The video game was released in Japan for the Sega Megadrive on November 21, 1992. The Sega Genesis release in the United States came three days later, on November 24, 1992. The European Megadrive release came later in November 1992. Re-released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 as part of the Sonic Mega Collection.
The storyline is as follows: Dr. Robotnik (Dr. Eggman in Japan) has captured all of the animals of the world and it is up to Sonic to free them. Initial information from Sega stated that time travel would be involved. This was not a part of the game when it was released, and this could have been a mix-up with Sonic the Hedgehog CD or the concept was simply passed on into it. The most noticeable addition to this game is appearance of Tails, Sonic's sidekick, and a two player competitive mode. It was also possible for Sonic to become Super Sonic, turning his fur yellow and spikier, an obvious homage to the Dragon Ball Z "Super Saiyan" effect.
Apparently, time restrictions necessitated dropping some features from the final game. Study by fans of the internals of the game using emulators and a debug mode revealed hidden incomplete levels and unused sounds and graphics. Some of these resurfaced in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Here is a list of zones that the game has:
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2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 beta 3 External Link |
In the beta copy, only 4 of them can be played in normal gameplay. The rest have to be accessed through the level select code. Many are not playable, so the debug code is used to explore the acts. Some of the acts are blank, therefore causing Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails to fall to their deaths in the act. The widely distributed beta version may have been altered slightly by pirates to stop the SEGA logo from showing when the ROM boots up.
The game was put on pirate cartridges in Asia and Brazil and passed on as the final version. The beta is frequently examined by hackers to determine how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Megadrive was developed.
Zones accessible through normal play in the prototype:
Kuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a game created by locking "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" to a passthru cartridge that was released by Sega later, called Sonic & Knuckles (this being the only passthru cartridge ever). The resulting game is identical to "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", with the exception that you play as Knuckles the Echidna throughout it. Some fans believe that Sonic 2 was created with foreknowledge that such an add-on device would be added later and that the unfinished levels were somehow connected with this fact, but this seems unlikely. While there are some similarities in the hidden level data to other Sonic games, a more likely explanation is that unfinished work from Sonic 2 was used in an inevitable sequel game.Sonic the Hedgehog 2 beta
A widely distributed beta version of the game, Sonic the Hedgehog prototype v11.54, better known as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 beta, has arrays of incomplete zones.
Zones accessible only through level select:
External Link