Sonic the Hedgehog 2 SMS/GG 16-Bit

[StellarStardust]

This project aims to re-imagine the 8-bit Master System/Game Gear versions of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Every zone has been re-imagined completely to fit that of the likes of Sonic 2 and CD. This demo for CGS2024 features only one zone, Under Ground Zone.

PLOT:

► Show Spoiler

Following his first adventure across South Island, Sonic the Hedgehog leaves in pursuit of adventure. Upon returning however, he finds no sign of any of his flicky friends... Before he let that thought linger, the
hedgehog hears something swoosh by, looking to only see Dr. Robotnik chasing after his new friend, Miles
"Tails" Prower! Try as he might, Sonic could only catch up just in time to see the mad doctor snatch his
buddy and take off, only leaving a note written by Tails behind explaining that he is being held hostage
in the Crystal Egg Zone in exchange for the six Chaos Emeralds! The note also warns Sonic that Robotnik has
built a new series of robots that is awaiting the hedgehog called "Master Robots"... After reading the note,
Sonic sets out to thwart Dr. Robotnik's scheme and save his friend!

SCREENSHOTS:







TEAM SUPERNOVA CREDITS:

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StellarStardust - project lead, character and level artist, level designer, also some minor code changes or adjustments
_Sonc - co-leader, level artist, character artist, level designer
joshyflip - character artist, made suggestions for the reveal trailer
Dark - coder, made some level changes
Markthemaster91 - coder
Blue(BlueSpeedster) - coder
jtn00b - coder
LunarCryptik - composer
D a VE! - composer
KGL - beta-tester, made a lot of useful suggestions too

SPECIAL THANKS(these people weren't on the team, but helped out nontheless!):
MotorRoach - helped out with a few art assets for the project
Xavier - made a suggestion for UGZ3 boss that greatly improved it
July2612 - beta-testing, gave some suggestions
Beta Nexus - made some old UGZ assets that became the basis of UGZ's FG art

Full credits are in the demo's credits.

[BlueSpeedster]

Hey there, dev of the project here, the demo is now live for everyone to enjoy and play, any feedback can be said here and via the form at the end of CGS! In the meantime, have fun!

[BlueSpeedster]

Note to all Content Creators: It would be recommended to play with version 1.0.4 rather than previous versions, this update contains the following changes to ensure a smooth gameplay experience
Patch Notes List

► Show Spoiler

Version 1.0.4 <Available Now> (CGS 2024 Demo Patch 4) [* = Major, - = Minor]
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* THIS IS NOW A BLUESKY ZONE!!! The end of demo screen has now been updated to use a Bluesky handle rather than Twitter. (This also means that future updates will now be on Bluesky as well, make sure to check out Stellar's Bluesky here: @stellarstardust.bsky.social)
- Visual oversights in Under Ground Zone Act 1 and 3 have been fixed.
- The game size has seen a noticeable shrink, allowing for a quicker download.
* Had a hard time getting the Chaos Emerald? A checkpoint has been added to UGZ Act 2 near the Chaos Emerald.
- Tails no longer has a seizure in the intro when grabbed by Eggman/Robotnik.

Version 1.0.3/1.0.3.1 <Replaced with Version 1.0.4 (1.0.3.1), Replaced with Version 1.0.3.1 (1.0.3)> (CGS 2024 Demo Patch 3/3.1) [* = Major, - = Minor]
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(Note: Patch Notes are mostly the same between 1.0.3 and 1.0.3.1, 1.0.3.1 changes will be highlighted)
* Added in Controller support from the latest Harmony version, you can now play the game with a controller! (Select pieces of text have been updated in accordance)
* Intro theme has been updated again, courtesy of LunarCryptik!
- A selection of sprites for Sonic have been updated
- A new name has been added to the credits.
- Tweaked some wording for the Disclaimer message.
- Minecart’s x scale no longer matches with the player prior to interaction.
- The Title Screen received a major tweak to it's feel, yet something remains the same.
- (Version 1.0.3.1 Fix) Bleep sound effect is now tweaked for the options menu
- There will never be an Android port.
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Supported Controllers (Tested by the devs):
XInput-based Controllers (includes the controller used for Xbox One S+ / Series X|S)
DualShock 4 (PlayStation 4)
DualSense (PlayStation 5)
Incompatibility Note: Nintendo Switch controllers are not supported out of the box, you will need to use an external program to use them with this game

Version 1.0.2 <Replaced with Version 1.0.3> (CGS 2024 Demo Patch 2) [* = Major, - = Minor]
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- Collision on Under Ground Zone has been tweaked again
- Changed Intro music to be higher quality
- Fixed a bug with stage restart causing the player to be given 0 lifes after death

Version 1.0.1 <Replaced with Version 1.0.2> (CGS 2024 Demo Patch 1) [* = Major, - = Minor]
===================================================================
* Fixed a couple of issues with the minecart in Under Ground Zone. (No longer crashes upon acquiring speed shoes/fixes respawn)
* Added a new stage restart key, the disclaimer screen has been updated to reflect this
- Music should now be paused when pausing on a stage
- Changed a name in the credits
- Updated the fade out in the CGS Splash Screen to match up with the SEGA screen following it
- Tweaked the Invincibility/Speed Shoes timer to match up with the song
- Collision for Under Ground Zone Act 2 has been tweaked.
- Loop Switch Collision has been tweaked for all acts of Under Ground Zone
- Removed Herobrine

If you have recorded any gameplay with previous versions of the demo, you will need to either rerecord or let people know of a newer build available. Thanks for your continuing support on the project!

[FangameReviewGuy]

Gotta say, this fangame got some potential! Unlike other Game Gear to 16-bit remakes, this isn't simply giving the original levels "16-bit" sprites and keeping the level design the same, nor is it upscaling the original sprites to make them feel "16-bit". That always felt lazy to me. This actually feels like a lost Sonic Genesis game. With that being said, what is here is VERY short.

Levels don't even take a minute to beat, and that's with me not trying to speedrun them. I feel like levels, on average, should at least take about 2-3 minutes to complete, but these can be completed in damn near 30 seconds. That's really bad. On the plus side, the level design, as far as I can tell, doesn't seem to be the same as in the original game, which is great because I don't think the original level design would really suit a "16-bit" version. I'm sure everyone knows about Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit by now. I'm also really happy to see that the sprites actually are custom and not upscaled and cleaned versions of the original game's sprites. The sprites look like something that would come out of Sonic 2 or 3. Too many S2GG 16-bit remakes fail at the art department.

Welp, that's all to say. Again, not much meat to tear into here, which is a real shame. If my biggest critique is that I want more of it, then I think that should say something. I'm just happy that we finally have what seems to be a proper Sonic 2 GG 16-bit remake akin to Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit. Looking forward to this one.

[Phantom1232Boi]

This is simply brilliant, I love the direction this is going in
The music is so good too, I need that OST on YouTube ASAP, especially the Speed Shoes theme
Fantastic work from the Team! Can't wait to see more

[sovic91]

Hey guys, just wanted to say great work on this demo. It's really fun, the level design is pretty solid, the pixel art is beautiful. You've got a lot of neat little touches troughout like the checkpoints being a hybrid between the classic checkpoint and the beta design from Sonic 2 (16-bit). The minecart setpiece is done really well. Kinda reminds me of those spindash sections from Sonic 3D Blast, except you can controll them. The quicksand in the boss area is an absolutelly brilliant way of solving the problem of Sonic having controll on the slope with the Megadrive physics. Wish I'd thought of that. Though, I'd suggest making the quicksand a mechanic in the level itself, so that it doesn't come out of nowhere just for a single appearance in the boss fight. You also managed to fit in the springs section in the level design (you probably know what I'm refering to) and have it work well. I also found a few bugs. Pretty inconsequential stuff, nothing major, but I thought I'd do my due diligence and make a short bug report anyway. And for clarification before you ask, I am running version 1.0.3.1

The first one isn't really even a glitch, just a slight oversight. Due to different layer priorities of different chunks, part of Sonic shows, where it's not supposed to.


The colapsable platforms sometimes collapse when Sonic isn't standing on top of them. That happens because the Harmony framework (and from what I can tell most Game Maker Sonic frameworks in general) just checks if the player is within the collision of the platform and if they're in a grounded state. Here are a few examples where those conditions are technically satisfied, but the platform shouldn't be collapsing.




A pretty simple and easy (though I suppose slightly unelegant) fix would be an extra condition in the if statement that checks if the player's y_position has a greater value than the platform's.

You can get regular control of Sonic while in the minecart if you jump and touch the loop's top part while holding down. I'm assuming there's a conflict between player states.


And lastly, in act 3 you can get bellow the lava if you build enough speed.


Anyway, can't wait for the next release. Good luck with the project guys.

P.S. Forgot to include this picture of misaligned chunks:

[Samuel772]

Wow, this project is absolutely incredible, it actually feels and plays like a lost Genesis Sonic game.

The graphics, the music,the EXPERIENCE, it just feels so natural to the genesis!

This project has a giant potential, way bigger than the other S2 MS/GG remake, and it's kinda of sad that not many people are talking about it....

Even though the zone can be finished in less than 5 minutes. I always want to comeback to it, to explore even more.

Most of the zone is PERFECT, but there are some flaws(flaws not bugs):
- No proper way to closing the game.(you have to alt + F4 or close the game in a window, and that really takes away the experience)
- The Chaos Emerald location is DEVIOUS, there's no proper signaling about the route where you can take the emerald.(and yes, I did get it as a matter of fact.)
- There's no way to defeating the boss faster, it really gets stale, real quick.(you could make if you have invicibilty you can damage the boss, instead of bouncing away from it)

I know that a lot of people worked hard on this love letter to Sonic 2 MS/GG, and I hope that the project will be finished.

[NeoNote]

Just played it, art looks really good, I'd say the best from what I've ever seen in other "remakes".
The music is pretty good too but I personally don't really like the zone theme being the same all 3 acts and boss theme could be much better.
The level design is pretty simple but made really good, as far as I played I didn't notice unfairness or weird hazard placements so good job on that, wish levels were longer tho lol.
I get that y'all aiming at making this game feel like smth between s2 and cd (don't really see cd feel being here at all though?...) so I can just wish you the best of luck in going that way. Pretty sure that upgrading the game with mini bosses or zone aesthetic variations in acts won't spoil the game, quite the opposite imho but you do you.

If you're interested I envisioned s2 sms/gg as kinda "cd 2" more than "s2" counterpart. The music, weird level design at times and the whole feeling (also King Meteor Studios made pretty awesome renditions of the whole ost in cd style. If you haven't heard it you def should, the boss themes go really hard lol)