This is the last game on these Genesis collections that I played a fair bit of but never beat as a kid. It was certainly the Sonic game (other than 3D Blast) that I got farthest in as well, making it all the way to Robotnik before losing my last life against him immediately XP. I decided this would be another great entry for this month's TR of finishing games we failed to beat before, and managed to get to the end of it (mostly) without save states~ (I saved before Robotnik so I wouldn't need to fight Silver Sonic over and over if I wanted to try again XP). It took me a few hours to get through the English version of the game on the PS3 version of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.
Sonic 2 is, of course, the sequel to Sonic 1, and brought a lot of things to the series that would become staples of the franchise. Tails is brought in as your player 2, bosses are now at the end of Act 2 instead of being their own stages, Robotnik's machines became more elaborate, and there were now 7 chaos emeralds instead of 6. There's also a new, different mini-game to collect those chaos emeralds, although I'm really not a fan of it compared to the mini-game in Sonic 3 (and I only ever managed to get 1 chaos emerald in this game and have no intention of going for more XP). The level design is tightened up significantly from the first game, with a much higher emphasis on going fast while carefully making your way through levels instead of the speed mixed with precision platforming that so defines Sonic's first adventure. Sonic 3 would go on to make exploration of levels a much larger aspect of the game's design, but I really don't care for that design much either. Between Sonic 1's awkward meshing of speed and not-so-great platforming and Sonic 3's massive maze-like stages that take at least 5 minutes each to complete, Sonic 2 is a great sweet spot for me of polish without sacrificing that quick gameplay pace. The game is also much more generous with extra lives and mid-level checkpoints than the first Sonic, and that goes the same for continues as well. It might not have the save system that Sonic 3 has, but Sonic 2 is a really good mid-point of reasonable challenge in its difficulty as well (for the most part). Sonic 2 isn't completely without fault though. I actually got a game over with my first run because Tails kept getting me killed so often, as he'd so frequently hit bosses or enemies right before I would that I'd end up having nothing to bounce off of and fall into the death pit below XP. Thankfully, you can turn off Tails in the options menu, but the options menu is fairly well hidden on the title screen ^^;. And if you're with a second person, Tails somewhat trivializes the difficulty of the game, as he is completely invincible. Your Player 2 can risk life and limb without fear of punishment fighting bosses or enemies while Sonic just hangs back and stays alive as best he can XD There are also a few more mean bits of the game where not knowing what to do in advance is definitely going to get you killed, and the biggest example of that is the final fight against Robotnik. There are no rings in the entire stage, and you need to fight the robotic Silver Sonic EVERY time you play the stage, so every time you want another chance at Robotnik, you gotta go through him first (whittling away your precious extra lives). It's a really unfortunate difficulty spike right at the tail end of a game that otherwise has a really nice difficulty curve throughout (even if some stages like Oil Ocean can drag on a bit too long at times). The presentation is fantastic, as is to be expected of a Sonic game on more or less any Sega console. 1992 is really when Sega's first party entries on the system started to kick into high gear, with games like Streets of Rage 2 making their predecessors released just a year before look like glorified Master System games, and Sonic 2 is in many ways no exception. It's a very pretty game full of beautiful sprites and great, memorable tracks. This era's Robotnik will always be my favorite aesthetically, and this game really helps bring him to life with little animations like his cowardly running and sinister laughing. It really helps bring the all around package together into something that feels much more than Sonic 1's more simple fare. Verdict: Highly Recommended. I'm still not a huge fan of 2D Sonic, but this is definitely a game I quite enjoy. I'll never like 2D Sonic as much as I like 2D Mario, but this is for sure the best 2D Sonic game of the Genesis days for my money. Quick speed, fair challenge, and more straightforward levels make this a really fun action platformer well worth your time if you're like me and somehow still haven't gotten around to playing through these games yet X3
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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