing about this?! Man, I loved playing Sonic CD back in the day when I was really young. It was blended into my experience with Sonic 1, 2, and 3. This seems like a great port and it's only 400 MSP??? That's an auto-buy right there, sir.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

You know, I really don't like Sonic CD very much. But I just tried the demo and this port is really neat, it's as if the game's level design works better in widescreen because the visible area is expanded. It's also really smooth without a hint of slowdown while the original had a tad in some places if I recall correctly. Why can't all ports of classic games be like this?

 

[Eric C]

Just updated to the latest CM alpha (v. 3.5), running at 60FPS now!

Yeah today I just updated my Touchpad to CM alpha 3.5 and Sonic CD seems to be running great for me too.

Now I just need to figure out how to pair my Wiimote to the Touchpad so I can use the Classic Controller Pro.

 

[iavi]

You know, I really don't like Sonic CD very much. But I just tried the demo and this port is really neat, it's as if the game's level design works better in widescreen because the visible area is expanded. It's also really smooth without a hint of slowdown while the original had a tad in some places if I recall correctly. Why can't all ports of classic games be like this?

The game's much better this time around for me too. Part of that being the improvements you noted, the other part being that I actually understand the mechanics this time around. It's funny, but CD is the actual antithesis to what the series has become today, even Generations' classic sonic which builds itself from the mantra of Sonic 2/3&K. CD's not about platforming as much as it's about raw exploration.

I just wish that they would have really capitalized on this design choice, and give players more of an incentive to really explore between the times, rather than find the awkward middle ground that they did between Sonic 1's green hill zone & starlight zone--forming the whole game around it.

 

[Alex Dee]

Still waiting for them to sort the download for the Android version. It's getting a little beyond a joke now.

 

[klausbert]

Just played through it on my ipad. Usually i dont like touchscreen gamepads, but i didnt mind that one. I think it helps that this has only one button though. It's also awesome that this game is universal, i can play it on the go with my iphone 4 and the controls there are pretty good too. I originally thought I'd get it for the ps3, but the ios version is enough for me. Whish they'd port more games in that manner with that engine, but it seems that this awesome port was only possible due to a devoted fanbase and sega actually working with them. Now that i've played this, all those emulator+rom packages feel so cheap to me. I wish developers back then did a better job of documenting and keeping their shit, so they could put out superior ports now.

Edit: forgot to say that i like the fact that they sampled george clinton in the boss theme and that the japanese music is just awesome

 

[Itchy//Tasty]

For some reason, I barely noticed the badniks at all in the Gems Collection version, they were just sort of there, but in this one they're tripping me up all the time. Especially the little lobster guys in Tidal Tempest. Was this tweaked since the Gems Collection, does anyone know? I might be completely wrong.

 

[Eric C]

Still waiting for them to sort the download for the Android version. It's getting a little beyond a joke now.

Posted earlier in the thread from Sega's twitter.

Sorry you're having problems - We have increased server capacity 10 fold since people started having issues

Well it really sucks that people can't download it on Android, I downloaded mine at 3AM.

But it seems that this release of Sonic CD has GREATLY exceeded Sega's expectations that seems like good news for future Sonic games using this "Retro Engine".

 

[dtrack]

Want to help a fellow out? It's hardly piracy when you still need to buy the game for the files to work. I've had the game for a full day and is stuck on 7%

At the risk of a potential ban, here are the files that were forwarded on to me by another member!

http://www.landofdroid.com/2011/una...tra-content-fear-not-we-have-it-here-for-you/

This is just the data files that are downloaded from Sega's servers, not the actual game application itself! This is all you'll need to do once you purchase the game from the Android market

Hope this helps!

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

Not that any of you probably need convincing, but I just posted my review for this over at TSSZ.

http://www.tssznews.com/2011/12/17/review-sonic-cd-xbox-live-arcade/

 

[The Friendly Monster]

Played quite a bit of this today. The port is absolutely incredible. The game....not so much, doesn't nearly live up to the rest of the main series for me.

It is kind of amazing to be finally playing this though.

Give me the rest and I'll buy them in a second Sega!

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Good review. Just read it.

 

[alf717]

Just got the achievement for all the time stone but got robbed on the Saviour of the Planet one got them all and no achievement. Maybe they have to be done in one sit down and no loading from a save?

 

[rozay]

Just got the achievement for all the time stone but got robbed on the Saviour of the Planet one got them all and no achievement. Maybe they have to be done in one sit down and no loading from a save?

No, you just have to get every badnik generator and metal sonic projector in the same playthrough. The game doesn't care how many times you exit and load the save.

 

[alf717]

No, you just have to get every badnik generator and metal sonic projector in the same playthrough. The game doesn't care how many times you exit and load the save.

Guess it is time to play for a fourth time. I know I got all of them though. Only difference this time was I got the time stones really early and I only needed to get the holograms. Ran into a minor bug which got me stuck in the metallic zone. I went from present to pass and was stuck spinning the entire time until 9.59.99. I'll be double dipping when the PC version releases.

 

[rozay]

Guess it is time to play for a fourth time. I know I got all of them though. Only difference this time was I got the time stones really early and I only needed to get the holograms. Ran into a minor bug which got me stuck in the metallic zone. I went from present to pass and was stuck spinning the entire time until 9.59.99. I'll be double dipping when the PC version releases.

I think you can't get the achievement if you get all the time stones before destroying the generators and projectors since you are auto-guaranteed good futures in every stage, so that's where the problem lays.

 

[Stephen Stills]

Playing this game for the first time in a few years... I think it might have overtaken Sonic 2 as my favorite Sonic game. Goddamn.

 

[Christopher]

With all the technology why is the FMV video still so shitty looking?

The port was really, really well done. I did a whole full play through with the Japanese soundtrack, and I really am grateful at the last minute the American version was included.

 

[luka]

With all the technology why is the FMV video still so shitty looking?

'technology' isn't synonymous with 'magic'

 

[wrowa]

It's the first time I'm playing Sonic CD and, well, what can I say? I don't really like it.

I don't like the level design very much. The levels are too huge and messy, to a degree that I'm feeling lost most of the time and that prevents me from enjoying the experience very much. It all just seems very random and hard to memorize. This wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if the game had somekind of auto-map feature but, well, it hasn't. I also really hate it how enemies sometimes blend into the background too much and are thus hard to see. There are also way too many boost-thingies that just send you straight into an obstacle. Where's the fun in that? That just frustratingly bad design.

The time-warping feature is awesome in theory. In practice it's not much more than a gimmick. And I don't think a very fun one. It's purely optional, and even if one wants to search for the signs, search for a space in the level where you can reach full-speed and then find one of these damn generators, it just doesn't feel very revarding -- and doing it in every level is just frustratingly hard, especially because there is no real benefit from playing that way. It's like this feature is just for the hardcore Sonic fans :| Honestly, there's so much cool stuff that they could have made with time traveling, and instead they couldn't do anything else than a lame search quest. Again, it would have been more fun if the game gave you a world map, so that you could replay levels again. And why is there that stupid time limit of 10 minutes?

It's not like I'm not enjoying the game, and I'm sure that there's a really great game hidden somewhere, but I just can't see it. I don't "get" the game.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

An auto-map?

 

[The Friendly Monster]

Not only is the level design bad, so is the art design. Gaudy and messy.

 

[wrowa]

An auto-map?

A map that shows how what places of the level you've already visited. Like in Castlevania or Metroid.

When a game wants me to explore its levels I want it to give me a map at least, so that I'm not stumbling around helplessly. Especially when the levels are rather messy and confusing to begin with.