Sonic 2 Lost Stages Revealed

MEMORIES!!! Or maybe more like flashbacks!! I'm Craig Stitt, the third American artist mentinoed here. Seeing the grid layouts of Tom's brought back memories. I know I kept a lot of stuff as well, but somewhere a box of art must have gotten lost, or left behind, so I don't have much from my work on Sonic 2. Even more frustration is somewhere in a landfill in Redwood City is probably a couple boxes of 3.5" disks with all my SEGA art work on it.   At least I was fortunate enought to have one of my two levels end up in the final game, Oil Ocean Zone. (although HPZ finally made it into the game, it only took a couple decades!!) Althought seeing all the long lost Sonic stuff was fun, the thing that got me excited was seeing Jester!!! I didn't work on the game, but it was a game that held a LOT of potential, was nearly completed, and yet almost nothing of it remains (at least that I can find).

The craziest part of this story is that the Sonic 2 team in America and the Sonic CD team in Japan apparently both came up with the idea for time traveling in their game independently of each other.

The fact we're finally seeing the original Sand Shower mockup, and it was animated PLUS the Winter Zone mockup as well? I'm genuinely in tears. I'm so, so, so happy

I briefly worked with Brenda at Neversoft way back in 1997! Glad to see she's still alive and well.

I don't see this as "the true sonic 2 that we were robbed of" but more like... "it's gotta suck making all of this great art and that nobody got to see for so long". glad it's finally getting some light and some love. and to answer your tangent: I'd love to see a video deep diving into the old sonic 2 research scene!

The fact that the 2013 Mobile reboot of Sonic 2 included Hidden Palace Zone (one of the cut stages) and added that as a secret stage in Mystic Cave Zone is actually insane

Brenda's pixel art looks really good, it's a shame they didn't use any of her work. Great video. Thanks Frank and everyone over at the VGHF!

The original plot of sonic makes so much sense now. I always had trouble wrapping my head around this island having Emerald Hill Zone lead right into a chemical plant

Never thought we would actually see what Genocide/Cyber City looked like, same with the Winter Zone, this gives me so much hope that one day we will finally see what Dubious Depths/R2/Ridicule Route from Sonic CD looked like.

That spinball stage is INCREDIBLE, I'm so happy this was preserved. I can't wait to hear what Brenda has to say when you speak with her.

Actually seeing that sand shower concept art MOVE was the most surreal experience I’ve ever had, amazing work preserving this stuff, crazy to think this long after release we’re still learning new things about this game

I can't believe I finally saw Brenda's work after só many years. Thank you guys.

I was told and heard from Tom Payne himself that Cyber City Zone's graphics were recycled from a cancelled game he was working on named B-Bomb, and those assets had been documented already, and that Metropolis Zone Act 3's level layout was taken from Cyber City when it was scrapped. Also going by the Time Travel doc, the name of the "Winter" Zone was Rock World, and it would've been Sand Shower in the past.

I never expected anyone would find actual footage of the Sand Shower or Winter Zone mock-ups! This is incredible!!!

It's sad that Brenda's artwork never made it into the final game, it looks great! I remember playing the Wood Zone and Hidden Palace prototypes on my PC back in the early 2000's. It's amazing to see that the desert zone artwork not only exists in higher quality, but that we can actually see it animated too. Good work Brenda!

That's a shame that Brenda's work was cut. I remember playing a ripped version of Wood Zone online about 10 years ago and thought it looked great if definitely unfinished.

This video was absolutely wonderful and completely unexpected! It’s incredible how we are STILL making these Sonic 2 discoveries decades later.

Wow. It is truly mind blowing to finally see Cyber City after all these years. After multiple ROM hacks had to basically make it up entirely from scratch, we finally know (roughly) how it was intended to look. Excellent work!

I have been searching for a lot of info of these lost zones. Thank you for this. Edit: YES WE FINALLY HAVE WHAT WINTER ZONE WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. Sorry for speaking in caps but I am just so glad. This has made my day. Thank you.

This is incredible!