Retro Review: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Game Gear Version

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a wonderful game. It was an improvement over the first game in about every way imaginable: challenge, length, graphics, sound...not to mention the introduction of Tails the fox and the first appearance of a multi player mode in a Sonic game. Well, this is what I would be saying if this article was about the Genesis version, but instead, I'm going to tell you about the Game Gear version, which was completely different from and vastly inferior to the 16-bit classic. If you think recent Sonic games have failed to live up to expectations, there was a time when Sonic would occasionally find himself stuck in a terrible game, and that is what Sonic 2 for the Game Gear is, as I shall explain right here and now.

The fiendish Dr. Robotnik is up to no good yet again. In addition to continuing his hunt for the elusive Chaos Emeralds, he has also abducted Sonic's friend, Tails. As always, Sonic is up to the challenge of rescuing his pal, collecting the emeralds, and foiling the mad doctor's plan. Not a strong story, but then again, the series was not known for creating deep plot lines at this point. Interestingly, the manual states that Tails was kidnapped while Sonic was away, while in the game, it shows Sonic witnessing Tails abduction. This rather strange difference in the storytelling, and the minimal story itself, turn out to be the least of the game's problems.

As in the case of other 2D Sonic games, the basic game play involves Sonic clearing various stages, defeating enemies and collecting rings to stay alive. In each of the seven zones, there are three stages, two of which are enemy and trap-filled obstacle courses in a variety of environments, ranging from a mountain to an underground cavern to an underwater world. The final stage in each zone is a short journey through an obstacle course, followed by a battle against Robotnik's minions. Defeat these enemies, and you will move on to the next zone. Like in other Sonic games, however, there are multiple endings, which are determined by whether or not you manage to collect all six (not seven this time) emeralds. In fact, you cannot enter the final zone or even claim the sixth emerald unless you accumulate the other five gems.

At any rate, I wish you good luck in getting through the game, because it is full of challenges that make it hard in some of the worst ways imaginable. For starters, the rather small screen makes it difficult to see what is ahead, and as a result, you may not find yourself heading towards certain doom until it is too late. Sonic's trademark spin dash would have helped, but it is nowhere to be found here. Our hero uses vehicles in this adventure, but they can be hard to control. The hang glider is particularly broken, and worse still, it is sometimes mandatory to use the vehicles to reach certain hidden areas or to progress in your adventure at all. Also, in one late zone, you will have to use tubes to take you from one place to another. The problem is, the tubes might send you into spikes, and you would not know which tubes are and are not safe without either a walkthrough or a lot of trial and error.

Then there are the boss levels, which are particularly nasty. First, the courses that you must run through to reach them are filled with traps that must be avoided. When you reach the bosses themselves, they might use patterns that are a bit unpredictable, so much so that you can get thrown off guard and lose a life rather quickly. Fast deaths are common, especially since none of the boss stages give you any rings to help you survive against these foes. You must beat them without taking damage, and when they are this difficult, it makes an already frustrating situation even worse.

The emeralds are not hidden in special stages this time around. Instead, most of them are hidden in the second acts of the first five zones. As mentioned earlier, you need to collect every one of them in order to have a shot at seeing the best ending. However, the emeralds are so well hidden that finding them all without a guide can be challenging. Also, some emeralds are hard to reach and take a long time to collect, so much so that you might run out of time before you can even get them. I know that collecting the emeralds is not meant to be easy, but Sega should have been a bit more lenient when it came to grabbing all of these elusive gems.

None of this would be extremely problematic if the game was a bit more forgiving. Unfortunately, you do not get any mid-level checkpoints this time around. If you lose any of your lives (three to start with, though you can earn additional lives by collecting 100 rings or by smashing monitors with Sonic's face on them), it's back to the beginning of the level for you. Also, the only two ways that you can earn continues is by either actually collecting the emeralds (each one gives you one continue) or by getting Tails' face when you hit the signpost at the end of most stages (which is probably incredibly rare...it's never happened to me in any of my playthroughs). Lastly, when all of your lives and continues have expired, you must start the entire game over again. With a lot of practice and luck, you just might be able to beat the game, but the ridiculous challenge level will likely turn off more casual players.

Is the game any good? It does offer some interesting stage designs, when said designs do not hinder your progress too much. The graphics are decent, if a bit underwhelming, and some of the battles are pretty exciting. The musical score is pretty good, and one of the tunes was later remixed as "Toot Toot Sonic Warrior" for the Japanese version of Sonic CD. Both the good and bad endings, while minimal, are rather touching. Otherwise, this game is one of Sonic's biggest mistakes, and a far cry from the excellence that was the 16-bit version of Sonic 2.

In recent years, Sonic 2 for the Game Gear has been available in various compilations such as Sonic Gems Collection. Some of these have save state features that prevent you from having to redo some significant portions of the game. However, I wish that the game was not overly challenging in the first place. If Sega had toned the difficulty down a little and polish the game for a while longer, this could have been a hand held masterpiece. Sadly, it turned out to be one of the hedgehog's low points. Try the game out if you are curious, but even the most die hard Sonic fans might want to avoid this. Its challenge level is just so poorly implemented that you may never even finish the game without a ton of practice. Sonic should be ashamed of himself.