This page is for trivia related to the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
For tropes pertaining to the 8-bit version, go here.
For tropes pertaining to the 2022 film, go here
- Ascended Fan Nickname: When Hidden Palace Zone was restored in the 2013, Effexor from Sonic Retro
coined the term "Brass Eggman" for the unnamed boss, in reference to the original Japanese naming scheme ([name] Eggman), which was given a nod of approval in 2021's Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia. - B-Team Sequel: A little-known fact, but absolutely true. After the massive success of the first Sonic game, Sega started two separate projects to follow it up. Naoto Ōshima (the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog) was in charge of the "real" sequel being developed in Japan, which eventually became Sonic CD. Sonic 2 was developed by a combination of Sonic Team staff (including Yuji Naka) and Sega of America developers, working at the Sega Technical Institute in California. (Sega, being a Japanese company, always placed more importance on their domestically-made games, at least at the time.) In the end, Sonic 2 ended up coming out an entire year before Sonic CD, and of course enjoyed far greater success.
- Christmas Rushed: The game had a lot of content cut out so it could be released before Black Friday, most famously the Hidden Palace Zone. There are also some nasty glitches that occasionally pop up, such as triggering Super Sonic at the end of a level, locking the game in place and forcing you to reset it.
- Creator Backlash: Many artists and designers from the American side of the team were reportedly upset when much of their work got removed from the final game. Craig Stitt and Brenda Ross were especially upset.
- Cut Song: Track 10 in the 16-bit game's sound test is an unused and hauntingly good song that was originally meant for a cutscene,note though in the final version, was assigned to the cut Hidden Palace Zone after the level's music was given to Mystic Cave Zone 2P instead. When Hidden Palace Zone returned in the 2013 remake, the level used the 2 Player Mystic Cave Zone theme as in the prototypes, although a hidden version uses Track 10.
- Development Gag: The 2013 port has a Cheat Code that when entered correctly, will take players to Proto Palace, a recreation of Hidden Palace as featured in the Simon Wai prototype.
- Dummied Out:
- A couple of Zones met this fate, most notably the Hidden Palace Zone, of which you can find its rather somber BGM (track 10) in the final version. Hidden Palace Zone later appears Sonic & Knuckles. However, the Sonic & Knuckles version of Hidden Palace looks completely different. The planned Zone was reimagined as a Secret Level on the iOS and Android versions as part of a December 2013 replacement with the Retro Engine remaster, although the 2P Mystic Cave Zone music plays instead. It can be accessed by jumping down the infamous Kaizo Trap pit in Act 2 of Mystic Cave Zone. The zone features a completely reworked layout (with elements inspired by how it appeared in prototype builds), and ends with a brand-new boss. The original "Proto Palace Zone" level, as it appeared in the "Simon Wai" prototype for the most part, can be accessed as of an update by entering a Cheat Code on the level select menu, with its "final" theme intact.
- In the 2013 remake, the original concept for Boss Attack Zone, Egg Gauntlet Zone, is still in the game and can be played in its entirety if you know how to access the dev menu. This would get patched out in later updates.
- Executive Meddling:
- Sonic Team planned for 18 Zones, but producers wanted to get the game out in time for the Christmas season which forced Sonic Team to scrap several Zones.
- The name "Tails" actually came from the American branch of Sega who didn't like the name "Miles". The branches compromised with Tails being his nickname to his true name. "Miles" is the default name in the Japanese version while "Tails" is the default in the American version, but a cheat code can swap the names in either version.
- Yasushi Yamaguchi has this to say regarding the dev team's relationship with SEGA of America:Yamaguchi: At the time, Sega of America ignored the opinions of the development staff. They did not listen to our requests for the number of fingers on Sonic in the package art, or our request to fix his legs to be straight.
- First Appearance: Of Tails.note It’s also the first appearance of Sonic’s Super Mode, Super Sonic.
- Kids' Meal Toy: In the UK, Burger King released a set of four plastic ripcord toys in 1993. These consisted of Tails, Dr. Robotnik, and two different toys of Sonic.
- Killer App: Next to its precursor, Sonic 2 was the most popular game to own for the Genesis. Like the first game before it, it even became a pack-in game for bundles of the Model 2 Sega Genesis.
- Meaningful Release Date: In more ways than one. Sonic 2 was released on Tuesday, November 24, 1992: a day that would be referred to in marketing as "Sonic 2sday". Additionally, an unintended effect of this marketing ploy was the popularization of video game releases on Tuesdays, whereas before, game releases were not standardized.
- Milestone Celebration: In honor of the game's 25th anniversary, Sega made special Tails-themed The Merch exclusive to the Sega Shop, on top of giving Tails his own anniversary logo◊ in the style of the franchise's 25th anniversary logo. They would do later the same thing for Amy and Metal Sonic in 2018 and Knuckles in 2019. Signifying the 25th anniversaries of their debut games.
- Pop-Culture Urban Legends:
- Because it plays in Hidden Palace Zone's remains in the final game, Track #10 is often attributed to Hidden Palace, and was assumed to be its track for the longest time. However, beta builds that leaked years later instead use Mystic Cave's 2P track for Hidden Palace, suggesting that was its intended song (which is further supported by the 2013 remake). The demo version of the song released in 2011, which simply has the name "Unused Song", has a proper ending rather than fading out like other tracks, suggesting it was actually a cutscene theme.
- The emerald that appears in Hidden Palace in the aforementioned beta build was popularly thought to be an early version of the Master Emerald, but it was later revealed that it was just a breakable gimmick that appears multiple times throughout the zone.
- When an inaccessible level named Dust Hill Zone was found in certain prototypes, it was assumed by many to be the scrapped desert level seen in pre-release screenshots. As it turns out, Dust Hill was the original name given to Mystic Cave Zone; the name of the desert level is actually Sand Shower Zone.
- Because it plays in Hidden Palace Zone's remains in the final game, Track #10 is often attributed to Hidden Palace, and was assumed to be its track for the longest time. However, beta builds that leaked years later instead use Mystic Cave's 2P track for Hidden Palace, suggesting that was its intended song (which is further supported by the 2013 remake). The demo version of the song released in 2011, which simply has the name "Unused Song"
- Port Overdosed: Through not quite as extensively ported as its predecessor, Sega has still re-released this game enough times for it to qualify for this.
- Real Song Theme Tune: As a bit of cross-promotion, Masato Nakamura used the Dreams Come True song "Sweet Sweet Sweet", from an album that would release at around the same time as Sonic 2, as the music that plays over the ending cutscene.
- Refitted for Sequel: The ending of Sonic falling through the sky and being caught by Tails was the original ending of the first game.
- Troubled Production:
- The game's own history can be chronicled by the various Alphas, Betas and Deltas made along the way. It originally had many more levels, and featured a more complex plot which was based around Time Travel and set on the same island as the previous game, where the Zones visually reflected the era they were set in and where on South Island they were located and were displayed on a map with a different variant for each time period, but the game proved overly ambitious and had to be cut down significantly so that it could be finished at all. Many of the game's planned Zones were removed, including a stage initially named Genocide City (later renamed to Cyber City), and the legendary Hidden Palace Zone (which was much later restored as a secret level in the iOS remake). Several other zones, such as Death Egg, Casino Night, and Oil Ocean, were heavily reworked. Sega gave Nickelodeon a very early version for Nick Arcade. The game's production, located in Sega Technical Institute's headquarters, was also notorious for language barriers and conflicting work ethics between Japanese Sonic Team members, who Naka brought to the United States to work on the game as he was unhappy with Sega of Japan's policies; and the American STI members, who assisted in the game's development.
- In September 1991, after STI had brought Naka on board, they asked Sega of America's marketing division whether they were to start work on the next Sonic game, and were told it was "much too soon". Two months later, presumably after discussions with Sega of Japan, the same marketing division went back to STI and told them they should have been working on the sequel the whole time, meaning two whole months of development had been wasted.
- An HD Fan Remake was cancelled in 2012 when the lead programmer, LOst, had Creative Differences with the rest of the team and provided a build of the game with DRM protection. Since he had not released the source code for the game's engine, the game could not be updated. Production resumed in 2014 when a fan of the project developed a replacement engine.
- What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
