741: Sonic CD

... Oh, yeah. But what was the better game they made? Because I can only think of Sonic 2, which is less markedly worse. Oh, yeah. Forgot you hate Sonic 2. Yeah. No, I don't hate it. It's just not as good as Sonic CD. Well, what they made was Sonic 3. Oh, yes, they made Sonic 2. Yes, they made Sonic 2 while they were there. But it was to prepare for making Sonic 3. ...

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No, I read the book. I thought the book was better. Well, some of these screenshots, most of these screenshots were of bosses. And I'm thinking of staying Sonic there. It could just be this. No, no, no. That was the golden guide. I remember this too. Yeah. And then it went and check this out that's coming soon. And it was a couple of screenshots from Sonic CD, mostly, I think, from the intro. And there were weird screenshots, like one from that bit where the camera kind of goes under his face. And it was just…

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a burden? As soon as we started recording these, mate. As soon as nerds were allowed to keep existing. So I got Sonic, like I got Sonic mega collection. So I had like a bunch of classic Sonic games. What I didn't have on there was Sonic CD. Um, and all we had was we had that obviously spectacular intro. Yeah. And I was enchanted. I was mesmerized. This game became forbidden fruit. Sonic CD. What's that for the mega CD? What the hell's that? You know, like this was like an obscure add-on to a console that I…

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possibly like straight out of the gate, they say get it up like insta Sega craziness. And yeah, like so it was originally supposed to be a port of Sonic one, it was supposed to be like a director's cut of Sonic one, or Sega CD, but then it became its own thing. And it's kind of like, yes, I built so they were developed concurrently. I believe Sonic two released first. Yes, that's on a CD. ...

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... Easy peasy, mate. It's not about running. It's the more you know about how classic Sonic's physics work, the more fun you will have with Sonic CD. It is the Sonic fans Sonic game. ...

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... The game said no, I'm going. And that is the frustration of not being good enough at Sonic CD. But I know if I get good enough at Sonic CD, that I can find out what to do there. So this was essentially a public admission of your own ineptitude. Yes. And it is harder to get aptitude in this game in like Sonic 3 and Knuckles. But I'm guessing that if I get it, it'll feel great. ...

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which killed a lot of my interest. But do I want to put myself through this, and then find out that I hate it, and then have to come back and watch everybody raving about this game that they love, and I'm just like, I don't like this, you know, that's exhausting. I don't like that. So to the sonic CD people that to the sonic CD haters, and go to hell, this is swivel. This is my olive branch. You know, this is my olive branch, you can't see it, but it's my arm and I'm doing a big gesture with my finger. No, just…

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we should talk about what you do in this game. Yes, because that's crucial. Do before we talk about that, do we want to talk about that introduction because I feel like that is a huge part of like Sonic CD's makeup, that first impression that it made. Yeah, what it is is you got the Sega logo and Sonic standing next to it doing his finger wiggle and then like a jizz of stars comes out of his finger. And he goes doo doo. It's amazing. ...

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I feel frozen out. Therefore, it's bad. And you're stupid. Yeah. Oh, you like David Tennant? No, I like David Tennant. What am I all about? Yeah. So I think this is an interesting psychological deconstruction. And when you push through it, and you do the thing that they're saying, and there's such depth there, it is very clear to me that Sonic CD is one of those. Now, the problem is, and this is a problem. I don't think I'm good enough to get there. I just don't, because it's been decades. And I can't do it. I…

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energetic. I would not call this new jack swing personally, not me. Everybody says new jack swing whenever I've gone closer to euro dance. So well, this is the thing whenever I've gone famously, the sonic CD Japanese soundtrack is described as new jack swing. When I've gone to listen to actual examples of new jack swing, which I'm not nearly as familiar with, they don't really resemble it to my ears, except maybe a couple of tracks on there. And I think that's what's happened. I think there is new jack swing on…

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... I was six months old when this was disappointing. I'm glad you I'm glad you qualified that because six and six months of very different things. My first exposure to Sonic CD was I bought the Sonic mega collection for my GameCube, Nintendo GameCube, and this was forbidden fruit, you know, like I was based on like an existing love of Sonic, like enjoyment of Sonic. Oh, yes. Well, because I like, you know, I'd read the comics and I had bought the three, you know, I got I saw Sonic Adventure and I bought the comics…

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and the best games. That's not true, but the games that excited you the most because they had them had them and you would oh this whole disc is just the anim. Yeah, let's watch it. Well, Sonic CD though. I still don't think I've heard of another game of that era that did this. Commissioned a proper actual animation. What we have now is the source animation with painted backgrounds and full frame rate. This amazing animation. That is not what played on the mega CD. What played on the mega CD wasn't even what you…

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zones start to really put up resistance in terms of traps and enemies. Yeah. But here's this is the thing about it, right? Like you can absolutely do that if that's what you want to do. But the thing about Sonic CD that makes it so magical to me is not wanting to do that is wanting to go back and destroy the bandic generator. And one of the criticisms that's often leveled at this game is that like it is there's no room to build speed. There's plenty of room to build speed because you need you need the speed to…

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai [inaudible] Isn't it appropriate that like the ending for the sonic CD episode is very abrupt and anticlimactic? Like, I just, I just want to pick up on something that Dave said there, but he had like the little younger friends. Because I remember that like we were in doing some English work while I was in like fifth year. And there was these little third years who had that room is our common room. And we were kind of invading. And like why we were doing our work around all like…

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So Sonic CD's, the race scene is famously kind of iconic. There's a reason it turns up a lot in lots of fan art. There's a reason it gets homaged so heavily. You know, um, the music for one thing is probably my favorite track in the game. You know, the bad future uh startup Speedway. I'm reasonably sure that plays regardless of which future you've actually achieved. I could be wrong. ...

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Like that, you know, so you can have a real audio soundtrack on there. That was amazing. It wasn't just when we say it's good, it wasn't just because it was a particularly good example of a game soundtrack. Like it was also a very early example. For me, the first one I ever encountered of an act like a CD audio non chip music game soundtrack. It was amazing sonics. I mean, I think my favorite gaming aesthetic, which the Mega CD reps quite hard obviously is the 2D sprite based platformer or other genre with CD…

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this point, it hadn't really been kind of codified what this series was, had it? Really? It's only because Sonic 2 was essentially Sonic one again. And sorry, don't argue it was that it became that's what Sonic is. But Sonic CDs bosses are, in some instances just seem like a joke. And I don't mean like the bad kind of joke. I mean, the genuinely funny kind of joke, like the first one that you fight is robotic in this sort of tall, slightly imposing looking machine with two bumpers on the front, and spikes for…

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