So, quite an exciting day today with the long-awaited arrival of Sonic CD on XBOX Live Arcade, PSN and eventually a whole load of other stuff too. The final gift (or money making opportunity depending on which way you look at it, though it's hardly pricey) of this wonderful 20th anniversary year - The hidden gem of the Sonic world is now out in the open for all to enjoy! Easily accessing the perfect version of this game has always proved difficult in the past, what with the rare and expensive Mega CD system itself, and a slightly temperamental PC version later on. Until now, I preferred to use a Japanese import (to get my preferred soundtrack of course) of Sonic Gems Collection for the Gamecube, which required a freeloader disc to be run first every single time, and of course nowadays it doesn't work on the Wii - not exactly a dream setup.
It's fortunate then that not only is this one as accessible and comfortable to play as you could want, it also happens to be arguably the best version of the game yet! I'm thrilled that at the last minute they managed to get the rights to have the option of which soundtrack you want to play with, the holy grail of Sonic CD port features, not to mention so many other lovely little features like a Sonic 2 spin dash and looped music. Looks fantastic in wide-screen HD too, and you know it wouldn't have been as good as this without Christian Whitehead's involvement. I think the very idea that a talented fan could produce an engine good enough for SEGA to use in an official port of a classic game, and for it to be completely seamless, is absolutely amazing. I remember being impressed by some of the earliest builds of that in the old Retro Sonic demo, the best part of a decade ago, and it's great to see it put to good use. An entirely new game built on it would be beyond amazing!
Oh and let's not forget that you can find a fully illustrated, highly detailed Sonic CD guide right here, with exhaustive level maps! Hopefully it proves very useful to brand new or inexperienced players, or if you just have a bad memory as to where those all those Past/Future posts, time travel opportunities, generator machines and Metal Sonic holograms are! I myself have had to browse several of the maps already, proving it's the perfect game for these sorts of guides. There are several new things that I'll need to get round to noting though, one being that you can no longer use those vertical conveyors to time travel in Quartz Quadrant! Disaster! I promise I will one day go back and address such issues, but in the meantime, feel free to point out anything like this using the notes feature on the pages.
And also, if you can, please do let others know about the guide who might find it useful and who may not know about it already! This is probably one of the best chances for this site to jump out and attract people as an immediately useful source of information, and if you can help me with that, I'd greatly appreciate it :)
Only two levels and two pages to go now before my game guides are fully complete. I have a lot of time off over Christmas so I intend to make some good progress, either on Sky Sanctuary Zone or the Other Modes page of Sonic & Knuckles - or a bit of both. I've been getting a lot of questions and concerns about what exactly is going to happen after that. Certainly I won't disappear into the ether, there will be a few things I'll probably want to go back on and address, such as any Sonic CD tweaks described above, plus some of the dozens upon dozens of things that people have pointed out to me over the years that I've neglected - a missed power-up or technique here and there.
Ultimately what I want to do is move onto other projects (including at least one new long term Sonic-based one that I hope I can achieve, or even make a start on) and as such I don't want this site to occupy too much of my free time. However, many of you want it to continue in some form, and I do still care for it so I'm beginning to feel that I wouldn't want to let it die or remain frozen in time. I don't want to confirm anything yet, they're only thoughts at the moment, but I've been considering a new approach lately that, while initially would require a lot of commitment from me, would then allow the site to continue to exist and grow by itself, based entirely around user-generated content. Albeit content that goes in a slightly different, broader direction.
I'll leave you with that cryptic thought for now, though bear in mind it is still a thought and I cannot yet commit to any exciting new venture at this time - it may be that nothing comes of it whatsoever. Perhaps I'll be able to make more of a decision on it once the S&K guide is complete though.
Doubt I'll make another post before the end of the year, knowing me, so I wish you all an enjoyable holiday season, and much fun playing the likes of Sonic CD, more of Sonic Generations, maybe a teeny bit more of Sonic Generations 3DS (eehh, it's ok, but it's a bit of a step backwards to much more frustrating level design isn't it? Especially the Adventure levels), and perhaps some M&S London Olympics with your Granny.
See you in 2012!
Comments 14 Comments have been posted.
#1. Comment posted by metropolisishard on Thursday, 15th December 2011, 5:58am
#2. Comment posted by SeekingTruth on Thursday, 15th December 2011, 7:33am
#3. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Thursday, 15th December 2011, 9:16am
#4. Comment posted by Doreen on Thursday, 15th December 2011, 4:17pm
#5. Comment posted by Ricky Earl on Thursday, 15th December 2011, 11:49pm
#6. Comment posted by LoneCynic on Saturday, 17th December 2011, 4:26am
#7. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Saturday, 17th December 2011, 11:25pm
#8. Comment posted by Andi on Wednesday, 21st December 2011, 1:55pm
#9. Comment posted by Nate on Sunday, 25th December 2011, 4:25pm
#10. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Monday, 26th December 2011, 3:26pm
#11. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Friday, 30th December 2011, 7:05am
#12. Comment posted by LiQuidShade on Friday, 30th December 2011, 12:16pm
#13. Comment posted by Hyper_Sonic on Saturday, 31st December 2011, 6:20am
#14. Comment posted by SethBlizzard on Monday, 9th January 2012, 6:36pm