Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)/Development

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has gone through several changes over its development process. There are several rejected ideas, levels, and other things that were left on the cutting room floor. The following details several of these things.

Prototype Versions

Several prototypes have been found over the years. The first prototype discovered, the Simon Wai prototype, found by Simon Wai, is famous for its deleted levels. This particular prototype was stolen during a toy show in New York in 1992 according to Yuji Naka. It was recently stated in an interview with Yuji Naka that this beta was from a demonstration cartridge that was stolen at a toy show in New York in 1992.[1]

Another much earlier beta was found by drx and looks similar to the one featured on the TV show Nick Arcade. This was followed later by drx's discovery and release of five more betas, named Beta 4, Beta 5, Beta 6, Beta 7, and Beta 8. These seem to be very similar to the final version.

Time Travel

The concept of Time Travel in Sonic 2 was referred to in early concept art, as well as several gaming magazines including a August 1992 EGM article. Only past and present timezones are referred to in the concept art, so it may not have had as many alternate time zones as Sonic the Hedgehog CD. It isn't known at what point the time travel concept was dropped, but the 1992 EGM article refers to the game as being 40% complete whilst mentioning time travel being associated with the game. The concept art refers to the scrapped level Rock Zone as being the past version of the scrapped Desert Zone.

Allusions to Time Travel in the Simon Wai prototype
Although time travel is not present whatsoever in the final game there are possible leftovers in the Simon Wai prototype that indicate it was present in the game at one point.

• Aquatic Ruin Zone's name is listed as Neo Green Hill Zone, possibly indicating it as a future version of Emerald Hill Zone (which was listed as Green Hill in this prototype).
• Some prototype zones share soundtracks, Wood Zone shares the same music as Metropolis Zone and Genocide City Zone shares music with Chemical Plant Zone.
• The level design for Wood Zone and Metropolis Zone are similar.
• An unused futuristic looking Star post can be found using debug.

Deleted Levels

Hidden Palace Zone

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was originally envisioned to have many more levels than those included in the final version. Three levels, Wood Zone, Hidden Palace Zone, and Genocide City Zone, were found in the the "Simon Wai prototype" in unfinished form. There was also Dust Hill Zone which had a single mockup image printed in several gaming magazines but was dropped very early in the games development. Lastly, two other levels, Winter level and Rock Zone, were also dropped early in development and the only references to their existence come from concept art and interviews by Sonic Team staff members. More info on these Zones can be found in their respective articles.

Scrapped Badniks

There are several Badniks which can be found in concept art which cannot be found in the final game. This includes: Banper, Bee, Bubbler, Bubbler's Mother and Frog. There are also badniks whose object code has actually been found in prototypes, this includes: BBat, BFish, Gator, Redz, Snail and Stego.

Concept Art

The following is concept art for the game which doesn't fit in any of the preceding sections.

Levels

• Metropolis concept.jpg

  An early piece of concept art for Metropolis Zone. Looks like diagonal conveyor belts were originally planned.

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  Sonic and Tails near a large ramp.

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  The familiar "moving blocks" area from Chemical Plant Zone.

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  Various ideas for Sky Chase Zone and possibly Hill Top Zone.

Objects

• Sket ball.png

  A bouncing ball which was scrapped before release. Its sprites can actually be found in a prototype version in Oil Ocean Zone.

Early Game Design

These scans come from various magazines. Many things found in these images can be found in the multiple Sonic 2 prototypes that have been discovered. For in depth comparisons of which prototypes contain what is seen in the scans see Magazine Preview Scans.

Various

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  One of the last minute changes to Sonic 2 was its title screen. The old one even made it to the game's manual.

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  Same Title screen in color. This one is a bit older as it lacks the menu options.

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  With the old title screen came an old level select, similar to Sonic 1's. As you can see, a few cut zones are selectable here.

Emerald Hill Zone

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  An early mockup of the zone with an off-center Sonic. Note the Green Hill Zone clouds in the background, and the Sonic 1 HUD.

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  Better quality version of the mockup, albeit with the top and bottom missing.

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  Tails' life counter says "Sonic".

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  Tails lives counter says Sonic still.

• Mag compare25a.gif

  Another thing about these shots are the fact they contain a score counter - this was removed in the final version of the 2-player mode.

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  Eggman appears to be flying straight down as opposed to diagonally.

Aquatic Ruin Zone

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  Another common feature of old screenshots are Sonic's prototype walking animation.

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  Walking animation again.

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  Looks like the title card was broken at some point as it's using graphics from the underwater bubbles. It also reads "Neo Green Hill Zone".

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  Here Sonic's animations seem to be final.

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  Log floating on water.

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  Sonic's corner animation.

Casino Night Zone

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  As seen in the Simon Wai beta, Casino Night Zone was once very different and empty.. The smoke in this shot however means this is from a later prototype.

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  This design also seems to be more complete than in the Simon Wai prototype.

Hill Top Zone

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  Green balls on see-saws instead of enemies. This is consistant with the "Nick Arcade" prototype.

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Mystic Cave Zone

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  Mystic Cave was often mistakenly refered to as "Dust Hill Zone", due to some unfinished level select titles.

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Oil Ocean Zone

• OOZ sun.png

  Older Oil Ocean shots show a different sun which can be found in the Simon Wai prototype.

• OOZ walk.png

  More of the prototype walking animation and switch that causes a ridable ball to appear.

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  A ridable ball. These are only accessable using debug in final.

Metropolis Zone

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  Early Metropolis screenshots show a more complicated background that relied more on rotating palettes.

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Hidden Palace Zone

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  Here's a mockup screenshot of Hidden Palace Zone. Sonic is off center and there is a background not seen in any of the dumped prototypes or later screenshots.

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  A different scan of the previous image.

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  Bat Badniks which were removed along with the zone.

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  Dino Badniks.

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  The shield glows through tube - something that would be later fixed in later versions.

• Mag compare7a.gif

  This screenshot has a green watermark (TV logo?) above lives icon - it isn't part of the background.

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  Sonic has his final walking animations, suggesting this zone lasted longer than the Simon Wai prototype.

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  Another similar shot.

Wood Zone

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  Sonic lying down in the scrapped Wood Zone, an animation not seen in the Simon Wai prototype.

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  On the ramp.

Dust Hill Zone

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  The only shot of Dust Hill Zone is this mockup. Like the Emerald Hill mockup above, it borrows graphics from Sonic 1. The crocodile badnik exists within early prototypes of the game.