Genre: Platformer
Year: 1992
Developed by: Sega Technical Institute
Published by: Sega
Platforms: Genesis, Mobile
#157
Feeling Like: Must go faster
One of the things I miss about being a gamer growing up in the 90s was the advances in design that seemingly happened overnight. With every E3, or monthly magazine release, some developer had found a way to display graphics unlike anything we’d seen before. Or Nintendo had found a way to add more RAM into their system, allowing for massive games like Perfect Dark that would’ve been impossible a few years earlier. Or when a new console did release, it was obvious how much more advanced it was.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 came out a mere 16 months after Sonic the Hedgehog, yet it’s so superior that it’s hard to believe the same team made it using the same hardware limitations. It’s a terrific game, one that could easily take the crown of the best Sonic game ever, even 31 years later.
The levels are massive, they easily overshadow anything from the previous game. Mercifully, they switched from a three-act structure to a two-act one but made them bigger on the whole. That’s just one of the improvements, but one that wasn’t unappreciated.
The color palette is way brighter, right from the start your eyeballs are pleasantly assaulted with greens, reds and blues far more vivid than I was used to seeing. Andreas may have regretted introducing me to the Sonic games – I rarely wanted to do anything else when I went over to hang out. I did entertain going outside and getting into adventures from time to time. Unsurprisingly, he grew up to design bike race courses (awesome) and I…work for a video game company. I guess you could see that coming.
There’s no legitimate debate today about whether Sonic or Mario is the better series, but in 1992 the fight was very close. The Sega / Nintendo rivalry really could come down to just Sonic vs. Mario but I was just content to play both. I didn’t have a Genesis, so going over to Andreas’ or Eric’s house was doubly exciting. Mario was Mario, sure, but it didn’t have the edge of Sonic 2. The cool factor.
The soundtrack.
As much of a Nintendo dork I am, I have to admit that Sonic 2’s soundtrack blows anything Mario had in the early 90s out of the water. It is unbelievably good and those melodies have only gotten better with edge. That trademark Genesis TWANG was irreplaceable – you can’t imagine anything like Mystic Cave Zone’s theme on any Nintendo console.
I have to control myself, otherwise I’ll post the entire soundtrack, but I have to give the banger tracks their due.
Metropolis Zone is about as early 90s as you can get. That twaaaang! The one saving grace of Metropolis Zone’s THREE acts (yes, they pulled a fast one on us) is that you get to listen to this ditty over, and over again. Fuck those stupid flying starfish and preying mantes!
Sky Chase Zone is a perfect cleanser after getting through the Metropolis.
The unreleased Hidden Palace Zone… we’ll get to that in a minute.
My gold medal goes to Chemical Zone Plant. Of course. How could it be anything else? This is only the second level and will shed any conceptions that this would be an easy journey. Chemical Plant Zones were MASSIVE. You can go so fast, the camera can’t keep up. There are bottomless pits of pink goo everywhere. But that music always keeps you going. The synth is sublime. What a fantastic track.
Going back to the Hidden Palace Zone, I’d like to include my entry about Myths and Legends from my Snackbar Games days.
We were fanatical about the game. The music was outstanding; it ranged from techno punk to something you’d hear while strolling in a park. We endlessly debated about how to beat the final boss, who seemed impossible to a couple of eight year-olds. I mean, you didn’t even get any rings to absorb hits at all!
We eventually beat it, but it didn’t stop us from playing. One day, his older sister walked in and grabbed the controller from us. We protested, but shut up quickly when she said she’d heard a friend of hers tell her that there was a secret level.
A secret level? What secret level? Where is it?
She didn’t know.
What’s it called?
She didn’t know.
How do you know it exists?
She just knew.
This resulted in months of trying absolutely everything to uncover the mystery. Resources were limited, so we did it the old fashioned way – jumping off every cliff, hugging every wall and dying. Dying, dying, dying. Oil Ocean seemed to be the only lead we had, so we drowned that poor blue hedgehog hundreds of times in the vast, black ocean of goop. Nothing doing. Disheartened, but not angry, we gave up and moved on when Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was released. It remained in the back of my mind for years, but I forgot about it eventually. I chalked it up to just another rumor kids tell each other based on misheard hearsay.
Of course, the Hidden Palace Zone wasn’t a myth. It was real. So very, very real. It’s important to note this information has been around for quite some time, I just didn’t discover it until years later. It is indeed a scrapped level from the final version of the game. Screenshots of the level were released in video game magazines and pamphlets prior to release. The level itself went through many shifts in development; it was originally going to be two acts, then one. It was going to be a level players could access after collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds and as a reward, receive the power to morph into Super Sonic. Background art from the level was re-used for other levels. In the sound test, there’s an option to listen to the soundtrack of the level (which, I think, is one of the best tracks in the game). There’s so much meat to this urban legend that I still enjoy reading about it today.
Why the level was scrapped is open for debate. Some claim the concept of the level was too complex. Newer editions of the game actually include the level. We know the decision to remove the level was a very late decision, but it wasn’t the only level to be scrapped; Wood Zone and Genocide City Zone (what a name…) were levels scrapped earlier in the development cycle and I just learned about those while typing this. Fascinating.
If only I could lecture my eight-year-old self about this. I’m sure my reaction would have been the same as when dad and I learned about the supposed doctored photos of the moon landing: a combination of excitement, skepticism, intrigue and wonder. When you hear rumor after rumor of obvious nonsense, finding out that one of those rumors is actually true is mind-boggling. What other rumors are true? What other gaming legends have an ounce of fact to them? It took more than ten years for the world to find out you can actually play as Master Hand in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Try not to be so skeptical, you never know.
The end stage is home to two of the harder bosses I’ve ever had the displeasure of dispatching. The switch-up to rid you of any rings means that a single hit means instant death. Back to the beginning you go. I saw Cam Wallace beat Metal Sonic about 15 times before Robotnik (I refuse to call him Eggman) wiped him out completely. There aren’t many games that can hold an entire party’s attention, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2 absolutely could.
Since each stage has multiple paths, recurring playthroughs don’t feel like carbon copies. There are more slopes here, so physics and momentum are easier to use to your advantage.
I haven’t even mentioned Super Sonic! Yes, it’s an obvious ripoff of Goku’s Super Saiyan transformation, but that episode only aired in early 1992. Many people hadn’t seen the transformation to a white hot god of speed before. I sure hadn’t. There’s something very satisfying to literally flying through a level without a care in the world. Pits still killed you, but I don’t have to worry about drowning, or spikes, or bats. Replaying the game with the knowledge of how to get Super Sonic was like repeating a grade voluntarily. You knew what others didn’t, and you pitied them.
Learning about the mobile version only makes Sonic 2 more appealing. They removed that stupid no-escape pit from Mystic Cave and made it the entrance to the once-cut Hidden Palace Zone. You can restart bonus stages. The framerate is better. This, apparently, is the definitive way to play it.
All of this would have been Greek to an 8 year old ginger who was completely transfixed by the speed of Sonic. Hell, I was in Sonic the Hedgehog. This was on a different level, a different planet. It’s hard to explain how exciting it was to go to a store and just see the cover of the newest GamePro or Nintendo Power. Whoa, what game is that? A NEW SONIC GAME is coming?? Cheat codes to a level I can’t beat? Rumors of a new system next year?
It was relentless, but there seemed to be a shared fervor – as long as you could find like minded buddies. No internet meant it was much harder to find your little pocket. But some games transcended ignorance; everybody knew Sonic the Hedgehog 2. You couldn’t escape the commercials, the marketing, or the tremendous and obvious improvement over its predecessor. For every annoyance you get by slamming into an unseen enemy, or slowed by obnoxious platforming sections, you get a thrill by finding Chaos Emeralds, listening to an amazing selection of music, finally beaten the Death Egg Robot and breathing out a sigh of relief as the end credits roll. What a game.
The 500 