One of my favorite 2D platformers ever.It has great,fast gameplay,and is charming,colorful and fun.
Sonic 2 is one of my favorite platformer games ever made.It uses speed in a great way and the game feels to fun to play and it's also very colorful and has charming music.
Sonic is able to speed through the levels very fast,and the levels in Sonic 2 are designed for Sonic to be able to use his speed,for example,the levels give Sonic a chance to run through areas very fast,or to bounce of springs or to run through the loops(which provide extra running space in smaller areas)and it's awesome seeing Sonic running through the loops so fast while he's upside down.
A spinball manuever was added to Sonic 2,which gives Sonic a quick burst of speed,and can be used to attack enemies with or to get that little bit extra speed that he needs to move up step areas.
The levels only have a few sections where you can actually fall to your death(which makes the platforming element of this game a little bit on the easy side),but the areas where you can actually fall to your death are well placed(for example,one of the boss fights makes you move across falling platforms while you attack the boss and dodge his attacks and if you fall off any of the platforms in that area,you'll die,and the same applies for the level which has sonic standing on top of a plane that's flying and there's some sneaky traps in the forest level where you can land in a pit that's filled with spikes and there's no way out,and you'll have to wait until Sonic dies).
But,don't let the lack of difficulty sway you from this game,it's so playable and fun,and the platforming in Sonic 2 is designed to be fast,so you don't have to carefully time your jumps across platforms like in Super Mario games.
The 2nd last boss is quite tough in my opinion and if you get hit by one of his attacks,you'll die,because there's no rings available in the final level,but it's also a fun battle.There's also underwater segments,where Sonic can drown if he doesn't collect air bubbles occasionally,which are found in certain places underwater and they aren't always easy to get to.
You have to also watch out for places where you can be crushed,which is instant death.
In Sonic games,if you have at least one ring,you cannot be killed by an enemy or lava or spines,but falling into bottomless areas and being crushed is instant death.You can't save your progress in this game,so you must be careful with your lives,and unless you're a very good player,this game will take an hour or 2 to beat.You can get extra lives everytime you collect 100 rings(when you get hit by an enemy or obsticle,you will lose all your rings).You'll gain a continue if you finish a zone with at least 50 rings.There is bonus stages,which can be accessed if you have 50 rings and go past them,and the bonus levels consist of running through a gauntlet very fast(in a front on 3rd person view)and you will need to collect a certain number of rings to pass each zone in the bonus stages and you'll need to dodge mines(which make you lose all your rings if you get hit by them).If you make it through a bonus stage,you'll gain a chaos emerald,and if you collect all the chaos emeralds,you'll be able to transform into Super Sonic everytime you collect 50 rings for a certain amount of time and you'll be invincible.Also,chaos emeralds give you a lot of points and you gain an extra life for every 50 000 points you gain.
The boss fights are enjoyable,because robotic will use many different types of machines to attack you with,and they have various attack patterns and weapons to dodge.Some of his machines will try to shoot you or crush you,and he even has a Metal version of Sonic with sharp spines and it can shoot projectiles and can jump at you and he has a giant robot that can fly in the air and will try to crush you and will shoot projectiles at you.Some of the machines robotnic uses for boss fights will use water/lava for cover or they will quickly pop out of the water and launch themselves at you or try to shoot you.
The levels/zones have a mixture of colorful and industrial/metropolitan areas.There's tropical areas with blue sea in the background and palm trees.Industiral areas with sky scrappers in the background or factory environments.The beautiful aquatic ruins that have areas submerged under water.The Casino zone all lite up and you can even gamble your rings to try to earn more rings by going into slot machines(you can win hundreds of rings at a time or lose all your rings).A level that's high on the mountains,and there's an Arabian style zone that's surrounded by ocean that's been polluted by Oil and there's a level high in the sky where Sonic stands on top of a plane and fights enemies high in the sky while the plane he's standing on flys,and there's an airbase high in the sky and you'll also battle in space in one of robotnic's bases.
I like how the chemical plant zone has sections that are submerged by the purple liquid,and some areas have lava or beautiful blue sea,and the polluted ocean filled with oil is quite shocking and the aquatic ruins blend with the water in such a beauitiful way.
The music soundtracks suit the theme of each stage,for example,joyful music plays in the tropical environment,you'll hear arabian style music for the arabian style zone,the dark forest zone you hear creepy music and the metropolitan/industrial areas have techno/electronic style music.
I love the music at the intro screen and the music you'll hear when you make it to the end of a zone or when you gain an extra life and the music that plays when you gain the invincibility power up.
When you fight against Robotic in the boss fights,you'll hear a cute boss theme music.
When you battle against robotnic in the final stage and go up against his deadly robot invensions,the music gives a lethal feeling and I still remember hearing the spines on the Metal Sonic sharpening before it attacked Sonic.
Overall,one of my favorite platforming games,and it's so charming,has great,fast gameplay and is fun to play.