I absolutely love how the first act of the *FINAL* Zone in the game was moved to part of the *SECOND FRICKING ZONE*

Alright, what people need to understand about these "lost levels" is this, (Will be further updated in response to others. And yes lots of research went into finding all of this) All this gameplay is from sonic 2 , long version, a fan rom hack from 2004. *wood zone: sonic 2 (1992) was going to have time travel, later used in sonic cd (1993). so wood zone was the past version of casino night, NOT metropolis like many people think. only the first 10 seconds are "real" in the beta, everything else, fan made. so we never actually get to play wood zone, except for the 10 seconds of it in the beta, again the artwork is real, but it was never finished. this is the one zone, that was never completed. *genocide city: this basically became metropolis zone act 3. game play wise, it was reused for act 3. background theme wise, look at the machine level, from sonic spin ball (1993) that is what genocide zone would have looked like. the artist confirmed it himself. ALL OF THIS GENOCIDE CITY THAT U SEE, IS FAN MADE. so it got divided, metropolis act 3 is the game play, the machine level in spin ball, is the artwork for it. We don't really know why sega changed it. maybe the name genocide city made sega cut the name out , and turn it into metropolis act 3 instead. It was also called cyber city at one point. *Hidden palace: later completed in the sonic 2 mobile version (2013) you can also play the original incomplete version if u like which is also in the sonic 2 beta. most of this is fan made in this video, but it looks identical to what it would have been like. the point of this level was for sonic to go super sonic, upon going super sonic, the music would switch from mystic cave act 2, to this track 10 song. all this was of course cut. and only parts of it remained in the beta. sonic simply goes super sonic after collecting all 7 emeralds with no explanation given in the game. *dust hill: only existed in one magazine ad for the game. a mock up drawing if anything. from what i can tell, there never was a dust hill level to actually play. sonic mania (2017) made the level real for the first time, mirage saloon. They were planning to bring this level back initially in sonic cd, desert dazzle, but that was scrapped. *death egg: never existed. this is just fan made. We play in death egg zone in sonic and knuckles (1994) anyway so. sonic 2, just has the 2 bosses back to back, no death egg zone. People just assume because there are no rings in the final level, that maybe a zone was cut. There is no proof sega cut any level here. that is the full story behind these.

it's kinda cool that someone restored chemical plant zone . For anyone unaware, chemical plant was supposed to be death egg zone, which is why act two has some really bullshit sections.

As a kid listing to the Hidden Palace theme music in the sound test screen, it made my imagination run wild. We never knew where it was from in the game, since you never see a level where it's played. My friend Josh taught me about the level select screen and the debug code. I had so much fun with this game. Still one of the best ever made. Sonic 3 & Knuckles and it's epic story is my favorite game of all time I think.

Genocide City Zone was supposed to be a single act, and was replaced with an extra Act for Metropolis City (which is why it's the only zone with 3 acts).

i dont know why they didnt include some of the levels they left out - they are very good

that "you're about to drown" music always terrified me as a younger child Lol.. and it still kinda does Lol

Chemical plant... IN THE SPACE!

Genocide City is such a Darkwing Duck level!

I like how the clouds and moon in the Genocide City zone make it seem like a giant eye is creepily watching you the whole time.

To clarify,THIS IS A ROM HACK!!!

Hidden palace zone looks pretty beautiful for the time. It perfectly simulates a 3D depth. A lot of effort gone into that zone by the artists, Truly a shame that all the effort was smashed into dust.

Genocide city more like Gotham city stage one

"Genocide City Zone" - lol wow Sonic 2 was dark.

5:20 does anyone agree that everything under water looks like its from somic mania?

Boss of deleted zones Wood=Aquatic ruin Genocide city=Chemical plant Hidden palace=Mystic cave Dust hill=Emerald hill Bosses in deleted zones were similar of that levels but it was little difficult

that last one "death egg" is just chemical plant with a different background

Ok the Hidden Palace zone I played was way longer, had a different boss battle and used the music played in Dust Hill... Eggman played a big trombone that summoned spiked bombs that you had to dodge and avoid the explosions. Then he'd play again and a giant spiked bomb would fall, which you needed to bring under his vehicle in order to knock his vehicle down with the jet of water the explosion would make. Then you could hit him once or twice. If you tried to hit him any other time he'd dodge you by flying up. I actually found that to be the hardest boss battle in Sonic 2 because you really needed to pay attention to timing.

GENOCIDE CITIY ZONE.....wow sonic 2 is no joke

as an adult that played the original sonic games as a kid that drowning sound still gets my fucking heart pumping

4:16 (presses the Easy Button)

4:33 that stage looks majestic. Animators do that every now & then I know their is hidden symbolism, something they're indirectly showing us. (to me personally it gives me an idea of heaven- not saying that's what it looks like to me but just an idea, the stage looks too perfect in that part especially) I've seen patterns of things like that in a lot of games.....

Fun fact: some dev I. SEGA chose the name Genocide City because they thought it sounded cool, and it was probably changed to metropolis zone because the learned what genocide really means.

5:42 WARNING FOR HEADPHONE USERS:ear rape

I always like to play wood zone when I wake up in the morning

how come on the mobile version of Sonic 2 that the hidden palace zone has the mystic cave zone 2 theme

0:46 when tails lost his wallet he finds it in the bottom of the tree

I've always had that wood zone theme stuck in my head and wondered what zone it's from. Now I know

Nice hack, but you forgot everyone's FAVORITE unused zone: Rock Zone. ... Real creative, Sega.

Space Chemical Zone. Huh. :P

I watched this for a minute before realizing I didn't recognize the level. I want to play it now lol

Just clarifying that these are fanmade, Genocide City was a translation error and wouldn’t have looked like that

Whoever made this hack really oughta swap Hidden Palace and Dust Hill's music with each other. 1) Hidden Palace in the 2013 re-release has the Mystic Cave 2-player music. 2) Well, Dust Hill just fits better with the unused music. Sounds like a desert theme.

wood zone is aquatic run zone and city zone is chemial plant zone hidden palace is mystic cave!

All these years of playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and I NEVER found out about these secret levels.

I think it's cool seeing the forgotten levels in this game

'Wood zone' boss is same as 'Aquatic ruin' boss. 'Genocide city' boss is same as 'Chemical plant' boss. 'Dust Hill' boss is same as 'Emerald hill' boss.

Cor prat wants you to find the difference between these 2 pictures: chemical plant zone and Death egg prototype Everyone: they are the same picture

I know this is fake but I like how you made wood zone actually playable!

Rest In Peace TAILS everytime in this game

Ahhhhhh the infamous Hidden Palace Zone!

This is a fan-made ROMHack to show what the levels _could have_ looked like. GFY

Wood zone is a beta zone from sonic 3, and that actually improved it. The collision was broken. Genocide city was also a beta zone from sonic 3, meant to be like scrap brain zone, but better. It never actually got past the concept though. Hidden palace was actually added in, on the mobile port of sonic 2. And death egg.. I don't have to say anything other than 'no.' As for the desert area, that made it into sonic mania.

This is my favorite Sonic game on Megadrive. I've finished it dozens of times and I'll play it again, everything is good in this game, the music, the atmosphere, the graphics, the fun.

soo Death Egg zone was originally Chemical Plant?, guess that explains why the boss rooms looked similar I suppose.

"all secret levels in Sonic 2" Well they aren't secret anymore!

I gotta say, whoever was in charge of the custom graphics for Genocide City Zone sure is one helluva sprite artist.

Finally! After over 20 years I FINALLY know why that awesome unused song was in the sound menu. I feel a sense of contentment.

3:37 are those corps hanging from the wall? a family picture

I love Wood Zone and Dust Hill... I wish some versions of those had made it into one of the games.

2:48 Sonic & Tails in Gotham City!

Thanks for giving the download link! Most people don't usually don't do that, I appreciate it.

"Genocide Zone" sounds pretty dark for a Sonic game.

The hidden palace zone appear on the mobile version. It can be accessed in the mystic cave zone (act two, I think).

is it just me or does genocide city not load properly when selected. The title card shows up but the level doesn't load

(Death egg zone act 1/2) That guy who beat sonic 2: somethings wrong I can feel it...

i think the levels look ok... dunno why everyone is hating

I think they didn't add genocide city is because,well it had hanging skulls in it

This is recommended to me 11 years later

Everyone complaining about these levels, these were the unused levels that were cut from the final game and a lot of them were not even finished (which is the reason for the reused music and bosses). If they had more time to develop the levels and finish them they would have been better.

Hey, welcome to the Wood zone!

Wow this guy got really creative with the debug mode.

Apparently Sonic 2 was meant to be a time travel story But then they changed it to the story we have now Dust Hill or New Hidden Palace's theme was for a Desert level, and Sky chase's theme was for a Snow level

To you all complaining that "this zone" is a copy of "a zone in the game" those zones were replaced because of..Woods was a boring and Aquatic Ruins was better and more creative. Genocide city got replaced by chemical plant because it was too creppy for younger peopleDust hill was removed because it was considered too hardIdk why Death Egg zones 1 and 2 got removed tho

basicly, some "what would have been" levels, cool!

4:31 I always knew about this song but only from the sound select screen

Interesting how the bosses here are pretty much the same as Aquatic Ruin, Mystic Cave, and Emerald Hill.

people that don’t understand this is actually a rom hack because if you use the level select code in sonic 2 it doesn’t show genocide wood or dust hill even if genocide zone was in the game it wouldn’t even look like this it would be a mechanical zone according to yuji naka so this isnt real genocide zone wouldnt even use chemical plants boss hidden palace was pieced together by scrap by fans and if you’ve played sonic 2 mobile you know this is mostly accurate so only hidden palace is a zone that would be used death egg is chemical plant with no water and the backround is space

Who else though wood zone was beautiful? 👇

I would have liked all these levels in the game but Sega has its reasons

For the most part, the reason these levels were unused actually makes sense. I'll go through each of them one by one: Wood: This is more kin to Kirby than a Sonic level, you cannot build up enough speed for this to actually give off that feel. Genocide City: I like the background design, but the level is way too blocky. And the boss arena sucks. Hidden Palace: Great aesthetic, great vibes, but the level itself is way too linear. Dust Hill: Well, we didn't see the entire thing yet, but the only flaw I can give is that there's simply no way of telling on the first try that the bones and fossils are actually spikes. Death Egg: Cmon, it's so obvious!

Extra unused zones. This is what they really are. Wood zone is the past of Casino Night zone. (Which is my favorite zone) Dust Hill, never existed. Though Sonic Mania as a Dust hill zone, Mirage Saloon. Genocide City, it was reused for Act 3 of Metropolis zone. Hidden Palace, it was used for Sonic 2 mobile edition. But you can play this incomplete version. Death egg zone (with acts) never existed either. We get the real one at Sonic 3 and Knuckles or other ones. This will help if you don't want to read the research guys comment. Thanks for reading. Edit: I liked my own comment because nobody will maybe:( How to play this is, go to search bar on any website. Then type in "Sonic 2 beta" click a link then boom. Your there. I hope this helped also. No it's a code in level select. I'm an idiot. I hope this helped for the last time.

The secret zones were just replaced with different zones because on problems in them. Lets go in the video's order. Wood Zone was replaced with Aquatic Ruins, because it seemed too childish and easy. Genocide City was a path to the right containing content inappropiate for children. *Dead bodies being hung by chains* It was replaced with Chemical Plant Zone. Hidden Palace shared a theme with Mystic Cave, but Hidden Palace lacked enemies and was easier than Mystic Cave, too easy for the 6th zone in the game. Dust Hill was replaced by Emerald Hill, dust hill was entirely too hard of a zone for the first zone, and Sega also wanted something like Green Hill Zone. Also in Dust Hill, dead animal spikes. Ever wonder why Chemical Plant seems to be the hardest zone in Sonic 2? Its the final zone of the game, with a different track and music. Sega wanted to keep going with single level, boss fight zones like Final Zone from Sonic 1, so it was Death Egg zone as the final boss zone, no rings, just 2 bosses.

These aren't secret, they are unused levels from sonic 2 beta, also most of this was fan made

"Genocide City Zone"? Jeez, things quickly took a turn for the fucked up beyond all reason.

Fun fact : did you know that genocide city is a creepypasta

Hidden Palace is on mobil version

death chemical egg plant zone

Wood Zone Boss was Aquatic Ruin Boss Dust Hill Boss was Emerald Hill Boss Genocide City Boss was Chemical Plant Boss Hidden Palace Boss was Mystic Cave Boss

Sonic 2 is one of my favorite sonic game of the 1990s what a throwback

3:37 Yeah... those skeletons are for Kids! +7.

LOL I want to see Dr Robotnik's plans laid out as he builds his ridiculous machines. "This giant hammer will teach that hedgehog a lesson!!..."

The city makes me think a horror themed haunted place zone thats a parody of common horror tropes would be a good zone for mania 2 that will never be made.

Since a lot of people don't seem to get it, I'll explain. These are just prototype levels, that's why they're in the extras and not in the main game.

Ugh... why can't Sega just continue these games properly? Sonic 4 tried but didn't capture the awesomeness of the classic games. Surely it can't be that hard or time consuming to make a Genesis/Mega Drive era-style game!

"Genocide city" That seems a bit counter intuitive

0:00 chapter cuz IDK what to put it 0:05 wood zone act 2 2:47 genocide zone act 2 4:31 hidden Palace zone (is a literally official zone but it includes as the beta and prototype)

The death egg was originally long, but was changed to into chemical plant. That's why the death egg is short.

The level design is okay, The bosses just suck, And Death egg is just chemical plant in space. . . . Yeah, could of had a lot more effort put into it.

Now I wanna plau genocide city just because of the name

I just realised how similar the two 'Hidden Palace' themes are.

Genocide city zone- basically a city being genocided, while calm music plays in the background.

0:14 Eggman poops? #whatthe

I have serious doubts about these levels especially since they recycled the music from another stage

I didn't know that the " Death Egg Zone" (secret) was like "Chemical Plant Zone"

Call it a hunch but I'm guessing with the fact that these levels were basically near replicas of different zones and maybe some time and space management, these were cut. Well say for Hidden Palace and Death Egg.

When you realize "Wood Zone" is Knothole

SOMEONE PLS TELL ME why did they remove these zones?

I love how these scrapped zones have the themes of emarld Hill zone mystic cave zone and casino night zone from the multi-player mode of sonic 2 all except for hidden palace zone and death egg zone witch is literally just chemical plant zone but in space

Just remde lavels, different backgrounds, boss for wood zone is aquatic ruins, boss for genocide is chemical plant, boss for hidden palace is mystic caves, death egg is just chemical plant with a different background. I REMEMBER THE LAYOUT BY HEART!