At the core of it, Sonic Generations's real purpose is to provide a trip down memory lane, to look back at the last twenty years of the Sonic franchise and see how far the series has come. While it could easily stand on its own merits as an excellent game and a worthy addition to the Sonic franchise, Sonic Generations shouldn't be expected to replicate the original games down to the very letter. Those games are perfectly capable of standing on their own merits, and don't need to be recreated. Sega appears to agree with this sentiment, and have now decided to re-release one of those original games so that a new generation can experience it for themselves.

The Sega CD version of Sonic CD, complete with original Japanese soundtrack, will be available this winter for download on all major systems, remastered for the current generation. Sega West's digital business vice president, Haruki Satomi,  promised that it will have everything fans will want to see, with all of the zones exactly as they were in the original game.

Despite being released on an unsuccessful system, many view Sonic CD as one of the best Sonic games ever. In fact, some consider it to be the best Sonic game, period. This is very high praise considering how excellent the series was back in the day. A special Sonic CD trailer was released along with the announcement, which you can see here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuGJ8s2n28k

Released in between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3Sonic CD featured excellent and creative level design, as expected of the Sonic series, as well as a much-beloved soundtrack of wonderful songs. It also featured a unique time travel aspect, allowing Sonic to travel to either the past or the future, changing the level you were playing as well as the final act of a level, depending on how you completed the ones preceding it.

But perhaps Sonic CD's most significant contribution was the creation of Metal Sonic, the first real rival for the hedgehog, and a character who will be featured in Sonic Generations as a boss. Granted, it's also responsible for the creation of Amy Rose, but let's try to not hold that against it.

Do you view Sonic CD as the best of the original Sonic series and will you be giving this a download when it arrives?

Sonic CD will be up for download this winter for Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC, iOS, Android, and Windows 7.

Source: VG247