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Sonic 2 HD Alpha Demo Now Available

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Author VizardJeffhog
55 Comments

After a tech demo over three-and-a-half years ago and a teaser trailer last year, the team behind Sonic 2 HD has now made a playable alpha demo available to the community. Eager players can experience the entirety of Emerald Hill Zone in high definition, complete with Sonic 3 & Knuckles-style act transitions and upgraded music.

As of now, the demo can only run on Windows operating systems ranging between Windows XP and Windows 7. Download links are available on the Sonic 2 HD homepage, as well as 1080p screenshots and beautiful desktop wallpapers. Further project details are available on Sonic Retro.

Check out some footage after the jump!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GCYBX6C3c8

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VizardJeffhog

Unparalleled Canadian greatness! Jeffrey is a writer for TSS and Gamnesia, a pianist obsessed with video game music, and a recent university graduate majoring in Communications. Loves all things Sonic and Nintendo to a fault.

55 Comments

  1. Oh god YES! This is delicious!
    Really nice touch having that transition between acts, I wonder if the full game would have those between zones?

  2. The act transistions were a great idea, makes the levels feel more organic by physically connecting them. Animations are great and the music was fantastic.

  3. Probably the physics in alpha version is much better than the actual build physics of sonic 4 EP2.
    Sonic Generations HD and Sonic 2 HD is pure love.
    Why sega don’t cancel the sonic 4 ep2 and contract the sonic 2 HD graphics team?
    Imagine… new classic sonic game with Taxman physic + sonic 2 hd graphics.
    Instant Sucess!

  4. Still have their first demo on my desktop… If it’s taken them 3 years just to recreate 1 zone…. :/

  5. Sigh, i love these kind of errors…

    Says missing s2hd.dll file when it’s right there. Perhaps it’s Win XP SP3, even though it’s supported. :\

  6. Man, that’s a REALLY nice looking game. Pretty much what I expected if we lived in some alternate universe in which, instead of moving on to 3D and polygons, sprites just kept getting more and more animated and cartoon-like.

    Nice touch with the S3&K-style connection of levels, too. I’d say it’d be cool if each zone led into the other, too, but not gonna be greedy. : P

    2. You should be able to get it to work on mac by using either bootcamp or Cider “Wine”

  10. Love it.

    Couldn’t tell if the music was different in Act 2, probably wasn’t but that would be really cool. Transitions are good too. Hope to see this get completed!

    1. The music on Act 2 is the versus mode (that split screen mini game) version.

  11. HOLY HELL THIS LOOKS AMAZING.

    No excessive swearing next time, ‘kay? You’re welcome for the edit!

    -VizardJeffhog

  12. i hope they add the insta sheild the elemental sheilds knuckles tails with his sonic 3 abilitys and the peel out. maybie they culd rebuild the scraped levels

  13. I really hope sega doesnt blow the whistle on this one. I remember the sonic 2 remix that was killed because Sega got jelly. Instead they need to fund these projects like the Sonic CD remake. It can only benefit them really.

  14. No one here realizes that sonic takes too long to speed up and is too slow at full running speed? SRSLY?

  16. Robotnik’s flash when he gets hit is clearly the wrong Hue. Anywayy…

    “I remember the sonic 2 remix that was killed because Sega got jelly.”
    Pretty sure no one killed it. The demo is still available but from the Retro forum it seems the project has halted.

  17. Oh, it doesn’t work for Mac. That explains why it wasn’t working. Oh well, when I downloaded it I got the soundtrack, that should be good

  19. It plays smooth on my laptop! Takes YEARS to load though, but when you get to playing it, sweet baby jesus. The physics seem so perfect that it’s almost if they are taken directly from the genesis!

  20. i was absolutely floored by this demo. a fan made demo no less.
    there is a distinct difference in direction between the current sega figure heads and the fans who love classic sonic. to deny their core base so much that it creates for its own needs.. in this case recognizing a need for classic sonic/ classic gameplay and wraping it up in a hd game, it just speaks volumes..
    this isn’t meant as a knock for anyone who likes modern sonic gameplay either..
    i’m simply just tipping my hat and restating i appreciate this type classic gameplay.

  22. It works amazingly on both my Core i7 and AMD FX Windows 7 machines. It even works under Linux. Keep up the good work, Sonic Retro. 🙂

  23. Hey jerk, my virus scanner is going into a frenzy! my computator is nevar wrongs so this is a virus!! stop spreading your evil viruses you evil person! >:(

    :p

  24. You really gotta love Sonic fans dedication to the series,I know making fan-games is nothing new but the time and effort they put into this game looks great.I wouldn’t be surprised if the fan games got more praise and attention than the actual Sega released ones !

  27. Two things:

    First, those graphics are a huge disappointment. Sonic 4 Ep I and Sonic Fan Remix look ten times better.

    And second, why remake Sonic 2 when S3&K is vastly superior? I swear, Sonic 2 has got to be the most overrated Sonic game EVER. I mean, the only speedy and fun Zones in it are EHZ, CPZ, and CNZ. ALL other Zones feature weak, boring and uninspired level design that doesn’t allow to gain speed or have fun. And when you consider that the game has 10-11 Zones, that means that only 30% of the game is truly speedy and fun, which is PATHETIC for a Sonic game (especially a classic one). That’s why I cringe when people call it the best Sonic game.

  28. I just scanned S2HD – ALPHA RELEASE V1.0.zip with Microsoft Security Essentials and it detected the trojan Win32/Anomaly.gen!C in Sonic2HD.exe. WTH, Sonic 2 HD team!?

  29. This looks fantastic! I would love a full version, but we obviously won’t get that for a while. XD I mean, the graphics are so slick, the physics seem to be spot-on, the remixes are fun and nostalgic, and that Sonic 3 & Knuckles level transition is just great… this is actually to the point where I wish that Sonic 4 had these HD sprites because it would definitely give a classic feel, and fanboys would shut up a bit… but I’m wondering what miracles would happen if they did Sonic 1 or 3… I mean, don’t get me wrong, 2 is great, but why does everybody choose 2? I can only dream about the awesomeness if they did all of the classic games, but how impossible that would be. XD

  31. Putting all my cynicism aside, this is really a cool accomplishment from a group of dedicated fans. Great job, folks.

  33. Looks amazing, maybe Sega should have a new sonic team just made of fans to create HD remakes of there favourites?
    Im curious about the end of this video, what was all the coloured sonic’s about? lol XD

  34. This is ridiculous. Apparently, EHZ was finished in early 2010, but the only reason why it took two years for the demo to come out is that its programmer, LOst, spent all that time obfuscating the code and implementing DRM (which is what is causing the false alarms with antiviruses). That’s right, DRM in a FAN GAME. They don’t even own the game’s assets and have no right to claim ownership over the game’s contents! This is beyond pathetic.

    More info here:
    http://www.sonicretro.org/2012/03/guest-editorial-in-which-i-rain-on-the-sonic-2-hd-parade/

  37. I got the ‘Missing s2hd.dll’ message as well. I guess people on XP SP3 can’t play the game then? Useless.

  38. Pingback: Keylogger Discovered in Sonic 2 HD | The Sonic Stadium

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