But then he bounces an enemy who’s about to make you drop your rings (? – Ed), or even grabs a ring before that mentalist Robotnik is about to crush you, and all is well! Showing off his fancy flying and getting in the way in the bonus stage (more on those later) it’s easy to want to start swatting him away.
The game might as well have been called Sonic & Tails.
Reading about the initial concept of Tails, it’s still a surprise that he was so much of a hit. As someone famous once said (I forget who), life is better with a co-pilot, so we’re pleased to see Sonic’s buddy Miles Prower. There are more obstacles per level of course but Sonic’s added repertoire makes them more fun to overcome. Sonic 2 feels more playable than the first, which is some feat. Bigger levels and badder bosses, tick and tick. Added special move (the spin attack of course), tick. How to make a sequel better than the original? The Sonic Team with assistance from the US-based Sega Technical Institute used every trick in the book. At the time it made all other 16-bit games seem dull in comparison and I’ll go out on a limb here, in the Sonic bundle on Xbox, looks brighter than most Xbox games. Colour palette-wise, you can see that Sonic 2 is on another level. The first thing I remember about Sonic 2 was the “wow” factor, even after replaying the first (on Mega Drive and Master System) extensively. But how to make a game that felt as good as the first without making it a clone? We need not have worried. One thing Sega had already established was the game engine. Following it up was both easy and difficult at the same time. The first Sonic revitalised the Mega Drive and gave Sega a worthy mascot. If any game deserves a retrospective rather than our usual “review it as if back then” approach, it’s Sonic 2.
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