Featured Image

The header image for this episode is an edited version of KD_Buck’s image: Lego Sonic Sega Hedgehog Legos over on Pixabay. The only edit made was to place the Waffling Taylors logo inside the loop in the background.

Players

RUSSELL

Squidge

Jay

G to the Next Level

Franny

Alyxa

Mad Viking God

JonnyG

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Show Notes

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Sonic 2sday

Tuesday November 24th, 1992 - aka the worldwide release of Sonic 2 on the Genesis

we wanted to create a very special episode of the podcast, and it ended up being so long that we split it into four. And this is part two of that series of special episodes; with part one having released last week

here’s a link to part one

We wanted to create an episode which would have us interviewing some amazing people that we know from the podcasting and video content community, and wanted to talk with them about their memories of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Genesis/ Mega Drive; and reach out, we did.

As you can see from our players section

psst. if you’re not reading these show notes on the website, then you’re missing out

we reached out to some amazing folks. In fact, we got so much content that we’ve had to split this special episode into two separate episodes, each with two parts. In this episode we talked with:

  • G to the Next Level
  • Franny
  • Alyxa
  • Mad Viking God
  • JonnyG

the show notes here are just a sample of the conversation in this episode, so please do give it a listen as we go off on many a tangent and cover a whole BUNCH of stuff. There’s a player at the top of this page for your convenience.

Assisting us with this episode was Russell, an artificial intelligence that Jay may or may not have sunk several years of his life into creating, for the specific purpose of making everyone’s lives easier. Russell took hosting duties for this episode

you’ll see why as we work our way through the series

and started us all off with the first question:

Question 3: All of the Sonic 2 Music Slaps. Please Tell Us Your Preference For Most And Least Favourite Tunes?

G found it hard to choose a least favourite, but knew his favourite without hesitation:

G-to-the-Next-Level's Avatar G to the Next Level:

Easily my favourite is Chemical Plant; that’s my favourite song in the entire game. And still to this day, it’s probably, it’s not my favourite Sonic track of all time, but it’s up there… My favourite ever is Doorway to Summer from Knuckles’ Chaotix from the 32x; that’s my favourite Sonic tune of all time. But in Sonic 2, Chemical Plant is definitely my favourite.

Least favourite?! That’s tough. That soundtrack is nothing but bangers. I think it would probably be…

You didn’t think that we would give it away without you listening, did you?

And Franny talks about the bop-tastic breakdown in the Chemical Plant Zone music:

Franny-Druids-of-Doom's Avatar Franny:

Oh man. So my zone song would have to be the Chemical Plant Zone. That one just rips, and it kinda just gives me vibes of almost ’80s Pop/Rock music. That breakdown that they have in the middle of the song that just happens, regardless of where you are in the level… just gets me boppin’ every. single. time.

Alyxa is the third person in a row to give an up-doot to Chemical Plant Zone’s music, but really dislikes the drowning theme:

Alyxa's Avatar Alyxa:

The thing is that I really do like the Chemical Plant theme itself; not the drowning theme. Like, tell me one person who liked the drowning theme. It’s really well done for what it needs to do, but I don’t think that they should have done that.

And MVG took it back to the start of the game:

MVG's Avatar Mad Viking God:

So I went back through and listened to the different music from the different levels of Sonic 2. And I have to say that the one I recognise the most and feel the most comfortable in is, what is it? Green Hill? The very first stage.

It’s upbeat, it’s kinda comforting, it has a sense of urgency. Like it has a sense that it matches the speed of Sonic going, but it’s not frantic and makes me want to panic.

And for JonnyG, it’s all about the…:

JonnyG's Avatar JonnyG:

I had to go back and look, and I think that the bassline for Mystic Cave Zone is an all time true banger, and I puts that pretty high up. But in all honesty, I think that Aquatic Ruin is my favourite of the songs from Sonic 2.

Especially of all the remixed ones, that one is my favourite. There’s a jazz musician on YouTube called InsaneInTheMusic and he does a very fancy, grown up - I don’t want to say educated Jazz, but he does a Jazz theory type cover of Aquatic Ruin, and it is so dynamite.

And here is an embedded video of InsaneInTheMusic’s Aquatic Ruin Zone cover:

Question 4: Please Tell Us, Was Sonic 2 Your First Venture Into The Sonic Games?

G was a bit of a pro at Sonic games before Sonic 2 was released, adn even bought it on Sonic 2sday:

G-to-the-Next-Level's Avatar G to the Next Level:

Oh no, no no. It wasn’t my first. My first was the original Sonic game. Because when I first got my original Sonic in Christmas ‘91 with the Genesis, when my parents got me one.

Because my Dad and I used to go the arcade a lot, and that arcade has pretty much every classic SEGA game imaginable. Like, they had After Burner, they had Altered Beast, they had Outrun, they had Space Harrier. So when it was time to move up from the NES, because my Dad was really familiar with all those games - plus it really helped that they had a golf game that he really wanted.

And Franny talks about his memories at his Aunt and Uncle’s house:

Franny-Druids-of-Doom's Avatar Franny:

So the first Sonic - the regular "Sonic the Hedgehog" - was my first experience.

My earliest memory of playing the SEGA Genesis, over at my Aunt and Uncle’s house, was playing Sonic; and they had both cartridges. I did beat the first Sonic, and they we moved on to Sonic 2… but anyway, the first Sonic is was my first experience with Sonic. And from that day forward, it blew my mind that a game like this existed, and I’m still a huge fan of the Sonic series.

For Alyxa, it was a family affair:

Alyxa's Avatar Alyxa:

It was both Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2 because I’m pretty sure that my parents bought the console when they moved in together… and I don’t had that many Mega Drive games, I think I had six or seven, and Sonic and Sonic 2 were the ones I played the most apart from Tiny Toon’s [Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure] and The Lion King.

But I’m going to say that Sonic and Sonic 2 were both my first entries. I can’t really say which one of them I played first.

And MVG shares his memories of the first three games, combined… quite literally:

MVG's Avatar Mad Viking God:

So I know, because my parents have kept a wonderful catalogue of everything that I have ever owned - as best that they could, that it isn’t the first game: I have Sonic 1.

And I do have very fond memories of both Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. But I think the fondest memory that I have is when you combined it with Sonic 3 - like Sonic 3 had that weird adapter - and you could play Sonic 2, but with Knuckles.

JonnyG’s first was Sonic 2, but he did go back and get the others at a later stage:

JonnyG's Avatar JonnyG:

I actually think that it was.

I know that didn’t own Sonic 3 until I was an adult basically, like we had to get it off of eBay when I was in high school… I think that, as a child, Sonic 2 was the first one that we played, and they we went back and got the first one; and then eventually got Sonic & Knuckles and never got Sonic 3 for some reason.

Question 5: Please Tell Us, Did You Ever Complete Sonic 2 And Did You Get The Good Ending?

We all knew that G had beaten Sonic 2 and got the good ending, but it would have been rude not to ask:

G-to-the-Next-Level's Avatar G to the Next Level:

Yeah, oh yeah. Absolutely I did.

And did you wanna know the funny thing about me: I actually got the good ending in Sonic 2 before I got the good ending in Sonic 1. As a kid, I could never get all the- because the bonus levels in Sonic 1 always irked me, as a kid. I could never get all of the Chaos Emeralds in the first one.

In the second one I was able to get them fairly quickly; but like we talked about earlier, having CPU controlled Tails can be problematic when you’re trying to do it on your own, for those bonus stages.

But yeah, oh yeah. I absolutely did. And you’re absolutely right, that feeling of: you did it, and now you get to see Super Sonic just being awesome, adn him saving everybody.

It was wonderful.

Franny is in an unfortunate position of never having beaten Sonic 2:

Franny-Druids-of-Doom's Avatar Franny:

Unfortunately, I haven’t ever beaten Sonic 2. Sonic 1, yes; but Sonic 2, unfortunately no.

… I haven’t beaten it, mostly because - nowadays withstanding, I’m an adult and have adult things to do - when I was a kid, we had a Nintendo and my only exposure to Sonic was when I went over to my Aunt and Uncle’s, so I never actually beat it.

But I had no idea there was an alternate ending. I didn’t that was a thing until you said something; and it kinda blows my mind that that was actually a thing, way back when.

Alyxa too is in the same position:

Alyxa's Avatar Alyxa:

No, I never finished it. But that is something that is on my bucket list.

Alyxa: "I will never die until I have finished Sonic 1 and Sonic 2! I refuse."

Death: "Your time has come."

Alyxa: "I still haven’t finished!"

MVG doesn’t know which ending he got:

MVG's Avatar Mad Viking God:

I did complete it. I don’t know if I got the good ending or not. I really, I truly don’t know. Because until you asked me this question, I didn’t know that there was a second ending.

I actually had to go look it up, and I’m remembering finished it from back when I was maybe eight or nine, right - this is a while back.

I know that I’d finished it, because I finished every game that I had - where possible, right. But looking back I’m like, "is this one of the first games that I played that had alternative endings?" Like, I played Mass Effect and there are like eight million different endings for that, but did Sonic 2 beat them to it?

JonnyG remembers beating it, but not as a kid:

JonnyG's Avatar JonnyG:

Certainly not as a child.

The only one that I was able to actually do, and, you know, get all the emeralds and get all the collectables and finish in the way that the game wanted you to was Sonic 3. And that was only because that’s when they introduced save files. So you could go back, and pick any level and start the game from there. Then I could do the special stages as many times as I had to, because otherwise it’s blink and you miss it, or you get one shot and if you don’t get it, then you don’t get it.

Bonus Question: If You Had Three To Prep And Unlimited Funds In The Bank, How Would You Celebrate 30 Years Of Sonic 2?

We’re going to leave out the answers that our guests gave to this question, so you’ll have to go ahead and listen to the episode to find out what they would do.

mwa ha ha ha?

But trust us, the ideas that G to the Next Level, Franny, Alyxa, Mad Viking God, and JonnyG came up with where fantastic ideas.

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

All copyrighted material contained within this podcast is the property of their respective rights owners. Please see the above list for copyright details pertaining to music used.

Games Covered

We mentioned 41 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: