Stardust Speedway (Sonic CD) Discussion

From the creator of the Crisis City thread comes the next stage suggestion from a Sonic game, especially since it's his anniversary right now.

History:
Stardust Speed is the 5th of the 6 main zones in Sonic CD, which was released on the Mega CD, a CD add-on for the Sega Megadrive, that allowed the FM music to be replaced with Redbook audio.
In Sonic CD, Little Planet came to Mobius, and Dr. Eggman decided to take over that stelar object.
It's now up to the blue blur Sonic to foil Dr. Eggman's plans. He does by traveling through time thanks to special signs and his trademark speed and the goal is to destroy the robot generators in the past in order to turn the bad future into a good future. Collecting all Time Stones (that games' version of the Chaos Emeralds) will automatically remove Eggman's influence from the future of every Zone in this game.
During the course, Amy Rose, a young hedgehog girl following Sonic around, also gets kidnapped by Sonic's archrival Metal Sonic, a semi-perfect robo-replicate of Sonic created by Dr. Eggman with powers and a speed that could easily rival that of Sonic.
In the future of Stardust Speedway, Sonic finally gets to battle Metal Sonic in a race, one of the most famous rival battles in the Sonic franchise.
Metal Sonic could emit electricity out of its body and its dash can easily destroy even the sturdiest of spikes, all in a speed never seen before from an Eggman robot.
In the end, Sonic managed to be just a tad bit faster than Metal Sonic, and fast enough to get to the finish before the wall closed. Metal Sonic, on the other hand, crashed right into the wall and into his demise. With Stardust Speedway cleared, Sonic can finally progress to the final zone.

Stage:
In Crusade, Stardust Speedway starts out in the present (just like in Sonic CD) and looks like just a simple, run-of-the-mill Sonic stage at first. A big, mostly flat, but wavy architecture in the middle and a pair of smaller architectures on each side.
Now, what could possibly be the gimmick of this otherwise simple stage? Easy: time traveling.
Once in a while, a Time Travel sign pops out of the ground (just like the Checkpoints in the Green Hill Zone stage in Brawl). If a character hits the sign, then not only does the spinning serve as an active hitbox (just like the checkpoints), but it also activates the time traveling, which is basically this stage's excuse to be a transformation stage.
Unlike other transformation stages, though, Stardust Speedway's transformation is actually manual instead of time-based, and the transformation also only does minor changes to the layout in order to simulate the time-traveling aspect of Sonic CD. If the default song plays, then you can even hear the time travel sound from Sonic CD during the transformation and the music changes depending on whenever you're in the past, the present or any of the futures.
Yes, that's right, this stage will have both Bad Future and Good Future. The Bad Future is the default future, just like in Sonic CD, but if you stay in the Past version long enough, then a Robot Generator will appear. Destroy it, and the Bad Future will turn into a Good Future for the remainder of the stage.

My Music:
Default: Sonic CD - Stardust Speedway JP version (music changes between time travels)
Sonic Generations - Metal Sonic Rival Battle (Stardust Speedway Bad Future JP)
Sonic Generations - Stardust Speedway Bad Future US
Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 - Metal Sonic's Theme
Sonic CD - Sonic You Can Do Anything (Instrumental Mix)
Sonic CD - Sonic Boom (Brawl version)
Sonic Heroes - Metal Madness

Supporters:
Nintensis
VultureDuck
Sean_McMuffin
Kzinssie
SS_Maeweather
ChaoticChao

TrinitroMan wrote:

Now, what could possibly be the gimmick of this otherwise simple stage? Easy: time traveling.
Once in a while, a Time Travel sign pops out of the ground (just like the Checkpoints in the Green Hill Zone stage in Brawl). If a character hits the sign, then not only does the spinning serve as an active hitbox (just like the checkpoints), but it also activates the time traveling, which is basically this stage's excuse to be a transformation stage.
-

I'm sold
That would be a great way to change things up
You have my support

Nice, thank you.

EDIT: And I just noticed that somebody else made a Stardust Speedway thread already:
https://projectcrusade.forumotion.com/t4344-stardust-speedway-sonic-cd
However, it doesn't look like the original thread starter is still active, so I guess I'll just keep my thread anyway, since it is different from his a bit.

I support

Thanks, man.

YES! I completely support this idea. Also, thanks for reminding me to add bad future JP to a sonic stage in Crusade. And in a Brawl mod pack I'm making.

Sure, I'll support.

Thank you all.

Defiantly support this is such an original concept. I'm surprised Sakurai never thought of anything like this. It's simple yet effective and that's whats really awesome!

Thank you very much. It's nice to see so much support.

Bumping this up so more people get aware of this thread.
Also, thinking about including Metal Madness' boss theme from Sonic Heroes into the list of stage themes, since that is a super form of a super form of Metal Sonic.

That's a good idea! I'm down for it!

SS_Maeweather wrote:

That's a good idea! I'm down for it!

That's nice to know, but having only one opinion is not enough for me.
What do the other people think? And what else could I possibly improve on my stage idea for it to be accepted? And I would like to have some more support, if possible, even if it's yet another Sonic stage.

TrinitroMan wrote:

My Music:
Default: Sonic CD - Stardust Speedway JP version (music changes between time travels)
Sonic Generations - Metal Sonic Rival Battle (Stardust Speedway Bad Future JP)
Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 - Metal Sonic's Theme
Sonic CD - Sonic You Can Do Anything (Instrumental Mix)
Sonic CD - Sonic Boom (Brawl version)

Can we please stop pretending the US soundtrack for this game doesn't exist? Heck, you suggested Sonic Boom, but you suggested the Brawl version of the song for some reason. How the heck is that better than this?

That aside even, it would make a lot more sense to have the US soundtrack version of Stardust Speedway as an alternate option that also changes when time traveling. Or, if that's too much work or something, we COULD just use the US soundtrack version of Stardust Speedway Bad Future from Sonic Generations. Because, believe it or not, that exists.

And because I know some weeaboo will accuse me of this: I'm not saying the US soundtrack is better (I personally like it more, but that's just me), but I AM saying it's more deserving than one bad cut of one song.

Agree. Not a huge fan of the US soundtrack compared to the JP version, but it's a pretty significant part of the game's legacy.

You asked and you shall receive. Two new songs are added to the song list of Stardust Speedway:
*Sonic Generations - Stardust Speedway Bad Future US
*Sonic Heroes - Metal Madness

Also, I mainly added the Brawl version of Sonic Boom because that's the version used in official Smash games, and no edits are needed to make it loop and keep the vocals.

Anything else you guys could suggest?

Well, another interesting thing Sonic CD did was the way it handled enemies...in the present, about half of the enemies would actually be able to move around and attack, while others would just sit there or barely move in complete disrepair. In the bad future, the enemies would still be there, but every single one would be decrepit; in the past, they'd all be completely functional (and totally annoying); in the good future, they wouldn't exist at all, because the generator is destroyed. There could be destructible enemies that function as stage hazards that only permanently go away when the generator is destroyed. If this is done though I'd say they should die in only one hit though to prevent them from being too much of a nuisance.

Edit: oh yeah, I support btw

Hmm...that does sound interesting on paper, although I have no idea if that would actually work.
What do the other people think about that suggestion? And what other suggestions could you guys give to me?

TrinitroMan wrote:

Sonic Generations - Stardust Speedway Bad Future US

How about the original? The Generations version kinda lacked the feeling, especially at the beginning. And while we're at it, how about all the US Stardust Speedway tracks while switching between times as well if you're going that route.

Yes, I know we can add our own music, but it was just for the sake of the conversation.

And yes, I do prefer the US soundtrack over the Japanese soundtrack.

TrinitroMan wrote:

SS_Maeweather wrote:

That's a good idea! I'm down for it!

That's nice to know, but having only one opinion is not enough for me.
What do the other people think? And what else could I possibly improve on my stage idea for it to be accepted? And I would like to have some more support, if possible, even if it's yet another Sonic stage.

Ok, why not have Metal come from time to time and attack the fighters?

we need a version of sonic cd that lets you pick soundtrack versions on a per-track basis

i prefer the jp soundtrack by and large but theres a handful of REALLY GREAT tracks on the us version

SS_Maeweather wrote:

TrinitroMan wrote:

SS_Maeweather wrote:

That's a good idea! I'm down for it!

That's nice to know, but having only one opinion is not enough for me.
What do the other people think? And what else could I possibly improve on my stage idea for it to be accepted? And I would like to have some more support, if possible, even if it's yet another Sonic stage.

Ok, why not have Metal come from time to time and attack the fighters?

Funny that you mention Metal Sonic: https://projectcrusade.forumotion.com/t4720-metal-sonic-sonic-cd-discussion-under-construction

Moats wrote:

TrinitroMan wrote:

Sonic Generations - Stardust Speedway Bad Future US

How about the original? The Generations version kinda lacked the feeling, especially at the beginning. And while we're at it, how about all the US Stardust Speedway tracks while switching between times as well if you're going that route.

Yes, I know we can add our own music, but it was just for the sake of the conversation.

And yes, I do prefer the US soundtrack over the Japanese soundtrack.

Actually, I did consider adding a US soundtrack rotation, but there is one big problem for the pedantic side of mine: The US soundtrack has no unique past themes and instead reuses the ones from the japanese soundtrack (mainly because those are not Redbook Audio, but honest to god SMPS like in the older Sonic games).
And for me, this type of lazyness is a real dealbreaker for me and one of the reasons I'm not really fond of the US soundtrack.
So sorry, the US Stardust Speedway Bad Future remix is the least I'm going to add.

Interesting concept, though I feel that it will be very difficult to introduce.

Still, I support the stage, even if it only had the Past and "Bad" Future

Uhm...it does have the past and the Bad Future, though.

My plan was to include all 4 versions, just to be super faithful to the source material.

I know that those parts are there. I am just stating that, if the developers thought about introducing this stage but couldn't put in the whole concept of the past, present, and both futures, I would still support the stage.

Still like the whole concept though. Hope it makes it in with the whole set-up