Editing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (section)

===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.