Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Longplay (Mega Drive/Genesis) [60 FPS]
141Developed by Sonic Team/Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega of America in 1992.
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With the success of the original game, a sequel was inevitable. Sonic 2 was unleashed upon the world in 1992, and there was much rejoicing.
The game introduced us to the character Miles "Tails" Prower, the fox, and added co-operative play to the mix. Sonic gains a new move, the spin-dash attack, which allows him to rev up to reach maximum speed from a standstill and there are a whole host of new features and refinements added to the mix.
The levels in Sonic 2 are considerably more detailed in terms of design over the original. There are many different objects and mechanics to interact with this time around, and this is never more evident than in the Casino Nights zone, where Sonic effectively becomes the ball in a giant pinball machine. Each level has multiple routes to the finish and it is striking just how non-linear each act is.
The Chaos Emeralds are still present and a brand new pseudo-3D bonus stage was developed as a means to collect them. This time, Sonic can activate star-posts to act as checkpoints, but if he carrying fifty or more rings then a circle of stars will appear once the post is activated. Jumping into the stars will trigger the bonus stage.
In the bonus stage, the camera shifts to a third-person perspective right behind the Sonic has he runs through a 3D tunnel. The objective here is to collect as many rings as possible to pass through the checkpoint, but also to avoid the explosive bombs that lay in wait around each turn. Touching a bomb will cause Sonic or Tails to lose a portion of the rings they were carrying and make it more difficult to achieve the ring quota by the approaching checkpoint. Make it through all checkpoints and an emerald will be yours for the taking.
Once a bonus stage is exited, all rings in the act will respawn, so it's perfectly possible to collect another fifty rings and to then find another star-post in the act and acquire another emerald. It's perfectly possible to collect all of the emeralds by the first act of the second world and this is the strategy I always adopted; the bonus stages would take several attempts to memorise where the bombs were located and where rings would appear, so the more practice you get the better.
Having collected all of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic can transform into Super Sonic. Simply collect fifty rings and perform a spin jump to transform. In this mode, Sonic is impervious to damage and travels at even faster speeds than normal. However, Sonic can still die through being crushed, or by falling out of the level, so care still needs to be taken. The handling becomes considerably more twitchy once transformed, so navigating platforms that require precision control can be very tricky.
On a technical level, the game outshines it's predecessor by a considerable degree. The sense of speed and ultra smooth scrolling in Sonic 2 is even better than the original; when you reach Chemical Plant Zone, the sheer velocity that Sonic can reach means he will often move faster than the camera can track.
Parallax scrolling is used to impressive effect, giving many levels a sense of depth. This is particularly evident in the Aquatic Ruins Zone, where plants cover the foreground and there multiple scroll layers evident in the background. The game looks consistently fantastic throughout.
The in-game music is also quite brilliant and was written by Masato Nakamura. I particularly enjoyed Emerald Hills and Chemical Plant zones, although I still think that the music from the third game in the series was my favourite.
Despite the game being brilliant, it's actually my least favourite of the original 2D games. I think that the thematic design of some of the later levels felt a bit flat compared to the opening four zones.
Sonic 2 is, undoubtedly, another landmark in video game history.
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