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I love Sonic CD to pieces. It's been neck and neck with S3&K ever since I played it for the first time. Which I prefer depends on a given day. It's just everything, from the visuals to the music, which is the best in a series where the music itself is always among the best in gaming. The wide variety, with different tracks and motifs for every single timeline, including different versions for the two futures, leaves you with a robust, lengthy musical experience. That's before you account for there being TWO different soundtracks between Japan and the US, with both being fantastic. The levels are huge with plenty to explore, the colors are bright, the gimmicks are fun and even the water stage, the type everyone hates, is pretty damn good. Hell, the only bleh stage of the lot is Wacky Workbench.
If there's one thing really worth mentioning, it's a part of the game that is honestly a little bit under-rated. Namely, the alternate futures. Games are often fairly simple affairs; you're out to save the world and that's what you do. But rarely, whether it's back then or now, do you see an actual effect caused by your actions. In CD, it's blatant. If you go back to the past, destroy the roboticizers, then go to the future, it has changed. It goes from rotted, bleak and dystopic to bright, happy and cheerful. You have directly affected the future of the world in a way you can see with your own eyes. Even if you don't bother to go to the future in the first two acts, but do destroy the roboticizers in the past, you are going to see it, because the third act always takes place in the future.
I imagine that's a small detail to some people, but it stands out to me. You just don't see it often. Usually, once an adventure is over, that's pretty much it. You may get some post-game stuff showing how the characters have done, but it's not super often you get a glimpse of how your actions have positively affected society or nature or the state of the world. That's with RPG's, where you typically have plenty of time to show something like that. Sonic CD does that in a simple platformer with a simple story.
STRAP ON THE RUNNING SHOES, RESCUE THE PINK HEDGEHOG, RETRIEVE THE PRECIOUS GEMS, CREATE A BRIGHT FUTURE, DEFEAT THE FAT GUY, SAVE THE WORLD.
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