5/5 ★ – Poefred's review of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Sonic 2 manages to take a lot of the appeal of sonic 1, and keep the pace up in ways 1 sometimes dropped the ball on. What I really appreciate, is that while yes it is faster paced, it doesn't lose the depth that makes 2D sonic fun, as there's a very clear difficulty curve throughout the whole game. And it also doesn't waste time with levels that go on long after they've made their point. Each level says what it wants to say, and moves on. A level like chemical plant act 1, very much plays itself, it's something I'd give other games in the series flack for. But how it's used is very smart. Act 1 is a very short stage, only being like 40 seconds long at most on average. And its entire purpose, is to show just how fast sonic can go this time, which was big at the time coming off of sonic 1. This level says *Sonic is REALLY fast now* and moves on. Act 2 throws the rising water into the mix with the noob trap that a lot of beginners struggle on. As you get better at the game, you won't have any issues getting past this part, but it's still satisfying to go through flawlessly. Or if you're really experienced you can skip the entire section alltogether. Act 1 shows you the speeds you can reach, act 2 shows you it won't always be free and that the game rewards repeat playthroughs and skill. Then you get to aquatic ruin and the whole zone is about skill and game knowledge keeping you out of the water. Falling into the water leads to an entirely different experience than staying above land, making it inherently satisfying to go as fast as possible without falling. The whole game builds on itself like this, leading up to a perfect final boss that embodies everything this game is going for. People often wish they'd give you even one ring for this boss but I think that would entirely kill how good it is. When fighting the death egg robot, the pace of the battle is 100% dictated by you. The fight literally just slowly steps forward at you, it's a very slow and predictable pattern. If you take it slow, he realistically can't touch you, it'll just take a while. But the better you are, the more risks you take, the faster you'll beat it. He's practically always vulnerable to attacks, it's up to you to decide if you're personally able to hit him without dying. You could just hit him once after every cycle while he's about to take off, and you'll eventually win with no hassle. But everyone fights him different depending on their skill level. This fight is emblematic of the design philosophy present in the whole game. And so much as a single ring would throw it all out and make the optimal strategy just damage boosting through it, which is all the rage with Mania fans for some reason. Any critiques I have don't really effect the game's appeal too much. Bosses could be better besides a few stand out ones. Casino Night's boss makes great use of momentum, wish more of the others followed that style rather than oil ocean's lame fight. Special stages are iconic but not really worth doing this time around for any reason despite being the first appearance of Super Sonic. I wish the pinball springs would charge faster in Casino Night. But yeah, every level's great and I've beaten this game countless times and at this point, multiple times on practically every console. P.S. Metropolis zone isn't remotely annoying or really even difficult to beat. I like that there's 3 acts of it as a climactic buildup to the final level, with a relaxed plane auto scroller between them. Love the auto scroller actually, and not even because it's engaging. Normally I hate them but the way its used in this game is both as a relief and a tension builder at the same time. Coming after a level that potentially beat you around a bit (And at the very least took the longest out of any level before it), and leading into the final level. And the music really personifies that bittersweet feeling of being out of the rough patch but your adventure isn't over yet. Sonic 2 doesn't have much story but it's able to tell an emotional journey through the player's experience in this section and it's great. Where Sonic 1 would have ended at metropolis, 2 goes the extra mile with a very memorable climax. But yeah I don't understand why some people say the game falls off in the second half, saying levels like metropolis are so unfair. The rings mechanic alone literally makes Sonic one of, if not THE most forgiving retro platformers. I have no concept as to how people stomach most megaman games yet go baby mode when they play a Sonic game. Also as a beginner, you can always replay the game and come at harder sections with more lives than you did before. The whole game's made for replay value, getting a game over isn't the end of the world when it comes to this game imo. Rad game~