Sonic: The Lost Worlds

I'm working on a hack of Sonic 2 called "Sonic The Hedgehog: The Lost Worlds" which is basically a new game with all the zones that were cut from the final. So, this is kind of like what happened with Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles but it's in the Sonic 2 situation.

This hack has already been in development for awhile now. I started figuring out and testing things over a year ago but I officially started it a few months ago. I'm working mostly in hex and also with SonED for graphics and level layouts and TLP. Now, I've been on summer vacation for a few weeks already so I'm working on it more. I'm not sure when it's gonna be done but it could take awhile.

Here's the list of zones, in order:
Desert Zone
Rock Zone
Wood Zone
Winter Zone
Casino Night Zone (Beta style)
Cyber City Zone
Hidden Palace Zone

Here's what's done so far:
-Title Screen change (not done yet)
-Level select menu
-Level splash cards
-Signpost graphics from early proto added
-Sorted out various offset index's and stuff
-Badnicks
—ported the Dinosaur, Triceratops, Crocodile, Bat, & Snail from the beta
—ported the "sideways" piranha and the different octus from the early proto
-Music
—Ported WZ, CNZ, Level Select, Invincibility, & Boss music from the beta
—cleared out music that won't be used and reorganized all the rest
—level playlist, master playlist

Right now I'm working on graphics and mappings for the levels and then I'll do the layouts and anything else that needs finishing.

Now, the graphics and mappings for Hidden Palace Zone, Wood Zone, and Casino Night Zone are basically done since I just ported them from the beta. I'm doing the graphics and mappings for Desert Zone, Winter Zone, Rock Zone, & Cyber City Zone. I pretty much have the graphics and mappings for Desert Zone and Winter Zone done. Cyber City Zones graphics are done but I have to finish the 128x128 mappings. Rock Zone's graphics haven't been started yet.

So, here's some screen shots:

Desert Zone:



Winter Zone:



Piranha and different octus in Hidden Palace Zone:


Expect to see some Cyber City Zone shots before too long. That's it for now.

 

Thanks for the replys so far.

First here's some things to clarify some things:

Aside from Brenda Ross saying that Winter Zone would have been a palette change from Desert Zone, Tim Skelly said this in the interview on ICEknight's SonicDatabase:

I hope not, cause I hate clowns and I wouldn't be caught dead at a circus.
Actually, here's another quote from Tim Skelly from the same interview:

Anyway, Winter Zone was actually harder than I thought. Trying to do a level that's mostly white and not have it look too plain. I wasn't sure if the trees were really done when I did them and the mountains might need something.

And no, Rock Zone isn't gonna be a Desert Zone edit. There isn't really anything to go off except the name. That's why I'm doing it last. The art will be new. I was thinking I might go off the cliffs in the background of Hill Top Zone but I don't know yet. Either way, I'm gonna make these levels look good and worth playing.

 

Ok, Cyber City Zone. I based this art off the concept art and The Machine from Sonic Spinball, since we know the idea for Cyber City was reused for that. The palette is similar to The Machine but with some changes to fit the metallic theme it was supposed to have.

Cyber City Zone:



I'll be adding a rotating palette for the lights and electricity in the wires.

Next, I'm gonna fix up Winter Zone. I agree with what everyone said. The trees and mountains need more work and the snow and the palette need some tweaking.

For Desert Zone I think the flowers need a little touch-up and I need to add the graphics for the quick sand.

After that stuff's done I'll be making graphics for Rock Zone.

 

I reworked some of the graphics for Winter Zone and changed the palette.




I guess I just didn't spend enough time on it before but, it looks better now. By the way, there are some graphics that aren't shown in the screen shots, for all the zones shown so far.

I also worked more on pattern load cues and got all the sprites that didn't have the right colors fixed. I still have to make the quicksand graphics for Desert Zone and the cycling palette for Cyber City Zone. After that I should be starting on Rock Zones graphics.