NNC Reviews: Sonic CD

[@partlypinkie1751]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG COMPACT DISC

[@D0Samp]

Sonic CD the Hedgehog

[@P5dfsf64g36]

32:45 a bit of fact: you can do anything was originally composed for 8-bit version of sonic 2 before being recycled for sonic cd

[@sonicjboom6967]

I recently played some of the game gear games for the first time on Sonic origins collection. When got to sonic 2 game gear and heard that song playing I was so confused lol.

[@Manquant]

Not gonna lie I was genuinely invested watching this video. From my childhood I felt Sonic CD was *that one game* I'd see mentioned for historical purposes, but never have a proper chance to play. At the very least my first exposure was playing bits and pieces on the Windows 95 port, but I remember the game issues on my family computer. Owning both Mega Collections, I hoped they would've brought Sonic CD over but was let down by it's exclusion. It wasn't until I got Gems Collection where I had a chance to play the game from start to finish, and realized I was missing out. In regards to the OST, when I was a kid I thought there was only one version but shifting through the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Collection disc I saw there was a folder with extra content. One of the folders had Sonic CD music I think it was only JPN/PAL, so listening to those tracks made me realize (yet again), "Wow I was REALLY missing out" and since then I had the JPN/PAL version ranked ridiculously high in my book. I would say the 2011 Remaster was the release that really wrapped everything altogether for me since it had a ton of quality of life and extra content included. It really solidified Sonic CD as one of my favorite games in the franchise, I would put it above Sonic 2, maybe next to Sonic 3&K since there's so many ways to approach the game. As of late I've been trying to figure out which route I'd want to take to experience the original Sega CD release since I figured between Windows 95, Steam, and Origins - the game's nuances are different from one another. I've considered picking up a Sega CD unit to play the JPN disc, or go down the flash cart route since Sega CD support is a thing nowadays.

[@NNCReviews]

I love this comment, thank you so much for sharing this with me. This is the magic of making these videos is for people to share their experiences with these games. And thank you for being invested! Sonic CD means so much to me and growing up watching it be shoved off to the side never sat right with me. I wanted to give this the review it deserves. I wish I could have went on for longer honestly! Also yes the soundtrack is amazing. I beg you to look up “colorful quadrant” it’s a beautiful remix and think you would love it. Also: I would recommend either going the emulation route or if you’re an absolute madman like me, get a SEGA CD, but as I said in the video, the SEGA CD doesn’t have any sort of copy protection so you can easily just burn a copy of the NA region coding with the JP bios so it has the proper soundtrack! Burned games won’t damage the console unlike the Dreamcast, the CD reads CDRs so it’s like it’s playing a legitimate copy. Again, thank you for this comment, it means a lot, the future of this channel is really bright.

[@rileyhoward7344]

i played it as amy in origins, that was my first full playthrough ever. and i have to say, because it's a relatively 'easy' game (aside from special stages/finding generators which i deliberately did not do), i found it so much more enjoyable than say, sonic 3. sonic 3&K is objectively the best, but this is the one i had the most fun with

[@NNCReviews]

Sonic CD will always be one of my favorite entires. As I said in review, I personally prefer it to 2. 3K is my favorite game of all time, but man does CD comes close. Thanks for the comment!

[@isaachasacomputer]

Literally the reviewer of all time Can confirm, I don't spend as much time playing games as I used to, and even then I'm not a huge Sonic fan. But I did try the Sonic CD port on Steam recently, and it blew me away. I kinda goofed around with Sonic 1 and 3 as a little kid, but I just wasn't able to get my head around it. CD was so exciting and easy to get into, though! I could see it being a great first Sonic game to recommend to interested noobs

[@mitzu_le]

i came across your video while searching for a song to listen to while working and i just wanna say god i love the design of your mascot -a passionate character designer and sonic fan

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you! That means a lot to me, I love my little guy! I want to make a chao of him

[@mitzu_le]

@@NNCReviews i wish you the best of luck with that lol have a nice day as well

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you so much! you too :) @@mitzu_le

[@KamiBigLizard]

The second sound test image always gave me Bruce Timm Batman vibes.

[@RedemptionPS3]

I just found this channel a few hours agos and I just gotta say these videos are amazing, your so underrated you deserve more subs

[@NNCReviews]

Oh my gosh thank you so much, these type of comments are so heart warming to read, the future of the channel is bright, I can't wait to share it with you.

[@Hyp3rSonic]

I prefer zones having 3 acts actually. And i really love labyrinth. I always preferred sonic 1 and sonic cd over 2, 3 and sonic and knuckles. But i really love amys playstayle in advance 1 imo. And origins is my preferred way of playing the games. (It actually made me have way more fun with s3 and k, even tho i didnt like that you cant play them separately) imo, sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles get slightly worse if you play them combined.

[@NNCReviews]

based

[@Hyp3rSonic]

​@@NNCReviewsyou are based as well!

[@BadnikMechanic]

Nice video, keep it up.

[@supper_e1823]

Great video! My experience with Sonic CD was that I did not really like it at first, but when I tried the game again and actually explored the levels, it all came together. It became my favorite sonic game! Because of how easy it is in comparison to the other sonics, it is a great game to just turn on and zone out exploring the levels and listening to the amazing music. :)

[@NNCReviews]

exactly how I feel about it! it's a great immersive Sonic game, it's different, and for that I love it thank you for the nice comment, this is the kinda stuff I've been wanting!

[@HSMGamerXV]

I just disagreed with what you think about the NA soundtrack, I love both the soundtracks, they're amazing in their own ways.

[@NNCReviews]

And that’s great, I love different opinions and welcome ALL of them! It’s just my opinion. I will admit I am coming around to stardust speedway and as I said in the video I LOVE tidal tempest and wacky workbench. Both are def good, I just think the JP fits the game more!

[@HSMGamerXV]

@@NNCReviews For me, the best thing about the re-releases is the option to choose between the ones you'd like to listen to, and I love switching whenever I feel like it. And I've been in love with Sonic Boom since I was a kid. Sonic represents our lives, my parents were supporting this passion since I was like 3yo, when they gave me my Genesis, and a Sonic 3 cartridge. It can definitely change someone's life, and it changed mine. They always bought me the cartoons DVDs, and my mom always watched them with me. Growing up like this was magical, and I'll always love Sonic.

[@NNCReviews]

Love that and couldn't agree more, Sonic changed my life for the better too. As I said in the video, my mom was always super supportive of my hobbies. I got a dreamcast, genesis and saturn when I was a kid because she was cool enough to look for them, and I couldn't be more thankful. Sonic has been a big influence on me as a kid. For the Christmas of 2013 instead of asking for a PS4 or Xbox, I wanted a saturn, that's how big Sonic was for me, and I will always remember that. Also yes! as I said in the video the fact we have the option to switch between the soundtrack makes it amazing imo. It's pro player, it was FOR the fans! And I love Sonic Boom, and loved it when I was a kid, I just think Sonic Warrior fits the animation better! Loved this comment, thank you for sharing with me

[@Gundamu-p9m]

Oooooh i didnt know about that sonic cd's music i knew it had som sampling but nothing like that thanks for bringing it up in this review

[@NNCReviews]

No problem!!! It was always something I wanted to cover, since no one really talks about it!

[@AutoYeah]

29:32 Finally, somebody talked about the creepy Batman Sonic, hope the internet don't get their hands on him too.

[@NNCReviews]

Haha! My goal as a future KZbinr is to talk about the things no one does. That's why I go into micro detail, whenever I was a kid and watched a game review and someone missed a small detail, it made me want to make my own reviews!

[@MarkerMurker]

38:23 That clip was brought back from the hidden recesses of memory and I had to do a double take. Also, excellent video! Loving the series, and if you take requests for further down the line... Fan game analysis would be amazing in this style 👀 You just got a new sub

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you so much 🙏🏽 this means the world to me, and I will definitely look at some fan games at some point! A lot more videos to come! Hope you enjoy the Sonic 3 video, it was just uploaded this past Friday

[@REI0o0o0]

For me the 2 hardest stages were Stardust Speedway 3 and Mechanical Madness 3 SS3 is hard because of the instadeath laser and Metal Sonic being unfair in a race to the death MM3 is hard not because of the boss, but because of GETTING to the boss.

[@therealmaggiemae]

"Waiting music for a funeral" really got me x) Awesome review! This will ALWAYS be my favorite Sonic game, maybe not THE BEST but still my favorite. There is actually a pretty big community of people looking for where the original samples for the Sonic CD OST came from, aswell as recreating some of the songs from scratch, like, Tidal Tempest Present was basically recreated perfectly and you can modify as you want since the files are public, it's pretty crazy

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you! the funeral music part was really out of pocket and I was kinda nervous I would of gotten cooked for that take LOL, I've actually grown to appreciate it since, I still stand by that it doesn't fit as well as the JP, but it's good in its own right also yeah! CD may not the best, but man do I love it, the fact it's so creative and trying it's hardest to make all players happy makes me adore it. The soundtrack will always be fascinating to me, that's why I wanted to cover it for this video, not many others had before.

[@snowyowey]

Thanks for taking about my favorite sonic game

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you for watching!

[@mariomuncher44]

Did you know that there originally was going to be another zone between Palmtree Panic and Collision Chaos?

[@NNCReviews]

Yup!

[@0E1M1]

I respect your opinion with the USA soundtrack, i even agree with some of the stuff you said, and i didn't even knew the composer said that douchebag thing, but man, i feel like the USA soundtrack fits more when you're playing the game, not listening to it like idk dancing or just enjoying the music, it's for me a bunch of songs that you just listen to it, while playing the funky confusing level designs. Overall great video :)

[@VizzmyPop]

I like Amy's Advanced Moveset though since she is more jumper and arcobatics. It make her more unique

[@andrewdenson555]

I've been following Nick since he had less subscribers than me! I was like, "How is this absolute genius, comedic, Masterpiece making gentlemen not famous? He deserves a diamond KZbin plaque and millions of subscribers!" Now he's blowing my subscriber count out of the water! I'm proud of you, Nick! Keep up the excellent work!

[@NNCReviews]

This comment nearly had me in tears, thank you so much for your kind words 🙏 I won't let you down, the future of this channel is super bright! Also thank you for being a OG!

[@SonicCDspeedrunArchives]

The HDMI converter really over brightened the already brightened composite video. x.x Really good video editing and commentary though, seems reminiscent of Cybershell.

[@NNCReviews]

I agree. I actually ditched the pound cable recently in favor for a better cable that I will use for the Sonic 3 Review. The colors already look amazing from the footage I recorded. I was on a budget and I figured the brightened footage still looked infinitely better than the composite video from the Sonic 1 and 2 review. Also thank you! I really appreciate it. As for the cybershell comparison, yeah I grew up watching his videos and my humor/style definitely likely formed from my love of his content. He’s one of the 3 sonic tubers I actually watch!

[@mikecraftbro]

I’ve learned people who like sonic cd the most love sonic cd personally I mostly play the mobile versions of the sonic games 1 2 cd and 3air and cd I’ve replayed the most I enjoy the time travel play though and I love time attack I don’t even know why I just come back to this game the most the others are kind of one and don for me but I still try replaying from time to time

[@vincentadamsvga]

One minor note, the ramp and background at the beginning of Palmtree Panic isn't a mode 7 style effect. By looking at the game's data (or using debug mode) it's revealed that it's just a really tall ramp with the background manually layered to look like rolling inside a loop. It looks strange viewing the background in full due to this. It's basically just a mirrored version of itself stacked on top of it, with another normally oriented version of it on top of that. Repeat once more and then you have what the raw background of Palmtree Panic Act 1 looks like to give off the illusion of rotation. The only places in the game that use a mode 7 style effect are the ground/water in the Special Stages and the clouds on the title screen (excluding the '96 PC port which uses different sprites for everything on the title screen, including clouds that scroll horizontally like a standard background instead of vertically stretching along the top of the sky.)

[@Freshy10]

17:44 is probably the best rizz meme I've seen to date lol

[@NNCReviews]

I had the idea and went with it

[@PilaCiu]

US OST was made because STI wanted to flex with their new music studio

[@OtioseFanatic]

Disliking because of the ost hate. I grew up with it and honestly I love it. The US OST also has the uncontested superior version of many parts like the eggman battle and Stardust Speedway.

[@NNCReviews]

I welcome different opinions, it’s just how I feel my friend! I did say I liked a few of the pieces of the soundtrack. And I’ve come around to a few of them

[@sacd1896]

Awesome review man hey do you have plan to make a review of sonic advance soon which by the way is the first game I have ever played as a kid 👍❤️

[@gabrieldossantosscheffer870]

Me too that was the first sonic game I played (in emulator)

[@graysonwells21]

18:55 I feel like you bashed Spencer a little too much here, I think his line of “it’s only a game” wasn’t more degrading as it was saying “it’s all in good fun”. Him saying that people liked his music didn’t seem douchey to me because it’s true. Heck, he mentioned that there are people who like the Japanese version too and that everyone wins in the end. From what I read here he wasn’t on his high horse or anything, he even stated that he can’t blame those who criticized the changes because he can understand the standpoint critics come from. And at the very end, he still plays out to be a good sport getting bad press saying it wasn’t the end of the world for him, he seemed super understanding and logical about the controversy, but I could be reading things the wrong way.

[@NNCReviews]

I get what you are trying to say here but at the same time he uses "it's just a game" to deflect the criticism, I will give something criticism no matter what form of media it is

[@graysonwells21]

@@NNCReviews I’ll take your word for that fact then, but it still doesn’t warrant to call him a “douchebag” or say that he’s acting “high and mighty” in his response, because from what we’ve been shown in the video he hasn’t been acting in such a way. It’s one thing to give him criticism for that very statement he uses to deflect criticism, and another to just say negative things about him for whatever reason. You say you mean no disrespect to him, yet disrespected him entirely over that line. That’s just uncalled for man…

[@NNCReviews]

@@graysonwells21 womp womp

[@QuitoTheSpiderMonkey]

Just for the fact that you’re an underrated channel that went out of their way to purchase a SEGA CD, you get a sub. As for Sonic CD, I love the game with all my heart and love to just spill my guts to anyone who’ll listen, and I think your vid actually really went well into the game! Also anyone who lets me rant about the OST never regrets it lol ゴールドスピード,ママフレンド！

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you so much! it means so much to me! I think playing the games on original hardware is apart of the experience and to me, is apart of reviewing the game so I wanted to do it. Also I love spilling guts about games, that's the entire mission of this channel is to spark discussion and to spread the love! That's why my reviews are so long, I have a lot to talk about! the future of this channel is bright and hope you stay tuned for what's in store! thank you for sharing!

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

​@@NNCReviewsYour enthusiasm is contagious, and you actually put the work in. There's a few complications I feel were missed or glossed over. For example, Sega couldn't get the deals on chips Nintendo did, so cart add-ons were out of the question. And hardware add-ons were already part of what the Famicom and PC Engine did to beat Sega in Japan. The reason why few CD games push the system was because Sega kept the new features a secret as long as possible - their relationship with third parties was an uneasy one, and they were paranoid about Nintendo one upping them with their own CD system. I also feel I need to correct a common myth - the SNES and Genesis were actually fairly balanced in terms of strengths and weaknesses. For example, the SNES really struggled with that 8-bit databus and being limited to two sizes of sprite tile per screen. There's other issues, none of them as obvious as the Genesis lacking colors. But they added up. When the SNES launched, Sega was very eager to compare the two, head to head.

[@Taurmega]

Just looked through all three Sonic reviews; pretty thorough and meaningful analysis on all of them. I actually started appreciating You Can Do Anything more because of this one too lol Best song in the game for me is Wacky Workbench Past, easily. That being said, Palm Tree Panic's past theme is also very very good. Palms are the best plant, by the way. In any case, looking forward to seeing what other sorts of content you've got planned, S3K aside! Thanks to the KZbin Algorithm for pointing me here lol

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you so much! This really means a lot to me, you have no idea. You can do anything is one of my favorite songs in the entire franchise honestly, and I think my fav track is Quartz Quad good future, there's a remix on KZbin called Colorful Quadrant, look it up, you won't regret it! Also thank you again! I love a LOT planned for this channel, and I'm so happy people are now finally seeing my stuff, it feels like my work is paying off finally. I have a lot of other game series planned for the channel too, stay tuned!

[@Taurmega]

@@NNCReviews No problem!! Keep up the great work :D

[@BlueBerryPieCherry]

14:19 I know most people know the solution to this but if you dont, The Open Button can get stuck sometimes, just press on the button a little bit to fix it :^p

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you! I did already know, I just thought this scene would be really funny. I have a few GameCubes

[@BlueBerryPieCherry]

@@NNCReviews No Issue! Im pretty good with basic knowledge on the GameCube!

[@NNCReviews]

we love console experts! @@BlueBerryPieCherry

[@PilaCiu]

11:47 Knuckles' Chaotix had 2 official re-releases.

[@NNCReviews]

On platforms that were even more obscure than the 32x, which yes, it lives and dies on the 32x

[@sonicmeerkat]

will just say on amy becoming strong in the modern classic games (god that's such a bad name for them) can be justified with the worst retcon from forces that classic is actually from a different dimension. i hate it as well but i think that is what the writers were going with at least until fronteirs which superstars was most likely made in tandem with. though can't say it's not annoying like with the whole classic doesn't talk thing, dude was a 90's cool kid stereotype, fucker could not stop talking. i do absolutely agree and kinda why i wanted her to play like her advance moveset, she plays like a hardmode in that game while still having a quick hop for speed and high jump for maintaining flow and her hammers range could cheese so many bosses, don't blame them for not doing the hammer spin you could one cycle the advance bosses with it. though not too surprised since she was nerfed in advance 2 despite being a 100% reward which stinks.

[@NNCReviews]

I only disagree with the first part because the forces thing was already reckoned long before frontiers or even superstars existing

[@sonicmeerkat]

@@NNCReviews fair fairs, i'll admit stopped reading the comics about time they recycled the character gets amnesia plot for sonic so missed the multi media side of the canon. i'm curious though when was it unretconned?

[@NNCReviews]

in some interview, Iizuka, Ian, and a few other sources have said that the Forces Sonic was sonic from the past a few times @@sonicmeerkat

[@sonicmeerkat]

@@NNCReviews explains it, tend to avoid interviews especially after the infamous ian Flynn one where he said shadow has no friends lol Though I only really heard it from twitter and KZbin videos so eh, long form interviews don't interest me anywho.

[@nizumablader]

CD is definitely one of my favorites. Have you played sonic chaos? Stayed up many night playing that on an old gamegear I got from a classmate.

[@NNCReviews]

Oh yeah I love Sonic Chaos! It’s my favorite out of the game gear games personally, I want to get the master system version sometime. Fans actually did a 16-bit remake of Sonic triple trouble and it’s glorious, you should check it out sometime (or I can hit you up on Twitter or discord with it)

[@PilaCiu]

Music emulation was not the reason for it being omitted in Sonic Jam as it used PCM recordings itself, in fact Sonic Jam didn't use any emulation. All the games were direcrly ported to the Saturn hardware.

[@NNCReviews]

You’re not understanding what I was trying to say, it’s my theory CD wasn’t in jam because CD itself has a lot of music, which meant that there could have been space issues. Also yes I know that, I never said music emulation. in every video where I cover jam, I talk about that. I grew up playing jam

[@sonicmeerkat]

i mean zero respect is definitely a line i'll be stealing lmao. but man must say highly respect the discussion of versions, i know i'm a stickler for going out of my way for the definitive way to play even seeking fan remakes and restoration mods, be it sonic 3 air or modding back in dreamcast models and lighting into sadx. and with that comes comparing originals and i must say the classic sonic games stand up just fine, hell flat out refused to buy origins cause segas habit of releasing buggy remasters and at least on release playing on retro mode to restore the lives system also reverted the aspect ratio to 4:3 so wasn't much point in moving on from a mobile emulator (you can just log into a google or apple account which already brought the game) very much a hassle but so is tracking down original versions and setting it capture cards lol

[@NNCReviews]

Thank you! I appreciate it deeply. Also yeah I agree 100% the classic games imo are the few Sonic games that really don't need "remasters" maybe aside from CD. S3K really didn't need one, and I can't put it into words on how much I HATE origins, as someone who replayed S3 over 100 times, I can FEEL how bad it is. It's like they take away everything that's fun and charming about the originals, and make them feel bland. The lives thing is a crime, it ruins everything I love about the classic games. for stuff like P-06 and Better SADX is different, because there is still no way to play the original DC ver, so better SADX is mandatory for that game. and P-06 is what it is and is a miracle

[@sonicmeerkat]

@@NNCReviews you're welcome, easy to see your passion for these games with how much of the review is simply version comparisons which honestly is very important when there's multiple versions of a game, especially with a series as over analysed as sonic, hard to find a unique angle to tackle something done so often. And yeah while I am pro emulation can understand it's not the best option for everyone, hell I still buy the Megaman collections cause simply it's convenient and supporting the Devs leads to more games. Or at least in theory I'm still waiting on spyro and Rayman games lmao, but yeah if it's second hand market only I don't mind emulation cause Devs aren't being paid anyway and anything to deny scalpers cash. Stuff like switch emulation though way more iffy.

[@Hyp3rSonic]

I think sonic origins is pretty good, but its not perfect. It's actually my preferred way to play the games. But I really don't like that they don't allow u to play sonic 3 and sonic and knuckles separately. I MASSIVELY prefer playing those games that way

[@MimiWhiskers]

Going to be honest I never liked the time travel mechanic, and how to engage it. I know you can play the game ever touching it, but it felt a real shame to miss out on all the content of the past and future stages. But i ever knew you can get the good future ending by getting the time stones.

[@NNCReviews]

And that's understandable! it's not for everyone. I love Sonic CD because it was made for that in mind, not everyone is going to be about that, so they made a way to get around having to time travel.

[@FunkSwaggMusiK]

If they had put CD on regular Genesis then everyone would be slobbing this game off🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@NNCReviews]

You know its true lmao! It's so funny how nostalgia works huh?

[@Lonk87]

20:52 What

[@PilaCiu]

12:38 It was not a remaster, it was a remake.

[@NNCReviews]

While true they built it from the ground up, it also uses the same assets, which is why most people refer to it as a remaster

[@JaxCoolKartunes]

The Sonic CD USA Soundtrack is the best Soundtrack I hate your opinion change it.