Over a year ago, it was announced that there would be a port of Sonic 2 to Switch by M2 that may include cut features and content. As far as I can find, there's been no new info on this since that announcement. The M2 Switch port of Sonic 1 didn't have such a long gap between its announcement and release. What's the hold up? Has it been quietly cancelled in favor of something like the Sega Genesis Mini (which also contains Sonic 2)?
The Sega Ages releases are really strange with announcing titles and then releasing them quite a while after... I remember waiting around a year for Space Harrier to release after the initial announcement. Not quite sure why there’s such a delay on these releases, it does strike me as quite odd, considering they’re primarily just ports
Aren't the ROM files in these just REV01 of both games, like most rereleases? I imagine they'd be the same as whatever's in the 3DS versions, too.
The Phantasy Star one notably had a bunch of extra stuff - not in the game itself but in the interface around it, all for ease of play. They added in a dungeon map and a party view, and also made lots of mentions of the various life-destroying glitches to avoid too.
Yeah, Sonic 1 added optional toggles for the spin and drop dashes, as well as the option to swap to the Mega Play level order.
I hope their version of sonic 2 has a little more care in it though, Sonic 1 sega ages has more slowdown and the spindash does not work frame 1 so standing right against a monitor you can't break it, same with the drop dash. You also take damage rolling into catakillers at running speed, not on original.
In Sonic 1 I’m sure if you’re going fast enough rolling, the caterkillers can hurt you. There’s one in Marble Zone that always gets me - it’s underground near a spring that shoots you back to the left.
For the Sonic 2 release didn’t M2 say they wanted to add features that had to be scrapped because the Mega Drive couldn't handle them? I was eagerly waiting to see what those features were (I am guessing some sort of expanded 2P mode?) Although I still don’t get why Sega didn’t just release the mobile versions. I know Taxman and Stealth have gone onto other things, but I am sure they could have come to some sort of arrangement between the M2 to make a port. (Afterall the console version of Sonic CD was ported by a 3rd party).
M2 knows about the remasters but doesn't want to use them as they're recreations and not original code. Sucks, but what're you gonna do.
Damn shame. Seems like they're just making more work for themselves to make an overall worse product.
If I remember right, the new stuff in the 3DS and Switch versions of these games are all patches temporarily applied to a ROM file. I was always under the impression that Taxman's ports and M2's ports were totally separate projects started around the same time for... reasons. M2's ports were also part of a larger series. Technically the Switch series is just an extension of the 3DS series.
Not seen this posted anywhere else on the forum, but the game is still coming out and Sega's opened a website for it: http://archives.sega.jp/segaages/sonic2/ M2 had previously discussed restoring features that had to be scrapped because the Mega Drive couldn't handle them. Doesn't look like that's still happening. The new features are fairly similar to the Sonic 1 release, although the Mega Play/Mega Tech version seems to have been dropped. The Knuckles in Sonic 2 Rom has been added.
The page does say "additional elements that are not included in the Mega Drive version can be removed by setting options," so maybe they're just keeping the scrapped content a secret? I think it'd kinda be a dick tease to say they're including scrapped content and then saying they won't be. However, I'm still probably going to buy it when it comes out, because it looks miles better than the version in Sega Genesis Classics (I also hope they include the version of Tails from Sonic 3, not just a reskin of Sonic).
If all they're adding in is Knuckles, ring keep mode and Super mode, then just like with S1 this will be pointless effort from SEGA and M2. I don't doubt that it'll probably be the best emulated version of the game released, but I can't see any reason why SEGA would insist on the original being put out again when they have the StealthTax version. Everything included in the AGES branded release could be added into the StealthTax version in theory, and even if not the StealthTax version simply offers a better experience. Wide-screen, no slowdown, 3D rendered special stages... I cannot think of any reason to release emulated versions of the original versions of S1/2/CD when superior versions exist that can natively ported to current systems.
While it is ridiculous that the Taxman/Stealth ports haven't been released off mobile, I don't have a problem with Sega continuing to release the original version in some form. I know a lot of people consider the widescreen ports "definitive," but I completely disagree with that notion. Widescreen support may add more view distance, but it also changes the game in some places, like the first boss of Sonic 1, where the platforms have been moved further apart to account for the wider space. Ultimately it comes down to "this isn't the game I fell in love with as a kid." The widescreen ports are like a Special Edition. They should be available alongside the original.
What's really sad is that mobile remasters are rotting away. They've got bugs that haven't been fixed and Sega's stuck in some new ad system that doesn't fully go away even when you pay for the game. Both the consoles versions of Sonic CD and the Switch version of Mania weren't done directly by Team Taxman and Stealth. They instead got 3rd parties to handle those. Why couldn't they just have M2 port over the mobile games? Usually, with Sega Ages all the content is listed on the page, bar the secret credits screen (which I don’t think they did for the Switch games anyway). By additional elements, they are probably referring to things like Drop Dash and HD rumble. So a classic Sega tease? Here's what they said back in 2018: - the next one they’re planning to do that was programmed by Yuji Naka is Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - the team might include things that Yuji Naka wanted to do in Sonic 2, but couldn’t because of the Genesis' limitations Source It was translated from Japanese, so perhaps the meaning got lost, but it did sound like they were planning something interesting.