Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) Review

So, just so you know, these aren't gonna be professional reviews. I want to simply give my thoughts out on these games and why I like/dislike them. With that in mind, welcome to my third Sonic Review, for Sonic 2 from 1992!

Some Background Info

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (often called Sonic 2) is a 2D platformer game released for the Sega Genesis on November 21st, 1992. After the success of Sonic 1, two sequels for the game was in development. I won't get into it here as I already explained this back in my Sonic CD Review, but this is what the Sega Technical Institute in America made as their sequel to Sonic 1.

How do I play Sonic 2?

The best way to play Sonic 2 as of writing this is Sonic 2 Absolute by Team Forever. It has plenty of additions and tweaks to make the game so much better.

In the game, you can choose to play with Sonic+Tails, Sonic Alone, or Tails Alone. Sonic Alone is the best one as having Tails with you he can get in your way several times. Tails alone is just a Sonic clone with a smaller hitbox, which can be good or bad.

The Story

The story of Sonic 2 is pretty thin, like the previous games. Sonic is living his normal life but Tails, a fox that was born with 2 tails that allows him to fly, is impressed with Sonic's speed and begins tagging along with him throughout Sonic's adventures. But this time, Robotnik has created a new and menacing machine, the Death Egg that floats in space. Even though this is very obviously a Death Star parody it's never actually said what the Death Egg can do, I guess blow up islands or something like the source material. Sonic and Tails aren't happy about this and set out through the zones to reach the Death Egg and put an end to Robotnik's scheme!

The Game - Special Stages

Special Stages return from the first game for your chance to get a Chaos Emerald, which there are seven of this time. You access them by running past a checkpoint and if you have 20 or more rings stars will glimmer above the signpost and if you jump into the stars you'll get sent to the special stages. If you collect all 7 chaos emeralds, you unlock the all powerful Super Sonic. It's a glowing yellow super fast invincible version of Sonic with super saiyan quills pointed upwards. Just get 50 rings and jump and he'll be activated!

The special stages themselves are halfpipes that you need to run through to collect a certain amount of rings in the allotted time while trying not to touch the bombs that take away rings, and welcome to my biggest problem with Sonic 2: The god awful special stages.

These special stages are simply too difficult. Not only is the visibility awful on the genesis but if you have Tails on (which I normally don't for reasons you'll see why) then he has a slight delay to your movement in the special stages. And if he gets hit, you lose your rings. In the 2013 mobile ports and Absolute the special stages are significantly improved but it's still a massive downgrade from Sonic 1's special stages. Getting Super Sonic is not worth the effort.

The Game - Emerald Hill Zone

The first zone in the game is Emerald Hill Zone, which is Green Hill Zone but slightly more linear, faster, and beautiful. I still prefer GHZ because of its nonlinearity but I love Emerald Hill Zone. It shows everything about what Sonic 2 wants to be compared to the first game: faster. Sonic 2 is so much faster then Sonic 1, you can even outrun the screen at times! There's also a great new move Sonic can do, the spindash. Even though most rereleases of Sonic 1 include the spindash it was introduced here. And as mentioned before in my Sonic CD Review it's done much better here with you having the ability to charge the spin dash multiple times to get more speed. This is definetely a design choice for the better, but not all the level design in Sonic 2 is perfect.

I'm gonna say this now so I don't have to later, but Sonic 2's level design, in my opinion, has horrible balancing. Sometimes the game is piss easy like in Emerald Hill. Sometimes the game is straight up unfair like the Death Egg robot. Sonic 1 had good balancing and got harder the more you went on. Sonic 2 just keeps switching between hard and easy with no real sense of direction. The game is still very fun, but it has its problems. However, on the good side, zones now last only 2 acts instead of 3 acts from the last game, and I love this. Each act is more interesting and fleshed out, and zones did last too long in the original.

The music is, like the first game, amazing. It's one of the most famous 16-bit soundtracks and everyone I know loves it.

The boss is probably the most pathetic of the whole series. Robotnik gets in a drill car and his attack is so easy to avoid it's laughable.

The Game - Chemical Plant Zone

The second zone is my personal favorite zone in the game, Chemical Plant Zone. Not only does it look and sound beautiful but the speed is amazing! The zone is very fast and I never felt bored or angry at any of its design decisions. It's just wonderful. Of course, most people probably remember this zone for one thing - the pink water. There's a section in Act 2 where you have to move up on these moving blocks in the water which a lot of people thought was very difficult, including me when I first played this. Nowadays though I think it's easy.

The boss is Robotnik in a machine drawing the pink water from the floor and dropping it on you, but you can easily kill him while he's getting the water.

The Game - Aquatic Ruin Zone

The third zone is the game's water level, and don't worry it's much better than Labyrinth Zone. In fact, if you're skilled enough (and I've done this before!) you can get across both acts without touching any water! A very good zone, even if the underwater parts are pretty dreadful.

The boss is yet again, pathetic. (You noticing a pattern yet?) Robotnik hammers these statues that shoot arrows which you can climb to destroy him.

The Game - Casino Night Zone

The fourth zone is this game's pinball stage, like Spring Yard from the last game, and looks wonderful. But... I have a hot take. I know this is a fan favorite, and I like it too, but this zone is insanely overrated. Sonic and Pinball seem to go hand in hand (like with the disaster known as Sonic Spinball) but this stage is boring and relies on annoying pinball gimmicks than speed.

But, the boss is actually very cool. Still piss easy, but Robotnik shoots these spiky balls down at you that explode, and you have to spindash across the walls and jump down to hit him.

The Game - Hill Top Zone

And here for the fifth zone we have a pretty boring level with annoying music, Hill Top Zone. Even though it's boring I mostly say that for looks as it seems like recolored Emerald Hill in many places. It also has lava and volcano themes. A fun level, but not much to say.

The boss is Robotnik coming up from the lava and trying to shoot you.

The Game - Mystic Cave Zone

For the sixth zone we have a dark mystic cave with some really good music. This is where the game in my opinion gets into the more difficult levels. There's a lot of vine-related gimmicks here, not much to say.

The boss is this machine that goes into the top of the zone and rains down things that come at you.

But you can't talk about Mystic Cave without mentioning the pit. There's a pit with nothing but spikes in it and no way out. If you fall down there, you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye. But, in the 2013 mobile ports, the pit was changed to something breathtaking.

The Game - Hidden Palace Zone

Sonic 2 was originally a much larger game. Many zones had to be cut sadly though to meet the Christmas 1992 release date, and one of those levels was Hidden Palace Zone. But, in the 2013 mobile ports, the pit in Mystic Cave was changed to lead to a rebuilt Hidden Palace, the new seventh zone! But for the purposes of this review, I'll be going over the Prototype Palace version accessible through the level select as that actually uses the original level design made for the zone and fits better with the game because of that. 

The zone is fun and has a great song and aesthetic, but the boss is horrible. Robotnik is in this giant trumpet thing that makes noise with and all kinds of things come raining down on you, not to mention how long it takes.

The Game - Oil Ocean Zone

For the eighth zone we have Oil Ocean, a gimmick-happy zone with a good theme and nice colors. I like Oil Ocean a lot, there's a lot of cool gimmicks at play here, even if its boss is almost just a reskin of Hill Top's. For some reason, a lot of people online I've seen really do not like this zone, and I just don't understand why. I'd say it's better than Casino Night for sure. Speaking of overhated zones...

The Game - Metropolis Zone

Metropolis Zone is our next and ninth zone, and it's kind of the penultimate zone. It goes on for 3 acts, which is defenitely ridicolous and unessesary. But the level design and gimmicks are really fun, of course with great music. But the badniks in this zone... oh my god. They are just awful. We have these little star things that sometimes explode when you get close to them, slicers that throw knives at you, and the worst one, the shell cracker. A crab with an extendable arm. Those might not sound so bad on paper but in the zone they're all purposely placed in ways you can't avoid, and the rest of the zone is easy. You see what I mean? This game is just awful at difficulty balancing.

The Game - Sky Chase Zone

A much needed refresher from Metropolis Zone, our tenth zone comes flying in at Sky Chase. Tails flies the tornado while you stand on top and defeat enemies. It's very relaxing with good music, even if it drags a bit too long. This zone is also only 1 act.

The Game - Sky Fortress Zone

Another 1 act stage, Sky Fortress is the eleventh zone and consists of Sonic getting on a big ship to get to the Death Egg. The zone is very nerve racking and full of bottomless pits, which I'm not really a big fan of.

The Game - Death Egg Zone

We finally made it. The last and 1 act twelfth stage of Sonic 2, Death Egg Zone. There are no rings in this zone so 1 hit and you're dead. When you get into the first room, you have a fight with Silver Sonic, which is quite easy if you just spindash him as he comes down.

But then, the final boss. The Death Egg Robot. A giant Robotnik themed robot that tries to kill you. Now this fight isn't that good. Getting a reliable hit on him is random if you'll die by touching him or not. The only safe way to hurt it is by jumping on it when it lands down, and once it dies, Sonic runs out of the Death Egg as it explodes.

The Game - Ending

As Sonic falls from the Death Egg, we see something that Mario or any other platformer at the time could dream of, character development. In a 1992 pixel game. Tails sees Sonic falling and gets in the Tornado to go up and catch him, cementing their friendship. Or, if you got all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic is Super Sonic and doesn't need Tails help to be OK, which doesn't make as much of an impact and is why the bad ending to me is better than the good ending. Sonic strikes a fist pose and the game ends.

My Final Thoughts

So, I really like Sonic 2. It's super fast and has very fun level design, it's an amazing game. But is it better than the first and CD? That's... not an easy question.

While Sonic 2 is faster, it's full of stupid design decesions in the levels and the unbalanced difficulty as well as the horrible special stages, it's safe to say this game is not perfect. I think Sonic 1, CD and 2 are equal in my opinion. Sonic 1 is easy to replay and is conistently fun besides Labyrinth, Sonic CD is short and looks great, and 2 is fast and long. So now, the only game left... is a big one. Sonic 3 & Knuckles. When that review gets made, I'll just post the whole game instead of splitting it up into Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles because I see no reason to look at the game that way.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

Posted in: Sonic Reviews