Sonic Series: Sonic the Hedgehog 2
This is the second part of my series going through the Mega Drive (and Mega CD) main series Sonic games! Start here with my analysis of the original Sonic the Hedgehog as this article will be picking up where I left off.
With the first Sonic the Hedgehog being a hit, it was only natural that a sequel would quickly follow. Some of SEGA of Japan’s talents, including two main staffers of the first Sonic game (Yuji Naka, programmer, and Hirokazu Yasuhara, game designer), head to the newly-founded SEGA Technical Institute in the US to work on a second Sonic game that capitalizes on the strengths of the original while polishing up its shortcomings. The result: Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Mega Drive’s biggest hit.
AESTHETICS AND LEVELS
Sonic 2 isn’t shy about carrying over the successes of the first game. Emerald Hill Zone is shamelessly similar to Green Hill Zone, but iterates in a few ways: The ground tiles are composed of more 3D-looking blocks and tubes that pop out more thanks to more elaborate shading. Green Hill’s background layers of water light reflection lines are replaced by a flower field that gives the player a better impression of a smooth 3D environment (and of their speed) as it scrolls. It attempts to re-create the dazzle of encountering a loop-de-loop for the first time — by introducing rollercoaster-like corkscrew bridges for Sonic to zip across. Most of the environments in Sonic 2 are very polished and a step-up from the prequel’s, which could look haphazard or flat in some small spots.
The music is again composed by Masato Nakamura, who doesn’t seem to be fazed composing a soundtrack twice the size of his previous work. His songs this time around feel tailored more tightly to their respective levels — in Sonic 1, some could feel like they were composed as catchy pop songs first, and representative of a level second. Weirdly, his original compositions for Sonic 2 have a slower tempo, which the sound programmers decided to correct by speeding most of them up to better fit the game.
It immediately becomes obvious what the big change in level design direction from Sonic the Hedgehog to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is when you enter the second Zone, Chemical Plant. While Marble Zone, Sonic 1’s second Zone, is infamous for being paced so slow compared to Green Hill, Chemical Plant Zone gives the player all the loops and long slopes they’d want, while also having slower, more platforming-focused bits in small doses.
While Sonic 1 showed insecurity in its design direction by having Zones such as Marble and Labyrinth, Sonic 2 is much more confident — it knows that with careful crafting, segments of open sloping areas and cautious platforming can co-exist and form a cohesive experience within a level. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 even features re-interpretations of Labyrinth and Marble with this newfound confidence, in the form of Aquatic Ruins Zone and Hill Top Zone.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 also has many level sections that play by themselves if you’re rolling or running forward on them, like a mix between a radical rollercoaster and a Rube Goldberg machine. This isn’t new, but Sonic 2 does it a lot more compared to its prequel, putting the player in many of those situations in its first two Zones. While later Sonic games are outright filthy with segments like this to their detriment, it works here in Sonic 2 because you’re always in control and the game is aware of it. You won’t be killed off if you press any other buttons (an all-too common fate in a lot of 3D Sonic games), and levels sometimes uses these segments to distract novice players, these automated sections being secretly the lowest, least effective path, with shortcuts that require the player to interrupt the automation to access them. Multi-tiered level design has several traps that designers may fall into — making tiers have no meaningful interaction between them, making one tier too boring, difficult or different to another, etc. This solution with automated sections is one of the most effective ways to do it, as it gives first-time players what they’d like — a showpiece, while giving experienced players something to practice and master so they don’t get bored. Compare it to Marble Zone in the previous game, in which the “novice path” through a segment of its second Act is to take this slow, dull marble block ride through lava.
NEW MOVES
The Spin-Dash is a new technique Sonic can pull off by crouching and pressing jump repeatedly. This allows him to rev up a quick burst of speed, with the downside of Sonic being trapped in his spinning state as he dashes, making uphill movement difficult. A quick burst of speed is a much needed tool in Sonic’s arsenal, so much so that most people are surprised at its absence in Sonic 1.
The Spin-Dash is not without issues, however — for some reason, the developers at the time were convinced that Sonic games had to operate entirely on just one button (besides the directional pad and pause button). I’m all for simplicity of inputs and games that use few actions with a lot of complexity behind them, but here’s why I would dedicate the Spin-Dash to a separate button:
The Spin-Dash requires Sonic to be completely still, and at a not too angled surface to be able to crouch down to charge it, otherwise Sonic will just roll away when you press down. To make Sonic brake, you need to hold the opposite direction he’s moving. If you do that for too long, Sonic will be moving the other way, which means you can accidentally charge the Spin-Dash to the opposite direction — and there’s no way to cancel it. Plus, the way revving works requires you to mash the jump button to get maximum speed — meaning you can accidentally press jump one time too many after releasing the dash. Speedrunners of the game, who rely on doing many fully-charged Spin-Dashes in a quarter of a second, can cause damage to their hands by such quick repetitive inputs over a long period of time, which is a big issue nowadays as the speedrunning scene grows.
With a separate button for Spin-Dashing, the button could work as a brake if you’re on the move, and begin charging a dash as soon as Sonic halts entirely. Maybe you could cancel the charge by pressing the jump button, and even change the direction while charging by pressing the other way. The dash’s strength could be determined by holding the button, rather than a button-mash count. This would limit its utility, and make it no longer the predominant move in most situations in speedrunning. Sure, you’d lose the joys of aggressively peeling Sonic like a tire, but you’re given much more control in exchange.
The Spin-Dash became such an integral part of Sonic’s moveset that it makes people forget about just pressing down while running. It doesn’t help that Sonic’s fame quickly shifted from a hedgehog that can turn into a pinball into a hedgehog that can run really fast. Speed isn’t the consequence of his ability to turn into a ball as Sonic 1 implied, now speed is Sonic’s ability itself. Reflecting this change, Sonic’s running speed cap was removed — Sonic can now accelerate down slopes by running, although spinning would still accelerate him much faster. Even the comparison between the two games’ Special Stages reflects this: While Sonic 1 presented a bonus stage inspired by pachinko, Sonic 2's is about running through a half-pipe tunnel.
SPECIAL STAGE
Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s Special Stage quickly became iconic, not only because it’s featured in the series’ most famous game — but also by being a great showpiece. The Sonic games on the Mega Drive were obsessed with 3D (ironic, considering the overall perception of Sonic games actually set in 3D spaces), as art that looked three-dimensional was a way for Sonic games to look more advanced and stand out from other 2D games. The Special Stages were a clever way to make a “three-dimensional Sonic” on a system that can’t reasonably render what we expect from 3D games, and it works much better here than in SEGA’s earlier attempts with games like Super Thunder Blade and Space Harrier II.
However, the Special Stages quickly become annoying memorization tasks that interrupt the regular flow of the game, being incredibly strict to beat. The mobile version feels slightly easier — perhaps because it’s smoother, being rendered in 3D and running at 60fps. However, they still give very little quarter for getting hit by obstacles or missing a string of rings, even with the aid of Tails.
TAILS
Tails is the young, inexperienced sidekick to Sonic not unlike Robin from the Batman comics. His dynamic with Sonic doesn’t even need any explanation as just playing the game already spells it out: Tails is always following Sonic, doing most of his actions, but with a slight delay. The AI not having much more programming than that means Tails never feels more competent or skilled than you, no matter your performance. He’s always playing catch-up, like a young, naive kid trying to impress his older, cooler friend.
Tails is also a technical piece to show how well the game can handle two characters at once, as well as how skillful the programmers are for creating an AI that will get over obstacles by himself if he’s too distant from Sonic. Though Tails’ AI isn’t unpredictable and he can be occasionally helpful, his aid feels more accidental than something you planned for — in fact, his actions can often get in your way, like activating obstacles or enemies before you could get to them. I personally like to manipulate him to do some small things for me, but if he’s too much of a nuisance, you can always play as either Sonic or Tails alone, or he can be controlled by a second player, allowing a friend or a sibling to feel engaged. Co-op Sonic 2 is a very limited experience compared to games deliberately designed around 2 players, though.
If competing is more up your speed than cooperating, then Sonic 2 has you covered, as you can race against a friend in a small selection of levels in split-screen. This is perhaps the most technically impressive aspect of Sonic 2 — the game by itself is already a very competent Mega Drive title, so rendering the game twice in one screen is no joke. Even modern game developers have to seriously consider early on in development whether their game will have split-screen multiplayer, as it requires a lot of restrictions and effort that sometimes aren’t deemed worth it.
RINGS, AGAIN
Back on the topic of direct iteration, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 tried to rectify the emphasis in collecting and keeping rings through an entire level. The unsuccessful attempt was by placing access to Special Stages on Checkpoints rather than at the end of the level, meaning relieved players can spend their Rings early rather than try to play a whole level carefully. Special Stages via Checkpoints means more chances at them per level (3 or 4!), but it also means that the pacing of the game is completely destroyed. Since the amount of Rings you can collect in a level wasn’t increased to compensate, just playing well enough rarely means you’ll cross a Checkpoint with 50 Rings, so it’s likely that a player might stay in a single level for upwards of 6 minutes scavenging Rings and making sure they didn’t miss a Checkpoint. This, alongside the mentioned strictness of the Special Stages, makes collecting Chaos Emeralds here much more of a chore than in Sonic 1.
The successful attempt at downplaying the ring collecting was changing how to obtain Continues. At the end of a level you’re given a Time Bonus (50,000 points for finishing a level in less than 30 seconds, 10,000 for less than 40 secs, 8,000 for less than a minute, etc) and a Ring Bonus (determined by number of rings you have x 100). If the sum of those two bonuses equals 10,000 points or more, you’re awarded a Continue. This is a nice way to reward both bold and careful playstyles, and depending on the level’s length, you might want to favor one kind of play over the other. This would’ve greatly helped the first game, since the divide between “slow” and “fast” levels was more stark.
Unfortunately the game also features a nonsensical 50,000 point “Perfect Bonus” for getting all Rings within a stage. I must reiterate that stopping to collect all the Rings and not lose them goes against what the mechanics of Sonic lend themselves to, as the momentum-heavy movement is fit for continuous movement, not careful, completionist platforming. I want to say a Perfect Bonus is impossible in most levels, though I can’t be sure, as an attempt at even a short simple level like Emerald Hill 1 is painfully boring. I should also note that accessing the Special Stages drain you of all Rings, meaning you have to either prioritize getting Continues or Chaos Emeralds. Though in Sonic 1 Chaos Emeralds only awarded you a slightly different ending screen, in Sonic 2 it gives you the invincible and incredibly fast Super Sonic.
Sonic transforms into Super Sonic by jumping when he has all Chaos Emeralds and 50 Rings. As long as he has Rings, Sonic will stay Super. Though he can’t take damage in this state, his Rings are slowly drained — a nice way to balance out both goals of collecting Rings and beating a level fast. Super Sonic can be obtained as quickly as Emerald Hill Act 2, allowing you to get through the vast majority of the game with that ability. It’s a shame that getting to that reward doesn’t really teach you the game better, as Sonic 2 still heavily encourages players to be overzealous about collecting and keeping Rings.
CONCLUSION?
In the end, Sonic 2 shares a lot of its strengths and shortcomings with its prequel, and despite some serious misgivings, it iterated on a lot of the groundwork laid by Sonic 1 really well, toning down the stark pacing contrast between levels, unfair bits of level design that the first game would sometimes throw at you, and other smaller issues. It also shows more understanding on how to make the unique Sonic level design work in a variety of interesting ways. Sonic 2’s bosses are also a small step up, sometimes even featuring slopes that you can take advantage of, and having more satisfying ways to quickly destroy them. All in all, Sonic 2 is a smoother experience despite some disappointments, like the Special Stages, and the game being shorter, abruptly ending at Mystic Cave Zone.
…
Wait, it doesn’t end there?
MORE LEVELS, MORE PROBLEMS
Starting with Oil Ocean Zone, the game’s quality takes a dangerous dive. Oil Ocean isn’t too bad but it’s not good either — it has a weird structure that requires you to go up and down elevators, constantly changing whether you’re going left-to-right or right-to-left. It’s not unusual to have no idea whether you’re going forward or backtracking, or whether you’re on a “fast path” or a “slow” one.
Metropolis Zone is a sin. The repeating structures and other clever indicators of where you are in a level, which I praised Sonic 1 for doing, are completely gone here. Some of its levels also wrap around vertically, meaning there’s no sense of verticality in them at all, making the player feel even more lost. Enemies have incredibly annoying ways to attack you, there are long “elevator sections” that are really easy to fall off and must be repeated from the beginning if you do, and to add insult to injury, it is the only Zone in the game to have 3 Acts instead of the usual 2.
After that is the Sky Chase Zone, a boring, but inoffensive and short autoscroller that is narratively interesting if anything, as it’s about chasing down the next level, the Wing Fortress Zone. While Metropolis Zone showed the importance of giving players a sense of place in a level so they don’t feel lost, Wing Fortress shows how the punishment mitigation of the multi-tiered level design is so important to a game like Sonic. Wing Fortress lacks multiple paths and is also full of huge death pits, making the game feel like a chore. You’re constantly afraid of picking up too much speed to be able to react to the pits appropriately, forcing you to take one obstacle at a time and play the game way too carefully and meticulously.
The last level in the game is the Death Egg Zone, which consists of just a couple of boss battles, mirroring the Final Zone of Sonic 1. Here, you fight a robotic Sonic and a giant mecha piloted by Dr.Eggman. While the visuals and music of this final confrontation certainly feel dramatic, the battle itself is anything but — it consists of slow, careful movements from both the mecha and you, as rushing anything leads to death, since the level gives you no rings. Once you know the patterns, the fight is even less tense than Sonic 1’s final boss, being really a battle of balancing patience and obedience to the slow patterns, and not falling asleep.
While other games use their last levels as a way to test the player on everything they have learned so far, Sonic 2, instead, takes elements out to attempt raising the difficulty. It’s not that these last levels are even hard — they just demand you to play the game differently, while requiring memorization of more lethal traps and patterns. It feels like a cheap way to eat up your lives, but at least these levels are all grouped together in the last third of the game, meaning you can (just like me) pretend the game ends at Mystic Cave Zone. Though I feel very positive about Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s advancements, I have to remind myself that I avoid its worst elements most of the times I play.
