Emerald Hill Zone – And it’s Green Hill Zone again but just as great. It’s a nice bright place, heck, even brighter than Green Hill Zone. What else can I say, it’s the beginner’s level.

Chemical Plant Zone – A seemingly less-menacing factory level, and when I mean less-menacing, I mean less-menacing then Scrap Brain Zone from Sonic 1, I love this level, it’s the true "GOTTA GO FAST" level with speed boosts and many other ways that will even let you nearly leave the screen, such good fun. Oh, it’s also literal cancer with pink corrosive looking liquid at the bottom of the level, especially in Act 2, and you can go in it, most particularly that part where you have to jump on blocks whilst the water rises, and yes, I was also the child who died at that part the first time I played it, I think a lot of children back then died at that part, in which case, pray for them.

Aquatic Ruin Zone – Thank goodness this isn’t Labyrinth Zone, this is a great water level, so great that you don’t even have to touch the water. Like Marble Zone, the settings looks as if it was once inhabited but now forgotten, this one is a Greek-like place, with over-grown vegetation and old-time brickwork, along with collapsing floors to give you the feeling of an old-time place that’s unstable.

Casino Night Zone – This would be the definite improvement of Spring Yard Zone and the setting would be used for more Sonic games in the future. It’s also a more lively place full of energy, a perfect casino/pinball fusion level, with pinball parts where you can gamble to collect more rings, or lose them instantly, teaching kids the dangers of gambling. And who said video gaming was a bad thing?

Hill Top Zone – One of the most forgettable and pretty dull levels I’ve ever come across in this game. While we have a nice cloudy, mountain-like background, nearly everything else is recycled from other levels.

Mystic Cave Zone – A rather dark and spooky underground area, lots of spikes, lots of deadly fireflies, lots of greenery. It also has “the pit”, if you drop into it, that’s it, you can’t get out, you’ll lose rings from the spiky floor and die. Again, pray for those annoyed souls.

Oil Ocean Zone– A blistering hot area with a factory in the background and the OMINOUS OIL. It’s everywhere, I’m surprised no fire caught it, it would destroy the world.

Metropolis Zone – ANOTHER FACTORY LEVEL, yes, machinery and factories are bad and nature and animals and greenery are good, which defeats the purpose considering that you’re playing this electronic game on a electronic device connected by a television and it’s literally keeping you from going out and explore nature. Also, everything is a trap in Metropolis Zone, even the enemies, including Asterons (which are easy to avoid), the Shellcrackers (who can be difficult to hit since they have a big claw and they placed in areas where you can easily get hit), and Slicers...AND I HATE THEM!!! They're frigging everywhere and their placements are just plain cheap!!!

Sky Chase Zone – This is near enough the relaxant after the madness that was Metropolis Zone. You’re on top of your plane, Tails is the pilot, you can jump on enemies and you can still get caught by the plane so you won’t drop to your death.

Wing Fortress Zone – On a big airship with music that symbolizes the feeling of ‘THIS MEANS WAR!’

Chaos Emeralds also returned from the original, offering up an additional seventh Emerald. The special stages were done on a endless half-pipe which Sonic ran forward on collecting rings and avoiding enemies. If he had enough rings when he hit the checkpoint then he would continue until eventually obtaining a Chaos Emerald. Out of all the Special Stages in the Sonic franchise, the ones in Sonic 2 are the ones I hate the most. The controls seem so slippery, and it's so hard to get the rings and avoid obstacles. It's a good thing that the updated version fixes the controls, so I can manage to get all the Emeralds. When you get all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic would be able to transform into Super Sonic (by collecting fifty rings and jumping in any stage). In this form, Sonic runs faster, jumps higher, and pretty much invulnerable to enemy attacks. Also, he changes his color from blue to a bright yellow as his spikes go up.

4) 2-Player Versus Mode

Sonic 2 also included a two versus player mode where, playing as either Sonic or Tails, two players can have a split screen race on one of 3 different zones or a Special Stage. In the regular zone races, on either Emerald Hill Zone, Casino Night Zone or Mystic Cave Zone, players are ranked in 5 different areas with the highest score winning the round. On the Special Stage the winner is the one who collects the most rings. In the case of a tie in the regular zones a Special Stage is then ran to determine a winner. Two player mode also added a couple of new item boxes. One being a teleporter which switched the two players around, the other being a Dr. Robotnik item which damaged the player that found it.

5) Overall

Overall, Sonic 2 is a remarkable improvement over the first game, and still stands as one of my favorite games in the series so far and it’s an utterly flawless game…maybe apart from Tails joining you, though you can switch him out in the settings. It’s a classic and sold huge amounts of mega drives...or genesises, beating Nintendo again for the year.

Rating: 4.5 / 5