Trivia
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was voted #5 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll in Retro Gamer Magazine (Issue 37).
Contributed by
PCGamer77 
(3025) on Jul 18, 2007.
One controversial topic among Sonic fans is a mysterious screenshot of what appeared to be a desert that popped up in various gaming magazines prior to the game's release. While many believe it to be a mock-up or a clever hoax, there are others who note elements of the screenshot do in fact appear in the beta, and some conceptual drawings imply that a desert level did, in fact, exist at one point. (One title of a drawing even says "Desert Level" in Japanese.) Still, there are those who insist this is nonsense.
The Hidden Palace Zone, which is in the beta, but not the final release, was used extensively in previews.
Due to the fact that Sonic CD was starting development around the same time that Sonic 2 was finishing up, the early buzz about the two games often got confused, leading to predictions that Sonic 2 would involve time travel.
Sonic collects all seven Chaos Emeralds and transforms from a blue rodent into a fiery yellow powerhouse with insane speed. Merely a cheesy plot device pulled out of Yasuhara's ass? Possibly, but the connection is more likely a parody of Dragon Ball, the insanely popular flagship work of manga artist Akira Toriyama. In the manga, which was serialized in Shonen Jump from 1984 to 1995, the hero Son Goku (the Monkey King) searches for the seven legendary Dragon Balls. Eventually he is able to transform into a "Super Saiyan", a form in which he gains immense power along with spiky golden hair.
The score for this game was composed by Masato Nakamura, who is famous in Japan for being the bass player in Dreams Come True.
Just like Sonic, Tails's real name, Miles Prower, is a reference to speed (miles per hour).
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was voted #61 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll published by Game Informer Magazine (Issue 100, August 2001).
Contributed by
PCGamer77 (3025) on Jun 29, 2004.
The Death Egg is based on the Death Star from Star Wars.
Sonic 2 had a worldwide release date, which was uncommon at the time. November 24, 1992 was dubbed Sonic 2sday (a pun of the fact that it was a Tuesday), and the game was released across all markets. This is referenced in the game by the order in which you need to play the sound effects to activate the debug mode.
