Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Review (switch)

DEVELOPER: SEGA

PUBLISHER: SEGA

RELEASE DATE: 20 February 2020

PLATFORMS: PC Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Android, iOS, PS3 & Nintendo 3DS

Price: $7.99

Okay… let’s review, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a platformer created & distributed by Sega. It is the second main game in Sonic the Hedgehog series and was originally released in 1992 for the Sega Genesis. As is typical for Sonic, he and his sidekick Tails, need to prevent series villain Dr. Robotnik aka Eggman from stealing Chaos Emeralds which he needs to power his space station. To be clear, this is not a remaster, reimagining or remodel it’s the original game from 1992 re-released for the Nintendo Switch. The screen is still formatted for the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio which caused no end of confusion in my nine year old.

Amaze your children with the 4:3 aspect ratio

You can play as Sonic, Tails or both. It makes little difference to gameplay as they are functionally identical in their abilities. For multi-player, another player may join the game at any time and there is a stand-alone competitive split-screen race. For the overachievers among us if you gather fifty rings and reach a checkpoint you will warp to a "special stage". Here you attempt to collect a set amount of rings. Collect enough and acquire a special ability predictably called Supersonic that makes your character invincible to attacks, your character runs faster.

As far as the plot is concerned you know the drill, like the original Dr Eggman is planning (wait for it) WORLD DOMINATION through the power of Chaos Emeralds an army of robots. He is also building an armored space station known as the Death Egg (pun intended I’m sure), also as a means of (wait for it) WORLD DOMINATION.

Who says pedestrians have the right of way?

Sonic and Tails pursue Eggman through a variety of landscapes, winding up aboard the Death Egg itself, courtesy of Tails' biplane, the Tornado. (Must be some biplane) The plane is damaged after being shot at, but Sonic still manages to infiltrate the Death Egg, alone. Once there, he battles an Eggman’s android duplicate before taking on Eggman himself, who is piloting a giant robot. Sonic manages to defeat him crippling the Death Egg and knocking it out of orbit. Sonic falls to the ground and is saved by Tails in the Tornado.

The game has aged well and the gameplay is what old Sega hands will remember fast and furious and mostly a matter of timing. The controls translate to the Switch better than most but the button order is a bit awkward with functions expected of the A button being mapped to the X but as it’s not the games native controller its works well enough. The 4:3 aspect ratio of the game is retained and it includes a border to visually fill in the borders a bit but the kids found this bit of technological bit of nostalgia confounding. Bottom line it’s a well-done port of an old classic that plays well on the Switch.

The Good:

• Well-executed port of a classic

• The game has aged well and is as playable now as it was in 92

The Bad:

• Minor control issues