RQ87

Playthrough with Amy, using the version of the game included on Sonic Origins Plus. Sonic 2 has the extras from the mobile version, the main addition is the extra level: Hidden Palace Zone. If you don’t know, this zone was intended to be in the original game, and was playable in several prototypes, but it was never finished and ended up being cut. This version completes the level with a new layout and it even has a new, not very good imo, boss.

They must have made the special stages easier in this version, I swear. I usually hate them and can’t get all the emeralds, but in this version I can do them easily. They run a lot more smoothly in this version than they did on the Mega Drive, maybe that’s it, I don’t know. You get to keep your rings upon exiting a special stage, like in Knuckles in Sonic 2, so it makes it far easier to get the emeralds really early on in the game.

Another big change is that Tails can fly now. Well he could fly in the original, but only the CPU could do it. But here player 1 can get him to fly, and he can carry your character around, which is really useful since he can take you on some shortcuts you wouldn’t be able to take usually.

One other change I really like is how this version deals with the super forms. In the original, if you had all the emeralds and also had 50 rings, you’d automatically turn Super Sonic the next time you jumped, which I hated. This has been changed for this version, now you have to press a specific button whilst jumping, which works way better.

As for the game itself, my interest starts to wain around Oil Ocean, mainly because I know Metropolis is coming up. I don’t like Metropolis Zone because of some of its atrocious enemy placement, plus the fact that it's three acts. They did fix the hitbox on Shellcracker’s claw, but the Asterons were made much more dangerous -in the original they don’t explode as easily as they do in this version. Sky Chase is fun and I don’t mind Wing Fortress since you can skip most of it, but I always wish they gave you a few rings in Death Egg.