Chaos Emerald Special Stages - Sonic 2 (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive) - Retro Mini Games
4RIIIINGS!!!
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I'm Gaming Jay and welcome to RETRO MINI GAMES, the gaming series where we hunt for the coolest, craziest, weirdest, and most impressive mini games hidden in old retro games. These can be bonus stages, hidden levels, side games, special areas, small segments, or anything else that we could classify as a mini-games. Often times I am using hacks, cheats, Game Genie codes, or guides off camera in order to rig a game to continually set me up with the mini games so we can play them together. If you're curious on that process, I usually post behind-the-scenes bonus videos on Patreon. But in any event, on to the main attraction. The mini game we play today and the game it comes from is...
The Chaos Emerald Special Stages from Sonic 2
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_2
Sonic the Hedgehog 2[a] is a 1992 platform game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Genesis. It follows Sonic as he attempts to stop Doctor Robotnik from stealing the Chaos Emeralds to power his space station, the Death Egg. Like the first Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), players traverse side-scrolling levels at high speeds while collecting rings and defeating enemies. Sonic 2 introduces Sonic's sidekick, Tails, controllable by a second player. It features faster gameplay and larger levels in comparison to the first game, in addition to a new multiplayer game mode and special stages featuring pseudo-3D graphics. The game was developed by a team of Japanese and American staff at the Sega Technical Institute (STI) in California.
Although Sonic the Hedgehog had been a major success, Sega was slow to approve the development of a sequel. STI founder Mark Cerny started working on Sonic 2 in November 1991, and members of the original development team—including programmer Yuji Naka and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara—moved to California to join the project. The game was directed by Masaharu Yoshii and produced by Shinobu Toyoda, with game design led by Yasuhara and the new 3D special stages designed by art director Tim Skelly based on a tech demo created by Naka. Sonic 2 was intended to be faster and more ambitious than the first game. The development suffered setbacks, including language and cultural differences between the Japanese and American staff, and numerous levels were cut due to time constraints and quality concerns. As with the first game, Dreams Come True bassist and songwriter Masato Nakamura composed the soundtrack.
As the sequel to one of the bestselling games of all time, Sonic 2 was widely anticipated, and Sega backed it with a $10 million marketing campaign. It was released in November 1992 to critical acclaim and sold over six million copies, making it the second bestselling Genesis game behind the original Sonic the Hedgehog. It was the highest-grossing home entertainment product of 1992, grossing over $450 million by the end of the year. Critics generally considered Sonic 2 an improvement over the first game and praised the visuals, level design, gameplay, and music. The addition of Tails and the multiplayer mode received criticism, while the special stages divided opinion.
Sonic 2 played a major role in keeping Sega competitive during the console wars of the fourth generation of video game consoles in the early 1990s. It continues to receive acclaim, often cited as one of the greatest video games of all time and one of the best Sonic games. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles followed in 1994. Sonic 2 has been rereleased on various platforms via compilations and emulation, and a remake for iOS and Android devices, developed using the Retro Engine, was released in December 2013. A number of Sonic 2 prototypes have leaked in the years since the game's release.
When the player collects at least 50 rings and passes a checkpoint, they can warp to a "special stage".[8] In these stages, the player runs through a pseudo-3D half-pipe course, collecting rings and dodging bombs. A set amount of rings must be collected to pass through each of three checkpoints and in turn to obtain the emerald itself. If Sonic collides with a bomb, he loses ten rings and is immobilized momentarily. The stages rise in difficulty, and the player cannot enter any stage without passing the previous one. After finishing, the player is transported back to the star post they used to enter the special stage, with their ring-count reset to zero.[9] When all Emeralds have been collected, Sonic can transform into Super Sonic by collecting 50 rings and jumping.[10][8] Super Sonic is invincible to attacks, runs faster, and jumps further; however, he loses one ring per second and reverts to regular Sonic when his rings are depleted.