Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Dunkelschwamm

  

    Gotta go fast, again! Another set of six areas players have to clear before dealing with the evil Dr. Eggman. This was merged with the first map by the community but is being reviewed separately. 

SCMapDB page

Author: iLLuSioN

Date of release: 2008

Maps in package: 1

Map review of Sonic the Hedgehog 2

(originally posted on SCMapDB)

by dunkelschwamm | May 9, 2026 | 3207 characters

    Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a follow-up to Sonic the Hedgehog. We played it through the merged maps available here. Much like the first map, it is a platforming/puzzle map. This time, a fair bit easier than the first to beat each zone. To find each chaos emerald, however, it's quite a challenge.

    First of all, this time the platforming is far less reliant on propulsion springs. There are far more straight forward platforming puzzles, like a frogger-like, navigating atop spinning barrels, avoiding obstacles atop a moving platform, etc. I think for the most part, this is a step in the right direction.

    One thing I lament about the new direction in platforming puzzles is the reliance on waiting: waiting for a moving platform to come to you, or waiting for fans to stop blowing so you can move past them, or waiting for a floor to stop being electrified to proceed. I think timing puzzles are fine- there's one where the player must time jumps across gaps between intermittent waterfalls; there's one where the player must move across a chamber that a solid brush moves through in a cycle that will crush the player if not timed properly. But those puzzles manage to minimize waiting in a way I wish some of the previously mentioned "waiting" puzzles had. Sonic isn't about waiting- in Sonic CD he'll jump off the screen if you make him wait too long.

    Don't let the size of the previous paragraph let you think this map is horribly dragged down by this. I think pound for pound this is a snappier, easier, breezier map than the first one.

    That is, until it comes to finding the chaos emeralds. This time they are quite out of the way, often being both very difficult to find and very difficult to reach. Finding them all nets the player 5000 hp and an egon gun (this being the outfitting of Hyper Sonic, it seems). As far as I know, this only has the function of trivializing the challenge of destroying the last zone's core. It's for the memes then, I guess.

    For graphics, like the first map, the textures are taken from Sonic games. This time, much of it comes from Sonic 3, but both the lobby and final zone take more from Sonic 2. It was kind of strange to see Carnival Night during the day (I seem to recall this not being the case in the standalone map, but it's been a while- we played the merge) but otherwise all of the aesthetics work great.

    Part of what helps this along is the music. Sonic is nothing without his music, and this map offers a track for each zone as well as controls to turn the tracks on and off. This is absolutely peak.

    While I think this map maybe overcorrected for difficulty in some ways, I highly recommend Sonic the Hedgehog 2 if you like jumping around and running in colorful environments.

Pros:

• Fun platforming
• Good Sonic atmosphere
• Music + Music controls
• Great chaos emerald hunt

Cons:

• A lot of puzzles require unnecessary amount of standing around waiting
• Chaos Emerald reward is a bit superfluous
• Maybe a bit too easy

Score: 7.7 / 10