The gameplay is finely tuned and with multiple ways to complete each stage there’s plenty of replay value for the completionists among you. The graphics are bright, vibrant and still immensely delightful even after 22 years. It’s fiendishly difficult at points but it’s always possible to overcome harrowing sections with practice and a keen eye for detail. It also held up when SEGA released the “Mega Drive Collection” for the Xbox 360 and, I’m pleased to say, it STILL held up when I played it again for this feature. Long after the Mega Drive had ceased to be and deep into the sixth generation, I went round my buddy Adam’s house and he dug his old Mega Drive out of the mothballs for some Sonic 2 shenanigans and it still held up. It also helps that Tails is completely invulnerable, which allows the player controlling Sonic to sit back and relax during boss battles while Tails takes care of bidness. Sonic will eventually end up enjoying the lion’s share of the action, but if there’s two of you it’s a neat bit of interactivity for the second person and means they don’t have to sit there twiddling their thumbs while the other person plays. Should you choose to play the game as Sonic and Tails and plug in a second controller, player two can actually control Tails when both are on the screen. What first gripped me was the fact that two player controlled characters could both operate on the screen at the same time. I honestly can’t remember who the other child was, I think he was the brother of one of my sisters’ friends, but I finally got to play Sonic 2 and it blew my pitiful little mind. That all changed when I went to the house of someone who had it. Despite being aware of the game, I was still yet to play it. I was still very young at that point, a mere babe at 5 years old, and even I remember the hype for this one. You couldn’t move in 1992 to 1993 without seeing advertisements for Sonic 2. SEGA eventually made the, admittedly genius, decision to bundle Sonic 2 in with the console just as they had done with the original Sonic game way back and it generated some serious hype. The first Sonic game for the Mega Drive was critically acclaimed and a big seller but the sheer explosion of attention and plaudits that its sequel got was something to behold. It’s amazing how certain obscure memories seem to stick in your head. I have vague memories of playing it at a camping site in Wales during a summer holiday many moons ago. Occasionally I’d find an arcade which had a cabinet with the original Sonic on it, but these were exceedingly rare and you only got about 5 minutes of game before it demanded more coins. I was at least fortunate enough to actually play Sonic during my youth, but this was only when I happened to be at a friend’s house or in electronic department stores. Sonic The Hedgehog was very much one of those games. Obviously competition in the market place is a good thing, but for people like me who can’t always afford two or three consoles all at once, it ultimately means we miss out on certain games during their time of relevance and often have to come to them later. I’ve never been much for the “console wars” and find them an annoyance more than anything else. So yeah, a Mega Drive was simply out of the question and this was a hard kick in the knackers for me, as the Mega Drive was and still is a cracking machine with some truly excellent games on it. By this point they were already regretting shelling out for my Super Nintendo and actually went to the length of taking it away from me during summer and locking it away in the cellar, so perturbed were they with me dedicating so much of my free time into playing it. This wasn’t because I was NINTENDO 4 LIFE111 but more because I was but a mere child and my parents had no intention of letting me have two games consoles. I didn’t own a SEGA Mega Drive (Or Genesis if you’re an Americanian) during the fourth generation itself. I believe I’ve mentioned this before but in case you’re new to the dance, I’ll repeat it here.
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