Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
File:Sonic2 European Box.jpg European boxart for Sonic 2 on Mega Drive
Developer(s)	Sonic Team Sega Technical Institute
Publisher(s)	Sega
Director(s)	Masaharu Yoshii Hirokazu Yasuhara
Designer(s)	Judy Toyota (Character Design) Hirokazu Yasuhara (Game Planner & Project) Yuji Naka (Project Manager) Mark Cerny (Development Support)
Programmer(s)	Yuji Naka (Lead Programmer) Mark Cerny
Composer(s)	Masato Nakamura
Platform(s)	Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, PS2, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Mobile, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Virtual Console, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS
Release	Mega Drive/Genesis JPN: November 21, 1992 NA: November 24, 1992 EUR: November 24, 1992 Virtual Console Xbox Live Arcade WW: September 12, 2007 iOS April 20, 2010
Genre(s)	Racing, Platform
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a 16-bit 1992 platform video game that was developed by Sonic Team members working at the Sega Technical Institute, and published by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis console. It was released in Japan on November 21, 1992 and in North America and Europe on November 24, 1992. It is the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog and was followed by Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994. The game introduces Sonic's friend, a fox named Miles "Tails" Prower as a new playable character.

The story follows Sonic the Hedgehog and his new partner, "Tails", on their mission to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power the Death Egg. Sonic and Tails must defeat Robotnik's army and free their friends.

The game has sold over 6 million copies, making it the second best selling game on the Sega Genesis, behind only its predecessor. The game was compatible with Sonic & Knuckles, which possessed a "lock-on" feature which allowed the player to play as Knuckles the Echidna.

Gameplay

Main game

Aquatic Ruin Zone

The premise of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 builds upon the basic set-up of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. Again, Dr. Robotnik is plotting to take over the world with his army of animals he's placed into robots and with the power of the chaos emeralds. Sonic, who has now befriended and teamed up with a new character, Tails, must progress through the levels, collect the emeralds himself, and defeat Robotnik, who this time is operating out of his Death Egg.

The game plays as a 2D sidescrolling platformer, with the player directing Sonic through levels and around obstacles within a time limit of 10 minutes. Along the way, rings are collected and enemies are defeated. Star posts serve as checkpoints, where if the player was 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 the last act of most levels, Sonic confronts Dr. Robotnik.

At the game's start, the player can select to either play as Sonic, Tails or both. In the latter mode, players control Sonic while Tails runs along beside him. A second player can join in at any time and control Tails separately, but the screen always stays centralized on Sonic, frequently leaving Tails off-screen.

Improvements over the original Sonic the Hedgehog include significantly larger levels, faster gameplay, and a new stunt called the "Super Dash Attack", (or "Spin Dash"). The move allows Sonic to curl in a ball and spin while staying stationary, eventually resulting in a speed boost.

Collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds by completing all of the special stages will unlock a new feature; Sonic's ability to change into Super Sonic. Sonic changes into his Super Form when he has collected at least 50 rings and jumps into the air. At this point, he turns yellow and becomes invincible. Additionally, his speed, acceleration, and jump height are all increased as well. While in this state, one ring is lost per second. When the player has no rings remaining or reaches the end of the act, Sonic reverts to his normal state.

Special stages

Special Stages in Sonic 2

In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, there are 7 special stages. When Sonic has collected at least 50 rings, he can use a star post to warp him to a special stage.

Special Stages track Sonic from behind while he runs through a 3D 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. If Sonic collides with a bomb, he will lose some rings and will be immobilized for a few seconds. The order of stages is fixed in rising difficulty, and Sonic cannot enter the next stage without passing the previous. After finishing, Sonic is transported back to the last star post he hit in the zone when the special stage is over and has zero rings.

Multiplayer

The game also has a competitive mode, where 2 players compete against each other to the finish line, as either Sonic or Tails, in a split-screen race through three of the regular single player levels; Emerald Hill, Casino Night, and Mystic Cave, and a special stage. After one player finishes one of the regular levels, the other player must finish the zone within 60 seconds, or the level is ended instantly. 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). The player with who wins in the most number of categories, wins the level. In the Special Stage, players compete to obtain the most rings. The mode ends when all stages have been completed, or if a player loses all their lives, in which his/her opponent will instantly win. Sonic 2 is one of the few games which utilizes the 320x480 display mode of the VDP inside the Mega Drive, however the image looks squashed when displayed.

Connection to Sonic & Knuckles

See also: Sonic & Knuckles

2 years after the 1992 release of Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles was released in 1994. Sonic & Knuckles possessed a special, "lock-on" cartridge, in which the player would put the Sonic & Knuckles cartidge into the video console, and then plug a second game into the top of the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge. The result of this unlocks Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a variation of Sonic 2 where the player instead plays as Knuckles the Echidna, a character that hadn't been introduced until 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

The game is largely identical to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with the exception that gameplay is altered due to Knuckles having separate abilities from Sonic or Tails. Knuckles can glide and climb walls, which allows him to gain access to areas that had been otherwise hidden or unreachable. Conversely, he cannot jump as high, making some situations, such as certain boss fights, more difficult. However, in this version of the game, the two player mode has been removed.

Development

Pre-release

While the original 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 Sonic Team 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. Masaharu Yoshii served as the game's director. The staff introduced new graphical elements such as the special stages with 3D-like appearances, and increased the speed of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in relation to its predecessor.

The game was originally believed to contain time travel elements and also have a port to the Mega-CD, Sega's add-on for the Mega Drive. Neither of those reports ending up happening with the game's final release; a Mega-CD port never surfaced, and time travel was instead implemented in an original Sonic game for the Mega-CD entitled Sonic the Hedgehog CD.

The game is notorious for having content and levels being removed to the game prior to its release. In New York in 1992, prior to the game's release, Yuji Naka has remarked that a prototype from a demonstration cartridge that was stolen at a toy show. (Sega's Akinori Nishiyama has stated that the leak was due to the lack of security at the time.) A notable part of that prototype is that it featured a playable section of a level titled "The Hidden Palace", a level cut out of the game shortly before release. Naka said of the level:

...the basic idea was about the same as it was in Sonic and Knuckles. You'd encounter the stage through normal play by collecting the emeralds. The idea behind the stage was, "Where do the Chaos Emeralds come from?" That's where Sonic was originally supposed to be granted his Super Sonic powers. We finally were able to use it in S&K, though it wound up being quite different from what we had planned in Sonic 2. But even from Sonic 1 we'd been throwing around those sorts of ideas. Still, when we were running out of time, we looked over things quickly trying to figure out what to dump ... and CHOP went the Hidden Palace. There's simply no way we could have thrown that in by the deadline at the rate we were going.

Sega provided some magazines, such as GamePro, with screenshots of early builds of the game that showed 2 levels removed from the final game; the aforementioned "Hidden Palace", and a desert themed level, named the "Dust Hill Zone".

Naka has also alluded to another, unidentified, scrapped level in the Sonic Jam Official Strategy Guide, stating "Due to problems with the story, Act 3 was going to be a different Zone that would only appear once, but since it was cut, we still wanted to have something after Act 2. So that's why there are three acts in this one. We had already finished the map, and it would have been a shame to waste it, so this is what we went with." This is in reference to Metropolis Zone.

Release

Sega launched a $10 million advertising campaign for Sonic the Hedgehog 2's release. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis release in Europe and North America came on November 24, 1992, a Tuesday, and the release day was promoted as "Sonic 2s day". 400,000 copies of Sonic 2 were sold in the first seven days after release, and over 6 million in the Mega Drive's life span.

Alternate versions and ports

8-bit version

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

This version was released for the Sega Master System and the Game Gear. Though based on the original game of the same name, it is a distinct game, with different level designs.

Compilation releases

Main article: Compilations in the Sonic series

Compilations that include the game are Sonic Compilation (1995) and Genesis 6-Pak (1996) for the Sega Genesis; Sonic Jam (1997) for the Sega Saturn; Sega Smash Pack (2001) for the Dreamcast; Sonic Mega Collection (2002) for the Nintendo GameCube; Sonic Mega Collection Plus (2004) for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC; Sega Genesis Collection (2006) for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable; Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; and Sonic Classic Collection (2010) for the Nintendo DS.

Most compilations feature the game largely unchanged. However, Sonic Jam in addition to featuring the original release; also had a few new "remix" options. "Medium" mode altered the layout of rings and hazards and "Easy" mode removes certain acts entirely from the game.

Digital releases

The game was made available digitally on Wii's Virtual Console on June 11, 2007, PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network on April 19, 2011, and Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade, the latter having enhancements such as online leaderboards, achievements, and online play. Various mobile phone versions exist as well, including the iOS release.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	92% (4 reviews)

Review scores

Publication	Score
Electronic Gaming Monthly	8.75 / 10 (Genesis)
Eurogamer	9 / 10 {X360}
GameSpot	8 / 10 (X360)
IGN	8.5 / 10 (Wii)
Official Nintendo Magazine	94% (Wii)
Official Xbox Magazine (US)	9 / 10 (X360)
Mean Machines	96% (Mega Drive)
Mega	94% (Mega Drive)
Mega Zone	96% (Mega Drive)
Sega-16	10 / 10 (Mega Drive / Genesis)
Sega Force	97% (Mega Drive)
Sega Force Mega	95% (Mega Drive)
Svenska Hemdatornytt	100% (Mega Drive)

Award

Publication	Award
Electronic Gaming Monthly	Best Game of the Year (Genesis)

Due to the popularity of its predecessor Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2 already had an established fanbase anticipating its release. The game has sold over 6 million copies, making it the second best-selling game for the Sega Genesis (after the original Sonic).

It received critical acclaim by most gaming reviewers. It was praised for its large levels, colourful graphics and backgrounds, increased cast of characters and enemies alike, and music. GameSpot stated that "Time may have eroded Sega's prominence, but it hasn't done much to diminish how sweet Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is," and, along with other reviewers, commented on how it is still a fun game to play. Electronic Gaming Monthly awarded it as the best Sega Genesis game of 1992. In 2000, Game Informer ranked Sonic 2 number 61 on its "Top 100 Games of All Time" list, calling it "the most challenging and finely polished Sonic the Hedgehog title."

The game's main criticisms were of the two player mode, a new introduction to the series. Reviewers criticized the game's noticeable slowdown and prominent flickering, not to mention the squashed play area for each player. Finally, the game only allowed two-player mode in three different zones (Emerald Hill, Casino Night and Mystic Cave). William Burrill of the Toronto Star described the two player racing mode as the "only part of the game that can be faulted," citing that the mode and its split screen view "squeezes the graphics, plumps up the characters and slows down the action."

Legacy

The release of Sonic 2 was one of the main reasons that Sega caught up to Nintendo in the "console wars". It brought their market share up to 50% within six months of its release.

The game introduced the new character Miles "Tails" Prower, who would go on to be a major character in the series, acting as Sonic's sidekick in most Sonic series media. He would later even have 2 games of his own; both for the Sega Game Gear, in Tails Sky Patrol and Tails Adventure.

The game's ending theme song, "Sweet Dream" by Dreams Come True, was later remixed by popular R&B recording artist Akon, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

For Sonic's 20th Anniversary, Sega released Sonic Generations, a game that remade aspects of various past games from the franchise. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC version contained a remade "Chemical Plant" level. It also contained a remake of the final boss fight, the Death Egg Robot. Separately, the Nintendo 3DS version of the game contained a remake of the "Casino Night" level. A "Casino Night" themed pinball minigame was made available for download as a preorder bonus for the console versions at GameStop.