Headscratchers / Sonic the Hedgehog 2

• It seems the mobile phone port of Sonic 2 was released with that Hidden Palace zone that never made it into the Genesis version (and its re-releases). Why did they stick the Mystic Cave 2-player track onto it instead of the Hidden Palace track that was intended which never saw any use in the game?
  • The track used for the beta Hidden Palace didn't fit the prehistoric feel of the new Hidden Palace, according to the director.
• Have you ever noticed that Sonic's journey from Emerald Hill to Hill Top takes two days?
  • Actually, you could extend this to every level.
    • Emerald Hill: Day
    • Chemical Plant: Evening
    • Aquatic Ruin: Day
    • Casino Night: ... err, night.
    • Hill Top: Day
    • Mystic Cave: Underground, cannot determine. Could be night, though.
    • Oil Ocean: Day - morning, to be exact
    • Metropolis: Indoors, can't determine. Again, could be night, given what has been shown so far.
  • And after that, levels segue into each other smoothly, so it all happens during the day.
    • There could be a chance that Mystic Cave Zone takes place during the afternoon, as the sun seems to be setting during Oil Ocean Zone.
    • Considering Sonic's main power, it's not at all unreasonable to think it only took him 2 days. Hell, from what we see, the whole game might have only taken place over 2-3 days.
• Concerning the 8-bit version: why do people assume Tails dies in the bad ending just because his constellation shows up? In the good ending you see both Sonic's and Tails's constellations, yet they're both clearly alive.
  • It could be that they both died; since after the game finishes, you get a Game Over.
  • The difference is that when Tails and Sonic are seeing themselves in the sky, they see reflections of them together the way they would like to be. When Sonic sees Tails in the sky, Tails is nowhere to be seen, and Sonic is all alone while sad music plays. It's a conclusion made through the identifying factors during the ending and comparing the two together.
    • Even so, if he's alive and kicking with his constellation in the Good Ending, couldn't he be alive in the Bad Ending as well? Maybe he's just working for Robotnik now.
    • I guess it might be a case of Came Back Wrong or something? Like Sonic saved Tails, but Tails isn't the same, or the Tails he knew was changed somehow.
    • Unless you get all 5 Chaos Emeralds and the sixth one from Silver Sonic, you can't get into the Crystal Egg Zone where Tails is being held. Therefore, Sonic fails to save Tails at all, and Tails is still in Robotnik's clutches. Whether or not he's dead is irrelevant: The point is, Sonic failed to save Tails.
    • Dead characters being displayed in the sky is a common trope, and there's the Stars Are Souls trope. So it's not hard to see why people would interpret it like that. Whether you agree with that interpretation or not, it's still a perfectly understandable one.
• With regard to the Oil Ocean zone. Dr. Robotnik's boss machine in that level spends its time submerged in oil. When you defeat it, it explodes. Why does this not affect the oil the machine has been covered in the entire time? Or the entire ocean of it making up the level, for that matter?
  • Not to mention another highly-known attribute of oil: being covered in it is of great harm to animals. Sonic doesn't even have to brush it off.
    • It probably just flies off when he runs at supersonic speeds.
  • Sonic Mania's version of Oil Ocean does have fire affect the oil, and even has that as part of the gimmick of Act 2, so there's that.
• What happens to all of those animals that fall from the sky in the Sky Chase zone?
  • Well, there's no falling damage in this game...
  • Small animals don't usually fall at terminal velocity. Cats and turtles, for example, can fall out of planes and land (relatively) unharmed on the ground.
  • That's slightly wrong. I think you take "terminal velocity" to mean "the deadly velocity". Any given object has its own terminal velocity, where the upward push of wind resistance is matched by the downward pull of gravity and thus the object can fall no faster than that velocity. Small animals will simply have a smaller terminal velocity than humans, hence making their falls much more survivable.
• The fact that despite all the various ports of Sonic 2, they've never fixed Tails' Special Stage AI.
  • Because then it wouldn't be authentic.
  • The new smartphone port has the special stages in 3D with a higher POV for the player, allowing them to see bombs ahead of time and plan accordingly. Tails is less of a hassle here now.
  • Not sure as far as it pertains to the Special Stages, but some fan hacks of both this game and also S3&K allow more granular control of Tails as a side kick, by holding up the player can order Tails to fly and then take control of the flight when Sonic grabs onto him.
• Why is Asteron in Metropolis Zone? You'd think a starfish-based enemy would be more at home in Oil Ocean Zone.
  • Why would Eggman logically put a wall-based model that can easily fall off the walls in an oil rig, where it could easily sink? Or in a water zone, where its circuits could get fried? Metropolis Zone is a pretty good place for it, plus it makes for a handy trap in case intruders storm the place! They're small and difficult to see (although not for us more-omniscient players) until it's too late, like an explosive mine.
• Okay, where do all the complaints over Tails losing rings in the special stages come from? He can only lose those he grabbed, and he only grabs the rings the player missed in the first place. So even with his Artificial Stupidity, Tails can't make the player lose. The only way players can lose is through their own failure to collect and/or keep rings.
  • Because in collecting those rings, Tails frequently steals them from Sonic.
  • Not if you keep him behind you all the time.
  • Tails will often switch to the front and grab rings that you otherwise would have, presumably to balance things for multiplayer. Therefore, he's not just dropping rings that you missed, he's also dropping rings that you could have gained yourself had he stayed behind you.
  • As much of a liability as Tails is, he is useful for collecting rings Sonic may have missed, due to things such as wider ring spreads and the like.
  • OP here, I take back what I said. I hadn't realised that ring requirements were higher when playing as Sonic & Tails. It's not so bad when Tails is controlled by another (competent) player, but when he's AI-controlled, expect him to lose all rings at some point during every special stage. That, combined with the fact that he has a tendency to run ahead of Sonic on occasions (mainly when Sonic jumps over mines and Tails runs straight into them, preventing him from jumping back to the back) and grab the rings for him, makes him more of a handicap than an advantage. After going through all special stages, I can confirm that unless you're playing with a friend, they're easier when playing as Sonic or Tails alone.
• Why did Eggman make the Oil Ocean Zone to start with? Judging from the factories in the background, it seems to have no purpose but to pollute. Considering crude oil is rather valuable, this makes Eggman (who's meant to be a genius) come off as extremely Stupid Evil.
  • Eggman probably didn't make Oil Ocean zone or Chemical Plant to begin with, they're just regular Industrial Zones owned by normal companies in the Sonic universe. Also, oil is used to produce war machines, which would have lots of use for Eggman's robot army.
    • Nope, Eggman is behind both of those locations according to the manuals — both Japanese and English.
• Why is the Metropolis Zone a big factory instead of a big city? Did Sega just think "Factory Zone" would sound too prosaic?
  • "Metropolis Zone is an extra-long industrial citadel in which Dr. Eggman resides", according to the Sonic Retro wiki. What is a citadel? "A fortress, typically one on high ground above a city". So he has a fortress above a city. What remaining ambiguity there is may possibly be related to translation issues.