Editing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (section)

==Development==
===Background===
The original ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' was developed by [[Sonic Team]] in Japan and released in 1991 around the world. The title greatly increased the popularity of [[Sega]] and helped making the company a formidable rival for [[Nintendo]], who before that controlled the video game market. However, before the game released, programmer [[Yuji Naka]] quit Sega of Japan due to dissatisfactions and financial issues with the company.<ref name="Sega16">{{Cite web |first=Ken |last=Horowitz |title=Developer's Den: Sega Technical Institute |url=https://www.sega-16.com/2007/06/developers-den-sega-technical-institute/ |publisher=Sega-16 |archivedate=16 August 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816104409/https://www.sega-16.com/2007/06/developers-den-sega-technical-institute/ |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="Famitsu">{{Cite web |first=Ray |last=Maba |date=24 June 2016 |title=『ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ』誕生・ヒット・新生の真実をソニックチームのレジェンドクリエイターが、25周年のいま明かす　秘蔵資料満載の永久保存版！|url=https://www.famitsu.com/news/201606/24107383.html |language=Japanese |work=Famitsu |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref>

While ''Sonic 1'' was still under development, American game designer [[Mark Cerny]], who had previously worked in Sega games like ''Galactic Protector'', established the [[Sega Technical Institute]] (STI) in the United States, with the idea of hiring aspiring American game designers who would receive training by Sega of Japan's most experienced minds. The game designer of ''Sonic 1'', [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]], was one of the first people who were offered a position in the team; he accepted a year later when he made up his mind. While meeting up with his colleagues in Japan as usual, Cerny learned of Naka's situation, and thus paid him a visit and listened to the reasons why he had left. Naka was ultimately convinced to rejoin Sega at the STI, shielded from Sega of Japan's critique and with a higher salary. Various other members of Sonic Team joined him too.<ref name="strafefox">{{Cite web |author=strafefox |date=22 May 2018 |title=The Making of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQuDnNO9JsM |publisher=YouTube |accessdate=20 April 2023}}</ref><ref name="Sega16" /> Meanwhile, the rest of the development team stayed in Japan to develop ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD]]'' by the request of the president of Sega.<ref name="Famitsu" />

In September 1991, Naka moved to California, where he reunited with Yasuhara. Around this time, with other original titles underway, Cerny pitched a sequel to ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', but Sega managment believed that it was too soon for one.<ref name="Sega16" /> With no new project assigned, the team would make some experiments for the eventual sequel. In November, however, Cerny got a frantic call from his superiors who had revered course and told him that they needed the game. The pressure was so much that the release date of the game was originally set to release in October 1992 (one month before the final release date), meaning that the team only had eleven months to complete the game.<ref name="strafefox" /> With two months having been lost from the original schedule, Cerny had to scramble to get his team organized to complete it in time. Full-scale development of ''Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' began in early 1992. At first, the developers were exclusively Americans, as the Japanese side of the team had not arrived yet due to visa complications.<ref name="Sega16" />

===Design===
Former Sega of America marketing director Al Nilsen said that the STI wanted to go "all out" with ''Sonic 2'' and ensure that it was as successful as its prequel, since sequels are generally not very well regarded.<ref name="GameInformer">{{Cite web |first=Brian |last=Shea |date=21 November 2017 |title=The Behind-The-Scenes Story Of How Sonic 2 Became Sega’s Ace In The Hole |url=https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2017/11/21/the-behind-the-scenes-story-of-how-sonic-2-became-sega-ace-in-the-hole.aspx |work=Game Informer |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref> The team, which consisted of just ten people,<ref name="Famitsu" /> brainstormed for new ideas to make the formula work. One of them was to make [[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]] faster by increasing his limit of speed compared to the first game.<ref name="GameInformer" /> A new move called the "[[Spin Dash]]" was added so that players could reach super speeds in an instant without feeling too exasperated.<ref name="SonicPanic">{{Cite web |author=Video Archive |date=22 April 2022 |title=Sonic Panic (Sonic 2 Promo Video) <nowiki>[ENGLISH CC]</nowiki> {Windii Reupload} |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVX2YfkrEvA |work=YouTube |accessdate=27 March 2023}}</ref> Earlier versions of ''Sonic 2'' also had a feature where Sonic would be hurt if he crashed into a wall at high speed, but it was removed in later builds.

<gallery type="slideshow" position="left" widths="225">
Sonic_2_Level_Map_Concept_01.png|A concept of what would become [[West Side Island]], by [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]], in the present. Only [[Metropolis Zone]] made it into the final game.
Sonic_2_Level_Map_Concept_02.png|Another concept of the original island, by [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]]. This map depicted the island in an altered present following [[Doctor Eggman|Dr. Eggman]]'s time-travelling schemes. Only [[Oil Ocean Zone]] made it into the final game.
Sonic_2_Level_Map_Concept_04.png|Another concept of the original island, by [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]]. This map depicted the island in the "past". Only [[Hill Top Zone]] made it into the final game.
Sonic_2_Level_Map_Concept_03.png|Another concept of the original island, by [[Hirokazu Yasuhara]]. This map depicted the island in the futured ruled by [[Doctor Eggman|Dr. Eggman]], overrun with machinery and cities.
</gallery>
Meanwhile, Yasuhara had various plans for the game and was visualizing story and gameplay ideas for it. He conceived a story that was very different from the final one, being time travel-based; the premise was that [[Doctor Eggman|Dr. Eggman]] had gone back in time to alter the [[Earth]]'s history, prompting Sonic to travel to the past as well to prevent the creation of a [[Eggman Empire]]. At least four timelines were conceived: the present, the past, an alternate present modified by Eggman, and the ruined future under the doctor's reign. These ideas were ultimately scrapped since they were seen as too ambitious for the game's release schedule, and the team decided to lean towards the first game's streamlined design. Nevertheless, some of the [[Zone]]s that were conceived also made it into the final product: [[Hill Top Zone]] was originally the past version of [[Green Hill|Green Hill Zone]], while [[Oil Ocean Zone]] was from the modified present, and both [[Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)|Chemical Plant Zone]] and [[Casino Night Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)|Casino Night Zone]] came from the future ruled by the villain. A similar concept was used by ''Sonic CD'', released in 1993.<ref name="strafefox" />

[[File:Sonic-2-Tails-Sketches-I.jpeg|thumb|225px|Sketches of [[Miles "Tails" Prower]], who became the "player two character" in ''Sonic 2'' following an internal contest.]]
A multiplayer mode was planned to be featured in ''Sonic 1'' but could not make it into the final product. Naka managed to figure out a way to incorporate two-player split-screen gameplay, by making two entire game screens on top of each other and squashing them to fit with a television's 4:3 ratio.<ref name="strafefox" /> He wanted to implement this feature in this title so that siblings could play together, believing that this made games more fun.<ref name="SonicPanic" /> He wanted the second playable character to be cute and endearing, like [[w:c:uruseiyatsura:Kitsune|Kitsune]] in ''Urusei Yatsura'',<ref name="S2 30th thread">{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/judy_totoya/status/1594372821794586624|date=21 November 2022|title=Judy Totoya on Twitter|work=Twitter|accessdate=21 November 2022}}</ref> and hold a "deep admiration for Sonic".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sega.com/features/allsonic/creator/naka04.html|title=Sonic's Creator - Yuji Naka|accessdate=28 August 2008|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/19970605172353/http://www.sega.com/features/allsonic/creator/naka04.html|archivedate=5 June 1997}}</ref> A contest was held at STI to decide this character. The entry of [[Yasushi Yamaguchi]], originally the main artist and level designer for Sonic Team, won. His character was named "Miles Power", a play on the term ''[[Wikipedia:Miles per hour|miles per hour]]'', a unit of measurement for speed. However, "Power" was changed to "Prower" due to making the character sound too powerful.<ref name="S2 30th thread" /> Additionally. marketing director Al Nilsen and product manager [[Madeline Schroeder]] convinced the team to change the name from "Miles" to "Tails", in which Yamaguchi was upset.<ref name="Al Nilsen">{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/AlNilsen/status/1476008865951059969?t=B7WGCOeAGeaBUIvbgSVJdQ|date=29 December 2021|title=Al Nilsen on Twitter|work=Twitter|accessdate=29 December 2021|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229140230/https://twitter.com/AlNilsen/status/1476008865951059969?t=B7WGCOeAGeaBUIvbgSVJdQ&s=19|archivedate=29 December 2021}}</ref> Following a meeting, the team and Yamaguchi came to a compromise: the name "Miles Prower" would serve as the character's legal name, while "Tails" would be his nickname, resulting in the full name of '''[[Miles "Tails" Prower]]'''. Other proposed characters, such as "[[Boomer the Turtle]]", did not prevail in the end.

===Conflicts===
The development was complicated due to cultural differences between the Japanese and American developers. Despite the fact that both sides were on friendly terms, there were many contrasts in their working styles. The Japanese were among Sega's top developers, making it difficult for the relatively inexperienced Americans to keep up. Both parties also had an entirely different work ethic, and many worked throughout the night and even slept in their office cubicles. Former STI member Tim Skelly believed that Naka would have been happier working in an all-Japanese team.<ref name="Sega16" /> In addition, due to the sheer scale of the project and the work environment in the United States, the small team was left to do all the work themselves.<ref name="Famitsu" />

[[File:HPZ.jpg|thumb|left|225px|Various Zones in ''Sonic 2'' were cut from the final game. The most famous was "[[Hidden Palace Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)|Hidden Palace Zone]]" (recreation from the [[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2013)|2013 remaster]] pictured), which was reintroduced in a few recent releases of the game.]]
{{Quote left|The game probably could have been three times the size if we left in everything that was there. [[Yuji Naka|Naka]] and team [...] weren't afraid to say, 'I've been working on this for four months, it's not working. Let's take it out.'|Former Sega of America marketing director Al Nilsen on the scrapped content in ''Sonic 2''}}
A lot of content ended up being scrapped from the game due to memory limitations. In retrospect, Nilsen said ''Sonic 2'' "probably could have been three times the size" had the developers left in everything that was planned to be there.<ref name="GameInformer" /> Amongst much of the scrapped content was "[[Hidden Palace Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)|Hidden Palace Zone]]", which appeared in many advertisements of the game. It was intended to be a Zone with two Acts where Sonic would [[Super transformation|transform]] into [[Super Sonic]] after collecting all seven [[Chaos Emerald]]s. However, it was then changed to one Act before the developers eventually abandoned the proposal and instead allowed the player to access Super Sonic regardless of the Zone.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uk.xbox.gamespy.com/articles/654/654750p4.html|title=Sega's Yuji Naka Talks!|publisher=GameSpy|page=4|quote='''GameSpy''': Was the Hidden Palace meant to be "hidden," then? / '''[[Yuji Naka]]''': You'd encounter the stage through normal play by collecting the emeralds. The idea behind the stage was, 'Where do the Chaos Emeralds come from?' That's where Sonic was originally supposed to be granted his Super Sonic powers. We finally were able to use it in S&K, though it wound up being quite different from what we had planned in Sonic 2. But even from Sonic 1 we'd been throwing around those sorts of ideas. Still, when we were running out of time, we looked over things quickly trying to figure out what to dump ... and CHOP went the Hidden Palace. There's simply no way we could have thrown that in by the deadline at the rate we were going.|accessdate=3 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="SRZ">{{Cite web|url=http://www.randomsonicnet.org/srz/index.php?page=interviews/cs.htm|title=Craig Stitt Interview|publisher=Sonic Research Zone|date=23 January 2001|accessdate=25 January 2015}}</ref> Other famously scrapped Zones included "[[Wood Zone]]", "[[Sand Shower Zone]]", and "[[Cyber City Zone]]". Naka recalls that as many as five stages were scrapped, one of them being cut from the game a few days before release despite having been fully completed due to the lack of memory.<ref name="Gryson">{{Cite journal|title=The People Making Sega's Future|journal=Beep! Mega Drive|publisher=SoftBank|date=January 1993|pages=46–48|url=https://mdshock.com/2021/12/28/the-people-making-segas-future/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20211229012806/https://mdshock.com/2021/12/28/the-people-making-segas-future/|archivedate=29 December 2021|quote='''[[Yuji Naka]]''': There's still so much I want to add. For Sonic 2, we had to remove so much due to memory limitations. We actually made about five more zones, but in the end, we had to cut them all. We actually cut one zone at the absolute very last minute. Even though it was basically complete, we couldn't use it because of a lack of memory. There just wasn't enough space.}}</ref> The stakes for this game were so high that it was polished up until the very last possible moment, and then flown to Japan for production by two people on two separate planes, just in case something went wrong with one plane.<ref name="GameInformer" />