Trivia / Sonic the Hedgehog CD

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Sonic's voice line in the Easter Egg where he jumps offscreen when the game has been idling for three minutes is commonly quoted as "I'm outta here", probably because that phrase is far more common than what he actually says, "I'm outer here".
• Blooper:
  • In the opening cutscene, a few frames of animation when Sonic somersaults off a rock (around 30 seconds in) are misplaced. While it goes by so quickly that it's hardly noticeable, going frame-by-frame reveals the error because because the rock briefly jumps forward instead of panning back smoothly. This error was fixed for the Sonic Origins remaster.
  • The French portion of the European manual refers to Sonic himself as "Sonic the Hedgehog CD" at one point.
• Christmas Rushed: Spencer Nilsen's sound team was given a meager two months to compose an almost entirely new soundtrack for the game's North American release. They were so pressed for time that they weren't even able to replace the Past songs; the tracks were directly coded into the game instead of being stored as ordinary CD audio tracks, and sorting that out was too complicated to bother with.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: Amy Rose's name is changed to Princess Sally in the North American Sega CD manual, even though Amy looks and acts absolutely nothing like her. All subsequent releases reverted this change.
• Cut Song:
  • Routinely zigzagged between the several versions of "Sonic - You Can Do Anything". The song, first introduced in the build used for Yuusei Sega World in 1992, used an early version that had Keiko Utoku's vocals deeper and more strained. The version found in the final version has Utoku using cleaner and slightly lighter vocals. The original version would, strangely enough, be used just as often if not more so than the final version, being included in the Japanese release of the PC port (and thus the videos found in Sonic Jam and the Japanese release of Sonic Mega Collection), the Sonic Team "PowerPlay" compilation album, as a DLC track in the Dreamcast version of Samba de Amigo, and eventually Sonic Origins. The finalized version was only used for the game's Japanese TV commercial, the final Mega-CD release, the Japanese release of Sonic Gems Collection, and in the 2011 20th Anniversary Series album. In the 2011 HD release, both versions are cut in favor of an instrumental version.
  • Cut segments of songs exist, as early prototypes had what appeared to be unused in-game music loop pieces that would apparently inconspicuously play while the CD track ends and re-loads from the beginning. They may have been removed due to time constraints or the inability to perfect this feature. Some of the unused segments were reinstated for the 2011 remaster, but the Sonic Origins version removes them again, instead matching the versions heard in the coinciding 2011 soundtrack album.
  • In pre-release builds, the title screen and Speed Up tracks were totally different, and the Special Stage song had an extended cut.
  • The 1992 Sega World prototype reveals that higher quality versions of the game's Past themes were going to be in the game, utilizing Red Book audio just like all of the Present and Future themes. This was dropped early on, and as such, the Past themes instead use utilize lower quality versions generated by the Sega CD's own PCM audio chip instead.
• Descended Creator: Sonic's voice acting in this game is provided by Masato Nishimura, who was one of the game's level designers.
• Development Gag: During the Special Stages from unfinished pre-releases, a Engrishy message appears on the screen, telling the programmers to wake up and finish their jobs:
  The programmer has a nap.
  Hold out! Programmer!
• Dummied Out: Aside from an eighth Special Stage, which can be accessed with a secret code, the most infamous cut content from Sonic CD is the elusive "Round 2", which was apparently a ruins stage. Naoto Ohshima's recollection is that it was called "Dubious Depths," cut because "it didn't match Sonic's speed." To fill in the void, "Desert Dazzle" was supposed to appear in the remake, but Sega declined the content and all that remains of it is a secret teaser picture. Christian Whitehead, the remake's developer, claims that this sprite sheet◊ was part of R2, which shows three unused enemies and a unused boss. There's also official concept art◊ of the level. Finally, a semi-complete layout of Desert Dazzle was left over in an updated release of the remake. The working Desert Dazzle design appears to have become the inspiration for Mirage Saloon Zone in Sonic Mania.
• Executive Meddling: This is where the North American soundtrack for Sonic CD originated from, as Sega of America felt the original Japanese soundtrack wasn't "musically rich and complex" enough for the American market, resulting in the game's North American release being delayed to have Spencer Nilsen score the replacement soundtrack for the region.
• First Appearance: This game marks the first of many appearances of Amy Rose^note In the games anyway, as she had previously appeared a year prior in the 1992 manga and Metal Sonic.
• Flip-Flop of God: Regarding the game's placement in the timeline— in an October 1993 interview with the magazine BEEP Mega Drive, Special Stage designer Yasushi Yamaguchi (also known for being the lead artist for Sonic the Hedgehog 2) stated that Sonic CD "falls in between Sonic 1 and 2 in terms of chronology", making it an Interquel of the first two games. More recently, however, game director Naoto Ohshima has stated that Metal Sonic is an "evolution" of the Mecha Sonic seen in Sonic 2, a sentiment repeated by level designer Masato Nishimura, implying that it must take place sometime after it instead. That being said, Ohshima has also stated in the aforementioned sources that CD wasn't originally designed with a definite timeline placement in mind, anyways, and Sonic Origins follows Yamaguchi's claim regarding it taking place before Sonic 2.
• God Never Said That:
  • Some assume that Sonic CD was either originally a CD port of Sonic 2 or that both were originally the same game but creative decisions caused it to become separate. However, Naoto Ohshima has stated that Sonic CD was never meant to be Sonic 2, but rather a CD version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. He also states that the team behind CD may have had more fun with creating the game, as they weren't under the pressure of making the second Sonic game:
    Ohshima: Sonic CD wasn't Sonic 2; it was really meant to be more of a CD version of the original Sonic. I can't help but wonder, therefore, if we had more fun making CD than they did making Sonic 2 [because we didn't have the pressure of making a "numbered sequel"].
  • Sega never said that the game was originally supposed to end at Stardust Speedway, despite some fans providing "proof" in the ending cutscene, where the Metallic Madness scene takes place before the Stardust Speedway scene.
  • Sega had never stated at any point that the "CD" in the game's title retroactively stands for "Chrono Distortion" as of the 2011 port.
• He Also Did: Spencer Nilsen has worked on other games, mostly notably Ecco the Dolphin and the Sega CD version of Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin.
• Inspiration for the Work: The time travel mechanic was inspired by the Back to the Future trilogy.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • While Sonic CD itself has since become more accessible thanks to its PC port in 1996 (which was also included in Sonic Gems Collection), the remastered port by Christian Whitehead in 2011, and the remaster's inclusion in Sonic Origins in 2022, the original Sega CD version has yet to see an official rerelease on any platform and copies of the original game tend to go up for extremely high prices on online stores. There were plans to include it in Sonic Mega Collection, however the lack of documentation for the Sega CD led to Sonic Team cutting it out from the lineup. The original version would eventually see a rerelease via the Genesis Mini 2.
  • In May 2022, the 2011 port was delisted from consoles and Steam in preparation for Sonic Origins. However, the mobile version is still available.
• Killer App: If it wasn't a reason to buy a Sega CD, it was one of the closest things it had to one.
• No Export for You: The Japanese/European version's soundtrack wasn't officially released in North America until the 2011 remake, which has both that soundtrack and the American version's, by members of the Sega Technical Institute. It was long rumored that licensing issues were holding back such a release, but Word of God has it that the Japanese/European soundtrack was readily available for the 2011 release, and it was the American soundtrack that nearly got cut, due to licensing issues.
• Orphaned Reference: One of the shots◊ in the ending animation features Sonic running through the scrapped R2 stage and narrowly avoiding an antlion, which was also scrapped.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Christian Whitehead, who did the downloadable remaster, was responsible for creating the Retro Sonic engine, a number of fangames, and is also a member of the Sonic Retro community.
  • Fellow Sonic Retro members Tanks and Quazza were working on AI upscaling and restoring the opening FMV of Sonic CD to higher definition. Sega took noticed and hired them along with Discotek Media to handle the remastering and restoration of the game's cutscenes for Sonic Origins in 2022.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The vocals for the Japanese soundtrack were replaced with instrumentals for the 2011 remaster due to unforeseen legal issues regarding the rights to them. Fortunately, the Sonic Origins version restores the vocals.
• Shrug of God: Sonic Team and Sega have taken an overall nebulous position on the game's chronological placement and have flip-flopped on the position numerous times. One 1993 interview implied that the game seemingly takes place between Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, pointing out the notable absence of both Tails and Super Sonic from the game, though the former ended up making a cameo. This was more clearly stated in Brady's Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Full Color Action strategy guide. A decade later, another interview reportedly stated that the game took place after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, but before Sonic the Hedgehog 4, only to then re-clarify a day later that CD is a standalone adventure that doesn't have a concrete place in the canon, other than it took place sometime before Sonic 4. However, this would flip flop yet again with the Sonic Encyclo-speed-ia, which once again implies that CD takes place between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. Sonic Origins seems to have finally settled this once and for all by having it be between 1 and 2 on the game selection menu and its story mode, confirming its status as an Interquel.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: A rather persistent rumor states that the infamous "Fun Is Infinite" screen was an anti-piracy measure, to the point where even Sega themselves have said so. In reality, the game has no anti-piracy measures.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.

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