Sonic CD is a platformer video game developed and published by Sega for the Sega CD.  It is the only Sonic the Hedgehog game to be released for Sega’s CD based add-on and was meant to showcase what the new hardware was capable of.

After the completion of the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis the development division Sonic Team separated due to indifferences.  The game was a major commercial success and positioned Sega to compete against their main competitor Nintendo.   Sega wanted to embrace the continued development of the Sonic franchise and supported having two different development groups to work on separate titles.

Yuji Naka, the lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game was dissatisfied with Sega of Japan’s rigid corporate policies and moved along with several other employees of the Sonic Team to the United States to develop Sonic the Hedgehog 2 with Sega Technical Institute (STI).  While STI began development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sega was in the midst of developing the Sega CD and wanted to release a Sonic game for their new add-on that would demonstrate its more advanced hardware.

Sega appointed Naoto Ohshima, the character designer of Sonic as the director of the new title and assigned various employees who worked on The Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe 2 and Streets of Rage to the project.  The project began as an enhanced port of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega CD, codenamed Super Sonic.  The revised sequel was planned to include additional levels, a fully orchestrated soundtrack, sprite-scaling effects and animated cutscenes. 

As development progressed on the title the game evolved into its own original concept.  While Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was massively successful in North America and Europe, sales of the title in Japan were lacking.  Due to the meager sales of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in Japan and the development team having their own vision for the title resulted in Sega approving the project to become a standalone title.