Sonic the Hedgehog CD/Trivia

• Cross-Dressing Voices: A few phrases Sonic in this game weren't voiced by a man... rather, it's Keiko Utoku, the lead singer of "You Can Do Anything"/"Cosmic Eternity".
• Cut Song:
  • Or rather, cut segments of a song, 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. May have been removed due to time or inability to perfect this feature, but it was restored in the 2011 remake.
  • In the pre-release, the title screen and Speed Up tracks were totally different, and the Special Stage song had an extended cut.
  • A rather odd example occurs with the American version. Within the CD audio tracks, there's a duplicate of the title theme.
• Development Gag: During the Special Stages from early betas where they are unfinished, 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!

• Fan Nickname:
  • "Toot Toot Sonic Warrior" for the Japanese/PAL opening theme.
  • The secret Special Stage is sometimes referred to as "Eggman's Bathtub".
  • Some fans have changed what "CD" stands for in the 2011 remake, such as "Completely Digital" or "Console Download".
• Killer App: If it wasn't one for the Sega CD, it was one of the closest things it had to one.
• No Export for You: Not the game itself, but there wasn't a release in America that contained the original Japanese soundtrack until the 2011 release, which contains both that soundtrack and the American one. Rumor has it there were rights issues. Ironically, the reason why the 2011 release almost had Japanese soundtrack only is because Word of God has it there are rights issues with the American soundtrack never heard of before. This was eventually righted by the time of the release of the remake, and both soundtracks are now available.
• Promoted Fanboy: Christian "The Taxman" Whitehead, who did the downloadable remake. He was responsible for creating the Retro Sonic engine and a number of fangames and is also a member of the Sonic Retro community.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: The vocals for the Japanese soundtrack were replaced with instrumentals for the HD port due to unforeseen legal issues regarding the rights to them.
• Trope Namer:
  • Bad Future
  • Palmtree Panic
• What Could Have Been:
  • Ideas for more animated cutscenes for each time you beat a stage was scrapped due to constraints. Most of the ideas were used for the game's endings.
  • The Updated Rerelease for digital download services was going to have two brand new levels, "Desert Dazzle" and "Final Fever", on top of all the levels from the original release. Time constraints, as well as a desire to be truer to the original game by not tampering too much with it, resulted in both stages being cut. A glimpse of Desert Dazzle can be seen by entering "32" and "8" into the respective slots on the Sound Test menu (which, incidentally, also unlocks the level select for Tails). Whitehead recently released a hypothetical screenshot of Final Fever as well as a description of how the level and boss battle would play out:

Whitehead: Yeah, it's colourful since it was intended to be an all Time Stones boss (good future only). Time flows freely, and Eggman's machine is essentially invincible. The idea being Sonic can reach warp speed at any opportunity (instead of getting the warp posts) and must do so to "wind back the clock" to damage the boss. Some parts are running, some areas the screen is locked. I was slightly worried the idea of running to warp might not be self evident (no warp screen, the level and boss would change in real time with some neato effects).