So today, I’m gonna start doing my next review on the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which is almost everyone’s favorite Sonic game from the Genesis era (Personally, mine is Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, but Sonic the hedgehog 2 is still right up there). But before I get onto the review of Sonic the Hedgehog, I wanted to give a little insight on how I felt towards the review of Sonic Generations by “The World’s #1 Video Game Magazine”, Game Informer.

Now, I have shown my feelings towards this review some times in the past in brief little conversations, but I never really showed any actual real reasons towards why I truly detested this review by them. So, I decided that now that I have remembered about this, I shall show some real replies towards why I believe this review was unfair and unjust.
First of all, I’m gonna start off by replying to their comment on the entertainment value of the game, which they commented with “The first half of the game is a nostalgic treat, while the latter portions are a sobering reminder of Sonic’s fall from glory”. I would just like to say that, when you’re playing a type of game that’s like this, a flashback kind of game, you don’t want to just focus solely on your memories of the old levels and games that these were from and just complain about how they were bad memories, you want to focus more on how they FIXED these levels and comment on that. For example, they threw in Crisis City, a level from Sonic 2006. You could complain about how bad this level was in the original game it was from, but you can’t deny the fact that they really shaped this zone up; creating it a completely new and amazingly nice styled level. If you want to complain about the original level in the original game, go play those and leave this one alone. This can basically be the same reply to their comment on the concept of the game, which they stated was “A whimsical trip down memory lane that ends in the gutter”, which again is unfair because they’re supposed to be rating a completely new game, not an old one. The next thing I wanted to point out was their quote “The 2D platforming is a slight step up from Sonic Colors’ floatiness, but running in a straight line while in 3D is difficult. Things fall apart when you have to complete a level quickly”, which was thrown in as their comment on playability. Now, as I did see Sonic Colors’ movement as a bit floaty, that may be because the game takes place in SPACE. Of course they will try to make it more realistic and space styled. That point aside, I found it much more difficult to run in a straight line in Sonic Colors than in Sonic Generations, but that may be because the boost feature is much more accessible in Generations, rather than in Colors where you would have to save up the wisp capsules so you could use the boost function for a small amount of time at the most. And even then, running in a straight line without the boost is actually quite easy to do, which can be seen in noticeable parts in Planet Wisp, Crisis City, and Sky Sanctuary. The next thing I found concerning was that they focused mainly on memory and nostalgia, which is extremely annoying. This isn’t the Sonic you had back in the 1990’s. Get over it. If you want that Sonic back, go onto eBay or some local retro game store and pick up a SEGA Genesis with the Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles. Forget about the past and just give your ratings on how these new levels are like. That aside, the next thing I want to point out is the quote ” Why would Sega pass up full level tributes to Sonic 3 or Sonic CD in favor of a remixed version of a stage from Sonic Colors, which released only a year ago?”. While I do dislike the Sonic Colors stage (a lot), you must understand that this is a tribute game. Not Nostalgia mania, as I have said before here. They want to make sure that they can give you the best of all of their games, which they kind of managed to do here. They didn’t include a level from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 because SEGA intended to make Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles one whole game in the past, but split them up. So they decided to use that past idea here. They also added the stage Stardust Speedway from Sonic CD over to this game as a Rival Battle level against Metal Sonic in a 2D race. I’m sure that this fed their little nostalgic minds a tiny bit.
Not to mention, they included levels that were significant to the Sonic history. Green Hill was the start of everything, Chemical Plant was Robotnik’s second factory in which production began of the Death Egg, Sky Sanctuary was the re-rise of the Death Egg, and the rest you can find out by playing the game (I wouldn’t like to give a huge spoiler of the game out here ).

Now that I’ve dug out their review all I could, I will now start off the review for Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

A year after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, specifically on November 21 in Japan and November 24 in North America and Europe, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released. Now, this game was one of the best games in the whole Sonic franchise, even getting an award for the best game of the year. This game had released some of the longest lasting features in the series, which included the iconic Spindash, Sonic’s friend Miles Tails Prower, and Robotnik’s giant Egg station in space, the Death Egg. The basic story of this game is that right after Sonic the Hedgehog 1, you meet a new friend named Miles “Tails” Prower, and Robotnik has a new plan to take over the planet by using his new creation of the Death Egg. From there, it’s just a race against time to make sure you can get to Robotnik and the Death Egg zone in time before Robotnik is finished. This game is kind of the whole beginning to the giant ring of “Race Against Time” Sonic games, which includes Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Unleashed, and much more. This game also featured the first robotic character doppelgangers, Metal Robotnik and Metal Sonic Beta 1. This game also had some of the best music in the series, but that’s more up to debate than anything. Anyways, I will be rating this game on how I normally do my reviews, which are by graphics, music, enjoyment, difficulty, and then each level featured in the game.

Graphics – So, in this game, the graphics are set up to be a bit more vibrant and colorful than Sonic the Hedgehog 1 was. They made everything look a bit better in this game. While you would have an old looking style in Sonic the Hedgehog (kind of color wise), you get a bit of a brighter and better look to this game. While they made everything brighter, they also managed to make everything they attempted to make look good in Sonic the Hedgehog look even better in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, such as how the water looked in zones such as Emerald Hill Zone, and how the plants and vines and relics looked over in Aquatic Ruin Zone. They also managed to create a good looking rocket scene, in which Sonic tags along to Robotnik’s ship as he floats off to the Death Egg zone to escape in a failed attempt at stopping Sonic in the Wing Fortress Zone. Overall, I give the graphics in this game a 9, due to the fact that they managed to get a steady good improvement on the previously alright graphics from Sonic the Hedgehog, and managing to successfully create their first cut scene to look very good.

Music – In this game, they went and tried to build off of Sonic the Hedgehog’s music style from a peaceful tune into something better. After much thought, they finally got to the point where they were able to agree on making it sound more like a jumpy and Hollywood styled type of tune. While they had a bit of a 3 to 4 tune change within the songs in Sonic 1, where it was usually styled to sound slow and melodic, they went and created the tunes in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to have a variety of melodic tune changes, having a bigger variety in sounds in the songs, and also making the tunes sound a tiny bit faster to the point where they aren’t too annoying and where they aren’t too boring, in which it gives an adventure movie type of feel towards the game, making it even more fun to run through these emerald plains and purple mysterious caves. Mystic Cave Zone’s music in this game is a huge example of how they went and improved on their previous style music to have it more jumpy and exciting than what they had in Sonic the Hedgehog. They also went and managed to make the first iconic Super Sonic tune, in which they later used as a base for the Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog’s (Cartoon) theme song. Overall, I give the music in this game a rating of a 10.

Difficulty – So, in this game, they went and used the same type of challenge that they used in Sonic the Hedgehog, but went and upgraded them, making them only a bit more difficult, but also a bit more fun. For example, in Emerald Hill Zone, there are not only enemies in trees that you have to watch out for and make sure you don’t land on by jumping off a spring pad, but you also have to jump up and strike them at the right time so they don’t throw a bomb at you or you don’t hit them while they’re holding a bomb. Another little challenge is running through Aquatic Ruin Zone while avoiding the drill badniks that break through the walls at locations for surprise attacks. Other challenges include the final boss, Metal Robotnik, in which you have to defeat him with zero rings and huge spike projectile hands being launched at you, and connected to Metal Robotnik himself, where you have to time your attacks very, very properly and quickly. Overall, I give the difficulty in this game a grading of a 9.

Overall Enjoyment – Overall, I found this game very enjoyable. This is definitely one of the best Sonic games in the whole franchise, without a doubt. The things that make this game so much better than others is that they went and implemented the whole speed feature much better than they did in Sonic the Hedgehog, by going and adding the Spin Dash feature which had gone and made it possible to reach speeds that you would normally have been able to reach by using a Speed Up box. Other enjoyable features included the amazing music tracks that were orchestrated for this game, the wonderfully colorful looking features for this game, a fun little sidekick that tags along with you in the game, an invincible Super Sonic which you are able to unlock after getting the Chaos Emeralds in this game, which you weren’t able to do in Sonic the Hedgehog 1, and much more, including a 2 Player mode! Overall, the enjoyability in this game gets a rating of 10.

Now, I’ll be going over the levels of the game, which is pretty clear now about what I’ll be saying here, since this is my 4th review in doing this stuff.

Emerald Hill Zone – So this is the zone that we start off in. Here, you get to meet your brand new friend, and your brand new enemies! Here, you have just heard about Robotnik’s newest plans on taking over the planet, and you must stop him! Luckily, you have a two tailed flying friend on your side named Miles “Tails” Prower who helps you out along the way, so you definitely have nothing to fear! In this level, you get to view beautiful green hills (Much like in Sonic The Hedgehog’s first zone, properly dubbed Green Hill Zone), nicely colored blue water and deep blue skies, and far off islands. The enemies in this level include those named Coconuts (The bomb throwing monkey), the new BuzzBomber named Buzzer, and the obvious spikes and bottomless pits. Overall, this level gets a rating of a 10.

Chemical Plant Zone – So, this is one of Robotnik’s factory bases. Kind of like Scrap Brain zone, but this is the second zone of the game, and this place isn’t as insanely annoying to finish. Here, you basically have to run as fast as you can through this zone to destroy the factory and stuff and shut down production. Here, you see more factory buildings in the background, along with factory transportation pipes and other production parts. You also get to witness the pink water in this zone! Now, the enemies in this level consist of a spider named Grabber, which pretty much just goes down and grabs you, and another enemy named Spiny which shoots out little dangerous orbs. They can stick to the walls or just be seen on the ground. You can also drown in this level. Overall, this level gets a rating of a 9.
…
~Old pink water, keep on rollin’, Death Egg Station, won’t you keep on shinning on me? Old pink water, keep on rollin’, Death Egg Station, won’t you keep on shinning on me?
Yeah, keep on shinin’ your light, gonna make everything, speedy Sonic, gonna make everything all right. And I ain’t got no worries, ‘Cause I ain’t in no hurry~
(Bet you’ve never seen something like this in a review before ;D)

Aquatic Ruin Zone – So, now we’re onto this zone! Here, we’re running through an underwater relic while avoiding some of Robotnik’s arrow shooters that he set up everywhere. This zone was actually going to be dubbed Neo Green Hill Zone, but they ended up giving it a new and better name instead, which was, obviously, Aquatic Ruin Zone. Here, you get to see well made vines and tree tops, and forests and mountains in the background. This is basically the Tropical Rain Forest type of zone. So, the enemies in this level consist of those named Grounder, Chop Chop and Whisp. One’s a drill, the others a new piranha, and the lasts just a fly. A fly. This is how creative SEGA got here. Although, this IS a tropical rain forest, so it’s not THAT bad of an idea. Overall, I give this level a rating of an 8.

Casino Night Zone – Wow, this level is EXTREMELY annoying. And worst of all, they pretty much bring it back in Sonic 3 & Knuckles as the extra stage for rings/extra lives… One of their worst ideas, in my opinion. Anyways, back to the review. So, much like Marble Zone to Spring Yard zone, they went from the relic to city zone idea. This time, instead of just running through the city itself, you’re just running through a casino. Here, you get to see flashing neon lights of Casino signs, big cities in the background, and the deep black starry night sky. The main reason why I find this level annoying is because they styled it to be as much like a pinball styled zone as possible. The enemies in this level only consist of the bot named Crawl, which goes around and bounces you back if you try to hit it from and direction except behind it. Overall, I give this level a rating of 7.

Hill Top Zone – This zone’s got some pretty sweet tunes! Right after your little run in the city, you head onto the little woods in the sky, in which is called Hill Top Zone. I don’t know why, but whenever I go through this level, with it looking like this and having the music it does, I always think that this level would fit much better if Sonic were actually a chipmunk instead of a Hedgehog… Yeah, I’m kind of weird like that . Moving along, You get to see plastic looking trees, a foggy background at the bottom of the screen (Might just be the mass of clouds), Other than that, you see other hill tops in the background too! Now, the enemies in this level consist of Rexon (A bot that looks like the loch ness monster), Spiker (His drill is the drill that’ll pierce your life collection), and Sol (Basically an Orbinaut on fire). Overall, I give this level a rating of 9.

Mystic Cave Zone – God, I love this level! Definitely my top favorite level out of any Sonic game before and after this one. The music is pretty sick (Reminds me a lot of Aerosmith’s song “Walk This Way”), and the background and overall level design is just all around epic. Oh, plus this zone has “The Pit”. To explain the story about that, The Pit is basically the bottomless pit that SEGA decided to make not so bottomless. They put in a spike pit at the bottom. So you’d have to wait till you loose all your rings till you could get spawned back to your refresh point, which could take a little bit. And it’s even worse when you have Super Sonic unlocked here and active, in which you’ll have to wait till ALL of your rings run out, which could actually take minutes. And it’s even worse when you hacked the game to get unlimited rings, in which you’d have to reset the whole game again, losing EVERYTHING. Moving on, the scenery of this zone consists of purple cavern walls, along with separate green cavern rooftops and grounds, and that’s basically it. The enemies here are those known as Flasher and Crawlton. Crawlton isn’t so annoying, as he is a worm bot that launches out of the walls. Flasher, however, is very annoying. When his light is on, it’s invincible. And even when his light is off, you got to make sure he is moving, or he still will be invincible. So, that all said, I give this level a rating of a perfect 10.

Oil Ocean Zone – This is by far my least favorite zone out of all of them. Here, you’re running through THE GULF OF MEXICO! one of Robotnik’s factories, in which he is preserving fossil fuels for his Death Egg station to stay afloat and be able to launch up into Space. Here, you get to see a red smoggy sky, a black oil filled ocean, and a ton of oil factory stations set up. The enemies in this level consist of Aquis and Octus. A seahorse and an Octopus. Not really much to say about this level. Overall, I give it a rating of 7.

Metropolis Zone – So, this is the longest zone in the whole game, accumulating a max of 3 Act’s in this zone, while every other act had a total of 2 acts within them (except for Sky Chase, Wing Fortress and Death Egg, which each had a total of 1 act within their zones). Here, you’re running through ANOTHER one of Robotnik’s factories. This time, it’s the main factory towards the production of the Death Egg, which id the reason why this one has three acts instead of 2. The scenery here consists of other factory production machines and a bunch of constructed together walls of the Death Egg. The dangers in this zone include lava, spike boxes, and the enemies named Slicer, ShellCracker, and Asteron. Overall, I give this level a rating of 8.

Sky Chase Zone – The first appearance of the Tornado, Sonic’s (Technically Tails’) Biplane! Here, you’re chasing after Dr Robotnik who escaped on his Wing Fortress after Sonic defeated him back in the Metropolis Zone. If you don’t catch up to him here, you’ll lose and the Death Egg will remain in space! The scenery in this level consists of deep blue skies and white fluffy clouds, and it also includes a nice and peaceful, lovely tune. The enemies in this level consist of Balkiry, a mix of a bird and a jet, and Nebula, a flying tweedle dumb that drops projectiles. Overall, I give this level a rating of 9.

Wing Fortress Zone – It’s all coming down to this, the Winged Fortress in which Robotnik has escaped onto! Right after Robotnik was successful in shooting down the Tornado, you make a successful leap onto his flying masterpiece in which is carrying him over to his destination point, the Death Star Egg. Here, you must make it to the cockpit of his ship to reach Robotnik and stop him once and for all. The scenery consists of the same stuff as Sky Chase, a blue sky with clouds. This time, you also get to see the giant flying aircraft in all its glory. The enemies in this level are falling back down to earth and the bot named Clucker. Overall, I give this level a rating of 9.

Death Egg Zone – Unfortunately, Dr Robotnik made a dirty move and escaped in his escape pod. Luckily, with your good speed, you were able to reach the escape pod in time and grabbed onto it, making your triumphant return to action! Here, Robotnik is now up in his space station, the Death Egg. Here, he has you battle it out with Metal Sonic Beta Version 1, and you end up winning. In a struggle for victory, Robotnik runs up to his back up plan, Metal Robotnik, controlling him from the inside to stop you. Luckily, you’re able to defeat him and escape the Death Egg!

As you’re falling back to earth, Tails comes by in the new and improved version of the Tornado, saving you! As you return back to the ground, you begin your new adventures once more!

So, this is the end of my review, hope you guys liked it, and all that stuff. Got any replies or questions or whatever, feel free to leave them in a reply, whether it be about the reaction review or the Sonic 2 review! Hoped you guys liked reading the review!

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has been a great classic. For multiple consoles as well. Its been in a few of them, including the online games today. Heck, they made an HD version of the game. Which has been great. The sound tracks for the game has been fantastic. You won't get enough of this game.