Sonic 2 VS (Demo Released)

After nearly three years, it's about time we showed off some of our progress. A lot of it is engine-related and thus invisible, but regardless, have a video:

 

This is dope as hell. I had no idea this was a thing. Excited to see it release and try it on hardware if possible.

 

I'v waited so long for an update on this one! Glad to see its still alive and being worked on!!

 

It looks great, if only I had more than a near-zero chance of finding someone IRL that I won't just win by default against lol

Have y'all been testing it with netplay?

 

The longer title cards are a godsend for those of us playing on real hardware and having to deal with OSSC desyncs when the screen resolution changes!

 

On one hand, this'll definitely be fun to play with my brother or maybe even a friend via netplay, and a neat thing to dissect as a fellow rom hacker who's also working on 2P stuff, especially performance wise since there's two screens to render and the original game struggled with one. The near lagless MCZ put me at awe once I realized that's what you were showcasing. It's clear the long development time wasn't completely wasted, and that the fairly minimal, yet ever looming competition has encouraged at least a little motivation
On the other hand, [uhh disregard this. The title cards only take like 3 seconds, still has that pause but stock sonic 2 had worse loading issues across the board. I likely just got triggered by the comment saying the loading times are a godsend to upscalers. Knowing full well that the sega screen completely tears that argument apart, that Sonic 2s loading screens can basically be instant even with Nemesis compression, and it being 2am when I posted this, I think I painted a false narative where its loading times rival megacd games. Sorry about that. Now that I'm thinking about it, this game completely disregards scalers in general. Quite ballsy of you guys honestly]

Spoiler

the title cards bring me an indescribable rage. I could go in-depth as an earlier draft did, but basically it seems janky and unoptimized, and even as a fairly average observer, arguments regarding upscalers seem to completely fall apart in practice. It's clearly a weak point in this hack, though not the worst weakness to have compared to, well, most of s2coop right now. Oh don't worry though, we're catching up

That said I eagerly wait for its release. Rushing the chef will lead to uncooked food, so take the time you need

 

We are proud to announce that with this year's SHC we're finally releasing a demo to the public. Get it here: https://shc.zone/entries/contest2024/1117

Now, before you get too disappointed at the word "demo", know that all zones from Emerald Hill to Metropolis are fully playable in VS. mode. Single player mode is also fully functional, so even if you're playing solo you'll still get to see the updated special stages.

The VS. mode comes with two presets that replicate the original game's random-items and all-teleport options, but there's also a bunch of customization options to keep things fresh, so go wild. Last, but not least, there's a Super VS. Super mode that pits the two players against each other in a super-powered battle until someone runs out of rings.

Note: there is a crash that can occur in Super VS. Super mode and maybe more rarely in the other split-screen modes. We are aware of it, but couldn't fix it on time for the contest.

 

From what I see, this hack is really, really nice!

The one thing I’m really hoping is that this hack will have some form of Hidden Palace Zone in it, too, though it’s understandable if that’s outside of scope, hehe~

 

What do you mean the title screen is actually being rendered on an actual Mega Drive?!

 

Gave this a test on my Everdrive X5 and unfortunately it's crashed and glitched constantly. Have played a few games on emulator though and yeah! I'm digging it!

 

I had an absolute blast playing this hack with my wife! It was definitely worth the wait! My favorite mode is definitely the Super Vs battle mode, even though my wife kicked my butt. xD The special stages look fantastic too! There was a bug I did come across, but I'll let you read my evaluation of the hack when they're revealed to the public.