Savaged Regime - Underground Zone (Remix)

Savaged Regime - Mystic Cave Zone (YM2612 Rearranged)

HIDDEN PALACE

Previously only accessible as a corrupted mess via cheat cart hack codes, the scrapped Sonic the Hedgehog 2 level Hidden Palace Zone has been given a new lease of life thanks to couple of committed fans and a recent mobile release. Using assets only available in Beta code, and level layouts suggested by pre-release magazine appearances, Sonic sceners Taxman and Stealth have created a wonderful, speculative stage tucked away in a dark, cavernous corner of the main game.

Vid on the fritz?

Toot Toot Sonic Warrior

With Sonic the Hedgehog's Lead Programmer Yuji Naka hard at work helming a Mega Drive sequel in America, it fell to to Sonic's creator Naoto Ohshima to develop a separate release designed to take advantage of Sega's new supplementary hardware, the Mega CD. Sonic CD featured crisp J-Pop anthems, and animated cut-scenes by Toei Animation and Studio Junio, as well as a time travel gimmick that allowed players to leap back and forth undoing Dr Robotnik's techno-pollution. Despite a PC port, and an appearance as part of a GameCube / PlayStation 2 compilation, Sonic CD's initial release on an expensive, niche system assured the title the dubious distinction of being the least played Sonic game. Thankfully, this forthcoming digital release looks to be fairly definitive, adding in the instant momentum of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's spin-dash attack, and retaining the Japanese soundtrack that was removed for the original American issue.

Genocide City

Sonic the Hedgehog 2's rushed development time meant many levels and concepts had to be discarded along the way. Among these deleted stages is the worrying sounding Genocide City, a single techno-maze stage that was to be found late in the game. Much of the work done structuring this level ended up being used in the release version for the third act of Metropolis Zone. Still, the weirdly atypical name struck a cord with fans, particularly the Sonic hack scene.

A fan designed version of Genocide City appears in Esrael Neto's Sonic 2 Delta, there the stage uses Chemical Plant's industrial loop de loop geography suspended in space. Disaster Year's favourite interpretation though is the one found in Sonic Hachelle-Bee's Sonic 2 Long Version, Hachelle-Bee imagines the level as a brick cityscape, dwarfed by scrolling castle-scrapers, and adorned with Aztec monster-mouths. This Genocide City resembles the ruin corners of Mega Drive RoboCop Versus The Terminator, particularly the opening stages set in that fiction's dilapidated Old Detroit. Ghosts haunt doorways in Genocide City, the murdered populace infrequently appearing as strung-up mummies dried to a muddy brown. Escape Sonic!

Speedy Needle

Levels in the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog games were dense with diversion. Players could comb multiple stacking routes for secrets and bonuses, or blast right through mach speeding. Above is a finely honed example of the latter. Blast processing! Listen out for a soundscape struggling to keep up with the blistering pace.