Game Debate #98: Sonic the Hedgehog 2

[Reed Rothchild | 9,582]

[Strange | 1,700]

I like CD and 3 more. But 2 is still very good.

[OptOut | 8,892]

Best Sonic game, hands down.

[Gloves | 11,829]

Never played it.

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

Best Sonic game, from the best era for Sonic.  

[DarkTone | 988]

9. Best Sonic game I've ever played. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,616]

Solid 8. If the rating was more granular, I'd probably go 7.5. Not my favorite Sonic game by any means (I wouldn't even say it's in my top 3, personally) but certainly still a super super good Sonic game, and a really good game in general.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,616]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

I like CD and 3 more. But 2 is still very good.

Yeah, personally I would rank the 2D Sonic games, from favorite to least favorite,

Mania > 3 & K > CD > 2 > 1

[Sumez | 2,993]

Generations > S3&K > 2 > 1 > Mania >>> Anything else, including CD

[ZeldaFreak | 3,616]

16 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Generations > S3&K > 2 > 1 > Mania >>> Anything else, including CD

I would personally argue Mania is, almost objectively, one of the best Sonic games ever made. That game is just ridiculously fun, it's easily the most fun I've ever had playing any Sonic game. I still need to play Generations, it's been on my backlog for several years, but I've heard super good things about that one too.

...At the VERY least I'm surprised you'd put Sonic 1 over Mania, the first game is... I mean, it's good still, but it's a bit rough around the edges compared to all the other entries, haha.

[Sumez | 2,993]

I didn't have much fun playing Mania though. At least not nearly as much as I'd have expected given how much it looks like Sonic 3. Especially the boss fights I'd say are mostly just objectively really bad.

I agree Sonic 1 is definitely very rough compared to S2 and 3, but I'd still much rather replay it than Mania. 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,616]

12 minutes ago, Sumez said:

I didn't have much fun playing Mania though. At least not nearly as much as I'd have expected given how much it looks like Sonic 3. Especially the boss fights I'd say are mostly just objectively really bad.

I agree Sonic 1 is definitely very rough compared to S2 and 3, but I'd still much rather replay it than Mania. 

Yeah, we'll just have to disagree then. If you're a Sonic fan, I don't see how you could possibly not have fun with Mania, haha. It's just one huge love letter to classic Sonic fans.

[Kguillemette | 1,547]

10/10. Near perfect game in my opinion. Fun colorful levels often with multiple routes to explore, some bumpin' music, classic gameplay, plus the spin dash to make it seem like no part of any level is unreachable. Let's not forget Tails, who turned a fast paced game like sonic into a coop of sorts. Love this game. I like 3&K better, but they are both 10/10.

[DefaultGen | 5,429]

10, played it too much as a kid. Looking back on it half the game is invincibly blasting through loops on rails then the other half is walking speed methodical platforming, and more of it should be the ideal middle ground.

3+K = 2 > Mania > CD > 1. Generations belongs with Sonic Adventure and all the other Sonics with homing attacks and sticky platforms. Feels like a different set IMO.

[nesmaster14 | 436]

Any game from the first 3 in the series gets a 10 for me personally, and are games I grew up with as a kid.  If I had to rank the series (of games I've played):

Sonic 3 & Knuckles > Sonic 1 > Sonic 2 > Sonic Generations > Sonic CD > Sonic Mania

[twiztor | 855]

Sonic2 was my favorite of the Genesis games growing up, although that's potentially because i didn't play S&K until WAY later. gave it an 8.

[Webhead123 | 687]

Even though I've never been a huge fan of the series overall, I can't deny that I did play a lot of Sonic 2 back in the 90's and quite enjoyed it. It felt a lot more free-flowing and fun than the honestly janky original. I never owned or played more than a few minutes of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles back in the 90's, so I couldn't say how they compared but Sonic 2 definitely has a lot of nostalgic value to me. Unleashing Super Sonic, finding out about the cheat codes and playing co-op with my little brother all have their places in my heart. Credit where credit is due, Sonic 2 forced me, a hardcore Nintendo kid up until that point, to face the fact that Genesis had some honest value to offer someone who just cared about playing fun video games. The Console Wars didn't matter so much to me after that.

7/10

Edited April 21, 2022 by Webhead123

[Sumez | 2,993]

3 hours ago, ZeldaFreak said:

If you're a Sonic fan, I don't see how you could possibly not have fun with Mania

I just don't enjoy getting hit by stuff I had no realistic way to see coming ahead of time. It happens all the time in that game, and ultimately it doesn't matter because as long as you have a ring you can just keep taking a hit with no repercussion, but it still feels bad.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,582]

I gave it a 6.  I like the game; I like all of the old Sonic games.  But I never love them.

To repeat what I said somewhere at some point, I can never completely gel with the dichotomy at work with the core gameplay: you're pushed to go as fast as you can, but endlessly punished for it at the same time.

That's just my experience anyhow.  I seem to be a bit of an outlier in that regard.

[RH | 4,966]

I think we rated Sonic 1 at some point on these debates and I think I gave it a 7.  I LOVE classic 2D Sonic, but Sonic 1 for me was a snoozefest.  The spin dash made the game considerably better.  I gave this one a 9, but I could go with 9.5.  I'm not as much of a platformer fan anymore, so even though it's a master-class in near-perfect game and level design for me, it's just not my favorite genre so I can't rate it above many other games because of that.

[RH | 4,966]

11 hours ago, Gloves said:

Never played it.

You've GOT to at least fire it up on an emulator once.  I mean, this is really like saying "I've never played Super Mario Bros."  That's not some "SEGA is better than Nintendo" fanboyism (and I don't even feel that way) but back in the early 90s, there was  Mario and there was Sonic.  I, I can't even imagine being someone into vintage games and never at least ONCE firing up this game.

[Gloves | 11,829]

3 minutes ago, RH said:

You've GOT to at least fire it up on an emulator once.  I mean, this is really like saying "I've never played Super Mario Bros."  That's not some "SEGA is better than Nintendo" fanboyism (and I don't even feel that way) but back in the early 90s, there was  Mario and there was Sonic.  I, I can't even imagine being someone into vintage games and never at least ONCE firing up this game.

I've played the first game and didn't like it, so saw now reason to try the second.

[DefaultGen | 5,429]

8 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I've played the first game and didn't like it, so saw now reason to try the second.

Stick to your guns! 2 and 3+K are the best Sonic games in the franchise IMO, but you know what, I hate when people tell me a series of books gets better once you push through the bad ones.

[Gloves | 11,829]

4 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Stick to your guns! 2 and 3+K are the best Sonic games in the franchise IMO, but you know what, I hate when people tell me a series of books gets better once you push through the bad ones.

I intend to lol.

[RH | 4,966]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

Stick to your guns! 2 and 3+K are the best Sonic games in the franchise IMO, but you know what, I hate when people tell me a series of books gets better once you push through the bad ones.

 

59 minutes ago, Gloves said:

I intend to lol.

Look, @Gloves, you do you.  If you don't want to try to get into Sonic games, that's fine.  And though I kind of agree with @DefaultGen, I can say that in my experience, you can't even compare Sonic 1 to the other 2D games in the series.  i know it sounds like such a small thing, but before the spin-dash, the game just felt very forced.  It wanted go fast, so to speak but it didn't.

If you ever are curious of what the real Sonic experience like, I'm just saying that Sonic 1 is not the best place to start.  Is it a good game?  In my opinion is it but that minor innovation not only made the play of the game more fun, but it really enabled the developers to make much more fun and creative levels because they integrated a way for you to generate speed without having to run across long paths to get up speed before pressing-down to go into a pseudo-dash mode.