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

Gamer Jason

White Mage

Nezzalonius

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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

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:

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?

GamerJason brought us back to his least favourite zone. It’s all tied in, you see:

GamerJason's Avatar Gamer Jason

So this was the hardest question, and I pondered over this for quite some time…

I always though that Emerald Hill and Chemical Plant were my favourites pieces of music in the game, and they are. Actually I think my favourite piece of music would have to be Hill Top Zone. Emerald Hill Zone, I had that as my ringtone… but Hill Top Zone is the only one that I find myself tapping my feet along to it, whenever I play it.

[my least favourite music] ties into my least favourite zone: Wing Fortress Zone… I don’t get on with the music in Wing Fortress Zone. It hinders itself, in my opinion, with that drum bit… it just loses that momentum.

White Mage claims to have used a cop out, but we’ll allow it:

White-Mage's Avatar White Mage

This is such a mean question, because Sonic 2 is one of my favourite video game OSTs there are.

So I’m going to use a cop out, and say the staff roll at the end because it has all the music in it. But my least favourite music is the music you get when you’re drowning or when you’re about to run out of time.

Nezzalonius reminds us of the co-op levels and playing the game with his brother:

Nezzalonius's Avatar Nezzalonius

I’d say that the lest favourite has to go back to the co-op stuff. Because I love Mystic Cave’s theme, but it’s the versus theme that brings back bad memories of my brother having finished, and that 60 second clock starts ticking, and then me desperately trying to get through, and falling into a pit or getting crushed, and getting frustrated… it’s like the game is going, "come on. Finish the level," and I’m like, "I know. I’m not very good at this. stop haranguing me"

As for favourite, it’s gotta be Chemical Plant; it’s just such a jazzy, iconic theme at this point. You go straight from this blank hill… to this big, chemical factory with a sort of jazzy vibe. It’s just an absolute banger.

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

GamerJason remembers playing them on the Master System, but can’t be sure about whether he played them first:

GamerJason's Avatar Gamer Jason

I had a Master System, and I do have clear memories of playing the Master System Sonic games. Whether or not that was before, it must have been before Sonic 2.

I really like Master System games, and I really liked how the worked around its limitations. I really wish they’ve have brought some of the features of the Master System games to the Mega Drive games, too.

White Mage’s first Sonic game was Sonic 2. Confirmed. Also, Sonic 2 is tough. Confirmed:

White-Mage's Avatar White Mage

Yes. Sonic 2 was my first Sonic game.

When I was a kid I had Sonic 2, and then not long after I also had - I can’t remember whether it was Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles - I don’t understand that release. But I know that it had Knuckles in it.

I did go back and play… Humble Bundle put out a Sonic bundle, as they do,and I remember going back and playing Sonic 1. Sonic 1 is brutal. You can’t spin dash, there’s so much pixel perfect jumping. It’s actually really hard.

Nezzalonius …:

Nezzalonius's Avatar Nezzalonius

Having older siblings, we had the Master System and the GameGear. So I think the first Sonic I played was the first one, like the 8-bit one. Then the second 8-bit one. They were very hard. They didn’t pull any punches.

By the time Sonic 2 [on the Mega Drive] came around, I’d kind of gotten good enough at playing the original [Master System versions], so I could try to do it myself and not have my older brother sort of take the controller, "I’ll beat this boss. Then you can continue playing"

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

GamerJason laments that he didn’t get all of the Chaos Emeralds more than once or twice:

GamerJason's Avatar Gamer Jason

There was one, maybe two times that I got all the Chaos Emeralds.

It was blooming hard because, you know, we were kids back in 1992. We didn’t have save slots. We couldn’t rewind the game. We didn’t have save states or anything like that. If we wanted to complete the game, it had to be in one sitting, or we had to pause it and hope that it didn’t crash or that the cat didn’t jump on the reset button or something.

White Mage hasn’t been able to get through Sonic 2, although…:

White-Mage's Avatar White Mage

I’ve never completed Sonic 2. It’s one of those games I never completed as a kid. The only game that I think I completed as a kid was Streets of Rage which, again was Mega Drive.

I don’t think I’ve ever made it through Oil Ocean.

Any platformer from the ’80s or ’90s: well done if you’ve completed it.

Nezzalonius …:

Nezzalonius's Avatar Nezzalonius

The good ending, like get all the Chaos Emeralds?

Initially as a kid I didn’t, because I didn’t know about them. And the first time I beat it, I was like, "yeah, I did it!" I saw my brother playing, and he was Super Sonic at the end of it, and I was like, "what’s that?" and he explained: "you know those special levels when we got that emerald? You have to get all seven of them."

Getting Super Sonic is the biggest power trip as a kid. It’s like "I am invincible!"

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 GamerJason, White Mage, Nezzalonius, and Jay 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 33 games in this podcast. In the following order, those games where: