For years I’ve been trying to become Super Sonic in Emerald Hill Zone.

For those that aren’t aware of what I’m talking about, SEGA released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Mega Drive back in 1992, and the first two levels (or acts, as they are better known) are called “Emerald Hill Zone”.

In order to become “Super Sonic”, you need to earn the seven chaos emeralds, and you do this by completing the Special Stages, unlocked by passing a checkpoint with seven rings in hand (Sonic and the Secret Rings joke there, apologies), fifty or more rings.

One of the Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Up to now, I’ve managed to get six of these chaos emeralds between the two acts. I’ve known where the seventh checkpoint is, but only now have I been able to reach it. This is due to a glitch (?) in the mechanics.

In Act 2, just before the Dr. Robotnik fight, there is a floating island which has the checkpoint in question on. The only way you can get to it is by using the red spring a long way back from it, just at the beginning of the corkscrew path. Only, if you hold right, as you would expect off the spring, you don’t fly as far as if you don’t press anything at all, and it’s by this not pressing right that gives you the distance to land on the loop-de-loop before it. Weird.

I’ll try and post a video collecting all seven chaos emeralds in the first zone soon…

For more information about Emerald Hill Zone, and/or Sonic 2, visit:

http://www.soniczone0.com/games/sonic2/emeraldhill/