Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sega Genesis, Sega Technical Institute, 1992

Nostalgia can interact with our opinions in interesting ways. Last summer, when I reviewed 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog during my summer review marathon, I was bummed I didn't get to 1992's technically and creatively superior Sonic the Hedgehog 2. After all, I thought, that game is perfect. Indeed, in the year since, and really, in the intervening years since my cousin Adrian and I played Sonic the Hedgehog 2 time after time in the early-to-mid-90's, I've been thinking about just how much I love that game. The stages, the backgrounds, the music, all so memorable. The simple plot, as Sonic and his flying fox buddy Tails try to free all of the other animals from the evil Dr. Robotnik's machines, so charming. I made it a point to get to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 this summer, and get to it I did.

So nostalgic, I missed the corkscrew.

I was immediately taken by just how soon my memory was proved correct. Starting off in Emerald Hill Zone 1, gazing upon those green rollers, and that distant, beautiful blue sea, clouds submerging into and reflecting from its sunny surface, I felt at home. That bouncy, energetic, unmistakably Sega Genesis music hit my ears, and it was like I had never left.

I even died a couple of times in the submerged part of the Chemical Zone, just for old times sake.

I blazed through that first level as the titular hedgehog, a blazing speedster who can run, jump, and spin through the air. This time around, Sonic's even got a new move, the super spin, where you make Sonic crouch, then tap-tap-tap the button until he takes off like a balled up, razor-sharp rocket. This move can not only be used as an attack, but as a way to surmount perilously sharp inclines.
Sonic controls like a 16-bit dream, and it's tough to fight the urge to just run full-speed through all of the game's levels. Of course, if you do that, you'll succumb to Sonic 2's many spike-laden traps, or get hit by a foe who seems to come from out of nowhere. Take it slow, and Sonic almost feels a bit unwieldy, like he's just meant to move quickly. Leave him still for too long, and he'll start tapping his toes!

Though for some reason, he's always got time for the slots.

Finding the balance between running full tilt, and taking your time takes practice. You'll also notice with practice that most, if not all of the 2D, side-scrolling levels feature multiple paths to their ends There's generally a low, medium, and high path, with the high path generally featuring the most rewards, in the form of rings (collect 100, get an extra life added to your original tally of 3), shields, invincibility (only lasts a few moments), and power sneakers (for a limited time, they make you run even faster!). Get hit, and all your rings come shooting out of you. Get hit when you're not carrying any rings, and you're dead. Get crushed between two objects, and you're dead.
Sticking to the high path is a fun challenge, and greatly increases Sonic the Hedgehog 2's replay value. This time through, I made a point to try to stay on the high paths, remembering just how frustrating it is to miss a jump and get knocked down to the medium path. Still, though, fair is fair. To a point. And the point is this...

Oil companies are responsible for systemically destroying our Earth's environment.

In the early 90's, many video game publishers began adding save files to their games (Nintendo actually pioneered the idea with Zelda in the mid-80's). Make progress in a game, save, and if you get a game over, you can start right back where you left off, any time. Few Sega Genesis games feature this attribute. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 does not. When I played for 90 minutes this time, to the final level, then got a game over, meaning I'd have to start the ENTIRE GAME OVER, I suddenly felt a rush of horrible repressed memories: Adrian and I punching the floor after pouring the only two free hours of our Saturday into Sonic the Hedgehog 2, only to get a game over at the final boss.

Hi, we haven't met yet, I'm...dead. Oh. Huh. Didn't realize doing that would kill me. Time to play another 90 minutes just to get back to this one moment. No big deal.

If you make it to the final boss, who kills you in one hit, and you have one remaining life, you have literally no chance at learning his pattern and defeating him. You've got to do better the next time you play through the game, and try to get to him with multiple lives. Thankfully, you can earn continues as you play through the game. If you finish a zone with more than 100 rings, or in less than a minute, you get a continue (three more lives), which sets you at the start of the zone you game over'd in. If you get almost 100 rings, while simultaneously beating a zone in almost under a minute, you'll get a continue. Thus, early in the game, you can rack up a decent amount of continues. You can also earn the helpful "Super Sonic" by collecting seven Chaos Emeralds.

Chaos Emeralds live in this nice, psuedo-3D space, where nothing can hurt you, just like how nothing can hurt Sonic the Hedgehog 2's 10/10 score in my Nostalgia Zone.

Chaos Emeralds are acquired after completing bonus pseudo-3D courses only accessible when you reach one of a stage's save point lamps (thankfully there are save points within zones) with 50 rings. If you're really focused on this, you can get all seven emeralds in the game's first few stages. Of course, then you've got to get 50 more rings to transform into Super Sonic, a buffed out, near-invincible version of Sonic, a metamorphosis that's only temporary. Thankfully, there's also a debug cheat code that opens up a level select, so you can always pick up where you left off by...cheating. It feels dirty.

There's also a multiplayer mode that's so inconsequential, I forgot to mention it in the body of this review. There's one set in the Chaos Emerald levels that's a little more fun, though the most fun is just the single player, where someone can grab the second controller to control the hapless Tails, who can't keep up with Sonic and just dies over and over again. If no one grabs the controller, CPU-Tails follows Sonic on his own, doing something useful like grabbing a ring or hitting an enemy maybe once every six or seven minutes.

So there you have it, a game with bright, eye-popping graphics, an excellent, upbeat soundtrack, tight controls, and memorable levels. It's nearly perfect. In fact, without some cheap enemies popping out to hit you from nowhere, and the fact that you can spend hours of your life playing it, only to have to start the game over after losing to the final boss, it would be. It's still, due to nostalgia, one of my all-time favorites.

Nailed it

Graphics: 9.5/10.0
Sound: 9.0/10.0
Gameplay: 9.5/10.0
Lasting Value: 9.0/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 9.5/10.0