Sonic the Hedgehog CD (or Sonic CD) is a 2011 remastered version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog CD released for the Sega CD. The version was developed by Christian Whitehead and published by Sega. It was released digitally on multiple platforms including PlayStation Network, Xbox Live.

A topic like this is better-suited for a poll, but apparently, they've been disabled on this forum for some reason. I can't say that I'm sure why, but.whatever. I guess this'll do.To answer the topic question myself, I happen to prefer the US track, but unfortunately, in a lot of places I've been to, it doesn't seem to be very well-liked. Whenever the subject of Sonic CD's music is brought up, many people seem to prefer the Japanese/European soundtrack, and are quick to label the US one as garbage for being different from it. Let's take for example. Seventy-three people voted in the poll, and the US track didn't even have half the amount of votes that the Jap/Eur track had, and I honestly don't understand why. In my opinion, the US soundtrack has the Japanese one outclassed in almost every way.My reasons for preferring the US track, aside from nostalgia, is because of the songs being more atmospheric, and fitting the stage environments and the general mood a lot better.

It's especially apparent with the Bad Future songs, with many of them sounding a lot darker and sinister, and generally doing a better job at conveying the feeling of a ruined, apocalyptic future. Plus, I love the type of musical variety that many of the songs had, ranging from rock, jazz, and others. I also happen to think that the soundtrack was very unique for its time, and really showed what the Sega CD was truly capable of.Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the Jap/Eur soundtrack is terrible by any means. I like that one, as well, and I often find myself alternating between the two soundtracks in the Sonic CD remake. Lots of the songs are catchy and conveyed the stages' mood in its own way, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that it's just a tad overrated, but maybe that's just me. What are your thoughts?

Edited January 25, 2012 by Scorch. Generally speaking I love both soundtracks equally, though of course for very different reasons. There are a few exceptions though:PalmTree PanicThe US music is by no means bad, works pretty well in all, but just COMPARED to the JP/EU one, it's so bland. The JP/EU music is totally pumpin' and awesome for a opener stage, whereas the US music is just kinda 'there'.All of Tidal Tempest's MusicI prefer the US themes for this. I just love how sort of melancholy the Present theme is, despite the slightly chirpy vocals, and I think the calm, atmospheric Bad Future works far better for the dilapidated, quiet factory appearence the graphics give.

Good Future, both are good. I will say I do also REALLY love JP/EU Present, I just slightly prefer the US one. It's a close call.Wacky WorkbenchJust prefer US slightly for this one. It has more of a tune to it than the JP/EU one does, though I can admit the tone of the JP/EU one is probably better for the actual rage-inducing constant movement involved.Metallic MadnessI quite like the tenseness of the US music, but considering the fact that the final boss doesn't have an absoloutely blasting song in the US soundtrack, it all feels like a build-up to nothing. The ENTIRE finale is just really tense and quiet. Instead, the JP/EU soundtrack is way more epic and 'oh yeah Sawnic's comin' to getchoo Eggyman' finale-ish.Special StageI just prefer the US soundtrack here.

I think it fits the surreal vibe and open-ness of the special stages more. The JP/EU track would be more fitting for a 'narrow' special stage like Sonic 2 with simple visuals. Aquarium virtual tour. Actually ironically thanks to the remake it now feels more like 'Menu' music to me than Special Stage music. I also love the slightly eiree/melancholy vibe to the US one.Boss MusicYeah the boss music in the US version is just urgh. It's not terrible, and it always surprises me how well it does actually work during gameplay - but the JP/EU one just fits Eggman's character so much more.So, overall my opinion on the soundtrack would be:Vocal Songs - Both good for different reasonsP.Panic - Prefer JP/EUC.Chaos - Both good for different reasonsT.Tempest - Prefer USQ.Quadrant - Both work very nicelyW.Workbench - Prefer USS.Speedway - Both work very nicelyM.Madness - Prefer JP/EUBoss Themes - Prefer JP/EUSpecial Stage - Prefer US Edited January 25, 2012 by JezMM. For me it'll always have to be the Funky beats of the EU/Japan OST since it's what I grew up with, it just seems to fit the alien world that is the little planet and all the science fiction bizaro that goes on in the game.But that said I don't dislike all the American OST.

Just most of it =pI really like 'Sonic Boom' now, but I think Sonic CD's opening just wasn't the game for it, CD's opening is supposed to be this fast thing which builds up with lots of action. I can accept people preferring JP/EU over US, but insulting Spencer Nilsen and his talents? That's ignorance on an entirely different level. Check out Ecco the Dolphin and see if you sing that same tune afterward.Anyway it seems to me as if it's impossible to avoid this topic of discussion at least once every half year and that each and every time they pop up, the most enthusiastic advocates of the respective soundtracks become more attached to each. Not that I don't blame them.

I know that feel too well.So yeah if you know me by now you'd know that I'm in the US camp. Without taking anything away from the quality that the JP soundtrack has, the US soundtrack in general felt better and was integrated far more cleverly without disregard to the game's design. It takes a lot of skill to be able to pull off a fantastic piece of track, but it takes even more skill to be able to apply it to a given situation, with there being courses and such on game design and music. The JP soundtrack may have the former, but the US soundtrack trumps it in the latter in my eyes if only because JP's cinematic and overblown stature gets in the way of the action on screen and, honestly, almost distracts me from the experience. I will say that the US soundtrack does a great job evoking a late 80's/early 90's vibe that I absolutely love in movies like Terminator, Trancers and just about any techno noir form of media (such as Konami's Snatcher). It has some great chilling tracks that mix unearthly techno sounds with ancient chants and robotic sounds. It's hard to put into words, but you know it when you hear it.The Japanese version, meanwhile, has much more of a 'I'm playing a crazy import title' vibe, with all the broken english and kid's cheering.

It's great fun, and a bit more timeless than the US version. Tidal Tempest I highly regard as the best NA Bad Future track. Tidal Tempest has the tranquil waters inside a ruin. The Bad Future track sounds sad and dead. As if there was life, and then its beauty got destroyed. It's a very beautiful, sad track.Easily my most favorite Good Future NA track. Quartz Quadrant had that field that twinkles, especially in the Past version.

The melody in the Good Future version feels relaxing and happy. The cymbals, woman vocalizing, and happy whirring of the tunes before each loop are relaxing, relieving, and tension-free. It's such an awesome piece of music.And the PresentI can't decide because I love them all, but my choice will have to go with the Tidal Tempest Present theme. It's got that soothing pop.

The woman vocalizing in the background makes the song feel alive. It's a great piece of music. Overall, I prefer the U.S.

But there are some stages I definitely prefer the Japanese music. Especially good future metallic madness.I will be very strongly disagreed here, but here goes. I'll take the U.S. Theme for the boss music over 'working suckers to death' every time.The Japanese music for the boss theme is the most obnoxious video game music I have ever heard. I really do not like that song.Before I realized that I could switch soundtracks on the x360 version, (I didn't read about that option on the forums; I just started playing the game. It didn't take me long to realize.), I would be in a rush to finish the boss as soon as possible, or press the mute button.Maybe the U.S.

Version dosen't completly fit, but I find it far more tolerable than the alternative.Now having said that, I do prefer the Japanese final boss theme. The US final boss theme is only slight more grand than the regular theme; the difference is far too subtle.

See, it's weird. I know I say this every time the soundtrack divide is brought up, but;I grew up with the US soundtrack (for ages I didn't even know there were two), and I still think the Japanese/ EU one is miles better.It's not so much that the US soundtrack is 'bad' in that it's unpleasant or horrible to listen to, but instead I just find the entire thing agonisingly forgettable and uninspired, so I suppose that's a different, indirect kind of bad to me. Even as a kid, when I thought that the US soundtrack was the only soundtrack, I still thought something didn't sound quite right- it just sounded off to me.

It just didn't sound like Sonic music to me. I guess that's the biggest issue I have with it, even today.Also, I do prefer how the JP/ EU soundtrack has consistency between the time zones- each tune is a remix of a central melody. In the US at all just feels a bit disjointed since none of the tunes really sound alike. Um, hi US soundtrack. I have a question.

Where's your charisma? ^ Bad Future theme of Quartz Quadrant. Extreme similarity as the Good Future theme with the exception of sounding downbeat.Where's the originality? In the Bad Future, you have the same twinkliness as the Good Future except downbeat. Downbeat sound to it? Twinkling kind of sound to it for a time period where the crystals have been gutted out of the mine already? Not appropriate.

Downbeat male voices? Identical drum beat to the Good Future? Unoriginal.It's like the soundtrack was so rushed that the Good Future's theme was taken, notes adjusted slightly and new downbeat male vocals added in with a slightly different electric guitar tune. And it's not different enough to make me think that it's anything more than samey. There's no increased tempo, no different instruments, nada. Quartz Quadrant's future variations in the US are perhaps some of my favorite executions when it comes to adding a new spin on a rather jamming track, since it proves how it can go either of two ways, and to be honest I don't see how those tracks are samey at all save for the intro. By those standards far too many Japan tracks can be attributed to being samey as well, and considering we're speaking of a game that works for multiple time periods I don't see how being consistent, both in Japan and US soundtracks, needs to be labeled as 'being samey'.It's rather clever consistency.

The Bad Future starts off with the same intro played in a minor scale but bursts down into a pad-filled ambient rendition of a technological dystopia, and they sound nothing alike after that. When put in contrast with the Good Future it's rather easy to see how one represents nature and technology combined, while the other represents a state where technology has completely overrun everything else.Stardust Speedway, Quartz Quadrant and Metallic Madness in general had some of my favorite guitar riffs in the game and it just helped add onto the atmosphere.

I was never bothered by the female vocals either, they added a nice touch. If you honestly think that the addition of a typical 80's dance element constitutes it being sounds from a hentai, I dare you to listen to Lords of Acid.Sonic Boom being used as the US' leitmotif gives the soundtrack a valid excuse to be able to use vocals as stylistic callbacks, and the Japanese one does very much the same with it's Zone Complete theme, and lest we forget, awkward work-out music lyrics dubbed over boss fights.Sigh. I wanted to play League of Legends, not debate. Oh well.I enjoy both tracks, though I have to lean towards the NA track for a few reasons. Let me first dive in to how I see Sonic CD.Sonic CD is probably the first Sonic game where the effects of Robotnik's power was ever shown in full force on the environment, and it was also the first game where one could really get a glimpse of the Doctor, by pitying and fearing him. The environments and his robots speak well enough the effects of his rule. In the Bad Futures we see that everything has fallen to ruin and desolation, but it never seems to be Robotnik's intention for the world to fall apart.

Instead, I see him as a man who didn't even know how to handle the power in his fingertips, which culminated in the devastation of the Little Planet and the erosion of Robotnik's machines.It's for exactly that reason that the NA Bad Future's speak out to me better. They fit Eggman's character better. All the JP bad futures take an active approach of making Robotnik seem more sinister and active in a future when that is clearly not so. I doubt Eggman would ever want conditions to be so miserable that his own machines fall into disrepair.So the NA wins all the bad futures.For the Good Futures, it definitely is more sided to the JP side. The NA approach sometimes turns out to be a little too calm when the future is supposed to be good. Maybe calm isn't the right word.

They're too atmospheric for futures that are supposed to be good. The JP version fits the idea of good futures for all but two levels. Palmtree Panic's Good Future was ridiculously cute, and so was Metallic Madness.

The Good Futures are supposed to signify a happy utopia with animals running around in joy, and the Japanese songs do good with that without going overboard, (sans PTP & MM).The Present NA songs definitely win me over though. The atmosphere works well with the present actually. The NA songs makes it feel more like a mysterious new world you're traversing on and that technically fits well with Sonic CD as a whole. It's the first song you'll hear when you enter a level and it works in for the overall mystery of The Little Planet.The Boss themes are both silly to me. The NA ones paint the menacing Robotnik picture again and I just can't see him like that. The JP one is ridiculously silly and not something I'd hear from Eggman when his boss battle isn't in a rave.So there you have it.

That's what I think. The NA tracks are what I prefer.Edit: I forgot the songs.Sonic Boom- It's catchy and it's engaging enough to pull one into the experience, but it isn't all that special.SB Full- It's telling me to try again? It's not a bad song by it's own merits, but it's no ending song.You Can Do Anything- Really pumping!

It's a fast paced theme that really gets you in, but the Engrish just makes me frown. Also, 'Toot toot' is one of the silliest lyrics I've ever heard.Believe in Yourself- It's a hopeful song that is ruined by the Engrish even more than You Can Do anything.

Please someone make a fandub of this song with a real English speaker.I prefer neither for the songs. Edited January 25, 2012 by VisionaryBlur.