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3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Detailed

Ready to blast through Chemical Plant Zone once more, but now in stereoscopic 3D? SEGA hopes you are with M2‘s latest GigaDrive-enhanced Sonic game: 3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2.
Chances are, if you played Sonic 2 at any point in the last 20 or so years, you already have a good idea of what you’re getting into: 11 zones, seven Chaos Emeralds, two playable characters, and one spike pit of death. But like Sonic 1‘s GigaDrive release, Sonic 2 comes with its own set of enhancements, such as filters to make the game look like it’s running on an old CRT TV, audio modifications to make it sound like it’s on the MegaDrive 1 or MegaDrive 2, and of course the fan-favorite addition of save states.
Because, you know, Metropolis, Wing Fortress and Death Egg usually sends people to the Internet to angrily complain about how cheap the game is.
But maybe this isn’t the case this time. M2 realizes some people have trauma over Death Egg Zone or may find classic Sonic games hard, and have made a new gameplay mode for the game called Ring Keep. Players begin a level with 10 rings free of charge. If you take a hit, you only lose half of your rings instead of all of them.
3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2 also features local co-op play in Sonic 2‘s multiplayer mode. The mode models the original multiplayer, so only three zones and the special stages are available. Two 3DS’ and two copies of the game are required to play, naturally.
It’s a shame SEGA is leaving Sonic 1 and 2 (2013) to rot on mobile, as both are very much the definitive versions of the games, but are more than happy to release a rom in an emulator shell. It’s an old song and dance often griped about, but SEGA of Japan is known for being ignorant of common sense. If president of SEGA Games Co. Haruki Satomi’s words of SEGA wanting to earn back the trust of gamers is true and not just crocodile tears, this may be one place to start.
The game hits the Japanese eShop Jul. 22.

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13 Comments

  • Reply

    Gene I can see your non-subtle winking towards RubyEclipse during that last paragraph there :V

  • Reply

    I know you guys are practically obligated to love up Tax ‘n Stealth, and I won’t deny their ports are the best versions. But it’s daft to shit on M2 whilst doing so. Every individual asset of Sonic 1 was re-laid to achieve the 3D effect in Sonic 1, and the Giga Drive emulator took work to get running even somewhat decently on 3DS. That, and adding in features that aren’t even in the TaxStealth port like the filters and region swapping and… yeah.
    Brushing it off as “an emulator in a shell” seriously understates M2’s work in getting the stuff ported. Again; I acknowledge the TaxStealth ports are great and I do think Sonic 1’s the weakest of M2’s work (compared to feature-loaded stuff like Out Run). But M2’s is more than you make it out to be.

    • Reply

      Some deconstruction of 3D Sonic 1 by hackers confirmed it is a shell with a Sonic 1 rom in there derived from the Sonic Jam source code. I’m sure they did a bit of work to understand how the game works to pull off the 3D effect, but it’s still a statement grounded very much in fact.
      I’m just tired of cheap and lazy releases.

      • Reply

        Again, they literally re-laid all of the assets. Hell, the recent Gunstar Heroes port apparently took an entire goddamn year to port into 3D similarly. That’s not lazy, fuck no.

      • Reply

        Does this mean you could theoretically inject a modified rom of your own into the game, much like the Nintendo Wii Shop Channel ROMs? Obviously it’d be a bit more complicated than that and would require to be more like Jam’s re-programming, i.e. some weird saturn-genesis hybrid that never got tampered with because why would anyone, but would it be conceivable anyway? If someone had a bunch of free time and a modded 3DS that could play mods/homebrew, that is.

        • Reply

          Yes, and no. Most of it, like Tracker said, has to come in how the emulator reads the game’s assets to create that 3D effect. I won’t strip credit from M2. They make 3D look really pretty in their 3D Classics line because they fine-tooth comb each game and try to best use each layer.That part is hard work and I imagine anyone feeling adventurous with the GigaDrive will need to do similar. That part is arduous.
          That said, I don’t know of many groups that have gone deeper into dissecting the GigaDrive. May be a fun project for anyone feeling adventurous.
          I’ll clarify the lazy part a little more in that I don’t expect anything to actually be fixed. Sonic 2 is MUCH more explored territory and the easiest tell will be jumping after hitting the goal post and turning into Super Sonic. That was one of the worst bugs in the original game since it causes a soft-lock: a result of how last-minute Super Sonic’s addition was.

  • Reply

    If anything this trailer did for me, was convince me to buy the mobile remasters.
    Back when the Sonic CD 2011 trailer popped up, I could SEE some of the changes (and let’s not even get into what we actually got, which was way more). But here? I might as well be seeing runs in the original Genesis.
    Although I don’t… I didn’t like playing on a touch screen, it’s hard to ignore what the mobile version brings when compared to the M2 “re”build.
    -More multiplayer stages
    – 16:9 aspect ratio
    -Reworked bosses to fit 16:9
    -Animation fixes
    -Bug fixes (super sonic on act 1 goals)
    -Hidden Palace Zone
    -Sonic+/Tails, Knuckles
    -Tails player can fly/swim
    -Tails can grab Sonic and fly
    -New save system (4 slots)
    -Boss Rush
    -Remastered special stages.
    -No loss of framerate.
    -Crisp graphics
    -Enhanced music quality.
    -Price tag ($3)
    -New ending sequence
    -Achievements
    (Am I missing anything?)
    3D Classic Mode has:
    -A TV filter plugin
    -2P Co-op
    -A super-easy mode.
    -An option to switch between megadrive sound hardware…. ?
    Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they had no ill-intention, they are probably not allowed to tamper much with the original code (or their budget prevents them from doing it), or maybe they think classic purists will hate them if they touch the original code in any other way.
    Regardless, now I know where my support should be, and it lies with the Tax/Stealth remasters.
    Here’s hoping someday they’ll give Sonic3K a chance to be remastered as well.

  • Reply

    It’s ok because no one is going to buy it. There are not many people with a 3ds anyway. Secondly, if people already have it on the iPhone or android, they are not going to bother getting an inferior version on the 3ds. They are better off not releasing this at all because it will only hurt them.

    • Reply

      Not many people with a 3DS? You living five years ago, mate?
      If enough people bought the other 3D Classics to warrant this of fucking course people will buy this.

      • Reply

        Pfft, who uses “facts” and “logic” when arguing about if a console or handheld sucks?

  • Reply

    “It’s a shame SEGA is leaving Sonic 1 and 2 (2013) to rot on mobile, as both are very much the definitive versions of the games,”
    That’s a funny way to spell ‘fanservice-y’…

    • Reply

      Even if you think a playable Knuckles is fan service, the mobile’s special stages are what make it the truly definitive version of the game.

  • Reply

    This feels like a step back. I can’t go back to OG Sonic 2 after the iOS ones made the special stages playable and removed the Mystic Cave pit. I just can’t.

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