Special Stage (Sonic the Hedgehog CD)


 * For Special Stages in general, see here.

Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog CD are a series of special levels. These stages have a completely different gameplay compared to the Special Stages of the previous Sonic games. The objective for the player is to destroy all 6 of the UFOs that are constantly moving around the stage. As Chaos Emeralds are not involved within the storyline of Sonic CD, if the player successfully completes a special stage, he/she is rewarded a Time Stone instead. If the player collects all 7 of the Time Stones (by completing all 7 Special Stages) the following will happen:
 * Whenever Sonic travels into the future during any zone, he always travels to the good future.
 * Sonic will always clear any stage from the next stage onwards given with a good future.
 * After defeating the final boss, the player is treated to the good ending.

Gameplay
The method to access the Special Stages is the same as the Special Stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic must jump into a Giant Ring hovering above the goal which will appear only if he collects at least 50 Rings before reaching the goal. Once entered, the player's objective, as mentioned before, is to dstroy all 6 of the hovering UFOs constantly moving around the stage (by a Spin Jump) within 100 seconds. This can be rather tedious in the later stages as the UFOs may suddenly change directions though all the UFOs move in a set pattern. While there are gimmicks such as springs, fans and dash panels that help navigate around the stage quickly, the water serves as the main hazard as it can slow down Sonic and decrease the timer by 10 seconds. Once the timer drops below 20 seconds, a blue UFO appears which although they do not count towards the 6 main UFOs for the stage objective, they grant 30 seconds back on the clock, giving the player more time to hunt down the remaining UFOs.