In all honesty, this game is a 4 star title, because some of the level design, especially near the end, skews too closely to some arcadey BS and the game often punishes you for going too fast. Additionally, any game that sticks spikes at the bottom of an inescapable pit you’ll likely hit after grabbing the invincibility power-up cannot be perfect.

However, this was not only the first video game I saw in my life, it’s probably the game I’ve played the most in terms of playing it all the way through. I’ve played this game to completion while very drunk. I’ve played this game while very stoned - less successfully. It’s not the best action game on the Genesis, and the sequel is a significant improvement, but I cannot deny the genuine love I have for this game. The music, the graphics, Sonic’s jump, everything about this game is just correct.

This is the one entry in a short list of sega genesis games I had a brilliant experience with. I played it on console a year and a half ago, and at first, I had the same experience I've always had with 2d sonic games: Having fun, but very annoyed by the obstacles and limiting my average speed level. I thought to myself, like a lot of people, "man its so annoying i have to stop and play slow sometimes."

Of course, as sonic fans understand, all i needed to do was play and play. I started to learn the levels, everything started to mesh in a cohesive way, and i started to get faster and faster. Jump here, kill this enemy in this specific way, jump up here and get this shield, etc. So, once it clicked, I understood why sonic fans love these classic sonic games.

What a fun game to get good at. Reminds me of 3d mario games in that way: getting good at this game is a lovely experience. Also, not to disrespect the other aspects of this game that are clean as fuck. It has incredible music, sprite art, and physics. All in all, a fantastic follow up to the first game and a game that grew on me massively as I played it.

Ужасно. Отвратительно. Невыносимо. Непроглядный мрак ждёт в душе каждого, кто посмеет нагрянуть на территорию Богом проклятого ежа.
В отзыве на первую часть я упомянал прохождение посредством прекрасного официального эмулятора, позволившего вовсю манипулировать внутриигровым пространством и временем. Замечательная штука. А теперь небольшое откровение - в Сонике 2 я отматывал время вспять чуть ли не ежеминутно. Смейтесь, но примите истину - никому из вас не дано пройти это по человечески, ибо оно так и задумано. Левел дизайн прямиком из пучин ада предоставляет нечеловеческого рода ловушки и различные факторы дискомфорта тут и там, лишь бы бренное тело вашего колючего аватара преждевременно не продвинулось дальше положенного дедлайна в десятки часов перепрохождения одних и тех же отрезков. Откуда дано тебе знать, что во время скоростного разбега предстоит в доли секунды отреагировать и прыгнуть на трамплине, не сгинув в пропасть? Не дано, вот и пошёл нахуй, а заодно перепройди игру ещё разок, будь любезен. Про босс файты я вообще хотел бы промолчать. Финальный бой прошёл с такой частотой перемоток, словно спившийся скуф уснул на пульте от VHS плеера во время очередного пересмотра Чужих. Я уже говорил, что левел дизайн до невозможности всрат? Так повторюсь. Вспомните всеми "любимые" водные уровни в первой части. Так вот здесь их низвели до уровня ниже дна, откуда постучали. Задыхаться вы будете на постоянной основе, ведь пузырики не соизволят снизойти по вашу душу ещё секунд десять после прошлого возникновения. Перечислять подобное можно просто бесконечно. Каждая составляющая этой пытки возведена в уровень боли намеренно и не иначе.
Что такое сиквел? Мысленно подберите собственную интерпретацию сего термина. А теперь сопоставьте это с тем, что из себя являет Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Этот сиквел не даёт ничего того, что расширяет или превосходит что-либо предложенное в предшественнике. Лишь только унаследованная и развившаяся предрасположенность к нескончаемым мучениям. Игра не привлекает уже даже на визуальном и музыкальном уровне, а это единственное, что я мог похвалить в прошлый раз. Жалкий коммерческий самоповтор, растерявщий изначальную идентичность. Порой даже и не виден идейный корень того или иного сегмента.
А, у Соника появился друг лис. Рад за него.

By just about every metric Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a superior game to it's predecessor. This is the game where SEGA leaned-into Sonic's speed. Thanks to the new, genius spin dash mechanic and the vast, sprawling levels (with lots of thrilling ramps and loop-de-loops that aid in building momentum), the game feels satisfyingly fast to blast through. The run of levels, starting with Emerald Hill and ending with Mystic Cave, is unbelievably fun.

The brighter, bolder graphics feel like a step up from the first game and I think the soundtrack is better too. There are no misses, every tune is great. The addition of some little extras (a second playable character, a nice little competition mode, a treat for collecting all of the chaos emeralds) is just the cherry on top.

Played this on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3 with save states.

Pros: I like the level variety. One of my big complaints about the first game is that a lot of the levels didn't feel distinct, but this game avoids that by having less acts, but more zones so there's more diverse aesthetics. I like the addition of tails and multiplayer, it's nice to be able to be able to select your character and play with a friend. The spin dash is great addition, no more struggling to build up speed. Sonic felt slow and clunky in the first game, but he really does feel fast in this game. I think one of the best changes is that getting all of the Chaos emeralds gets you an awesome reward. Playing as Super Sonic kind of lets you bypass playing the actual game, which is pretty funny.

Cons: The level design feels cheap sometimes. The increased movement speed comes with the side effect of not being able to properly react to anything. This game loves throwing hazards, pits, and enemies in your way that you can't react to, so it basically necessitates memorizing the levels to go fast. This applies to both the standard and bonus levels. The bonus levels are cruel in this game because they are way harder and a lot easier to miss. I guess the trade off is the potential to access them multiple times in the level and actually being able to understand how to control Sonic. Another issue I had with the game is that enemies do a poor job of telegraphing their attacks, which is a big issue when there are more enemies that fire projectiles in this game. Also, I love the addition of Tails, but he's the embodiment of little brother mode. Playing as Tails in co-op is hard because the camera focuses on Sonic, and playing as Tails solo is like playing as a slow version of Sonic that can't go Super. On the brightside, Tails is so slow it negates the other issue I had with not being able to react to the stage. It just doesn't feel great to feel like you're walking through the levels.

Overall, I like Sonic 2 more than its predecessor mainly because moving faster just feels good. I found myself getting stuck less often since I was able to build up speed and actually progress through obstacles. The trade off is the occasional cheapness, but I think the pros outweighs the cons in this case. Next up will be Sonic CD. I won't be using save states with that one, so I hope I'm able to get through it okay. Thankfully, going forward I'm pretty sure all of the games have in-game saving.

Overrated demais. O jogo tem diversos problemas, ao ponto de que se torna uma experiência de merda jogar ele. Level design mal feito, tu toma dano do nada (até em partes onde você deveria ir rápido). O jogo parece que não aguenta a velocidade do Sonic e buga de maneira muito fácil. Sem falar dos special stages horríveis onde o Tails só atrapalha (mesmo tendo a opção de jogar só com um dos dois o jogo todo). O Super Sonic desse jogo é uma merda, buga o tempo todo se tu não tiver cuidado, sem falar que o jogo te obriga a se transformar quando tiver anéis o suficiente (o que pode te causar vários problemas e te fazer morrer bastante). A luta com o Mecha Sonic é sacanagem, os caras te dropam lá e te deixam sem anel algum. Enfim, o jogo é uma porcaria e é adorado sem motivo.

Sonic the hedgehog 2 improves upon the first game to the point where this is a perfect game. All of levels are fun and memorable, the music is even better in this game than the first somehow, and the bosses are absolutely perfect.

On top of this, the level design is much better than sonic 1, there so many more routes to take and the world's just feel SO much bigger. Also, every boss in sonic 2 was very fun to beat, especially the death egg robot. I was stuck on this boss for an hour at least, you need to fight two very hard bosses back to back with ZERO rings, so it's a little hard.

Although despite it being extremely challenging I would be lying if I said that this boss wasn't one of the best in all of gaming history. I highly recommend this game to anyone and everyone, I hope sonic 3 continues this trend of being better than your predecessor but after playing this I highly doubt anything can top this.