Virtual Console Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

System: Genesis
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega
Virtual Console Release: Jun 11, 2007 (USA) / Jul 6 2007 (EUR) / Jun 19, 2007 (JPN)
Original Release: Nov 24, 1992 (USA & EUR) / Nov 21, 1992 (JPN)
Cost: 800 points
Players: 1-2
Rated: E (Everyone)

With the first Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega not only gained a mascot, they proved themselves as the first heavy weight contender against Nintendo when at the time, no one else could touch them. A sequel to one of the best games on the Genesis only seemed natural. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 plays a lot like the first game and while it doesn't stray very far from the original, in this case, more of the same isn't really a bad thing.

Dr. Robotnik is at it again, enslaving helpless animals inside of robots and trying to conquer the world and with the aid of his latest super weapon, the Death Egg, that mad dream could become a reality. Unless, of course, a speedy blue hedgehog and a two tailed fox stop him. Sonic and Tails must travel through 11 zones, collect rings, smashing robots and running on insanely large loops if they want to bring peace to their world.

Sonic & Tails.

While Sonic 2 does stay close to the original formula. It does spice things up a bit. For starters, the number of acts per zone has been reduced to two. That doesn't make Sonic 2 a shorter game, though. On the Contrary. Sonic 2 is the second largest game of the Genesis Sonic titles. The zones in Sonic 2 are massive with even more alternate routes than the first game. If there's a downside to Sonic 2's huge levels, it's that they aren't as well crafted as the original game. These are still good levels to run and jump through, but there are some hiccups here and there like an inescapable spike pit in Mystic Cave Zone that's pretty easy to get stuck in. A few other zones have half ramps and springs that can launch you right into spikes. These don't appear very often but the fact that these few bad choices in level designs even exists is irritating. At the end of each second act Robotnik shows up to give Sonic and Tails a hard time in variations of his Eggmobile, a machine that for some reason or another, can't stand up to eight hits from animals that walk on two legs.

Chaos Emeralds return but the number has been bumped up from six to seven. Passing Star Posts (check points) with 50 rings or more allows you to enter a special stage, which plays out on a half pipe. The Goal here is to make it through each segment of the stage with enough rings to move onward and collect the Chaos Emerald. Should you manage to obtain all seven Chaos Emeralds you can transform Sonic into Super Sonic, a buffed up, even faster version of his hedgehog self. You must have 50 rings and jump to make the transformation and with each passing second, your ring counter depletes. So if you want to keep your super form, grab those rings. Be warned that precision jumps become that much more difficult as Super Sonic.

Chemical Plant Zone, one of the coolest-looking levels in the game
complete with a killer theme tune.

The main single player mode can actually be played with two players. The AI controls Tails, who mimics Sonic's movements, but a second player can take control of Tails' actions at any time, and since the little guy is nigh invincible, he can make some boss fights a breeze. Unless you have a buddy around, you may want to go into the options menu and disable Tails so Sonic can play solo because although the fox means well, he can really throw off your game in the special stages since he reacts 1 second after Sonic does. As much as he can be helpful for boss fights, he can also mess up your rhythm while you're trying to land a hit and end up getting you killed. Bottom line: exercise extreme caution when the AI controls Tails.

Mystic Cave Zone can be pretty devious if you aren't careful.

One of the easiest, most peaceful levels in the game, Sky Chase Zone.

If you're feeling competitive, there is a 2 player versus mode, which pits Sonic and Tails against one another in a race. Crosses the sign post first and you'll be the victor but there are all sorts of items to make things hectic, one particularly nasty item actually causes the players to switch places. Extremely aggravating if you were in the lead. The rules of the single player apply. So long as you have one ring, you'e safe from enemy attack. It's a nice feature being able to play three of the game's zones in a versus setting but it squishes the graphics and the speed isn't on par with the single player mode. The fourth stage is a simply a versus mode of a half-pipe special stage. You may visit the 2 player mode from time to time, but ultimately, the single player game is the main draw.

As visually impressive as the first Sonic game on the Genesis was, Sonic 2 is even more so. Chemical Plant Zone is set against a night cityscape background that blends well with the foreground graphics. The character sprites are gorgeous, with Sonic and Tails in particular teeming with life. Sonic, impatience rodent that he is will look at the player and tap his foot if left idle, but that's not the end of it. He'll look at his watch while he continues to tap his foot. Leave him there a little longer and he lays down, staring back at the player as if he were bored out of his skull. Tails will simply look at the screen and yawn, possibly expressing his desire (though not as blatantly as Sonic) for the player to hurry up. Nearly 20 years later, seeing those sprite animations is just as amusing as ever. The Genesis hardware does an a very admirable job of keeping the action fast paced with backgrounds that feature no blur effects just like the first game.

Get all the Chaos Emeralds...

...And you can become Super Sonic. He's as fast as he is awesome.

Masato Nakamura, who composed the outstanding soundtrack to the first game returned to write the music for Sonic 2. Emerald Hill Zone may not grab you as well as Green Hill Zone, but it's still a fine starter tune and  a fan favorite. Chemical Plant Zone reflects the night life in the city background perfectly and still fits when you've gone running down the large hills and can no longer view the tall buildings. All three of the side scrolling 2 player versus stages received new music. I still firmly believe that the 2 player music to Casino Night Zone is miles ahead of the single player version.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, to many fans is a bigger, better game than the first so it's not hard to see why this is their favorite Sonic game. It's one of the best platformers of the 16-bit era and an exceptional Sonic game. The level design may not match the first game, but in the grand scheme of things, that's a minor issue. Sonic 2 is well worth your Wii points.






The Most Hated Zone

Ask any Sonic fan which zone is their least favorite in Sonic 2 and most of them will say without any hesitation, Metropolis Zone. One of the later stages, Metropolis Zone has some of the best music in the series and the most annoying selection of Badniks in any Sonic game. You've got the Asterons, floating starfish that explode into five pieces and sometimes come in pairs. Then there's the Slicers, praying mantis robots that throw their claws at you. Finally there's Shellcracker, which looks like an updated version of Crabmeat from the first Sonic game, but with retractable claw and an insanely tiny hit box if you're trying to defeat him by stomping on him. To make matters worse, many of the Badnik's placement throughout this zone is downright EVIL. You'll often encounter these guys in narrow passageways, making them highly difficult to avoid. All that sounds pretty ruthless, right? It gets worse. Metropolis Zone is the only standard zone in the game to have three, yes, three acts! Turns out act 3 of Metropolis Zone was originally going to be another zone entirely but one of the scrapped zones led to this third act taking it's place. The map to this act was already finished and Yuji Naka said "It would have been a shame to waste it...". No, it wouldn't have, Naka-san, no it wouldn't have.

The Homages of Sonic 2
Most of us probably didn't pick up on them as kids, but there are two rather distinct homages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that pay tribute to two other famous franchises. These are pretty well known today but for the five of you that are still in the dark, read on.

That's no moon. That's a weapon of mass destruction, the Death Star, er, Death Egg. The Death Egg is the final area in Sonic 2 but players never really got a good look at it from the outside until Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Spoiler alert! At the end of Sonic 2, the Death Egg crashes down on the Floating Island, which sets up the events for Sonic 3 & Knuckles. In Launch Base Zone, you can see the Death Egg being rebuilt. By the time you make it to Sky Sanctuary Zone, the Death Egg is fully operational. Planets, beware.

Freeza probably would have killed Goku and his friends on Namek and ruled the Galaxy but he made one critical error. He killed Krillin, Goku's best friend, right before Goku's eyes. Goku got so angry that his hair changed color, stoop straight up and Freeza got a long overdue thrashing. OK, so Sonic turning into Super Sonic in Sonic 2 isn't anywhere near as dramatic as Goku's Super Saiyan transformation, but both forms on the heroes still look pretty cool. Like Goku, Sonic's abilities are amplified in his super form. To further mirror the Super Saiyan state, Sonic's eyes turn an emerald green color in Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Kids in America and Europe didn't have the slightest idea what Dragon Ball Z was at the time but now, practically everyone on the planet is familiar with Akira Toriyama's most well-known manga.

Chemical Plant Zone Blues

Act 1 of Chemical Plant Zone can be passed with relative ease but Act 2 presents a problem for many players. Near the end of Act 2 is a purple chemical that has the same effect as water, meaning if you stay in it too long, you'll drown. There are no air bubbles in Chemical Plant Zone so the only way to avoid drowning is to get yourself to dry land. With the oxygen bell sounding and the drowning timer counting down, it's easy to panic and lose a life while jumping back and forth on the rotating blocks to reach topside. Don't feel too bad about your hardships. Back when Sonic Gems Collection was being developed, the people at Sonic Team were playing the game and got stuck on the exact same spot that a lot of players do in Act 2. The staff members lost lives by drowning and falling into bottomless pits.