Growing Pains - Sonic 2 for the Game Gear
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2024
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Genesis is one of the all-time great platformers, but what about Sonic 2 for the Game Gear? It's a completely different experience, to say the least. Sega's second Sonic entry for its portable system is even more difficult than I remembered as a kid. And it's also... stranger. Developer Aspect's first Game Gear/Master System Sonic shows that there were some growing pains. Hey, at least Sky High Zone's music is a bop.
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I had this on Master System. It was somewhat more difficult from the first game, but not much. From what I'm seeing here, the game is cropped (due to hardware limitations I assume) compared to the MS version, making it really difficult to see where you're going!
Yeah, this was clearly designed for the Master System first and either they didn’t have time to rework the levels for the Game Gear or…honestly I’m not sure how else you’d end up with what we got.
As someone has noted, this was developed for the Master System, which had a much better field of view. The GameGear version was so zoomed in, and that's a lot of what made it so difficult.
It's funny how the screen crunch basically kills this game, the Master System version is actually kinda decent, but the Game Gear version becomes terrible even though it's basically the same game simply because you can't see the obstacles in front of you in time to react.
And yet, Sega prefers to act as if the Master System never existed and re-release only the Game Gear versions even though it knows that the best versions of 8-bit Sonic games are the Master System ones. (except for Sonic Blast since the Master System version has less details, fewer colors and problems with screen filling)
I think I and my friends got a game gear when they all came with Sonic 2 and my experience of it was exactly what was described in this video. It took me forever to just barely get past the first zone boss, with lots of sessions never having a single success, and then when I finally did get past it I remember this weird mix of happiness, confusion, and frustration at the fact that the game seemed to get SIGNIFICANTLY from there. The furthest I ever got, as I recall, was the seal boss, who I recall being confused by, not sure how I was supposed to hurt him, and my hands being super sweaty because I'd cleared the first zone boss with 1 life, so I'd been stuck on 1 life this whole time, having just navigated that nightmare what level section you higlighted, just to lose to a boss because I couldn't figure out how to hurt him before my fingers slipped and I took a hit.
I think after that I kind of checked the game off in my head as "beaten", the real end boss having been the zone 1 boss who I finally over came. If I had gotten any better at clearing the first boss, rather then just winning through pure luck, I'm certain I could have gotten further (though from this video perhaps never having gotten to that metal sonic level was a kindness), but the stress from knowing I might never get to zone 2 and beyond again had made playing those levels, which other wise could have been fun, so unfun, I think I realized it just wasn't worth it at that point.
I believe I watched some other deep dive into the game's history a long time ago where they discovered the issue wasn't that hte levels got swapped (necessarily) but rather that the game gear is just a REALLY bad port, that the first boss gives you a ton of room to see the balls coming and dodge in the original master system version, but because of the screen cropping the exact same boss is made nearly impossible. From what I recall this cropping issue made basically the entire game significantly harder then the master system version, but it was that first boss in particular who went from mildly difficult to something whose difficulty puts most Sonic's final bosses to shame.
Seriously, I can't get over how good the music is in this game! Some of the absolute best music ever heard on the Game Gear or Master System without question!
It's been 30 years since I first played this game. I was able to beat it many times on the Game Gear with some practice. Never played it on the emulator. I actually liked this game because it was relatively hard. Every time I beat it, it felt like an accomplishment, unlike the other Sonic games which were too easy in my opinion. With regard to Scrambled Egg Zone, it's all about muscle memory. Watching you fly through those pipes, my brain is still mentally pushing those direction buttons and I can't help but notice the mistakes you made choosing the wrong pipes. That's how much I played this game. (Wasted youth perhaps). By the way, if you want hard, try Ax Battler, the final castle level or Aerial Assault, Level 3-2, the underground base. Cheers!
With Greenhills zone there is so many free lives available, literally collect 4 or 5 and then die and repeat until you have heaps
Green Hills was a great surprise and breath of fresh air in the middle of the game, it’s a great reward for passing those difficult levels and the music is dope
That fucking hand-gliding section was an absolute nightmare!
Watching both your videos so far has kinda peaked my interest in checking these out! Keep up the good work!
It's one of those games you just memorise the stages to get through without losing to many lives. But especially when you have to find the chaos emeralds, you need precise jumps or your not going to get it.
It's easier on the Master System. I've actually finished it on actual hardware on the Master System with collecting all emeralds. Lots of practice and trial and error
I played it on my phone using the APK and I got to the final stage then BOOM! *GAME OVER* Back to the start! Crap, I'm gonna suffer from Boss 1 again!
I remember playing this on the master system. Whilst it's easier than the game gear the were still trial and error parts
I had this on my Game Gear and a friend had it on the Master System. I managed to complete it on my friend's Master System, but never got it on the GG. The first boss is definitely more difficult on the GG as the canon balls the boss drops all bounce at different heights, whereas on the MS they all bounce at the same height + the extra screen space helps. Similarly, it's slightly more difficult getting to the Green Hills boss on the GG, and the smaller screen space on the GG makes the Gimmick Mountain boss much more difficult too.
I actually quite liked Scrambled Egg zone though.
I got a Game Gear that came with Sonic 2 for Christmas when I was about 5. It was my first console and game to call my own. I remember getting so frustrated with the first boss that it made me cry lol beating it was an unbelievable feat back then... only to get to those damn gliders in the next stage... never beat this game until getting it on the 3DS virtual console.
Randomly discovered this video. Man, this, Sonic Chaos, Shinobi, Halley's Comet, and Defenders of the Oasis...I still have my game gear around here with all it's silly attachments.
Loved this video! Bringing back some memories
when eggman saves sonic before the first boss fight : " no only I should kill sonic " 😂
My theory is that Eggman wants the chaos emerald from sonic
@@Kanbei11 now it all makes sense...
"My only regret is that I didn't get the pleasure of finishing you off myself!"
Really enjoying these videos, very good content!
On a side note, has anyone ever told you that you kind of look like McLovin' from Superbad? Not a bad thing, but you certainly make me think of him.
The zone-swapping theory would definitely make sense, Sonic always did best outside of Japan, and game rental is legal outside Japan. So to combat someone just renting the game, beating it, and returning it, a lot of games during this period had cheap difficulty tweaks outside Japan in order to encourage players to actually buy the game so they can git gud and beat it. And, a lot of games developed in Japan just started being developed with these tweaks in mind, with some devs getting lazy and making things cheap no matter what, with no option to circumvent it in any version of the game, and other devs having multiple difficulty modes, with Japan's "normal" mode in a lot of games becoming the US' "easy" mode, and "hard" becoming "normal", with the original "easy" modes being scrapped entirely in Western releases.
So, Under Ground Zone probably was planned for later in the game, but due to the trickiness of the boss, it probably got bumped up as per corporate. Japanese companies' xenophobia is only turned off when it benefits them financially...
I played this game when when I was younger also. I had the same problems you did, but managed to only make it to the second stage.
Until seeing this video, I haven't thought about these same questions that's brought up in this video. Interesting in a way, but not so much that I'd want to play it again. I already wrote this game off as it feels like an excuse to put Sonic on the GG, but that's enough out of me.
Good review!
I casually stumbled upon this vid and was in shock with the amount of views and subs of the channel. The editing is tip top. Anyways, great video. Here is to hoping your channel takes off and to me becoming a subscriber!
Dude... Don't you dare praise this guy! This game is an absolute masterpiece & he sounds like a complete fool bashing it just cus he completely sucks at games. Do not praise this garbage!
I don't know how 5 year old me found Gimmick Mountain's emerald other than it being a complete accident.
I remember beating sonic 2 on game gear and seeing the Tails constellation because I missed one emerald. I told myself it wasn't worth going back and getting all emeralds.
Growing up in the early 90’s in the sonic craze. After a fun sonic the hedgehog game 1 for GG, this sonic 2 broke me as a child as well in 2 areas mainly the first zone boss and the silly hand glider thing in level 2. I found the bosses very basic and plain and levels very vanilla! So yeah as an adult i did complete the game with frustration but this is my least favourite sonic game in all the series. Great video though i appreciate it
I disagreed completely. I loved this game beyond description. It was one of the greatest highlights of my childhood happiness. Definitely one of the greatest games of all time. I loved it. And beat it. And it's true, it actually was a real challenge that required skill. I miss it and am glad to see it again in this vid. Brings back memories. I can't even tell u how fullfilling it was to beat it.
Woah
I fully agree, its an amazing game! I can't stand seeing so many ppl bash on this game. I cringe every time I see some lame ass shit gamer talking crap about it. It's them, not the game. There just seems to be so many horrible gamers out there. The game is tough but it's not THAT tough. Git gud I say.
And yeah I also beat it when I was a kid back when it first came out. I was even able to find all of the Chaos Emeralds with no help! This was back before the Internet even existed so there was no guides for it. It did admittedly take me a while to find the emerald in the Sky High Zone, I was pretty easily able to find all of the others but that one alluded me for a while.
I thought I was the only one who had trouble on the first boss!!!
It's funny how the screen crunch basically kills this game, the Master System version is actually kinda decent, but the Game Gear version becomes terrible even though it's basically the same game simply because you can't see the obstacles in front of you in time to react.
And yet, Sega prefers to act as if the Master System never existed and re-release only the Game Gear versions even though it knows that the best versions of 8-bit Sonic games are the Master System ones. (except for Sonic Blast since the Master System version has less details, fewer colors and problems with screen filling)
I'm sure he's gotten this many times but while it isn't a game changer the master system versions of the sonic platformers are better just for the field of view alone. The deaths are no longer cheap and it seems like they were made for Master system but screen crunched for game gear. Yet the game gear versions are what's always ported in sonic vollections
this game made me bust my game gear only half the screen worked after...only had one friend make it past the first boss
Lol I really don't get why ppl say the Gliders are hard to control. You tap the back button to stay aloft. That's it. What exactly is so hard about that?
dunno about the game gear but i beat this a ton on the master system.
Taz in Tasmania broke me
I agree back as a kid this was hard and NOTHING LIKE MY GENESIS VERSION!!!! But as of now I like it as well as the other Sonic Game Gear titles I own. I consider this as Sonic 1 part 2 more than Sonic 2. Sonic 2 is more Sonic Chaos and Sonic 3 is Sonic Triple Trouble aka the BEST SONIC GAME GEAR GAME on the Game Gear. 👍. Another amazing game series on Game Gear that I find to be the BEST from others is Power Rangers.
Yeah, I'm sure you couldn't get the level select to show up in an Emulator, cus of input lag. Bet you don't even know about input lag & how Emuators have tons of it. But yes the level select code is pretty tough to get to work in this game & you do need precise button inputs, which if there's input lag like in an Emulator you're gonna have a hard time with that. You need to be playing with original hardware or a lagless setup.
I Rather Play The Genesis Sonic 2
Every time I see some lame crappy gamer making negative videos about this masterpiece it makes me cringe so hard. It's not the game, it's you, I can absolutely promise you that. This game is absolutely amazing! I never had that much trouble with it even as a young kid when it first came out.
I had a Game Gear and this game when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old & was able to beat the entire game even then. Yeah, the last zone took some time as it is indeed very tough. The 1st boss that everyone complains about is really not that hard at all. There are just so many ppl that suck at games it seems, everywhere I turn there's ppl complaining about this game's difficulty. Lol same with the first TMNT for NES. Again, not that hard, and a great game in it's own right!
Imo this game is amazing & the music is amazing! & Aqua Lake Zone has far better music than Sky High. Even my non gamer friends like the music in that stage.
relax yo. "To each their own shitty opinions" as my friend says.
@@Judex1963 Or to each their own shitty gamer would be more accurate. The game is amazing, there's no question about it. Just cus a player sucks so badly that they can't beat it isn't the game's fault, & It's honestly not even that hard. There are FAR harder games out there from back then.
@@skins4thewin i'm sure there's a game out there you find frustrating, that some other guy loves and is good at, and he'd call you a poor gamer for not liking it. It's silly man. Chill out yo. This is youtube. No disrespect in the youtube comment section, everyone knows that.
@@Judex1963 Lol only one I can really think of that could qualify is Super Ghouls & Ghosts on the SNES. I suck at that game but for good reason, it's legitimately tough! It's way, WAY harder than Sonic 2 for GG that's for damn sure!
GEN: Nice.
SMS: Bad.
On MasterSystem/GameGear, Sonic2 is the shittiest game 💩
It has good graphics, good music, but the level design is shit.
I prefer Sonic1 in 8bit, simpler, less fast, but cooler levels 🕹
The first boss was really fucking easy, all you had to do was stand in a certain spot and the bombs bounced over you. If you could never figure that out as a kid (I was 9 myself at the time and passed it first time) it's not the game, you just really suck
this game is a scam
You sob, I’m in.