The reason Sonic 2 hacking has taken precedence over hacking of other Sonic games is due to the fact that early hackers of Sonic 2 discovered the "half-deleted" Hidden Palace Zone on the original release of the game, a level which shared its name with a key level in a later Sonic game. At the time hackers, working on the game came to the conclusion that the game was too difficult to hack but the later appearance of the beta version of the game with the Hidden Palace level still in it caused hacking attempts to start over again.
The reason Sonic 2 hacking has taken precedence over hacking of other Sonic games is due to the fact that early hackers of Sonic 2 discovered the "half-deleted" Hidden Palace Zone on the original release of the game, a level which shared its name with a key level in a later Sonic game. At the time hackers, working on the game came to the conclusion that the game was too difficult to hack but the later appearance of the beta version of the game with the Hidden Palace level still in it caused hacking attempts to start over again.
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==Trivia==
* The game's level select code, activated by playing music '''19, 65, 09, 17''' in the options screen is in fact Sonic programmer [[Yuji Naka|Yuji Naka's]] birthday, [[September 17]], [[1965]]. Likewise, ''Sonic 2''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> debug code is '''1, 9, 9, 2, 1, 1, 2, 4''' which was ''Sonic 2''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> U.S. release date, [[November 24]]th, [[1992]]. This is known to fans as 'Sonic Twosday', due to the day of release being a Tuesday.
* The launch of ''Sonic 2'' was intended to be huge, and the developers wanted to pay tribute to two of the biggest franchises in pop culture. For the North American players, they paid tribute to ''[[Star Wars|Star Wars']]'' [[Death Star]] with The Death Egg. For the Japanese players, it is assumed they paid tribute to ''[[Dragon Ball Z]]'''s [[Super Saiyan]] characters with Super Sonic <!-- This one is disputed; we can't prove any connection with Toriyama. -->
* The concept of a two-tailed fox stems from [[Japanese folklore]]. According to the mythology, foxes ("[[kitsune]]") are magical beings with the ability to shapeshift. The older a fox gets, the more powerful it becomes, and the more tails it gains. These "kitsune" grow a new tail every hundred years until they've reached their maximum strength of nine tails. They are known to be witty and notoriously mischievous.
*The name Hidden Palace Zone was ultimately used as the name of a differently styled level in ''Sonic 3 & Knuckles'' and served as a major plot point in that game.
* [[Dreams Come True]], a Japanese band who first formed in the late 80's, released an album known as "The Swinging Star" a week before the release of Sonic 2. The album has a song on it known as "Sweet Sweet Sweet" which was used to form the music that played during the ending sequence of the game. The album contains a Japanese version of the song, although an English version was released as a b-side known as "Sweet Dream" on their "Winter Song" single in 1994.<ref name="sweet">{{cite web | url=http://www.sonic-cult.org/articles/sweet.htm | title=Sweet Dream | publisher=sonic-cult.org | accessdate=2007-02-27}}</ref> The song was later remade for the release of the 2006 game [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]].
* The game's versus mode is commonly mentioned as the first use of split-screen multiplayer. However, [[Starpath]]'s ''[[Party Mix (video game)|Party Mix]]'' for the [[Starpath Supercharger|Supercharger]] had similar features a whole decade earlier. ''Sonic 2'' was superior in having two independently scrolling areas, while ''Party Mix'' "leaped" screens.
==Credits==
==Credits==
Revision as of 20:21, 13 March 2007
This article is about the 16-bit Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game. For the 8-bit Game Gear/Master System game, see Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit).
At the end of Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik's Scrap Brain facility was destroyed, but the evil doctor narrowly escaped.
Now Robotnik is back and plans to conquer the world once more. He secretly follows Sonic's biplane, the Tornado, to his vacation spot, Westside Island. According to legend, an ancient civilization once abused the power of seven "power stones" on Westside Island. Sonic meets a peculiar two-tailed fox named Miles Prower, better known as "Tails". The two become good friends. Meanwhile, Robotnik begins his search for the Chaos Emeralds to fuel his new Death Egg engine. One afternoon, he launches his full-scale attack on the island. He imprisoned all the animals of the island and turned them into mindless worker drones. Fortunately, Sonic will thwart the Doctor's plans at all cost. This time, he isn't alone, as Tails decides to aid him. Together they must locate the Emeralds before Robotnik does, and put an end to this diabolical scheme.
The gameplay of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 builds upon the basic set-up of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. The player finishes each level, generally moving from left to right, within a time limit of ten minutes. Along the way, rings are collected and robots (known as "Badniks") are defeated. Star posts serve as checkpoints, where if the player were to lose a life then he or she would return to one. When the player has collected at least 50 rings, Star posts can be run past for an optional Special Stage. At the end of Act 2, Sonic confronts Dr. Robotnik.
Although zones have significantly grown in size since Sonic the Hedgehog, they now consist of two acts instead of three (with the exception of the Metropolis Zone, which has three acts, and the three final zones, which each have one), and there is greater emphasis on variety between levels. The gameplay has also become even faster; to that end, Sonic is able to perform a new special move referred to as the Spin Dash Attack. The Spin Dash attack allows Sonic to spin in place, as if revving an engine, before taking off at high speeds from a stationary start.
From the options menu, players can select to either play as Sonic alone, Tails alone or Sonic and Tails. By default, players control Sonic while Tails tags along unhindered. However, a second player may control Tails separately. Should Tails move off-screen, he will eventually return.
Two player
In two player versus mode, players compete against each other - either as Tails or Sonic - in a split-screen race through three regular zones and one special stage. Regular zones include Emerald Hill, Casino Night and Mystic Cave and have different music from their one player counterparts, while the Special Stage is similar to the Emerald Stage in single player. In the regular levels, players are ranked in five areas (score, time, rings held at the end of the level, total rings collected, and number of item boxes broken), with the player scoring highest in the most levels winning the round, while in the Special Stage, players compete to obtain the most rings. Once one player finishes, the other player must finish the zone within 60 seconds or lose a life.
In case of a tie, an additional Special Stage round must be completed. Also, to heighten the stakes, there are two unique items in versus-mode: a teleport item that instantly switches positions between players in a zone, and a Robotnik item that damages the unlucky player.
Below is the full list of levels in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, in order of appearance in single player mode. As in the original Sonic the Hedgehog, levels are referred to as Zones. This section describes the boss section of the Zone, in which Dr. Robotnik attempts to defeat Sonic.
Emerald Hill: A green island with expansive fields, beaches and other tropical islands in the distance.
Chemical Plant: Dr. Robotnik's chemical factory, full of tubes and floating platforms.
Aquatic Ruin: An ancient ruin located in a forest valley partially submerged in water.
Casino Night: A city that never sleeps, full of pinball rooms, flashing lights, and slot machines. The slot machines offer prizes of up to 150 rings.
Hill Top: A zone on a mountain high above the clouds. The mountain is also an active volcano.
Mystic Cave: An old, dark, abandoned mine inhabited by badniks that attempt to shock or collide with Sonic.
Oil Ocean: A zone polluted by Dr. Robotnik's oil-drilling projects. The viscosity of the oil allows Sonic to run across it, although he can still die in the oil if he is completely submerged in it.
Metropolis: This large level is Dr. Robotnik's gigantic fortress, filled with pipe teleporters, screw elevators and Badnik stars which explode to shoot deadly barbs. File:Sonic2 SkyChase.gifSky Chase Zone
Sky Chase: In order to chase Dr. Robotnik, Tails uses the Tornado plane to fly into the sky to battle Concorde birds and turtle battleships. This is a very short level with one act and no bosses. If the player is playing as Tails alone, it will be Sonic who is flying the Tornado.
Wing Fortress: After the Tornado is shot down, Sonic jumps onto Dr. Robotnik's sky ship, where he has to avoid falling to his doom and reach the bridge to Dr. Robotnik. Sonic blows the ship's circuits and Dr. Robotnik tries to escape in his spaceship. Tails comes back in the biplane and flies Sonic close to the ship using a rocket booster installed at the bottom of the plane. That extra boost of speed gave Sonic the opportunity to grab on to Dr. Robotnik's ship and follows him into his giant space station, the Death Egg.
Death Egg: In this final zone Sonic must battle against the robot Silver Sonic (who is later replaced by Metal Sonic) and finally against Dr. Robotnik himself who controls a giant armoured battle suit without even a single ring. After defeating Robotnik, Sonic flees the exploding Death Egg and skydives back down. Fortunately for Sonic, Tails returns with the Tornado and catches him (unless one has managed to collect all the Chaos Emeralds; in that case Super Sonic flies alongside the plane).
Special Stages
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In Sonic 2, there are 7 special stages. When Sonic has collected at least 50 rings and he hits a Star Post, a red halo of stars will briefly float above it, which Sonic can then jump through to get to a special stage.
Special Stages track Sonic from behind while he runs through a three-dimensional half-pipe course filled with rings and bombs. A set amount of rings must be collected to pass through three checkpoints and eventually obtain the emerald itself. The order of stages is fixed in rising difficulty, and Sonic cannot enter the next stage without passing the previous (unlike Sonic 1). Whether the player is able to obtain the emerald or not, Sonic is transported back to the last lamp post he hit in the zone when the special stage is over and has zero rings.
Secrets
Special Stages in Sonic 2
Super Sonic
Obtaining all seven Chaos Emeralds by clearing all of the special stages will unlock a new feature; Sonic's ability to change into Super Sonic. Sonic changes into his Super alter-ego when he has collected at least 50 rings and jumps into the air. At this point, he glows yellow and is virtually invincible (although he can still get killed by drowning, getting crushed and falling off the screen). His speed, acceleration, and jump height are all increased as well. This means that it is much more difficult to control Sonic in this form, especially when the player needs to make precise jumps. However, his super-spin attack is decreased in effectiveness as the initial velocity is decreased speedily. Super Sonic consumes one ring per second, and when he has no rings left, he reverts to his normal state.
As each zone has several star posts, Sonic can change into Super Sonic as early as Emerald Hill Zone.
Unused music track
From the Sonic 2 options screen, one can access a sound test feature which allows the player to listen to all the music and sound effects from the game. Among them is a music track (Track 10), which is not heard anywhere in the game. It was generally assumed that this piece of music was used in a level deleted from the final game, a belief that was given further credibility using Game Genies to access the remnants of the uncompleted Hidden Palace Zone. See below for more details.
Development and release
While Sonic the Hedgehog was designed by Sonic Team in Japan, development duties for Sonic 2 were handed over to Sega Technical Institute in the United States. However experienced Japanese Sega members such as Yuji Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara (the first game's lead programmer and game planner respectively) were brought in to work alongside the American developers.
A prototype of the game, dating from before Sonic 2 itself, was discovered on a Chinese Geocities site and has been widely distributed on the Internet as Sonic 2 Beta. Only four levels can be played in "normal" gameplay; the rest (including several incomplete stages) have to be accessed through the level select code. Many are not entirely playable, but can be explored using the debug code. The prototype is frequently examined by hackers to determine how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was developed. It was recently stated in an interview with Yuji Naka that this beta was from a demonstration cartridge that was stolen at a toy show in New York in 1992.[1]Akinori Nishiyama has also stated that the leak was due to the lack of security at the time.[2]
In Asia and Brazil, the prototype version was put on cartridges and passed off as the final version by pirates who have altered it slightly to stop the Sega logo from showing when the game boots up, as was common practice. For the sake of posterity it has been agreed not to replace the Sega logo, despite it being an easy single-byte fix.
Time travel
Some fans have suggested that Sonic 2 would originally incorporate a feature of time travel similar to the one later seen in Sonic CD; proponents of the theory suggest that the two teams worked concurrently, exchanging ideas, and even go so far as to suggest that the two teams started off working on the same game and developed certain features together before forking. Evidence to support this claim is sought in several oddities found in the Sonic 2 prototype version:
Aquatic Ruin Zone's original name is listed in the prototype as Neo Green Hill Zone, a possible future or past version of Emerald Hill (Emerald Hill is called Green Hill in this prototype)
The fact that some prototype zones share soundtracks (namely, Wood Zone uses the music from Metropolis Zone, and Genocide City Zone uses music from Chemical Plant Zone).
Similarities in level design between Wood Zone and Metropolis Zone and between Oil Ocean Zone and Hidden Palace Zone.
Additionally, an unused sprite resembling a futuristic-looking star post can be found in debug mode. Finally, a design sketch of a cut badnik "Bumper"[3] uses the words "past" and "future" in reference to Zones.
While time travel does seem to have been one of the ideas tested out during the design phase, it is unlikely that it was ever a playable element in Sonic 2. The design sketch is from very early in development, and was made for a Zone that was cut before the beta was made. Further, neither the prototype nor the final contains any code that would indicate that a time-travel feature had been worked on. The similarities between Wood Zone and Metropolis could simply indicate that some ideas from the axed levels were recycled into new Zones later on, and the connection between Emerald Hill Zone and Hill Top Zone is superficial at best. All of the prototype Zones that share a soundtrack with another Zone are in the early stages of development, and it is likely that the music for these Zones simply had not been completed yet, forcing the developers to use a different soundtrack as a placeholder. The link between Hidden Palace Zone and Chemical Plant Zone seems especially unlikely in light of the recent revelations by Yuji Naka. The futuristic star post is reminiscent of the star posts from Sonic 1, and is probably transitional art.
Release
The game was released in Japan for the Sega Mega Drive on November 21st, 1992. The Sega Genesis release in the United States and the European Mega Drive release came three days later on November 24th, a Tuesday, and the release day was dubbed "Sonic 2s day", and Sega claims that they sold 400,000 copies of Sonic 2 in 5 days.[4] It has since been re-released several times:
Sonic Compilation (1995, Sega Mega Drive, Europe) and Sonic Classics 3-in-1 (1997, Sega Genesis, North America)
Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a game activated by locking Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to the passthrough cartridge of Sonic & Knuckles that was released later by Sega. The resulting game is almost identical to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, except that one plays as Knuckles the Echidna. As Knuckles has abilities and weaknesses that Sonic and Tails do not, the game is an overall different experience. Knuckles can glide and climb walls, which allows him to access areas otherwise unreachable by Sonic and Tails, while his weaker jumping abilities makes some situations, such as certain boss fights, more difficult. The two-player mode and options screen have also been removed. Players who are most familiar with the level layouts in Sonic 2 will notice a few minor differences. Unlike in the default game, when a player activates a starpost and enters the special stage, the ring count remains upon returning to the regular stage. It is debated as to whether this was an intended new feature or was meant to be removed originally.
Although some fans believe that Sonic 2 was created with foreknowledge that such an add-on device would be made later, this is incorrect. The majority of the changes to Sonic 2 are actually contained in the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge and loaded at boot if a Sonic 2 cartridge is found in the pass-through slot; the actual Sonic 2 data is accessed very rarely.
November 21 1992
November 24 1992
November 24 1992
