Retro Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

<p><em>This article was published to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog and the announcement of his new games&period; What better way to celebrate his recent success than via retro reviews&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sonic the Hedgehog 2 released a little over a year after the original and Sega intended to&comma; once again&comma; show off the power of &&num;8216&semi;blast processing&&num;8217&semi; and the attitude and speed of their little blue blur&period; It received high praise upon release and Sonic&comma; once more&comma; captured the hearts of gamers everywhere&period; With an intense marketing campaign&comma; a passionate and established audience&comma; and great organization in ensuring that <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> was available at stores everywhere at its release&comma; <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> sold 400&comma;000 copies within its first seven days &&num;8211&semi; and over six million copies during the lifespan of the Sega Genesis&period; In the original an icon was born&comma; but in the sequel his potential was being not only realized but also recognized&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110383" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110383" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110383 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03120439&sol;Sonic-5-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Sonic the Hedgehog 2&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Sega&rpar;" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110383" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> is one of the greatest sequels of all time in that it retained all that made the original great&comma; addressed all of the criticisms the original received&comma; and also improved in every single area&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s almost impossible for me not to gush when talking about <em>Sonic<&sol;em> <em>2 <&sol;em>because this was one of my favorite games growing up&comma; along with millions of other people&period; <em>Sonic 2 <&sol;em>is a critically acclaimed masterpiece and it does so many things perfectly in every area to earn the praise it received&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay of <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> is beyond polished and is only rivaled by the level design&period; Sega KNEW exactly what to do when they designed this game&period; I doubt there are that many games that are developed with this much confidence both in their direction and design&period; The original was already a classic and beloved by many&comma; but there was still a bit of criticism that came with the love&period; Sega listened to <strong>all<&sol;strong> of it and also ensured it was all addressed in the development process&period; <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> was a masterpiece in all that it achieved and it started with zooming through Emerald Hill Zone&period; Levels had even more layers to them and more secrets to explore while remaining just as easy to fly right through if you wanted to just go really fast&period; Both gameplay styles were adhered to by Sega&period; Levels were just as fun to replay and explore during repeat playthroughs as they were to fly through the first time&period; The difficulty spikes were even addressed&semi; sure&comma; there are still some hard sections but with more checkpoints and with them being more evenly spread out&comma; <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> never felt too hard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110384" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110384" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110384 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03120351&sol;Sonic-6-1024x768&period;jpg" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110384" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Checkpoints really added a lot to this game&period; The original had them but <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em>&comma; just like many of the other aspects of the game&comma; completely nailed them&period; There were a few more and they were placed in perfect spots&period; There were many times in the original <em>Sonic<&sol;em> that I would have to repeat sections that I worked so hard to get past just because of later areas that bested me&period; This was no longer the case and it felt absolutely wonderful&period; <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> is beautiful from more than just a design standpoint though&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s also an absolute blast to play &lpar;unlike <em>Sonic 3D Blast<&sol;em> but that&&num;8217&semi;s a conversation for a future review&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> has one of the most memorable soundtracks of the &&num;8217&semi;90s and I know it&&num;8217&semi;s not just me that feels that way&period; It appears on various lists on gaming publications and many different Youtube channels&period; It greatly earns this title and it starts off incredibly&period; Right on the intro screen you know <em>exactly<&sol;em> what you&&num;8217&semi;re getting into&semi; power&comma; attitude&comma; and top notch quality&period; <em>Sonic<&sol;em> 2 absolutely delivers on every promise that Sega made leading up to its release&period; The music alone helps set the scene&period; It provides the atmosphere&comma; attitude&comma; and quality to the canvas that Sega would paint Sonic on&period; Green Hill Zone &lpar;from the original&rpar; may be one of the most memorable songs in the series but if you stack the games up overall&comma; <em>Sonic 2 <&sol;em>is certainly at&comma; or near&comma; the top&period; Chemical Plant Zone is one of my personal favorites because the beat helps drive the gameplay forward while also setting the mysterious and anxious tone that the level design suggests&period; Mystic Cave and Metropolis are also two standout favorites of mine&period; I guarantee that if you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> at all&comma; or even in long time&comma; these tunes will make you want to hook up a Genesis or hand Sega some money over Steam&period; Masato Nakamura will forever be considered one of the greats for his contributions to the 16-Bit era of music&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110385" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110385" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110385 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03120332&sol;Sonic-7-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Sonic the Hedgehog 2&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Sega&rpar;" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110385" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> controls like a dream&comma; which is a blessing considering all that you will need to outmaneuver as you progress through the game&period; Emerald Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone are more forgiving than later worlds&period; The next few worlds are in the middle in terms of difficulty&period; They are more difficult&comma; but not incredibly so&period; The difficulty ramps up gradually&comma; which is a nice improvement over the original game and is a criticism I always had with it&period; I felt that the original had inconsistent and sporadic jumps in difficulty&comma; which isn&&num;8217&semi;t as fun and it&&num;8217&semi;s also very frustrating&period; Be warned though&comma; once you get to Oil Ocean Zone<em> <&sol;em>and Metropolis Zone all bets are off&period; You will die more but you will have received all of the training you needed over the last few worlds&period; You won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to blame the controls and you won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to blame it on a difficulty spike&period; No&comma; <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> addresses all of these things for you so all you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to blame is yourself&period; Be prepared to see the &&num;8216&semi;Continue&&num;8217&semi; screen a lot more than earlier in the game&comma; but just remember &&num;8211&semi; you can blaze through the earlier levels with even more ease and speed with all that you will have learned&period; And you&&num;8217&semi;re going to have a blast the whole time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> is beautiful&period; The original looked wonderful and it looks just as great here&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s hard to really compare them because they do look similar but I do think that <em>Sonic 2<&sol;em> shines even brighter with more colors&comma; more impressive effects&comma; and just overall better level design to help show off that Sega Genesis blast processing that you&&num;8217&semi;ve no doubt heard all about &&num;8211&semi; especially if you grew up in the &&num;8217&semi;90s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110386" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110386" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110386 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;03120315&sol;Sonic-8-1024x768&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Sonic the Hedgehog 2&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Sega&rpar;" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"518" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110386" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<&sol;em>&comma; Sega&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Sonic&&num;8217&semi;s second outing on the Genesis is a dream come true&period; The original brought so much to the table but this time there were things that you didn&&num;8217&semi;t even know you ordered&period; Sega addressed every bit of criticism while also just making a hell of a great game &&num;8211&semi; even though we were perfectly satisfied with the original&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s available on numerous platforms for a very low price&period; Pick it up on PSN&comma; XBLA&comma; Steam or even on mobile platforms for a low price and a wonderful bit of gaming history and bliss&period;  It will also be great to experience before <em>Sonic Mania<&sol;em> is released next year&excl; Be sure to keep up here at BagoGames for all your Sonic news&comma; reviews and coverage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>This article was published to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog and the announcement of his new games&period; What better way to celebrate his recent success than via retro reviews&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;