16 years ago, the sequel to one of the most iconic faces in video game history, Sonic the Hedgehog, hit the retail gaming market. This game introduced a new character to the series, Miles “Tails”  Prower, who to this day has remained a prominent face in the Sonic franchise. With Sonic and his new sidekick tearing through brand new zones at breakneck speeds, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 set the bar not only for the Sonic franchise, but for platforming games as a whole at its time. Not used to the speedy platforming that the games delivered, players were blown away by the pace of each level. When asked how they were able to make the game go so much faster than other games at the time, SEGA would explain it using the classic term, “Blast Processing.” Indeed, there was something special about this game!

Celebrate Sonic 2’s 16th birthday with something special! Dust off the ol’ Genesis and give the game a whirl. Get an friend to blast through Emerald Hill Zone in the game’s two player mode! Set yourself some new challenges–for example, I’ve never personally tried getting all of the emeralds because I hate the special stages. Who knows, though–maybe this time I’ll get lucky.

Recall your memories about the game in this forum thread! Share what you decided to do for Sonic’s special day today. Engross yourself in what made this game great. It’s the least you can do, after all!

The Sonic 2 Hybridization project by Doc Eggfan took the Sonic 2 ROM for the Genesis, lowered the color palette, and inserted 8-bit sprites in an attempt to make a version of Sonic 2 for the Master System with the Genesis engine.  Now, Eggfan has introduced a new project that aims to take the completely opposite direction by incorporating the Genesis zones in the Master System game with Project H’ (pronounced “Aitch Prime”).

How is this achieved?  Well, Eggfan has included a downloadable package with instructions for making the Sonic 2 Genesis conversion as easy as possible.  By editing the existing tiles from the the standard mappings and collision set, posted by Ambil back in May, Eggfan will integrate the graphics back into the ROM as best he can.  If you would like to contribute graphics, visit the project’s thread.

One of the most awesome sites I found only recently, Zone:0 updated it’s Sonic 2 section recently with the stages and story updated. According to LiQuidShade, he’s tackling Sonic CD afterwards, which makes my Awesome-O-Meter tick with some fury, I can tell you.

Check it out, there ain’t a single place on the Internet with a deeper description of Sonic 1 and 2 (As yet) — even though there’s nothing really new, it’s so well put together one can’t help but sit and read everything.