My Original Favorite - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, 1992) Review
NOTE: This review is part 2 in a retrospective on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Feel free to read the other Sonic reviews I’ve done here - https://expithecat.blogspot.com/search/label/sonic%20retrospective
It’s safe to say that the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was a success. Not only did it spawn a series of it’s own, but it pretty much gave the Sega Genesis an advantage even as the Super Nintendo by giving the system it’s own mascot platformer and being a “killer app” for the system. But, this led to the question - if Sonic the Hedgehog is so great… why isn’t there a Sonic the Hedgehog 2?
Well, a year later Sonic Team released the sequel to the game, initially starting development not too long after the original game’s release in November 1991. And it’s safe to say it turned out to be another success, becoming the best selling non-pack-in title for the Sega Genesis, and to this day, it is commonly considered as one of the best games in the series - pretty much improving everything about the first game while cutting back on what didn’t work so well, basically being what a good sequel should be. And myself, well, I can say that I’ve always held a special spot for this game.
As I stated in the title, it was my original “favorite” Sonic game for the longest time, and I considered it as such for a really long while, up until I played through Generations. I first played this game in 2011, around the time that Generations was coming out, and my first experience with it was on the Sonic Classic Collection for the Nintendo DS. I had played the first game (the… game boy advance version that is) and enjoyed it a lot when I was a kid, so I kind of wanted to see what the other “original” Sonic games had to offer. This was back around the time I was first getting into retro games, namely the classic Mario games, and as I still wanted to try out the original Sonic games, it felt like a good option as someone who only had a GBA, DS and my brother’s Xbox 360 at the time. And to be perfectly honest… Sonic the Hedgehog 2 kind of blew me away as a kid. It kind of did the same thing for the Sonic franchise that Super Mario World did for the Mario franchise for me earlier that year. I’m not really sure what it was but out of all the Sonic games in that Classic Collection, Sonic 2 was easily the one I was constantly going back to. The first time I played through it, I just wanted to keep going back, and that’s basically what happened. Pretty much every family trip I can think of I remember trying to beat the game again while we were driving, and I eventually bought it again on the Wii Virtual Console for my birthday in April 2012. While the first Sonic game did get me interested in the series, Sonic 2 was pretty much the game that made me a fan of the franchise. It gave me more respect for the Sega Genesis, and just made me want to play more of the franchise. And… somewhere along the lines made me a furry so… there’s that too I guess. But a question I always thought about was… why exactly was this my favorite? I mean, people have made good points about Sonic 3 & Knuckles, yet for some reason I still, to this day, find myself going back to Sonic 2 a lot more. I’m not going to spoil anything here, I still really love this game, but I kind of want to “analyze” what makes this still my favorite out of the classic games… unless, you count Mania, but for the sake of this I’m just going to try and focus on what made it stand out to me from Sonic 1, CD and 3 & Knuckles.
Well, if you didn’t read my review of the first game, I can basically summarize my opinions as this - While it does have flaws, about what you would expect from a first entry in a series, I still see it as a solid game that deserved to pretty much become what it is today. But it’s safe to say that Sonic 2 basically takes the formula that Sonic 1 introduced, and improved upon it while cutting back on what didn’t work so well. Even just on a presentation level, I feel like this game is a pretty massive step up from the first game - the characters and environments are a lot more colorful, and in a lot of cases there’s just a lot more going on. Sonic’s sprite was definitely improved from the first game, not only being a brighter shade of blue, but also having more frames of animation. I praised the first game for giving Sonic a lot of personality with his animations, and this game definitely feels like a step up from that. Sonic’s “hanging off the edge” pose, for example, is a bit more “dramatic” this time, and when left idle and waiting, Sonic not only taps his foot like the first game, but also lays on the grass, which really gives off the message of “come on, do something.” I mean, hell, they even make him run past the Sega logo twice in the intro, something the first game didn’t do. And looking at Emerald Hill Zone compared to Green Hill Zone, well, while Green Hill Zone is more iconic, I definitely find that visually Emerald Hill Zone is a lot more colorful and a lot “cleaner” looking, and often in this game it just feels like there’s more going on in the background and foreground of each zone than what Sonic 1 had to offer. Sonic 2 was also the game that introduced Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic’s sidekick throughout the entirety of the series, and looking back this caused some sort of bias on my end towards this game, considering that Tails has always been my favorite character in the series. And to be honest, whenever I play this game, I always find myself playing as “Tails Alone” for that reason. If I had one issue though, I do kind of wish that this game gave you the player more incentive to play as Tails Alone as opposed to Sonic. Unfortunately in this game he’s pretty much just a sprite swap of Sonic but can’t go Super even if you have all the emeralds which is kind of dumb. Sonic 3 & Knuckles and later on Sonic Mania both give him the option to fly at least (and he can go Super with all both the Chaos and Hyper Emeralds at least in the former) so it’s still pretty disappointing that they didn’t at least give Tails the ability to fly in this game even if that ability was available in later games. To be fair though, the problem with not being able to go Super in this game is kind of negated for me since I don’t ever 100% this game when I play it (and I’ll touch upon why that is later on), but it’s still worth mentioning that if going for the 100% completion there really isn’t much of a reason to play as him over Sonic.
Gameplay-wise, it’s similar to the first Sonic game - you try to run fast, collect rings, beat a boss at the end of zone, however there are a few changes. Most notoriously is the spin dash, which has become a staple ability of the franchise since this game. It basically provides a small speed boost when you need it, for example when you’re going through a loop, and having this ability definitely solves the issue of the first game with having to backtrack and gain enough momentum in order to go through a loop, which I felt was a slight annoyance in that game. I think there is a good reason why certain ports for Sonic 1 have the spin dash included, as it is a useful ability to have in many situations, and in the case of this game it really helps carry over the consistent pace of speed. Zones are also split into two acts this time, as opposed to three like in the first, which… is a thing. I’m not really sure if that’s an improvement over the first game or not but Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania would also adopt this format so… there’s that.
I largely wanted to focus on the level design of this game though. In my review of the first game, my opinion was basically that it did a good job of introducing the core Sonic game design elements that I enjoy about the series, with how it was built for replayability through use of more open levels with different pathways, however one issue with it was that it often felt like it slowed down to a crawl, especially in cases such as Marble Zone, Labyrinth Zone and Act 3 of Scrap Brain Zone, creating an inconsistent pace that sometimes didn’t really allow to take advantage of Sonic’s speed. And I’ll just say that right off the bat I think Sonic 2 definitely does a better job at keeping a consistent speed while also maintaining all the other game design elements of the Sonic games that I enjoy. And… to be honest, while I have yet to replay much of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, I actually feel that Sonic 2 does that the best out of any of the classic Sonic games, and that’s particularly why I enjoy going back to this game more than any of the other classic Sonic games. This isn’t to say I think the others are bad, but I feel in some way they just don’t carry that balance as well for me as Sonic 2 does. Even Sonic 3 & Knuckles I feel to a lesser extent has a similar issue to Sonic 1 where the game sometimes slows down and doesn’t really give much of the player much of an opportunity to take advantage of Sonic’s speed, and I feel that’s especially the case in the “& Knuckles” portion of it. With Sonic 2, I definitely feel there’s much more of a “flow” to it, and that it’s levels are a lot more built around taking advantage of Sonic’s speed and momentum than any of the other classic games. I mean, even when Sonic 2 is at it’s slowest, I don’t feel like there’s anything slowing me down and I have more of an incentive to go fast. Out of any of the classic Sonic games, I feel it’s arguably it’s the most fun to speed run as a result of how it’s level creates more of a flow while also incorporating all the other elements of Sonic games I enjoy. This is also helped by how levels also incorporate new features and elements, such as speed boosters and pinball-based elements in the case of Casino Night Zone. The only time I really felt like I was slowed down was in Sky Chase Zone but considering the level that comes before it it’s definitely nice to have that as a breather. But, at the same time, I still have to look where I’m going, I can’t just run fast and beat the game. There’s still enemies I have to watch for and projectiles, and there are still occasions where I need to pause and wait for say, a platform to move or something at least on a normal playthrough. And the game still emphasizes different pathways so there is still more incentive to replay the game and at that a high skill ceiling. Once again, like in the first game, I still find new things about the level design I hadn’t noticed before even after so many repeated playthroughs and it’s just another reason why I enjoy going back to the game so much. Unlike in my review of the first game, I decided against taking a look through every individual zone because 1. There’s more in this game and 2. I kind of felt like I was padding out my review of the first game, but I will say that my favorite levels in this game are definitely Casino Night Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone, and Mystic Cave Zone. Chemical Plant Zone also appears to be kind of a favorite, at least as far as being remixed into other Sonic games go, but I honestly wouldn’t put it over those three even if it is still a solid level overall. And I’ll also say that overall Sonic 2’s levels do a good job of incorporating elements from their environments, some examples being the “pinball” gimmicks and slot machines of Casino Night Zone and Wing Fortress flying in the background at one point in Sky Chase.
One criticism I have heard towards this game lately is regarding it’s enemy placement. I’ve commonly heard the notion that Sonic 2 sometimes feels “cheap” in a way in that regard, with having enemies that show up or throw something at you while you have little time to react. And to be fair, there are cases in the game where I can understand that sentiment (mostly in Metropolis Zone) but… I’ve never really found that to be much of an issue myself. I mean, this game does have the same issue as all the other classic games do of Sonic being in the center of the screen most of the time and on top of that the original Sega Genesis version still lacks a save feature, and I can understand why people would get annoyed by that, but honestly I feel like “cheap” enemy placement was any more of an issue here than in any of the other classic games. There are more projectile-based enemies and hazards in this game than in the first, and admittedly there were a few cases even now where I got hit by something I didn’t see coming for one reason or another, but I still feel like it just wasn’t really much of an annoyance I had with this game. I mean, the only time I ever felt like the game had level design and enemy placement that felt unfair and actually pissed me off was the occasional Slicer or Shellcracker being at the top of a corkscrew in Metropolis Zone, which would sometimes send me back to the bottom and require me to backtrack a bit to reset the corkscrew. But other than that, I just can’t say I really relate to that issue that other people have had. Granted, I have replayed the game a shitton since I was 10 years old or so and knowing about the “Sega Learning Curve” and it’s safe to say that I know a lot more now what to look out for than I did before, and I can still kind of understand why a newcomer to this game will have a harder time with it than me. Keep in mind, I’m no expert on game design or anything, I’m mostly just reviewing the Sonic games to talk about my own personal opinions and experiences with them, so… your mileage may really vary with any of the games, but overall I just personally have much of an issue with this game having cheap enemy placement. And as far as it’s level design goes it still stands out to me more than any of the other classic Sonic games as far as having a good flow and sense of speed goes.
That said, I’m not going to say that I didn’t have any criticisms towards this game at all. Like I said earlier, I do still kind of wish Tails had more to differentiate him from Sonic aside for a sprite change when playing as him alone, but I think my biggest issue with this game that I’ve practically always had even when I did consider it my favorite in the series is the special stages. I noticed that after I finished my Sonic 1 review I completely forgot to talk about the special stages, but I’ll just say with those they were kind of annoying due to feeling like I didn’t have much control over Sonic, but after a few attempts I was able to get the hang of them, although honestly there’s not really much of a point in 100%ing the game as all that happens is a slightly different ending. With Sonic 2 though, I can just say that I’ve never really liked the special stages, and why is that?
Well, this was still a time when consoles were practically incapable of doing any sort of real 3D graphics, so what you got was a background that constantly changed while you controlled a sprite, but as a result you don’t have any depth perception as everything just kind of looks the same. And that’s sort of the case with this game. The special stages are designed as a “half pipe,” and to be fair this type of special stage would become common as later entries would use this style, but in Sonic 2’s case I just don’t feel that it’s aged very well. To be honest, I’ve never been able to get past this game’s special stages. The first I can get through just fine but the others feel more tricky. These special stages really just come down to memorization of what’s coming ahead of you whether that be rings or bombs and it often feels like the game doesn’t give you enough grace to screw up, which is an issue because of the lack of depth perception in these special stages. And while I still consider Sonic 2 overall my favorite out of the classic games, these special stages are oddly enough my least favorite of the classic games. I will give the game one thing though - there is more of a reason to collect the emeralds here than in the first game (at least if you’re playing as Sonic), and that’s Super Sonic, which totally isn’t a rip off of Super Saiyan. Once you get all the emeralds, you can now pick up 50 rings and become both invincible to hazards but also slightly faster than in Sonic’s normal state. It is a neat little 100% completion award and another feature of this game that would become common in the franchise later on. The ending is also slightly different, but oddly enough I prefer the non-complete ending. Which I should also mention is still my favorite “ending” of any Sonic game. The game uses grayscale cutscenes to tell a small story at the end and it gives you a sense of Sonic and Tails’ friendship. It gives the idea that Tails isn’t just riding along with Sonic, but is a legitimate friend and sidekick. And for not having any dialogue at all, it just tells it’s own story with it’s imagery and gives a surprising amount of character development to the newcomer of this game. Every time I see this ending it just makes me… happy, and as a 10 year old it was practically the first time I ever felt any sort of real emotion while playing a video game other than having fun or getting mad at certain levels. I’m not sure how to explain but maybe you get the idea.
And once again, like in the first game, the soundtrack kicks ass, although that’s probably unsurprising since most people agree Sonic games have great music. Once again, this is a soundtrack I enjoy listening to every so often and particular favorites include of the themes for Aquatic Ruin Zone, Emerald Hill Zone, Mystic Cave Zone, Metropolis Zone, the final boss and the ending cutscene. I don’t think I have to go into any more detail on that.
But, that’s pretty much all I have to say about Sonic 2. While I don’t consider it my favorite Sonic game any more, that’s largely just because I played newer games, particularly Generations and Mania, and just happened to enjoy those more. But Sonic 2 is still a game I really enjoy, and would put it among my Top 5 of the franchise in general, and also consider my favorite “classic” game if Mania doesn’t count. This game can feel intense at times, which is honestly just what I want to feel playing a video game like this, and with its level design and flow of speed I still like going back to the game and do get enjoyment out of it when that happens. And I’ll probably still continue going back to the game even all these years later.
If you haven’t played it for some reason, there are a few ways you can do so. Like with the first game, I personally like playing the original Genesis version being the classic purist I am, but like the first, there does exist a remastered version of the game for mobile devices that has widescreen and also makes the special stages better by giving them more of an actual 3D look. Other than that, the game was also just re-released under “Sega Ages” for the Nintendo Switch by E2, which also includes the drop dash from Sonic Mania and save states. And there’s also the Genesis Mini if you really want to stick to the original, as well as a number of compilations for different systems. Either way, I’d definitely recommend playing this game if you haven’t already done so for whatever reason. I probably wouldn’t take my word completely for it and go into it with too high expectations as I gush over it, but I’d still say it’s worth playing at the very least.
It’s safe to say that the first Sonic the Hedgehog game was a success. Not only did it spawn a series of it’s own, but it pretty much gave the Sega Genesis an advantage even as the Super Nintendo by giving the system it’s own mascot platformer and being a “killer app” for the system. But, this led to the question - if Sonic the Hedgehog is so great… why isn’t there a Sonic the Hedgehog 2?
Well, a year later Sonic Team released the sequel to the game, initially starting development not too long after the original game’s release in November 1991. And it’s safe to say it turned out to be another success, becoming the best selling non-pack-in title for the Sega Genesis, and to this day, it is commonly considered as one of the best games in the series - pretty much improving everything about the first game while cutting back on what didn’t work so well, basically being what a good sequel should be. And myself, well, I can say that I’ve always held a special spot for this game.
As I stated in the title, it was my original “favorite” Sonic game for the longest time, and I considered it as such for a really long while, up until I played through Generations. I first played this game in 2011, around the time that Generations was coming out, and my first experience with it was on the Sonic Classic Collection for the Nintendo DS. I had played the first game (the… game boy advance version that is) and enjoyed it a lot when I was a kid, so I kind of wanted to see what the other “original” Sonic games had to offer. This was back around the time I was first getting into retro games, namely the classic Mario games, and as I still wanted to try out the original Sonic games, it felt like a good option as someone who only had a GBA, DS and my brother’s Xbox 360 at the time. And to be perfectly honest… Sonic the Hedgehog 2 kind of blew me away as a kid. It kind of did the same thing for the Sonic franchise that Super Mario World did for the Mario franchise for me earlier that year. I’m not really sure what it was but out of all the Sonic games in that Classic Collection, Sonic 2 was easily the one I was constantly going back to. The first time I played through it, I just wanted to keep going back, and that’s basically what happened. Pretty much every family trip I can think of I remember trying to beat the game again while we were driving, and I eventually bought it again on the Wii Virtual Console for my birthday in April 2012. While the first Sonic game did get me interested in the series, Sonic 2 was pretty much the game that made me a fan of the franchise. It gave me more respect for the Sega Genesis, and just made me want to play more of the franchise. And… somewhere along the lines made me a furry so… there’s that too I guess. But a question I always thought about was… why exactly was this my favorite? I mean, people have made good points about Sonic 3 & Knuckles, yet for some reason I still, to this day, find myself going back to Sonic 2 a lot more. I’m not going to spoil anything here, I still really love this game, but I kind of want to “analyze” what makes this still my favorite out of the classic games… unless, you count Mania, but for the sake of this I’m just going to try and focus on what made it stand out to me from Sonic 1, CD and 3 & Knuckles.
Well, if you didn’t read my review of the first game, I can basically summarize my opinions as this - While it does have flaws, about what you would expect from a first entry in a series, I still see it as a solid game that deserved to pretty much become what it is today. But it’s safe to say that Sonic 2 basically takes the formula that Sonic 1 introduced, and improved upon it while cutting back on what didn’t work so well. Even just on a presentation level, I feel like this game is a pretty massive step up from the first game - the characters and environments are a lot more colorful, and in a lot of cases there’s just a lot more going on. Sonic’s sprite was definitely improved from the first game, not only being a brighter shade of blue, but also having more frames of animation. I praised the first game for giving Sonic a lot of personality with his animations, and this game definitely feels like a step up from that. Sonic’s “hanging off the edge” pose, for example, is a bit more “dramatic” this time, and when left idle and waiting, Sonic not only taps his foot like the first game, but also lays on the grass, which really gives off the message of “come on, do something.” I mean, hell, they even make him run past the Sega logo twice in the intro, something the first game didn’t do. And looking at Emerald Hill Zone compared to Green Hill Zone, well, while Green Hill Zone is more iconic, I definitely find that visually Emerald Hill Zone is a lot more colorful and a lot “cleaner” looking, and often in this game it just feels like there’s more going on in the background and foreground of each zone than what Sonic 1 had to offer. Sonic 2 was also the game that introduced Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic’s sidekick throughout the entirety of the series, and looking back this caused some sort of bias on my end towards this game, considering that Tails has always been my favorite character in the series. And to be honest, whenever I play this game, I always find myself playing as “Tails Alone” for that reason. If I had one issue though, I do kind of wish that this game gave you the player more incentive to play as Tails Alone as opposed to Sonic. Unfortunately in this game he’s pretty much just a sprite swap of Sonic but can’t go Super even if you have all the emeralds which is kind of dumb. Sonic 3 & Knuckles and later on Sonic Mania both give him the option to fly at least (and he can go Super with all both the Chaos and Hyper Emeralds at least in the former) so it’s still pretty disappointing that they didn’t at least give Tails the ability to fly in this game even if that ability was available in later games. To be fair though, the problem with not being able to go Super in this game is kind of negated for me since I don’t ever 100% this game when I play it (and I’ll touch upon why that is later on), but it’s still worth mentioning that if going for the 100% completion there really isn’t much of a reason to play as him over Sonic.
Gameplay-wise, it’s similar to the first Sonic game - you try to run fast, collect rings, beat a boss at the end of zone, however there are a few changes. Most notoriously is the spin dash, which has become a staple ability of the franchise since this game. It basically provides a small speed boost when you need it, for example when you’re going through a loop, and having this ability definitely solves the issue of the first game with having to backtrack and gain enough momentum in order to go through a loop, which I felt was a slight annoyance in that game. I think there is a good reason why certain ports for Sonic 1 have the spin dash included, as it is a useful ability to have in many situations, and in the case of this game it really helps carry over the consistent pace of speed. Zones are also split into two acts this time, as opposed to three like in the first, which… is a thing. I’m not really sure if that’s an improvement over the first game or not but Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic Mania would also adopt this format so… there’s that.
I largely wanted to focus on the level design of this game though. In my review of the first game, my opinion was basically that it did a good job of introducing the core Sonic game design elements that I enjoy about the series, with how it was built for replayability through use of more open levels with different pathways, however one issue with it was that it often felt like it slowed down to a crawl, especially in cases such as Marble Zone, Labyrinth Zone and Act 3 of Scrap Brain Zone, creating an inconsistent pace that sometimes didn’t really allow to take advantage of Sonic’s speed. And I’ll just say that right off the bat I think Sonic 2 definitely does a better job at keeping a consistent speed while also maintaining all the other game design elements of the Sonic games that I enjoy. And… to be honest, while I have yet to replay much of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, I actually feel that Sonic 2 does that the best out of any of the classic Sonic games, and that’s particularly why I enjoy going back to this game more than any of the other classic Sonic games. This isn’t to say I think the others are bad, but I feel in some way they just don’t carry that balance as well for me as Sonic 2 does. Even Sonic 3 & Knuckles I feel to a lesser extent has a similar issue to Sonic 1 where the game sometimes slows down and doesn’t really give much of the player much of an opportunity to take advantage of Sonic’s speed, and I feel that’s especially the case in the “& Knuckles” portion of it. With Sonic 2, I definitely feel there’s much more of a “flow” to it, and that it’s levels are a lot more built around taking advantage of Sonic’s speed and momentum than any of the other classic games. I mean, even when Sonic 2 is at it’s slowest, I don’t feel like there’s anything slowing me down and I have more of an incentive to go fast. Out of any of the classic Sonic games, I feel it’s arguably it’s the most fun to speed run as a result of how it’s level creates more of a flow while also incorporating all the other elements of Sonic games I enjoy. This is also helped by how levels also incorporate new features and elements, such as speed boosters and pinball-based elements in the case of Casino Night Zone. The only time I really felt like I was slowed down was in Sky Chase Zone but considering the level that comes before it it’s definitely nice to have that as a breather. But, at the same time, I still have to look where I’m going, I can’t just run fast and beat the game. There’s still enemies I have to watch for and projectiles, and there are still occasions where I need to pause and wait for say, a platform to move or something at least on a normal playthrough. And the game still emphasizes different pathways so there is still more incentive to replay the game and at that a high skill ceiling. Once again, like in the first game, I still find new things about the level design I hadn’t noticed before even after so many repeated playthroughs and it’s just another reason why I enjoy going back to the game so much. Unlike in my review of the first game, I decided against taking a look through every individual zone because 1. There’s more in this game and 2. I kind of felt like I was padding out my review of the first game, but I will say that my favorite levels in this game are definitely Casino Night Zone, Aquatic Ruin Zone, and Mystic Cave Zone. Chemical Plant Zone also appears to be kind of a favorite, at least as far as being remixed into other Sonic games go, but I honestly wouldn’t put it over those three even if it is still a solid level overall. And I’ll also say that overall Sonic 2’s levels do a good job of incorporating elements from their environments, some examples being the “pinball” gimmicks and slot machines of Casino Night Zone and Wing Fortress flying in the background at one point in Sky Chase.
One criticism I have heard towards this game lately is regarding it’s enemy placement. I’ve commonly heard the notion that Sonic 2 sometimes feels “cheap” in a way in that regard, with having enemies that show up or throw something at you while you have little time to react. And to be fair, there are cases in the game where I can understand that sentiment (mostly in Metropolis Zone) but… I’ve never really found that to be much of an issue myself. I mean, this game does have the same issue as all the other classic games do of Sonic being in the center of the screen most of the time and on top of that the original Sega Genesis version still lacks a save feature, and I can understand why people would get annoyed by that, but honestly I feel like “cheap” enemy placement was any more of an issue here than in any of the other classic games. There are more projectile-based enemies and hazards in this game than in the first, and admittedly there were a few cases even now where I got hit by something I didn’t see coming for one reason or another, but I still feel like it just wasn’t really much of an annoyance I had with this game. I mean, the only time I ever felt like the game had level design and enemy placement that felt unfair and actually pissed me off was the occasional Slicer or Shellcracker being at the top of a corkscrew in Metropolis Zone, which would sometimes send me back to the bottom and require me to backtrack a bit to reset the corkscrew. But other than that, I just can’t say I really relate to that issue that other people have had. Granted, I have replayed the game a shitton since I was 10 years old or so and knowing about the “Sega Learning Curve” and it’s safe to say that I know a lot more now what to look out for than I did before, and I can still kind of understand why a newcomer to this game will have a harder time with it than me. Keep in mind, I’m no expert on game design or anything, I’m mostly just reviewing the Sonic games to talk about my own personal opinions and experiences with them, so… your mileage may really vary with any of the games, but overall I just personally have much of an issue with this game having cheap enemy placement. And as far as it’s level design goes it still stands out to me more than any of the other classic Sonic games as far as having a good flow and sense of speed goes.
That said, I’m not going to say that I didn’t have any criticisms towards this game at all. Like I said earlier, I do still kind of wish Tails had more to differentiate him from Sonic aside for a sprite change when playing as him alone, but I think my biggest issue with this game that I’ve practically always had even when I did consider it my favorite in the series is the special stages. I noticed that after I finished my Sonic 1 review I completely forgot to talk about the special stages, but I’ll just say with those they were kind of annoying due to feeling like I didn’t have much control over Sonic, but after a few attempts I was able to get the hang of them, although honestly there’s not really much of a point in 100%ing the game as all that happens is a slightly different ending. With Sonic 2 though, I can just say that I’ve never really liked the special stages, and why is that?
Well, this was still a time when consoles were practically incapable of doing any sort of real 3D graphics, so what you got was a background that constantly changed while you controlled a sprite, but as a result you don’t have any depth perception as everything just kind of looks the same. And that’s sort of the case with this game. The special stages are designed as a “half pipe,” and to be fair this type of special stage would become common as later entries would use this style, but in Sonic 2’s case I just don’t feel that it’s aged very well. To be honest, I’ve never been able to get past this game’s special stages. The first I can get through just fine but the others feel more tricky. These special stages really just come down to memorization of what’s coming ahead of you whether that be rings or bombs and it often feels like the game doesn’t give you enough grace to screw up, which is an issue because of the lack of depth perception in these special stages. And while I still consider Sonic 2 overall my favorite out of the classic games, these special stages are oddly enough my least favorite of the classic games. I will give the game one thing though - there is more of a reason to collect the emeralds here than in the first game (at least if you’re playing as Sonic), and that’s Super Sonic, which totally isn’t a rip off of Super Saiyan. Once you get all the emeralds, you can now pick up 50 rings and become both invincible to hazards but also slightly faster than in Sonic’s normal state. It is a neat little 100% completion award and another feature of this game that would become common in the franchise later on. The ending is also slightly different, but oddly enough I prefer the non-complete ending. Which I should also mention is still my favorite “ending” of any Sonic game. The game uses grayscale cutscenes to tell a small story at the end and it gives you a sense of Sonic and Tails’ friendship. It gives the idea that Tails isn’t just riding along with Sonic, but is a legitimate friend and sidekick. And for not having any dialogue at all, it just tells it’s own story with it’s imagery and gives a surprising amount of character development to the newcomer of this game. Every time I see this ending it just makes me… happy, and as a 10 year old it was practically the first time I ever felt any sort of real emotion while playing a video game other than having fun or getting mad at certain levels. I’m not sure how to explain but maybe you get the idea.
And once again, like in the first game, the soundtrack kicks ass, although that’s probably unsurprising since most people agree Sonic games have great music. Once again, this is a soundtrack I enjoy listening to every so often and particular favorites include of the themes for Aquatic Ruin Zone, Emerald Hill Zone, Mystic Cave Zone, Metropolis Zone, the final boss and the ending cutscene. I don’t think I have to go into any more detail on that.
But, that’s pretty much all I have to say about Sonic 2. While I don’t consider it my favorite Sonic game any more, that’s largely just because I played newer games, particularly Generations and Mania, and just happened to enjoy those more. But Sonic 2 is still a game I really enjoy, and would put it among my Top 5 of the franchise in general, and also consider my favorite “classic” game if Mania doesn’t count. This game can feel intense at times, which is honestly just what I want to feel playing a video game like this, and with its level design and flow of speed I still like going back to the game and do get enjoyment out of it when that happens. And I’ll probably still continue going back to the game even all these years later.
If you haven’t played it for some reason, there are a few ways you can do so. Like with the first game, I personally like playing the original Genesis version being the classic purist I am, but like the first, there does exist a remastered version of the game for mobile devices that has widescreen and also makes the special stages better by giving them more of an actual 3D look. Other than that, the game was also just re-released under “Sega Ages” for the Nintendo Switch by E2, which also includes the drop dash from Sonic Mania and save states. And there’s also the Genesis Mini if you really want to stick to the original, as well as a number of compilations for different systems. Either way, I’d definitely recommend playing this game if you haven’t already done so for whatever reason. I probably wouldn’t take my word completely for it and go into it with too high expectations as I gush over it, but I’d still say it’s worth playing at the very least.
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