It's like Sonic 1, only slightly better! The great things about Sonic 1 are all generally improved with Sonic 2, although they failed to redress some of the weaknesses of Sonic 1, which are even more glaring in 2. If the speed of Sonic 1 was shocking, the developers of Sonic 2 cranked it up to 11 with this one. Introducing the spin dash enabled Sonic to move even faster, and without any length of level ground or downhill on which to gain momentum. The level designs are even less linear, necessitating *moving to the left* for extended periods of time in some levels, something that was almost never done at the time, and still is not commonplace. There are even more branching paths in Sonic 2, resulting in new discoveries each playthrough. Adding in Super Sonic also increases the replayability of the game, as you need to get 7 Chaos Emeralds in order to unlock him, no easy task. Having Tails along to help out in bosses is nice, too, and his character design is adorable. The music and sound is again excellent (with the exception of the horrible music in the penultimate stage), as are the visuals.
The bad enemy placement on the speedy sections, however, is even worse. You'll be flying through a super fun part at top speed, and then run into a coconut. What's more, that coconut will be there every time, suggesting that that was an intentional design choice by the creators. Ugh. They do the same thing with other unkillable enemies (like those cursed robots with the drills that burst out of the walls in the Labyrinth Zone), making it to your benefit to slow down and slog through the levels.
What's more, the game is even longer than 1, and still doesn't feature a save feature. The end boss is very challenging and glitchy, resulting in you being killed more by quirks of the physics or unclear communication of the boss' weak spots than by your lack of skill. Beating this game is, thus, a real achievement!
All in all, I like Sonic 2 a bit more than the first, and it is another great reason to own a Genesis. I'd give it a 9.3/10.
-TRO
No comments:
Post a Comment