SA2 is a pretty enjoyable game. I enjoyed all the sonic and shadow stages, but the other character’s stages were very hit or miss (looking at you Mad Space). The game can also feel a bit janky at times, but it’s more than manageable.
Just like the last one, it's not aged particularly gracefully.
2/3 of the game feels underdeveloped and just overall worse than the last. The sound mixing is atrocious with characters talking over each other and that's when you can even hear them over the music. The gameplay has a lot of jank with certain attacks not working how they should or just terrible collision, especially on rails, not to mention all the boss fights either being piss easy or having random jank bullshit.
Howeverrrrrr
Same argument as the last game.
The vibesssss.
This has some of the best levels in Sonic history and even to this day. City Escape, Metal Harbour, Green Jungle, Crazy Gadget are all masterpieces.
Not to mention of course this including the introduction of one of the coolest characters in fiction, Shadow The Hedgehog. I think his levels are fine but they feel fairly neglected next to Sonic's unfortunately.
Knuckles handles pretty much the same as the last game however they immediately made his sections worse by ruining the emerald radar. Instead of tracking all 3 now it only does 1 at a time.. WHY? I mostly liked his levels though, except Death Chamber. FUCK DEATH CHAMBER AND ROUGE'S VERSION.
Oh yeah Rouge is in this. Heh bat boobs. Ahem anyways, basically just the same as knuckles but with worse level design.
Tails has been completely ruined from Adventure 1. Going from one of the most fun characters to the worst. His mech handles like ass and his levels all suck. I do not want ro revisit any.
However, disrupting the trend of the dark side characters being worse, Eggman is actually good. His mech controls about the same but his level design seems to compliment it a lot better imo. Especially Cosmic Wall. Me and the homies love cosmic wall.
Now, yes. This does have a lot of problems. But, it also has one of the greatest soundtracks in sonic history, one of the better overall stories that has stayed iconic through the years and while the final boss itself is piss easy. The moment where sonic and shadow go Super and Live and Learn starts playing makes my heart absolutely sing still to this day.
I find myself revisiting this game the most just for the incredible Sonic levels and some of the Shadow ones.
Also for the best multiplayer the series has ever had.
Although I do gotta say, after playing both back to back for the first time in years. I think SA1 is the better overall game. This has higher highs but the other has more consistent quality imo.
2/3 of the game feels underdeveloped and just overall worse than the last. The sound mixing is atrocious with characters talking over each other and that's when you can even hear them over the music. The gameplay has a lot of jank with certain attacks not working how they should or just terrible collision, especially on rails, not to mention all the boss fights either being piss easy or having random jank bullshit.
Howeverrrrrr
Same argument as the last game.
The vibesssss.
This has some of the best levels in Sonic history and even to this day. City Escape, Metal Harbour, Green Jungle, Crazy Gadget are all masterpieces.
Not to mention of course this including the introduction of one of the coolest characters in fiction, Shadow The Hedgehog. I think his levels are fine but they feel fairly neglected next to Sonic's unfortunately.
Knuckles handles pretty much the same as the last game however they immediately made his sections worse by ruining the emerald radar. Instead of tracking all 3 now it only does 1 at a time.. WHY? I mostly liked his levels though, except Death Chamber. FUCK DEATH CHAMBER AND ROUGE'S VERSION.
Oh yeah Rouge is in this. Heh bat boobs. Ahem anyways, basically just the same as knuckles but with worse level design.
Tails has been completely ruined from Adventure 1. Going from one of the most fun characters to the worst. His mech handles like ass and his levels all suck. I do not want ro revisit any.
However, disrupting the trend of the dark side characters being worse, Eggman is actually good. His mech controls about the same but his level design seems to compliment it a lot better imo. Especially Cosmic Wall. Me and the homies love cosmic wall.
Now, yes. This does have a lot of problems. But, it also has one of the greatest soundtracks in sonic history, one of the better overall stories that has stayed iconic through the years and while the final boss itself is piss easy. The moment where sonic and shadow go Super and Live and Learn starts playing makes my heart absolutely sing still to this day.
I find myself revisiting this game the most just for the incredible Sonic levels and some of the Shadow ones.
Also for the best multiplayer the series has ever had.
Although I do gotta say, after playing both back to back for the first time in years. I think SA1 is the better overall game. This has higher highs but the other has more consistent quality imo.
Story is an upgrade over adventure 1, being much more complex and eventful. It even has a few twists here and there. Those twists aren't very good, but hey, it's a start. Shadow is a fan favorite character for a reason although I do wish that they hadn't retconned the ending. Rouge and Knuckles are both pretty unlikable in this game, Amy still has no reason to be here and is insufferable, Eggman is uncharacteristically threatening and serious (which is both a good and bad thing tbh), and Tails is a dumbass. Overall I don't like the cast aside from Shadow, who is really good, and I don't like the story aside from the ARK lore.
Sonic/Shadow: Universally considered the best part of the game and it's obvious why. While some stages can be a little too linear for my liking, most speed stages in the game make decent use of the physics, feature plenty of speed and platforming in equal parts, and a few different possible routes to take that generally follow sonic level design philosophy. Towards the end of the game though I feel as if they become a little too ambitious. The gravity gimmicks of Crazy Gadget and Final Chase are very intrusive and in the latter case, janky. Pyramid Cave is very boring, and Final Rush's grind rails aren't too fun to navigate for various reasons. Sometimes the camera won't give you a good view of the rail ending, sometimes trying to switch rails will fling you off into oblivion, and some rails just outright lead to your death. Before those levels though, these are a great time, and a massive improvement over the SA1 formula.
Tails/Eggman: Slower and clunkier version of SA1's Gamma. One of the things that made Gamma relatively fun for me was that I enjoyed shooting things while moving, trying to target as much as I could without stopping. SA2's version abandons this philosophy and requires frequent waiting, particularly in Tails' stages. Even though the two control the same, I swear that Eggman and Tails had different level designers because Tails' stages are PACKED with bullshit that Eggman just doesn't really have to deal with. Overall, most of these levels range from bad to mediocre, with the only ones that really stand out to me as good being Iron Gate and Cosmic Wall (both Eggman levels, go figure).
Knuckles/Rouge: While these two are as nimble as they should be physics wise, I have always hated the way they animate in this game. Level design wise, their stages are surprisingly challenging and built around their gliding moveset, which makes them more fun and interactive than their SA1 counterpart... on paper. But yeah, I'm gonna have to echo what everyone else has bashed about this game and say that the radar only tracking one item at a time is really stupid, and particularly annoying in the later, larger levels. Aquatic Mine and Death Chamber are disjointed, nightmarish mazes, and Mad Space... Mad... Space...
Lastly bosses in this game are pretty terrible. Fights against other playable characters are pathetic as always, and the other fights are pretty similar to each other. Only exceptions being Biolizard and Finalhazard. Biolizard is a Sonic Superstars tier disaster of a boss that is shockingly difficult to evade and relies on the unreliable homing attack to work. Every time I died to Biolizard it didn't feel like my fault.
The Finalhazard is even worse. The swapping between Sonic and Shadow idea is kinda cool on paper but functionally just takes away the balancing act that super forms have always presented: dealing damage but collecting enough rings to stay alive. Instead, your ring count is just a flat time limit. Furthermore, you're supposed to charge into the pink swelling spots on the Finalhazard to deal damage, but I SWEAR it only works when it wants to. Sometimes it just doesn't do damage and knocks me back instead. Again, it never feels like my fault when I die to this boss, which sucks cuz Perfect Chaos was a pretty fun final boss in SA1.
So yeah overall it's an upgrade over its prequel but still a heavily flawed and overrated game.
Sonic/Shadow: Universally considered the best part of the game and it's obvious why. While some stages can be a little too linear for my liking, most speed stages in the game make decent use of the physics, feature plenty of speed and platforming in equal parts, and a few different possible routes to take that generally follow sonic level design philosophy. Towards the end of the game though I feel as if they become a little too ambitious. The gravity gimmicks of Crazy Gadget and Final Chase are very intrusive and in the latter case, janky. Pyramid Cave is very boring, and Final Rush's grind rails aren't too fun to navigate for various reasons. Sometimes the camera won't give you a good view of the rail ending, sometimes trying to switch rails will fling you off into oblivion, and some rails just outright lead to your death. Before those levels though, these are a great time, and a massive improvement over the SA1 formula.
Tails/Eggman: Slower and clunkier version of SA1's Gamma. One of the things that made Gamma relatively fun for me was that I enjoyed shooting things while moving, trying to target as much as I could without stopping. SA2's version abandons this philosophy and requires frequent waiting, particularly in Tails' stages. Even though the two control the same, I swear that Eggman and Tails had different level designers because Tails' stages are PACKED with bullshit that Eggman just doesn't really have to deal with. Overall, most of these levels range from bad to mediocre, with the only ones that really stand out to me as good being Iron Gate and Cosmic Wall (both Eggman levels, go figure).
Knuckles/Rouge: While these two are as nimble as they should be physics wise, I have always hated the way they animate in this game. Level design wise, their stages are surprisingly challenging and built around their gliding moveset, which makes them more fun and interactive than their SA1 counterpart... on paper. But yeah, I'm gonna have to echo what everyone else has bashed about this game and say that the radar only tracking one item at a time is really stupid, and particularly annoying in the later, larger levels. Aquatic Mine and Death Chamber are disjointed, nightmarish mazes, and Mad Space... Mad... Space...
Lastly bosses in this game are pretty terrible. Fights against other playable characters are pathetic as always, and the other fights are pretty similar to each other. Only exceptions being Biolizard and Finalhazard. Biolizard is a Sonic Superstars tier disaster of a boss that is shockingly difficult to evade and relies on the unreliable homing attack to work. Every time I died to Biolizard it didn't feel like my fault.
The Finalhazard is even worse. The swapping between Sonic and Shadow idea is kinda cool on paper but functionally just takes away the balancing act that super forms have always presented: dealing damage but collecting enough rings to stay alive. Instead, your ring count is just a flat time limit. Furthermore, you're supposed to charge into the pink swelling spots on the Finalhazard to deal damage, but I SWEAR it only works when it wants to. Sometimes it just doesn't do damage and knocks me back instead. Again, it never feels like my fault when I die to this boss, which sucks cuz Perfect Chaos was a pretty fun final boss in SA1.
So yeah overall it's an upgrade over its prequel but still a heavily flawed and overrated game.
the platformer industry will never be the same again if sega remade this game and miraculously didn't fuck it up
A deeply flawed game which still shines in spite of the often infuriating mechanics. Some of the later stages seem to conflate “frustrating to navigate” with “challenging,” especially in the hedgehog sections, but overall it’s as fun as it is rage-inducing.
No doubt this game is awesome, but S C R E W those treasure hunting levels bro.
Some of the requirement to get A ranks on these stages are very strict for a new player...
That doesn't mean I'm not gonna do them. I've been practicing Radical Highway for several weeks and want that A rank so bad. Yuji Naka I beg of thee please
Also aiming for hitless Biolizard run. I got my hitless Finalhazard run and I've never been able to live it down
That doesn't mean I'm not gonna do them. I've been practicing Radical Highway for several weeks and want that A rank so bad. Yuji Naka I beg of thee please
Also aiming for hitless Biolizard run. I got my hitless Finalhazard run and I've never been able to live it down
There's so much life in this game, and it just puts a smile a smile to my face when playing. Eggman's goofy dance he does when you win a level, the cheesiness of every moment with the main sonic cast, all the little touches in the animations of the chao's; it all creates an experience that hits on all fronts. It's goofy, it's fun, dare I say it's a 3D Blast
I genuinely don’t care man replaying this for the billionth time now that I got the Steam Deck, aka playing it PORTABLY was magical. It’s got jank but I fucking adore it. I think it’s one of the most enduring games ever. Booting it up, getting a few emblems, raising a chao, improving ranks, it’s soul. You don’t have to agree with Shadow but the mob can’t make me love him. He is my brother. We are both dragon energy. I don’t agree with everything anyone says. That’s what makes us individuals. And we have the right to free thought.
I don't really understand this game. I'd like to preface that I suck at this game, I am a dumb white man who cannot consistently get higher than E ranks on stages. Despite this, I'm not really swayed by the opinions of people online, as I only ever really see either of the two extreme opinions that you can have about the game.
I did not have fun. A lot of the earlier sonic levels were pretty forgiving, but I didn't enjoy myself at any of the Knuckles or Tails portions. Just a waste of time, and in the case of Tails, an active annoyance. The later Sonic levels ventured into this territory too.
I spent like 2 straight hours trying to beat level 16, the Sonic rail grinding stage, before turning the game off. I have no interest in turning it back on.
Not much I can actually say about it. It's a game I'd actively rather play on mute due to the sound mixing, and I fall into the crowd that view it as 2/3's absolute slop and goo and 1/3 like adequate 6/10 game. I'm no math man but that doesn't add up to a positive grade.
I did not have fun. A lot of the earlier sonic levels were pretty forgiving, but I didn't enjoy myself at any of the Knuckles or Tails portions. Just a waste of time, and in the case of Tails, an active annoyance. The later Sonic levels ventured into this territory too.
I spent like 2 straight hours trying to beat level 16, the Sonic rail grinding stage, before turning the game off. I have no interest in turning it back on.
Not much I can actually say about it. It's a game I'd actively rather play on mute due to the sound mixing, and I fall into the crowd that view it as 2/3's absolute slop and goo and 1/3 like adequate 6/10 game. I'm no math man but that doesn't add up to a positive grade.