Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (CENSOR prototype)

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sonic Team, Sega Technical Institute
Genre: Action

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The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 "CENSOR" prototype is a prototype build of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive.

This build was originally released on November 9th, 1992 by an old ROM dumping group known as CENSOR, just a few weeks before the game's final release, only to be forgotten in favor of a dump of the final game by a group called MAGICAL. It wasn't until February 14th, 2019 that drx and Evilhamwizard discovered the prototype in old scene releases and released the prototype on Hidden Palace.

The prototype itself is very similar to the first of the numerous internal testing prototypes from the Sega QA Archive. However, there are a number of differences in this build that place it before "beta 4", and could potentially be the missing "beta 3". Most of the differences in the build compared to "beta 4" are mainly found in Chemical Plant Zone and Wing Fortress Zone.

The original ROM was modified to include a scene intro and to bypass the copy protection. The header was also modified in an effort make the title easier to see when selecting the game from a copier, and the serial number was altered to the one from Wani Wani World. A modification of the ROM was also released on Hidden Palace that removes the intro and restores the ROM back to the way it was meant to be.

Comparisons

Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (CENSOR prototype)/Comparisons

Cheat codes

The Level select and debug mode are both enabled by default in this prototype. Simply press + when selecting "1 PLAYER" on the title screen to access the level select, then hold when selecting a Zone to activate debug mode.

External links

• 
  Sonic Retro discussion thread
• Hidden Palace release page
• Hidden Palace news page: What Was Once Old Is New Again