Sonic the Hedgehog 2 No-Death Playthrough (3DS Virtual Console)

This is a capture of me playing through Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Game Gear. This is not an emulator. This is being played on the 3DS Virtual Console and recorded directly from my New 3DS XL using the aftermarket capture kit manufactured by Katsukity and installed/sold by Merki. I'm collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds in this playthrough.

Although I didn’t get to play many Sonic games as a kid, I actually did have some experience with this title specifically because my cousin received a Game Gear with Sonic 2 (and some other games) shortly before we flew to Hawaii in 1995 to visit my grandparents at their timeshare. Either his mother or his rich uncle had given him the Game Gear (even though he owned a Game Boy), no doubt to keep him busy during the flight.

I of course brought my trusty Game Boy along with Super Mario Land 1 and 2 and some other games, and my cousin and I took turns playing each other’s handhelds on the plane and once we were in Hawaii. My cousin spent a lot of time learning Sonic 2 through sheer trial and error, and I remember him getting stuck on the first boss for quite a while before he figured out to dodge the bouncing ball and allow it to hit the boss.

After that he eventually made it to either Aqua Lake Zone or Green Hills Zone when the batteries suddenly died on him. He started screaming and nearly broke his system. I remember laughing pretty hard at that. Ultimately, I probably spent more time watching my cousin play Sonic 2 than playing it myself (I never even made it as far as him), but I thought it was a neat game, albeit a hard one. That trip to Hawaii might have been the only time I got to play a Game Gear.

When Sega later released Game Gear games on the 3DS Virtual Console starting in 2012, I picked up all of the main Sonic titles and even some of the spin-offs. I beat Sonic 2 as soon as it was released on the 3DS, but I had to rely on save states to obtain the Chaos Emeralds and to make it through the more difficult parts. It was quite a nostalgia trip to play the game again after nearly 20 years.

To get ready to record this game I had to memorize pretty much every map and boss fight, and doing so involved repeating certain areas over and over again using save states (a handy feature) until I finally figured out how to beat certain areas. But even with that memorization, I still had to write down the pipe maze paths for Scrambled Brain Zone on a piece of paper and refer to it while playing.

Nonetheless, I did not use any save states or cheats in this playthrough. After I memorized the game, I was able to achieve a no-death run after about two dozen attempts, which was a little easier than I expected.

Overall, this game makes a bunch of improvements over the first Game Gear Sonic game, such as better overall level design and a faster sense of speed, but all of this is marred by the extremely limited viewing area that causes numerous blind jumps. The Master System version is obviously the better 8-bit version, but I still wonder why the developer didn’t zoom the game out more on the Game Gear. Aside from that, the music is really good and highly memorable. Oh yeah, before I forget: Green Hills Zone Act 3 can eat shit.

Recorded with OBS Studio at 60 frames per second. I'm using a New 3DS XL.