Haven't played S2 in a while. Ironically how the only zones I remember from Sonic 2 are emerald hill, chemical plant, metropolis and Oil ocean. I remember that I fell in love with Oil ocean zone because of music and color palette used. Amazing how different opinions and feelings can be.

To be honest, it was really surprising to me to start finding out that people dislike Oil Ocean. It's pretty straightforward. If you suck at playing, I can understand how it might be confusing at first, maybe. Other than that, it's pretty simple, so unless you're complaining that it's too simple, you might have a neurological disorder that prevents you from mastering Oil Ocean after two playthroughs. :3

Seahorses: annoying suckage. Music: rad

I love the music, I love the theme, and playing the stage itself is perfectly fun enough, it's not annoying to me like Metropolis Zone is. All you really need to enjoy a stage. I especially love how in Sonic Mania, they added the effect of the oil catching fire if you have a Fire Shield, very cool. It's insane to imagine an actual ocean comprised entirely of oil and it catching on fire, that would be devastating as hell. Or hell itself.

It's actually rather funny, because I don't hate Oil Ocean, but that's ALWAYS where I stop playing Sonic 2 if I'm just trying to kill time. I think it's partially because the Sonic 2 version of the stage is a bit on the boring side. But I think it's also because I don't find much of the rest of the game fun after that. You pretty much hit on all the points why in this video.

The Geek Critique Just you wait

...Or Marble Zone...

The Geek Critique It's neither of those. The only problem with Metropolis is the cheap enemy placement. The level design itself is fine.

Hey, wacky workbench isn't that bad! You've just got to get the rhythm down... Then again, if I actually cared about special stages in sonic then it would be pretty awful

To be fair Wacky Workbench has better music

Splish And it not being in Mania makes it criminal to me

Both you guys are on point. It's even better than chemical plant or hydrocity.

amen

Lol tbh i always loved hilltop zone soundtrack idk y it unpopular

I love oil ocean zones theme

I had to scroll way too far down to see this reply, thank you!

Katzman 79 I was juat about to point that out

As a kid I used always the tactic with getting behind the Death Egg Robot, as it seemed more safe to me to attack him from behind (because I mostly died while attacking him from the front). I always thought this was the right tactic, before I've seen the usual tactic here on KZfaq ^^

Thank you for commenting this

Knuckles

kzfaq.info/get/bejne/osyZgJOqrrDHZmQ.htmlsi=CjuwgDbFNZCiZwGi

me neither, I hated that part so much, lol

You mean 5:50

There's another way around the rising water level part entirely via a secret pathway

Yeah

Dfr34kz Sonic Rush Adventure already did this in the sense of shortcut that shuts you out, check it out..

While I know this doesn't exactly mean the same, the second act of Mushroom Hill right before the boss has something like that, where sometimes you pass through the ceiling and get a couple shield monitors before moving past the thick vine-looking wall thing that blocks it off as soon as you pass it, but other times you just roll onto the ceiling and back down to the ground. (Those were my experiences anyway, I have never been able to explain it - Was it a timed thing? Does taking a specific pathway trigger it? Was it only access able for specific characters? Doubt it but my memory isn't the best since I eventually gave up trying to get there...) And, *also* technically speaking, level skipping already exists... being able to skip levels by "breaking the game" is a reward for studying the level layouts and mastering the sequence of inputs. I don't know if that's what they had in mind when they thought about "speed running" for Sonic games, but I'd say it feels pretty good when you can pull off those moves. (And really quickly, I'm pretty sure that, from my playthrough of Super Mario Bros. DS, the "cannon to another act" skirts a bit too close to Mario's "cannon to another world")

Am I the only one who loves Metropolis Zone ? :( The music there is great, and the level is both challenging and has fun mechanics (only the enemies suck)

All my rage. Oil ocean made it in mania over mystic cave. ;_;

I actually really didn't know OO was forgettable to so many people. I actually like that zone. I was pretty happy to see they brought it back in Sonic Mania

Jordan Harris Despite do liking OO, how cool could that be if they brought back Mystic Cave combined with Hidden Palace as kind of amalgamation of the two?!

Julien NT Only for one enemy (Slicers)

Fuck u, sonic 2 is overrated sonic 1 is better

Elijah Ford Mmm... are you sure about that

Elijah Ford No need to use such language

Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy The Sonic 2 HD trailer was awesome! Really wasn't expecting it. I really hope to see the game finally coming to fruition!

+Monkey D. "Straw Hat" Luffy Sonic 2 hd is looking fantastic

Hub Pie You should play 3

Hub Pie not even unleashed?

What an unfortunate series of first Sonic games

LvLupXD right? Sonic 2 is the first game I've ever played and is one of my first memories

Out of curious which Sonic did you start with first? Sonic 2 is my favourite too. In my case I began with Sonic 1 on the Master System which is good but very different to the 16bit.

Not a bad thing to sound like, honestly.

I'd love to see that. Hell, a full on Metroidvania with Sonic! I'd buy it!

Ghaleonh41 I dunno how a metroidvania with sonic would work, seeing as Sonic is generally not one to turn around and backtrack, and would need uncharacteristically (for a metroidvania) wide open level design, but if it could work, it'd be interesting just to see how Sonic's "moveset" could work in a metroidvania.

Ah, you meant backtracking as in going back to an earlier stage? Good point, but that can easily change, case in point Rondo of Blood & others. But I'd love to see how this can work if done right. The modern games do have something close to a Metroidvania style, I think & I'm including the Adventure games. Going back to stages you've already finished to find an upgrade or take a different route because of the upgrade & such.

Ghaleonh41 It's not even really the going to an earlier stage that's the problem - it's that fact that because Sonic is so focused on momentum, if you were just exploring and for some reason needed to turn around, that slows you down a lot. I can already think of a few ideas that could kind of work to solve this issue, but the thing is that Sonic is focused mainly on going from one end of the screen to the other in a wide open space, and that's antithetical to the design of a metroidvania. I do think it's a cool idea though, and again, if it could work, it'd be really cool.

Get dunked on m9

You know it to be true, when multiple franchises later, you are indeed still listening to the guy. :)

Why would you ever wanna pull a pristine Sonic 2 cart out of the clamshell, pop it into a real Genesis hooked up via RGB to a PVM and a stereo system with big clear speakers and grab a sleek 6 button controller... when you could play... the mobile version.

mtoad I don't quite get what point you're trying to make. Simply playing Sonic 2 is easy, knowing how many times the game has been ported on compilations and all that. Is just that the mobile version fixes a lot of issues that were in the genesis version and it is pretty much the definitive version of the game...except the fact that it's on mobile only, adding to what I said earlier, touching the screen isn't quite as responsive as pushing a button.

My point is that when it comes to the best way to play Sonic 2, it's not even debatable. Every other method (aside from the Saturn disc via the same setup as above) is comparatively a joke.

"joke" So you're one of those elitist types.

Yes.

DaveMan1000 thank you for the correction, though in the grand scheme of things I ultimately don't care lol

KingK Just for future reference.

@@GenesisGreen This is half-correct. They're called Silver Sonic in both versions.

pk mach make sonic mania

pk mach Sonic 2 HD

What is there to fix? Modern Sonic is doing fine and Mania is keeping classic fans satisfied

pk mach Like Mania? It's not hand-drawn but that doesn't matter.

Cezary Dudkiewicz I think it does, personally. That modern art style coupled with hand drawn animation I could totally see replacing modern Sonic.

TheRambest I mean yeah

With knuckles?

KingK Or even better, a retrospective of Sonic 3 Complete?!

Windows U Yes sure. I just commented as generic name...

Dvir Arazi That's a Game fan mod, it doesn't count...

Jose Colella I feel you. I swear I died 20+ times before finally beating this boss. But now after beating it over 5 times, it really not all that bad. 3 rings at the start would still be plenty welcome

I wish they gave you a ring and when you got hit it you can’t get t due to gravity I think that’s a fair trade off

Maxime Lemieux Funny because I think I'm absolutely terrible at describing music. Glad it worked for so many people.

KingK I agree that you're not great at it but you handled it in a simple and classy way for the layman. well done. its definitely not the introspective levelness of the other elements so you touched upon it and moved on.

I heard the multiplayer songs were meant for levels that didn't end in the game.

t was mostly finished but because it had to make a holiday deadline, Genocide/ Cyber City became Metropolis act 3. Hidden palace was cut. Then look at beta level designs closely, compare to finished versions, see those rings in the walls? they did alot of this at the last second. Your kinda right about the unfinished look, had it been released later this would be comparable to that of the late beta.

I feel that Sonic 2 is a more fun game, because it always has a more exhilarating feel. Speed is what it capitalized on, but it didn't leave platforming and exploration behind. Sometimes Sonic 3 and Knuckles capitalized on platforming and exploration and completely ditched speed. This made zones drag. Mania does larger zones better because they have way more flow and speed. There are less moments where the game forces you to slow down to do something tedious such as moving a barrel, pushing levers, and watch as light bridges move you across the screen for an obnoxiously long time. Also, the annoying rising floor sections that Sonic 3 just loves are exempt in Mania and are very short in Sonic 2. Sonic 3 was really good for scope and story, but fell really flat in the gameplay department.

kirby krew I will shorten them in the future, even I got annoyed watching it back again. I shouldn't have let it play that long. My idea was to let it finish the loop it was on, but that loop is a lot longer than I think I remembered.

I enjoy the music so much I didn't even mind. I just let the nostalgia sink in

I think it is fair, f*** death egg

That's kind of the point of a KZfaq review: Someone expressing their own opinions on what they like and don't like. That, as you phrased it, is "nitpicky." This person is entitled to do so. You're entitled to agree or disagree.

I agree 100%. "OMG there's enemy placement that keeps me from mindlessly rushing through the level. How unfair!"

@Raging Bull Except that's not true, Sonic games have always had a lot of platforming which is why the classic Sonic games are the only good games in the series.

Brie Russel *cough* generations *cough* colors *cough* adventure 2 *cough*

Why do people hate on Sandopolis so much?

Sad Johnson The sand Puzzle elements Some shitty enemy placement Dark rooms you have to pull on a switch to light the room Timed doors that require you to move fast Quicksand Oh did i mention sand?

Dunno, dude, I like it. Most of it.

Because I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere

+Sad Johnson: I'll add something that LOLSTER239 seems to have forgotten to mention... GHOSTS!

To be honest Tails being dumber than a rock and being relegated to getting shoved off screen in co-op kind of rins that.