![]() ![]() However, there are still some areas that throw off the difficulty curve a little bit, or at least throw you into situations where you can be killed very quickly if you don’t know what you’re doing. A few new types of terrain have been added too, include a corkscrew, seen in Emerald Hill Zone. The rest of the zones are shorter: Sky Chase, where you control Sonic on top of an airplane, which is piloted by Tales Wing Fortress, where you run around a battleship flying in the sky and Death Egg, where the final encounter takes place.Ĭompared to the somewhat inconsistent level designs of the first game, the developers had finally gotten a good idea of how to create Sonic stages that fit the tempo of the game. Oil Ocean is a sludge factory, complete with slides filled with the gooey substance, while Metropolis is a gigantic clock tower. ![]() Hill Top takes place with foggy mountains in the background, with many areas filled with lava, while Mystic Cave is a…well, a cave, filled with spikes and vines. Casino Night looks like a Vegas-landscape, and expands on the ideas of Spring Yard Zone by filling it with pinball flippers and plungers, along with jackpot slots Sonic can jump into for extra points. Chemical Plant is a factory, filled with blue liquid (which, despite its toxic color, actually just acts like regular water), while Aquatic Ruins is a flooded area with Grecian-like columns, and arrow-spewing totem poles. The game begins in the sunny Emerald Hill Zone, thematically similar to Green Hill from the original. The levels have been restructured to offer two Acts rather than three (for the most part), though the number of total Zones has increased to eleven, and it’s slightly longer than the original (20 stages versus 18). The soundtrack has once again been provided by Masato Nakamura, with a large number of fun and diverse songs, and even used the Dreams Come True song “Sweet Dreams” as a basis for its ending theme. ![]() The visual design has been given a makeover, with an even bright color palette and a new sprite set for Sonic, along with other elements like new title cards. Though finding areas to run and build up speed was one of the main elements of the original game, it ultimately didn’t add much, and using the spin dash is just much quicker and easier. A new move called the spin dash has been added, which lets Sonic rev up in place and then quickly zoom off, making it easier to get over certain obstacles. The camera still follows Sonic, so it’s easy for Tails to get left behind (and eventually get automatically guided back to Sonic) but it’s a good role for a younger player. ![]() If a second controller is hooked up, it can be used to guide Tails, effectively giving the game a two-player mode. Though he can get hurt, he doesn’t lose any rings when hit (though there are exceptions), and even when he falls off the screen, he automatically flies back to Sonic’s side. During gameplay, Tails mostly shadows Sonic’s movements, and can also grab extra things like rings or inflict extra damage on enemies. He’s joined by a new character, Miles “Tails” Prower, a two-tailed fox who’s sort of like Sonic’s adopted little brother. Robotnik has created a gigantic space station called the Death Egg, and it’s up to Sonic to run through West Side Island to stop him. The American designers had previously worked on Kid Chameleon. Though some of the staff was America, there were many members from the original Japanese Sonic Team who relocated to the USA to work on this game, including Yuji Naka (who had previously just quit Sega due to clashes with management but was rehired back in this new department) and level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara. The game was developed by Sega Technical Institute, a newly formed team in San Francisco, helmed by longtime designer Mark Cerny, who had previously created the arcade game Marble Madness. As such, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was planned to come out in time for the holiday season the following year. Sonic the Hedgehog was an extraordinary success, and gave Sega and the Genesis the muscle it needed to stand up to Nintendo, particularly in North America and Europe. ![]()
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