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25 years later: SONIC 2sDAY REMEMBERED - by Mr Biffo

29/11/2017

26 Comments

 
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It was 25 years ago today (well, technically last week) that Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was released, on the questionably-named "Sonic 2sday".

I was, by this point, a fan of Sonic - those being the days when Sonic was new and fresh, and not an endless parade of lewds, pockets stuffed with diminishing returns. I remember a mate telling me that he'd picked up the original on import from Wembley Market, and that it was everything the hype had promised. To wit: a gorgeous, super-fast, take on the Mario formula, with bags of carefully curated "attitude". I waited a month for the official release, and was gleeful to note that he wasn't wrong.

I was already looking forward to Sonic 2 when I accidentally landed the job writing for Digitiser. That's a story I've recounted before, but Sonic 2 was a significant part of my Digi misadventure. I was young, naive, and excited that I'd somehow stumbled into the games industry. I didn't expect it to last, but I would at least take my best shot at becoming the next "Jaz" Rignall.

Without really knowing what we were doing, we'd registered with a number of video game PR companies, informing them that Digitiser was taking over the teletext gaming service from Oracle. Sega was the first to give us any sort of acknowledgement - by sending us tickets to the launch of Sonic 2. Admittedly, we never got a free review copy - and wouldn't start getting those from Sega until we began being horrible to them on our pages - but it was, at least, a significant step forwards... even if it would falter.

I'd never experienced anything like it before. I'd been employed by Teletext as a graphics artist, and had no experience of being a journalist. I never intended to write about video games for a living; it's something that happened to me more or less by fluke. Furthermore, launch parties were just something that I saw pictures of in newspapers and magazines; not something a regular pleb like me got to go to.

Best of all, Digi was over a month from launch, so we could enjoy the event (get drunk) without needing to remember enough to write about it. This began a Digitiser games launch party tradition of stroking the backs of celebrities and wandering away without being challenged.
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MASSIVE DEAL
Sonic 2sday was a massive deal, and virtually unprecedented. 

It was a global event - the first of the huge games launches - which helped boost Sega's share of the 16-bit games market by 50%, and ensured that Sonic 2 was possibly the first game that every Mega Drive/Genesis owner had to own the day it was released. Prior to Sonic 2, games just sort of dribbled out without any sort of fanfare.


High profile Sonic 2 launch parties were held at stores in the US and UK - in Toys R Us outlets in New York and Los Angeles, and at Hamley's toy store in London. The US launches were attended by "edgy" teen stars, such as Jonathan Taylor Thomas - from the sitcom Home Improvement - and Dustin Diamond - star of Saved by The Bell (who recently served four months in prison for disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon, but that's another story). Several had been paid to attend, and were filmed expressing their love for the game. Two facts which were, I'm sure, entirely unrelated...

In comparison, the best the UK launch could manage, to the best of my memory, was Tucker Jenkins and Right Said Fred, who rocked up purely on the promise of some free drink, after-hours toy shopping, and being stroked.

According to accounts, this mega-launch was masterminded by Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske - who was viewed with suspicion by his Japanese counterparts, seeing him as something of a silver-haired megalomaniac. It would kick off a power struggle between the company's US and Japanese divisions - the latter throwing a hissy over Kalinske's aggressive approach to marketing, and deciding unilaterally that the game would be released in Japan three days before the rest of the world.

Regardless, Kalinske's gamble paid off, and it's fair to say that Sonic 2 was a lewd hit straight out of the bath. Speaking at the New York launch, held a few hours after the UK one, Kalinske coughed: “Today we have received word that Sonic 2 is already off to an incredibly fast start. The game has been on store shelves in the United Kingdom less than a day and already it’s sold eight hundred thousand units.”

A promotional video filmed at the New York launch was played on all major news outlets, in which Dustin Diamond spoke highly of the game's speed, drawing particular attention to how Sonic 2 made full use of the 16-bit system's "Blast Processing" capabilities. Again, nothing to do with any appearance fees, as he's clearly an individual with integrity. I'm sure he just really liked "Blast Processing"...

In all, the release of Sonic 2 - not including the cost of development, a co-production between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, which took less than 12 months - cost the company around $10 million. Fortunately, Sega made over $30 million on launch day alone.
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UNHAPPY
Regardless of its success, not everyone was happy with the finished product. In early 1992, an unfinished ROM of Sonic 2 had been stolen from a New York City toy expo. The leaked version - released online a few years back - included stages which never made it into the completed game. The levels Wood Zone and Hidden Palace Zone were dropped due to a combination of cartridge capacity, and the ambitious released date imposed upon the development team.

Both later turned up, in revised form, in Sonic & Knuckles, whereas another level - alluded to in the unfinished ROM - sported the worrying name "Genocide City". A planned time travel element also had to be set aside, later turning up in Sonic CD.

The development team felt they were forced to throttle their ambitions in order to slither through Kalinske's launch window. Even the name of Sonic's new sidekick was an act of compromise; Sega of Japan favoured the pun-tastic Miles Prower, whereas Sega of America wanted him to be called Tails. In the end, he was known as Miles "Tails" Prower: The Two-Tailed Tit.

Nevertheless, Sonic 2 was well received by the gaming press, garnering 9s and 10s out of 10 across the board. One exception was Games Master magazine's Andy Lowe, who bravely awarded it 65% for being too similar to its predecessor.

Going back to it now, regardless of what Andy Lowe thought, Sonic 2 was the last great, all-original, Sonic game. Sonic 3, Sonic CD and Sonic & Knuckles were solid entries, but mostly reheated the formula. Following the end of the Mega Drive era, Sega dropped the ball spectacularly, seemingly unsure how to wring the best out of its mascot. It's an issue which remains to this day, and has seen the company mash its face into brick wall after brick wall.

Sonic 2, however, marked the real beginning of a golden age. It underscored the promise of the 16-bit era, and helped the shift of gaming from being a hobbyist pursuit for solitary teens to something that everybody could enjoy. Furthermore, Sega's marketing managed inexplicably to make gaming seem cool; something it had always failed to be.

Digitiser never reviewed Sonic 2, given that it was released more than a month before we went on air. Nevertheless, the first thing on the first page of the very first Digi was a graphic I'd drawn of Sonic. For me, the two are forever intertwined.

​Also, I got a load of grief from idiots for giving Sonic 3 72%, which pretty much marked the end of my love affair with the series. Happy now, Andy Lowe?
26 Comments
Carl Harrison
29/11/2017 10:48:37 am

Do you still have the review of Sonic 3? Would love to give it a read. I was eagerly awaiting its release (came out not long after my birthday) and was a very expensive £60. Not as bad as Virtua Racing's £70 tag but still....

Sonic CD is still my favourite, in part due to the soundtrack being awesome and the game having more unique ideas than Sonic 2 (I'm surprised you don't prefer it to be honest). Overall, great writeup and makes me long for the days of games surprising us almost out of nowhere instead of the steady stream of information we have today.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
29/11/2017 12:42:23 pm

You don't want to read it. It was clearly written by someone wearing Super Mario pyjamas and inebriated on bathtub moonshine.

72??????!!!!!!!!??????!!!?????

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Voodoo76
29/11/2017 03:18:08 pm

Good point Carl I completely agree. It was great walking into a game shop not knowing what new games would have been released since the last time. Now we know EVERYTHING.

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Col. Asdasd
29/11/2017 11:31:39 am

My favourite 2D Sonic was one of the ones on the GBA. I can't remember if it was the first or the second. I appreciated being able to move forwards and backwards through the levels at will, what with it being a series that demands so much trial and error to find the 'best' routes.

The different abilities that each character offered were quite well implemented, and it looked and sounded very charming, and though I have no way of measuring this it felt like there were less cheap insta-deaths than in the Megadrive games. Good little game - a solid 8/10.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
29/11/2017 12:44:16 pm

Easy way to tell: did you at any point press a direction other than right?

If you did, it was Sonic Advance 1 (which was, before Mania, the closest to a classic 2D Sonic game Sega had come in decades).

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colincidence link
29/11/2017 01:48:02 pm

Asdasd must be on about Advance 1. I very much enjoyed Spiney's response, though I do think Advance 2 is a reasonably strong game, complementing Advance 1's focus on exploration with its focus on hyperspeed and pretty design (and the stupid wheel boss and making you get the emeralds five times).

I played a bit of Advance 3 and it seemed a wreck.

Spiney O’Sullivan
29/11/2017 07:58:08 pm

I don’t hate Sonic Advance 2 (except the bosses), but it was something very different, and had a focus completely on speed over platforming. In some ways it felt like what the main series games went on to become (though Rush would really define it). It also had a few too many giant death pits for my liking, which started happening a lot in the series after that.

Also the addition of Cream the Rabbit was terrible even by the standard of new Sonic characters. The only thing that could be said Cream is “at least she isn’t Rouge or Shadow”.

Col. Asdasd
29/11/2017 08:57:44 pm

Haha, I feel like the entire extended cast of the series is a hierarchy of relationships defined exclusively by the comparison 'at least I'm not as bad as ...'

And yes, looking at the box art on wikipedia is was indeed 1 I favoured over 2, although I had them both. Thanks chaps. I hate to say 'it must be because it's the most Mario-like Sonic game I've played; that's a typical Smug Digi Reader pronouncement but I'm afraid in this case I am a typical Smug Digi Reader.

The sad thing is I think I was born to be a Sonic fan. It was the second videogame I ever played aged 3, coming hot on the heels of Rampage of all things, and the five minutes I spent with its vibrant colours and the inimitable Green Hill theme shackled me to the hobby forever. But my parents got me a NES and a copy of SMB1 - the salesperson at Boots blithely assuring them that it was indeed the one with the 'blue cat' - and so I was conscripted for the other side.

Andy Lowe link
29/11/2017 11:43:27 am

Hello! (You said my name three times in this article, so I was compelled to pop in.)

I think my 65 Sonics out of 100 Sonics had a lot to do with my love of ‘pure’ ‘80s arcade games - where deaths could be prevented with sharper skill and twitchier reflexes. When I played Sonic 2, it felt more like it was playing me. Lots of dash and flash but only fun as a game if you bothered to learn the levels by heart.

I do quite like it now, though.

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Jare... I mean Mrtankthreat
29/11/2017 02:17:49 pm

You were right the first time. In fact 65 was too high. Sonic was a triumph of marketing over gameplay that fooled idiots and because I didn't like it shouldn't have been made. There, I said it.

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Andy Lowe link
29/11/2017 02:26:26 pm

:) If only we could go back in time and unmake all the things we don't like.

Billy the Fish
29/11/2017 12:14:38 pm

I blame the casino night level of that game for my crippling gambling addiction. It just made gambling seem so fun and now I steal wifi from the library and live in a bin.

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Mr T
29/11/2017 01:12:00 pm

As LONG as it’s not MY bin!

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Jareth Smith
29/11/2017 01:58:38 pm

Probably the series' high point, although the Sonic games (like Crash Bandicoot) always seem to be celebrated by those who've never played the best the platform genre has to offer: Mega Man 2, Super Mario, Rayman, Castlevania etc.

With the explosion of the indie scene, it's interesting how the Sonic games have aged so badly, yet so many other developers have produced timeless classics. Further nail in the Sonic coffin - all modern games for him are either horrendous or embarrassingly mediocre.

Still, Sonic 2 was good fun. Got to love the music, at the very least.

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Sevenlegs
29/11/2017 03:46:45 pm

I don't think the original 2D Sonics have aged badly at all, they're still perfectly playable today - Sonic Mania is great fun and barely changes the formula at all. The 3D ones on the other hand...

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Jareth Smith
29/11/2017 03:58:09 pm

Sevenlegs - Oh, they're playable, but I'd say the magic formula certainly was never there. Not in the way you can pick up Super Mario Bros 3. from several years earlier, Mega Man 2, or Super Metroid and just play it and think "that is pure genius". Sonic was never at that level.

Mrtankthreat
29/11/2017 04:37:42 pm

Sonic wasn't even at the level of Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! or Cool Spot.

MENTALIST
29/11/2017 02:31:37 pm

Sonic 2 seemed too easy, and, probably mostly as a result of that, too short for a platform game in the early 90s.

Nowadays, those traits, and the fact it doesn't cost much money (or nothing if you pirate a ROM, or find an old megadrive with a copy), just makes it seem pleasantly accessible, and so it stands up really well in this day and age.

I offer it to my children to play, because it's not too awkward for their tablet-softened hands, compared to the more complex or difficult Mario games, when I feel like indulging in old school gaming with them.

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Dr. Budd Buttocks, MD
29/11/2017 02:32:39 pm

Sonic was never good.

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Kelvin Green link
29/11/2017 08:29:26 pm

01 09 09 02 01 01 02 04

(ring sound)

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Mike
29/11/2017 08:58:25 pm

Once, in Dixons a sales chap was asked by a parent ‘which has got better graphics, SNES or Megadrive?’ He he pointed to the screens playing Super Mario World and Sonic 2, and said ‘well, you can see the Megadrive has better graphics’. Knowing my stuff, I almost jumped in to correct him, but as a loyal Megadrive owner, I saw it as a bit of a win, albeit a little below the belt, in the ongoing video game war of the time. Secretly, I actually preferred the look of Megadrive games, so there.

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Mark bouttell
29/11/2017 09:24:29 pm

I remember this like it was yesterday. I still have my sonic 2sday official Sega promo jacket, though it is very tatty these days. If I could get it referred I'd still wear it

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Lummox60N
30/11/2017 07:31:44 pm

"Miles Prower". 25 years and ONLY TODAY have I figured it out. "Miles Per Hour". Hahahahaahahaaahahaaa, genius.
I remember Sonic 2sday like it was yesterday, though, so I don't feel too much like I've been a clueless tit for a quarter of a century.

I bought Sonic 2 for my Game Gear the week after, so stoically unmoved by the hype was I.
Woooooooo, HANG GLIDER, though.

Never really liked Sonic, to tell the truth. But I had a Student Grant.

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Kelvin Green link
5/12/2017 08:49:28 pm

That hang-glider was a bastard. Not as bad as the level that was all springs and spikes though. That was King Bastard.

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Slugworth
2/12/2017 12:23:19 pm

I had sonic 2 on the master system, I never owned a mega drive but played that version years later. I loved the master system version though, as well as the first one.

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Otto Von Smallhausen
9/12/2017 01:43:55 pm

"Right Said Fred" - Reich Said Fred more like given his recent comments. Did he come across as a bit of a secret Nazi back then as well Biffs?

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