All the S@nics - the end

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

As marketing swung into action, their print ads, combined with Sega's incredibly high-octane TV ad campaign, made dead certain everyone was aware of the Launch Day. With the ads instilling a hunger for more info on Sonic 2, Step 2 of marketings plans involved the gaming press, with many magazines being sent screenshots and test builds each month. These 'handpicked screenshots', however, were not truly screenshots of the game, rather, they were actually mockups created by STI's American zone artists to make sure Sonic 2 looked as fresh as possible. Marketing's final push was focused on retail: shop owners were sent promotional material in-store displays and giveaways for pre-orders. And as an extra kick to maximize word of mouth, Sonic himself would visit select retail stores and bring a 'sneak peek' copy of the game for the kids to play.

Level Facts!

Oil Ocean Zone is actually one of the wholly American made zones in the game, courtesy of Tom Payne. However, to ensure the level's 'Sonic-ness', the senior japanese staff would 'touch-up' the zone's artwork without asking, usually trading a dark color palette for a brighter one, something that did very little to endear them to the American artists. As an additional caveat, the zone's numerous platforms and their supports do not actually fully extend down into the oil, allowing an enterprising player to fly across the bottom of the level just above the death plane.

[Grounder]

Level Facts!

Oil Ocean Zone is actually one of the wholly American made zones in the game, courtesy of Tom Payne. However, to ensure the level's 'Sonic-ness', the senior japanese staff would 'touch-up' the zone's artwork without asking, usually trading a dark color palette for a brighter one, something that did very little to endear them to the American artists. As an additional caveat, the zone's numerous platforms and their supports do not actually fully extend down into the oil, allowing an enterprising player to fly across the bottom of the level just above the death plane.

so what i've been gathering is that the japanese devs were lucky to escape with their meddling lives

[Crow]

i've always thought this level looked incredibly "un-sonic". it just doesn't fit in at all.

also i probably could've complained earlier but at the point where it's now officially a moot point, i feel like the constant hunt for checkpoints instead of, just, playing the levels, is really hurting this LP lol

[raocow]

it's practice for cd

[Crow]

it's practice for cd

damn this is 100% valid but also you don't unlock anything for the good ending of CD so it's not "necessary"

enjoy wacky workbench 1, though

[KobaBeach]

Level Facts!

Oil Ocean Zone is actually one of the wholly American made zones in the game, courtesy of Tom Payne. However, to ensure the level's 'Sonic-ness', the senior japanese staff would 'touch-up' the zone's artwork without asking, usually trading a dark color palette for a brighter one, something that did very little to endear them to the American artists. As an additional caveat, the zone's numerous platforms and their supports do not actually fully extend down into the oil, allowing an enterprising player to fly across the bottom of the level just above the death plane.

so what i've been gathering is that the japanese devs were lucky to escape with their meddling lives

im on the side of the jp devs with the bright color palettes instead of Western Dark Palettes

if you're going for that muddy awful crusty amateur-dos look when doing a muted color selection instead of that delicious crisp pc engine/pc98/x68k aesthetics don't bother that shit literally drives me to Sleep when playing a game

[T-A-C]

honestly the Japanese art team made 100% the right decision here

the visual design of Oil Ocean is some of my favorite art in Sonic 2, and a lot of it is the use of vivid colors in what any other game would have made a dark, gritty, post-apocalyptic atmosphere

this tends to be why I like a lot of CD's art choices so much

[raocow]

lol that sonic 2 might have looked like an amiga game

[10204307]

I never got to Oil Ocean Zone as a kid, but I knew about it because of the internet, and it always seemed incredibly threatening to me. I guess I didn't realize that the oil just acts like quicksand that you can easily jump out of. From my perspective it was a bunch of small platforms over insta-death pits, and I knew that I would never get past it. (Come to think of it, this description more accurately describes Chaos Angel Zone from Sonic Advance 3, which was another game that I played a ton of as a kid.) Of course, in reality, Oil Ocean Zone is actually one of the easier ones in the game, as long as you avoid getting crushed by the green platforms.

I came to like Oil Ocean a lot more when it was used in Sonic Mania, which I just played recently. The second act really puts a creative spin on the level, and of course the background music is really fantastic.

[Crow]

i don't think i've ever seen the oil ocean boss played that cautiously before in my life

[Leet]

[DinnerSonic]

Missed a few days due to Super Mario Maker 2 Mania. I wonder if I could make a decent Oil Ocean stage in that... no, I've gotta focus!



The thing that was mentioned about the color palettes was interesting. On one hand, it's annoying to think about people meddling with your work, especially without asking or saying anything, but I feel like this was the right choice in the end. I feel like I've heard some find the stage unpopular, but the color palette is one of the things I really like about it.

Said zone reuses the 2P Mystic Cave Zone song, which others might be able to explain better as I've lost track of the reasoning debates on that, but Hidden Palace had its own unused theme:

Hidden Palace always had the 2P Mystic Cave Zone music, even in the betas, and I'm pretty sure there was once an interview where someone said that the unused song was for a cutscene you got when you unlocked Super Sonic.

I feel like at least one version of Hidden Palace used the unused song(maybe trying to access the level data in the final game?) but either way, thanks! I've gotten so rusty with my Sonic research.

[KobaBeach]

[Crow]

RIP Failure Cresh

[Bean]

That 1-2 punch of Mystic Cave and Oil Ocean is my favorite part of Sonic 2. While the rest of the game isn't bad to me, it doesn't really hook me like all the other Genesis ones do for the whole finale deal. And it's a shame that DocFuture's version of Mystic Cave was not used in any of the remakes.

[KobaBeach]

And it's a shame that DocFuture's version of Mystic Cave was not used in any of the remakes.

what are you talking about that's an official licensed remix by Holus at the request of Sonic Team. if it wasn't for the wack-ass hong kong bootleggers it would have been lost to the ether.

btw which was your favorite character to play the game as, im partial to the Waixing mascot but I heard Adramelech from Circle of the Moon is the most used character in speedrun tournaments

[Piesonscreations]

raocow dodging all the lasers like that instead of cheesing the boss fight was one of most nerve-wracking things in this series so far

[Awoo]

Whenever I hear the Oil Ocean music, it reminds me of the weird "Oil Ocean Music" glitch that can happen if you gently break the sound test while trying to do the level select code. It's super weird and I have no idea why it happens, but it makes it necessary to reset the console which is always annoying.

context:

[Crow]

hell yeah i was hoping for this video title
a friend showing me specifically this song is what ruined changed my music taste forever and made me into the idiot i am today

[Le Neveu de Rameau]

A confession: I've always found the robots you battle far more charismatic than the animal dorks you free from them. This is probably due in a large part to the fact that a disproportionate number of the robots are crabs.

[Heavy Sigh]

Fun Sonic Facts!

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was released simultaneously in the United States and Europe on "Sonic 2sday." For the USA, Sega's marketing team focused on the concept of 'Blast Processing', a term originally used to describe an annoying design oversight in the Mega Drive's VDP unit. In marketing's hands, however, the term became a memetic cudgel to imply a much speedier machine than the dog-slow Super Nintendo. Back in Japan however, the term meant nothing, leading Sega of Japan to pursue a focus on the introduction of Tails as a playable character, since he was cute and adorable. The entire team, both American and Japanese, celebrated together on November 23rd, 1992, proud of their game that, overcoming all odds, would not only be the bestselling Sonic game on the Mega Drive, but the best selling platformer of the 16-bit era.

Unfortunately, STI's incredible triumph also sowed the seeds of its destruction...

LEVEL FACTS!

Metropolis Zone has 3 acts, unlike all the other zones in Sonic 2, which have two. This is because Tom Payne (the artist in charge of this level) had also created Cyber City Zone, which was scrapped due to lack of time, but not before finishing the level map. With the team feeling that the game needed all the content it could get, the level map was inserted into Metropolis Zone to become the game's only three act level. Though the time spent doing that might have been better put to use on another QA pass for the first two zones...

[Awoo]

A confession: I've always found the robots you battle far more charismatic than the animal dorks you free from them. This is probably due in a large part to the fact that a disproportionate number of the robots are crabs.

Pepsi Crab!
https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Taraban

[BobisOnlyBob]

Unfortunately, STI's incredible triumph also sowed the seeds of its destruction...

Man, I got the "Rise and Fall of Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog" story memorised a decade ago, and have kept up to date with it too, but I'm still really enjoying this gradual history lesson. Gonna need me some popcorn for the Saturn era.

[Grounder]

4 episodes left and half of them won't have checkpoints

[MonkeyShrapnel]

That death at 4 minutes in was really strange, it didn't fade out right away,
and since the stage wraps around vertically, we got to see turbo speed sonic's corpse.

I'm guessing it's something to do with dying right when you got sprung by the pillar.

*Edit* Happened again at 4:54, is this stage always weird like that?