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Sonic the Hedgehog CD/Development

From Sonic Retro

Revision as of 11:25, 9 October 2008 by Black Squirrel (talk | contribs) (Unused Cutscene)

Sonic the Hedgehog CD has gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas, levels, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

Development Process

Yuji Naka left Sonic Team after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog and traveled to the US to work with Sega Technical Institute. Half of Sonic Team's staff also followed suit. Development on Sonic CD was then started by a different team lead by Naoto Ohshima.

For a while gaming magazines reported the game as an enhanced port of Sonic 2 known under many names, but known by most people as Sonic 2 CD. It was eventually revealed to be an entirely different game.

Despite being planned for release before Sonic the Hedgehog 2, delays in production caused Sonic CD to be released between Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. However, since Sonic 3 takes place where Sonic 2 left off, some fans believe the story of Sonic CD either takes place before Sonic 2 or after Sonic & Knuckles.

Unused Cutscene

Early demonstrations used an animated cutscene of Sonic holding a CD while riding a CD through a city environment. This could have been either an attraction screen, or a loading screen.

FMV Scenes

There are some scenes in the Full motion videos which do not directly reference anything that can be found in the final game.

Bonus Stage?

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There is one scene where Sonic is shown jumping off a door which is levitating before jumping off and bouncing off several colored boxes. This could have possibly been a bonus stage as the colorful background don't look like anything that would be featured on a normal level. Later Knuckles' Chaotix features a similar Bonus Stage.

Ruins

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Another scene shows Sonic running through ruins which are overgrown with plantlife and feature several sinkholes. An enemy pops out of the ground which looks very similar to the first boss from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) called Doodlebug Mecha. People have speculated that this area could reference the long lost R2.

Deleted Levels

As stated above there are several allusions to unused levels in the final game. In addition to the Ruins and the bonus stage, there is Final Fever which was mentioned in magazine to be the name of the Area where the final boss is fought. There is also an entirely different Bonus Stage which has elements from the Special Stage from Sonic 1.

The D.A. Garden in the PC version features a drawing of Little Planet. Most of the areas of the planet represent a level found in the game. However, there is a large desert which does not refer to any existing level. When the Bad Future music is played the large cactus turns into a tower. All other areas that represent a level also change appearance so this has led to speculation that the desert area could have been meant to represent R2.

Prototype Versions

Several prototypes have been found over the years. The one that has the most drastic changes from final is called Build 510. Three other prototypes have been released also. These are called: Build 712, Build 806, and Build 920

Early Game Design

These scans come from various magazines.

Various

Special Stage

Collision Chaos

Palmtree Panic

Tidal Tempest

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