"Sonic Boom on the CD"

Introduction

So the Mega/Sega Cd has just come out on the market for an add on to the Genesis, and Sega desperately needs something big to go with the new CD-ROM console. They all ready made FMV based games on it, they just need something that people can recognize. That's when Sonic Team, or at least part of it, decided to make a Sonic the Hedgehog game since the first game was a huge money maker. Will they be successful? Some say yes, while some others say no. It's a mix bag of opinions that nobody can really determine.

This review is going to be as fair as it possibly can get. I'll try my best not to be biased, but who knows. I may go overboard on a subject.

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Graphics

Now in my opinion, I thought this was the best looking game for the Mega/Sega CD in 1993. It's just wonderful how they put so much detail in the foreground and background, and some enemy designs. Not so much as Sonic as it's still using it's old sprites.

Technically speaking, this game feature one thing, which was not possible with the Genesis alone. It supported the famous Mode 7 that the Super Nintendo uses, but it was much more slower since the Genesis couldn't run that much graphic information on just one screen (To many pixels on screen is to blame).

Also, the game itself pushed the Mega/Sega CD and the Genesis to its limits. The reason why is because it loads all these colors on one screen. Of course it runs smooth, but it does use every bit of the Genesis's coloring ability.

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Sound/Music

Since this is a CD-ROM, of course it's going to have top of the line quality sounds and music. Though now this game does something else different than any other CD based game in this time, it uses PCM sound waves to generate some sounds and some music. This meaning that when the system loads level data and all that good stuff, it sends information to the SRAM and loads all sound and music information there. This meaning that every sound is in memory so it doesn't have to continually load every time you get a sound that can only be done in a recording office and most importantly: not have to stop the music and reload it to replay.

Course they didn't do that for all sounds and music. Some sounds are loaded to the Genesis rather than to the SRAM of the Mega/Sega CD. The music, like I said, just loads every time it finishes the track.

Now after all that babbling, the sounds were bearable and so were the music. The music is quite catchy for the Japan and European version, but the U.S. version got a completely different type of style of music. Where as the Japan/European version is fun and fast paced, the U.S. version is slow paced and depressing, except for one particular level (Quarts Quadrant anyone?).

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Game play

Ah yes, the topic that greatly determines the fun factor for a Video Game. If it doesn't have this, it's not great. Simple as that.

Except for the fact that Sonic CD plays exactly like Sonic the Hedgehog, it does have some interesting features that are not in it. One is the fact that the game plays primarily with the time travel concept. Not an original one, but it's an interesting addition to the Sonic series. In each level and in every act except for Act 3, there are these 2 signs that either say 'Past' or 'Future'. Hit one of them and maintain full speed for about four to five seconds and you will basically travel to another time period in the same level. Of course the level is going to change depending on where you go. Also the level layout will change somewhat, not a whole lot.

Another interesting feature is the neat looking special stage which uses the slow, yet supported feature of the Mode 7 that the Super Nintendo uses. That means Sonic will be brought into a Pseudo 3D environment where Sonic has to hit all UFOs in the stage to get a Time Stone.

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Difficulty Factor

This is going to be a short section...

The game is not hard, and anyone who plays through it will most likely beat it in an hour or two. That is unless your goal is to get a good Future in every level, and to collect all Time Stones. Then the difficulty raises up a notch, but not by much.

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Technical Things

Now I know what the Genesis with the Mega/Sega CD add on is capable of. But I don't think the programmers were paying attention or something. Sure the game plays fine, but sometimes it loads WAY to much information in one spot that the processor can not run a full 30 FPS frame rate. This is most noticeably seen when your in the temple level under water. The game loads way to many bubbles coming out of Sonic's mouth that it just sort of slows down a whole lot. Sometimes it goes below 15 FPS!

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Over all

The game is one of the few money making games to come out for the Mega/Sega CD. Not many good games have come out for the said system. Really sad to, it did have a lot of good potential.

If you love Sonic, then you'll love this game.
If you like Sonic, then maybe you'll like this game.
If you just can't get into Sonic, don't try this one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/07