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[Boogiepop]

So, in my continued quest to play through the entire Sonic series, I've reached the point where I've decided I should face down Sonic 2 (the game gear game). The reason I'm not even sure whether this is an LTTP or an RTTP is that I've never made it past the first level of this damn game.

Admittedly I have yet to really give this a serious try, probably only trying about 10 times total. But goddamn is that first boss ridiculous. I mean, you're going along just fine, and then BAM! Time to face a boss with no rings in which you have to dodge randomized balls, meaning it's one hit KOs nonstop.

So yeah, I'm about to boot this up and give it a serious attempt. I'm guessing it's going to take some time before I'm finally good enough at this crappy game to get through it, so I'm sure I'll be able to report my "progress" at least a couple of times. Hopefully it doesn't drive me too insane.

 

[DD]

The second stage is worse.

This game is a piece of garbage, mate.

 

[RM8]

So... I was wondering if I should buy the first or this one. I'm guessing I'll buy the first one

 

[MaverickHunterX]

Explore every crevice! Thats the only way you'll find the Chaos Emeralds!

I remember my folks bought me the GG bundle with Sonic 2 and Majors Pro Baseball. I thought basically it was going to be the same as Sonic 2 16-Bit...Boy, was I off...

But at the same time, I grew to love Sonic 1 and 2 8-bits for being its own beast...especially the master system editions. Hope you like it better this time around, OP...

So... I was wondering if I should buy the first or this one. I'm guessing I'll buy the first one

Good call...

 

[Holy Order Sol]

Didn't the screen cropping make the first boss way worse than it was supposed to be or something? I think I remember something like that.

Didn't like the game much overall.

 

[TreIII]

Hahahahaha.

I remember when I finally completed this game (re: with all Chaos Emeralds) back when I was like 13. I felt a bit more manly, after saying that I was able to complete this bastard of a game.

 

[SilentSoldier]

Good lord that game was hard. But I still enjoyed it and somehow managed to get all the chaos emeralds. The other GameGear Sonic games are soooo much better though. Triple Trouble and Chaos are underrated.

 

[bwahhhhh]

the LCD screen blur when playing it on an original Game Gear pretty much put it right over the top in terms of difficulty. my friend had it, I remember never really getting anywhere in it.

if I had bought it with my own money I probably would have put more effort into it, but as it is my only memory was that even the first stages were tough as hell.

 

[ThreeSixty]

Agreed. First boss is a nightmare. I recently replayed the game too and got stuck on that damn first boss. Sonic 2 was such a spike in difficulty compared to the first. Sonic 1 was ridiculously easy in comparison. Persevere though. The second zone is quite wonderful with hang gliders (make sure you know the controls of how to operate them) and the rest of the game is decent from then on. If you get all the emeralds you'll also get to experience the very beautiful Crystal Egg Zone which is the best 8-bit zone they ever made.

It's a good game but the difficulty is just too high. I preferred Sonic Chaos purely for the fact that it was an easier ride. Triple Trouble is pretty good too. It's basically Sonic Chaos 2 in that it evolves from that game. I do miss these games though. They were essentially my childhood (until my Dad got me a Sega Megadrive and I experienced the greatest platforming trilogy of all-time in the Megadrive Sonic games). I love retro threads like these. It's nostalgia overload when I think back to games I played as a child.

As I said persevere and then jump straight on to Chaos. You'll probably like Chaos more.

 

[Rickenslacker]

That boss fight is something that sears into your brain when it's one of the only portable options you have as a kid. You just have questions circling your head.

Why is this area so small?
Will I ever dodge these balls?
Why couldn't I just jump on this boss?
Why would someone make this?

Why?

 

[Altered Juice]

the game came with sadx for the gamecube, i beat it with all chaos emeralds. my only problem was that the camera is way to close.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Came in expecting first boss related rage, was not disappointed.
Don't worry, get past that and suddenly its unexplained hang glider time, someday I should return and figure that blasted thing out (I never did back when I had the MS version but I was like 5 so it's probably a pile of piss) but the only version I have on hand is the GG version these days which goes back to the first point, that damn first boss!

Sonic 2 MS/GG is such a disappointment coming after the secretly awesome Sonic 1 MS/GG.

 

[TreIII]

Didn't the screen cropping make the first boss way worse than it was supposed to be or something? I think I remember something like that.

Didn't like the game much overall.

This is true, because the first two 8-bit Sonic games were made for the Master System and then were ported to the GG.

I believe that trend ended with Chaos, which was the first Sonic game built for the GG and then was ported back to Master System.

If you play Sonic 2 8-bit on MS, it's not NEARLY as bad.

 

[catmincer]

Master System version is easier to play. Also Sonic 2 is the weakest link in the 3. Chaos is great fun and the bonus stages are awesome.

 

[Rickenslacker]

Didn't the screen cropping make the first boss way worse than it was supposed to be or something? I think I remember something like that.

Didn't like the game much overall.

Yeah, I didn't know about that until over a decade later, but it made a lot more sense as a result. It was less sadistic and malicious than it first appeared.

 

[TheSeks]

The second stage is worse.

This game is a piece of garbage, mate.

The mine stage, or am I thinking of another Sonic Gamegear title? Because I had that one and yeah that crab in the ground boss is WTF and I never got past it.

 

[Rlan]

If you play Sonic 2 8-bit on MS, it's not NEARLY as bad.

Yup. In fact the first boss is almost too easy in Master System, since the ball doesn't change height when coming down the slope.

Master System is the way to go for Sonic 2 MS/GG.

 

[sonikokaruto]

I just finished this yesterday in my game gear


Yeah, like 15 years later

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

Fun fact: "Toot Toot Sonic Warrior", the main theme for the Japanese/EU version of Sonic CD, actually debuted in this game.

Green Hills Zone

Though since both games were developed simultaneously, and Naofumi Hataya did the soundtrack for both, it's entirely possible the Sonic CD version was composed first.

 

[Shadow Hog]

The second stage is worse.

No it's not. The game's difficulty pretty much peaks with Underground Zone's boss fight. Randomizing how the bombs fell onto the boss in addition to shrinking the arena so you had no time to react to that randomization was just the stupidest thing ever.

Sky High Zone's actually pretty fun. Only blemish is those touchy hang gliders (they're like Cape Mario in Super Mario World, only it's much, much harder to keep your altitude), and the sheer difficulty of nabbing the emerald in Act 2 (it's probably the easiest one to miss, since it requires a couple of pixel-perfect jumps in succession to nail it).

 

[Guess Who]

Fun fact: "Toot Toot Sonic Warrior", the main theme for the Japanese/EU version of Sonic CD, actually debuted in this game.

Green Hills Zone

Though since both games were developed simultaneously, and Naofumi Hataya did the soundtrack for both, it's entirely possible the Sonic CD version was composed first.

~SONIC NERD ALERT~

You Can Do Anything and Green Hills Zone in Sonic 2 8-bit were composed by Masafumi Ogata, not Hataya.

~SONIC NERD ALERT~

 

[Ramune]

I should know how challenging this game was. It and Road Rash were the only games I own for the Game Gear. It took I wanna say, 2 months. 2 months to beat a Sonic game, let that sink in. Saying that, I had fun with it. Hang glider controls a bit like Mario's open cape in Mario World iirc. Just a bit quicker with the left button. So instead of tap...tap...tap its tap.tap.tap. If that makes sense. Wonder if I remember where those Emeralds are now. The 2nd level sticks out the most.

 

[Rhapsody]

I had this game since maybe kindergarten and so. I never had a problem with the game's difficulty just because I had a lot of patience as a kid.
I haven't played it in years so I'm sure I'm going to find the game much more difficult and worse whenever I replay it.

 

[Pie and Beans]

the one true Sonic 2.

Keep your 16-bit babby game for babbys. If you fuck up and don't find the chaos emeralds, Tails DIES at the end of this game. You see his fucking ghost in the sky. HARDCORE.

THE DARK SOULS OF SONIC GAMES.

 

[RyType]

I only ever played the master system version- I didn't realise the game gear version was much more brutal (though makes sense since the screen was more zoomed in?) I remember me and my cousin playing this game all the way seemingly through to the end and managed to beat a very difficult boss fight against a robot sonic- only to be denied access to the final level (we forgot the chaos emerald in the sky high zone) and get presented with the bad ending where tails is basically dead.

Only beat the game properly for the first time a couple years ago. I enjoyed some of the 8-bit sonics in all honesty, especially the first.

 

[Boogiepop]

Well, I managed to get the first boss on my second try. Still, this game is BRUTAL. I mean, it is RIDICULOUS. First off, I ended up chickening out slightly and used the Gems Collection's save state function to force world saves into the game, because it's already hard enough without the ability to continue at all. So I got up to Green Hills zone 3 in that way (only got a "game over" due to not figuring out the hang glider and Green Hills 3, but I'll get to that in a second). Also, Sonic is tricky on slopes here, which makes the stupid first boss even more of a pain.

The hang glider is confusing as hell, and the zone is made all the more confusing by the seeming inability to tell which clouds are platforms and which are background. And then the water zone. Being able to skip over the water was pretty neat. Also, it's REALLY easy to grind 1-ups here, since there's two easily accessible ones. Too bad Act 2 takes that out and replaces it with sluggish underwater movement and painfully confusing bubble areas, complete with walls and floors you can for some reason randomly pass through. And then Green Hills comes along and is actually awesome. 8-bit Toot Toot Sonic Warrior!

And then the stupid Act 3 comes along, and is why I have temporarily rage quit. It's freaking springs and spikes with no rings. I can't see where I'm going 95% of the time, and I can't seem to make it over the huge gap of spikes after the one little area you can run on no matter what I do.

Regardless, I now realize there were Chaos emeralds, and I have yet to see even one. I guess it's time to head back to the start and locate those bastards, because if I'm making it through this game I'm sure as hell going to get the proper ending.

...Also, WHY couldn't Sega have put the Master System version on the Gems Collection instead? This zoomed in screen is deadly.

 

[Kevtones]

What's the view on Triple Trouble? I remember loving it as a kid...

 

[Sixfortyfive]

The difficulty definitely peaks at the first boss. After that it's a simple game of memory for any other hard parts. There's a few shortcuts that make some things much easier too, such as the springs in the clouds that lead to the emerald in Sky High 2 or the secret passage in Aqua Lake 2 that lets you skip most of the end of the stage.

There's a glitch for infinite 1-ups in Sky High act 2 that I discovered by accident once. There's a 1-up monitor somewhere in the bottom-left area of the stage, and a platform above and to the right of it. You run from right to left on this platform and roll off the edge of it, landing on the 1-up monitor, and bouncing off-screen before the monitor is completely destroyed. You get the 1-up, but the monitor remains intact, allowing you to repeat this as many times as you wish.

the one true Sonic 2.

Keep your 16-bit babby game for babbys. If you fuck up and don't find the chaos emeralds, Tails DIES at the end of this game. You see his fucking ghost in the sky. HARDCORE.

THE DARK SOULS OF SONIC GAMES.

That ending was such a gut-punch as a kid. That somber music and the sunset as the credits roll, then BAM.

 

[Lijik]

i remember beating the first boss on gamegear as a kid and not even caring about the rest of the game because i got to a point where all i wanted to do was beat that boss.

 

[G0523]

The second stage is worse.

This game is a piece of garbage, mate.

Agreed! I really do not like this game and once I got to the second stage, with the hang gliding, I just turned it off and never played it again. How the hell are you supposed to control that thing?!

Look at Sonic, actually hang gliding, while Tails is running down there. NONE OF THESE THINGS ACTUALLY HAPPEN IN THE GAME!!!

 

[Anth0ny]

This game is awesome.

Hard as fuck, but awesome.

 

[Shadow Hog]

Agreed! I really do not like this game and once I got to the second stage, with the hang gliding, I just turned it off and never played it again. How the hell are you supposed to control that thing?!

You tap left repeatedly - again, like Cape Mario from SMW. I'm not 100% on the exact rhythm, but it'd be enough to get you across any gaps the game actually wants you to clear. (Good luck getting the yellow emerald in Act 2 with one, though.)

 

[clav]

That hangglider level

It looked so awesome in the demo reel, but the game doesn't even teach you how to use it.

What is the trick?

It's nothing like using the cape from Super Mario World.

Also the bad ending to this game is so tragic and morbid.

 

[A Black Falcon]

If you absolutely must play this bad game, at least play the Master System version, since it is actually playable. The first boss in the GG version is just ridiculous; sure you can get past it, but it's a clear sign of how poor the game design is that it was actually shipped like that.

 

[TreIII]

What's the view on Triple Trouble? I remember loving it as a kid...

Triple Trouble/Sonic & Tails 2 was actually a very good Sonic game. Easy, sure, but a solid title none the less.

You tap left repeatedly - again, like Cape Mario from SMW. I'm not 100% on the exact rhythm, but it'd be enough to get you across any gaps the game actually wants you to clear. (Good luck getting the yellow emerald in Act 2 with one, though.)

There were two main schools of thought as far as getting that Emerald in Sky Hill Act 2 was concerned. One was to take a Hanglider and find the various "updrafts" that would give you enough lift to get you to the top area where the gem was hidden.

The other involved navigating those "Spring Clouds" (you can usually tell which ones these are because they have a column of rings above them) in order to achieve a similar result.

Once I figured which clouds to use, I actually preferred using them over the glider.

 

[SkylineRKR]

The whole problem lies in the fact the screen is zoomed in so much that you can't see what actually happens. I think the levels last only about 40 seconds on average, but honestly this game is bad.

Sonic 1 Master System is a masterpiece though, I like it even more than the 16 bit version.

 

[Jrs3000]

This game gave me nightmares when I was a kid. I could never beat it, was hard as crap.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Triple Trouble/Sonic & Tails 2 was actually a very good Sonic game. Easy, sure, but a solid title none the less.

I know that some people like them, but in my opinion, no, Sonic Chaos and Sonic Triple are not good games. They're not awful, but both games, and Sonic Blast as well which is basically the same thing as those two but slower, feel like third-rate knockoffs of the first GG Sonic game, which was a legitimately good game. All of the Aspect games, though (2 and beyond), just are so generic and mediocre... the first of their games is way too hard, but then the others are way too easy. There's no balance. And the games are all short, of course; Sega wasn't interested in funding substantial handheld experiences I guess, most of the time. They're just so SIMILAR, too. There's less change across the entire GG Sonic series than there is from Sonic 1 to Sonic 2 on the Genesis, and that's really too bad. Chaos and Triple Trouble are so similar that it's quite hard to tell them apart, and Blast is only slightly different.

So yeah, those aren't awful games, and might be fun for a little while, but they are below average. At least they are better than Sonic 2 GG/SMS, but still... disappointing.

 

[Suairyu]

Sonic 2 on the master system is one of my favourite Sonic games. I'd rate it below the Mega Drive entries, but certainly higher than Sonic CD. Amazing music, great variety in theme and stage design...

Yes, the first level is unusually hard for a Sonic game, and the first boss seems hard at first (until you work it out and he becomes the easiest boss in Sonic history, save for the terribad CD bosses), but stick with it and you'll learn to see why it's great.

And goddamn play it on the Master System. The cropped view on Game Gear makes it much harder than it was designed to be.

The other MS/GG Sonic games are okay to awful. Sonic 1 is fun in parts, but commits the same sibs as the Mario franchise in having forced scrolling levels. Chaos is weak. Triple Trouble seemed cool at the time but revisits have not been kind.

What I do love about the 8bit entries is how they hide the chaos emeralds in the levels themselves, rather than sticking them in special stages. Adds a genuine element of exploration. Shame none of the mainline games ever did that.

 

[Boogiepop]

Okay, I went back for the Chaos Emeralds, and I have now finished up through Green Hills. Admittedly I kind of cheated with save states a little to get the emerald on Sky High and to avoid having to do the stupid Green Hills boss area where you have to blindly spring over spikes over and over till I got the boss down. And I'm still letting myself create "saves" for the worlds, because again, this game is pretty unfair at times. The weird thing is, it would be so, so much better of a game if they'd just throw you a handful of rings on the boss stages. Like, the bosses are even actually pretty decent, it's just that they made them one hit kills, which just feels unfair. Oh well, I'll probably finish this game soon enough.

 

[Suairyu]

I dunno. The zero-ring act 3s certainly added a lot of tension to the boss fights. You could always cheese the Mega Drive Sonic bosses to a degree by exploiting "I need just one ring!" whenever you got hit. It was de-facto invulnerability.

 

[Boogiepop]

And I have now beaten the game with all Chaos Emeralds. I also learned along the way that there ARE continues, the game just doesn't seem to tell you about them at all. Huh.

Anyway, not too much to add to my previous thoughts. Gimmick Mountain is slightly confusing, and Scrambled Egg is super confusing with all the tubes. And then Crystal Egg ends up being surprisingly easy. Weird. Also strange that Silver Sonic feels easier here than in the Genesis game, and in fact may be one of the easier bosses in the game since he seemingly can't hurt you when you're in ball form.

Also, that ending was... disappointing considering how hard the game was. The final boss fight pretty much consisted of hanging out in that tube till he used his instadeath green screen move, then popping out for a quick hit and then back in the tube. And then he runs away and it looks like round 2, only for... him to get away safely and Tails to appear? Just felt strange.

All in all it was an... okay game. It was just unfairly hard at times, the hang glider and few other gimmicks felt at least a little unintuitive, and the zoomed in Game Gear screen made things more of a pain than they should have been. The level design felt... decent most of the time, but then again the levels were all so small and short. So yeah, it's an okay game I guess, but it certainly didn't blow me away.