Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Remastered Review

The Sonic The Hedgehog series is one of the most popular franchises ever created in the gaming world. Unlike the equally popular Super Mario series, however, the franchise starring SEGA’s mascot has been going through some up and downs after the 16 bit generation, with a few bad games that have almost irreparably tarnished the reputation of Sonic and his friends.

Together with new games, SEGA hasn’t been shy about releasing most of the older games on newer platforms, allowing younger games to experience the magical high speed action of the series. Unfortunately the quality of moat these ports has been pretty bad, going from sloppy ports to downright unplayable titles.

Sonic The Hedgehog and its sequel have been released on the App Store some time ago. The Sonic The Hedgehog 2 port was particularly bad with low quality graphics, plenty of glitches and removed features.

Luckily SEGA has decided to set things right by releasing an updated version of the game, called Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Remastered. Did the Japanese company finally do justice to one of its best games? The answer is, without a doubt, yes.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Remastered has been developed by Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley, the guys behind the excellent Sonic CD port. Sonic 2 Remastered is not only a perfect port of the original but an even better game, thanks to some extra features. Aside from the obvious graphical and sound improvements, Sonic 2 Remastered allows gamers to use Tails and Knuckles right from the start. This isn’t the first time both characters are playable in Sonic 2, to tell the truth, but in this version of the game levels have been slightly altered so to offer more sections where the special abilities of Sonic’s friends can shine. This also means that veterans of the game will find some new stuff to do.

Among the addition is a brand new zone called Hidden Palace, a zone that has been cut from the original game due to time constraints. The Hidden Palace has not been included in the normal level progression and it must be discovered separately. The zone is incredibly well designed, offering new enemies and new challenges. It’s different from the original prototype version but it’s just as good and a more than worthy addition to the game.

Sonic 2 Remastered includes the same features found in the port of the original game, vastly enhancing the experience. The two players mode has also been included again but it doesn’t work as nicely as expected. This is probably the only fault in an otherwise great port that finally does justice to the original game.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Remastered, together with Sonic CD, should really be held as an example on how to do a port of an older game, . Not only the game runs as the original did but also adds a few new features that add quite a lot to the whole experience.