In this classic game challenge, I get all the Chaos Emeralds in Sonic 2 in the Emerald Hills Zone. It's hardly impossible but it's not easy either. You'll need to be familiar with all the special stages because there's very little margin for error. I did this once in my youth and decided to take another crack at it and make these videos, it was a lot harder than I remembered! This is hardly a superplay, so expect me to get hit and do other stupid things.
Speed Shoes go! Towards the end of Emerald Hills 2, there's a Star Post you can see above you on a platform but you can't reach it; in order to get to it, you have to use the Speed Shoes at the start of the level and make it to the diagonal red spring. The speed boost gives you enough airtime to make it to an otherwise unreachable Shield atop a loop-the-loop and a spring that sends you to a secret island with a whole bunch of rings and a 1-up. To the right and below is the Star Post! You only get one shot to hit it, but it's worth it to try since it gives you a total of eight Star Posts in Emerald Hills. Some of the later Special Stages are pretty tricky so you'll want the extra chance.
Special Stage 7 (black) is the last special stage and by far the most difficult. The first section is the killer; it's similar to the second portion of Stage 4, but is far more intense, requiring you to change sides rapid-fire, and tricking you by putting some ring patches on the same side twice in a row. The distance between the bomb intervals is pretty short; getting hit more than once will probably prevent you from hitting the high ring quota. Things cool down in the second section, which has you weaving from side to side to grab rings and avoid large bomb patches. One part breaks conventional layout and has you running continuously along the inside of the curve to get the rings. The last section is madness, with rings placed randomly and interrupted by scores of bombs; it's difficult to gather rings here so you'll need to have a lot from the previous sections. Just running in circles won't get you any rings, you need to actually aim for them. I manage to avoid destruction from the bombs by keeping near the center and jumping whenever the halfpipe slopes down and visibility becomes poor, because that's when they get you. Should you make it to the end, the sky flashes, as you are presented with the seventh and final Chaos Emerald!
When you have all seven, you can become Super Sonic by jumping up when you have 50 rings. Super Sonic is invincible, faster, and jumps higher but slowly depletes your rings. As the coup de grace, I backtrack and gather up some rings (hilariously failing at it repeatedly - give me a break, I was exhausted!), and take down Robotnik's drillmobile as Super Sonic.
Tags: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Sega Genesis Stuffman42
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