The 2020 Sonic Hacking Contest is here, and so is our special coverage of it. Throughout the week, we’ll be shining the spotlight on some of the entries you can play this year. Our first one involves a recreation of one Classic Sonic game into another Classic Sonic game, Sonic 2 Mania.
Sonic 2 Mania is just as the name implies. This mod aims to restore every level that was playable in the original Sonic 2, and even some beta levels that went unused are being brought back and re-imagined from the ground up.
The music comes from the mobile port of Sonic 2, which was coincidentally done by future Mania devs Christian “Taxman” Whitehead and Simon “Stealth” Thomley. It won’t stay this way, as the mod team themselves said on the entry’s page that this has only been done “for now”, but this isn’t surprising, due to this not being a final version of the mod anyway.
There’s even some new content here. As previously stated, beta levels, such as Hidden Palace and Wood Zone (the latter is called Secret Woods Zone in this mod) are being re-imagined and brought over as well. But there’s also original audio. Secret Woods ha an original track made by stringtunes, and a new 1-up sound effect has been made by Tajho.
As for the levels, as you can see, there’s a lot. Emerald Hill, Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin, Secret Woods Zone Act 1, Casino Night Zone, Hill Top Zone, Mystic Cave Zone, Hidden Palace Mobile, and Oil Ocean Zone are all playable in the demo. So if you want to try it out for yourself, you can go download it on the entry’s official page right here.