Hello all. I have been hard at work on a Sonic 2 edit (or hack, whichever you prefer) for the past few months which I have dubbed "Sonic the hedgehog 2: Neo West island". It consists of original level layouts and palette changes, as well as new zone names on the title cards. Basically a remix/reimagining of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
This kind of stuff is a hobby of mine. I'm big into researching and hacking/editing Sonic games (the old ones). Sort of a passion of mine, if you will. At any rate, I figured I'd post some pics of some work-in-progress zones and see what you all thought of them.
This is a screenshot of my now complete Teal Valley Zone. It now has an entirly original layout as well as its palette change.
This is a work-in-progress Tidal Temple Zone. Its supposed to look like a long abandoned, time worn teple in a semi-dead jungle partly submerged in a lake. The palette is near finished, but I'm going to see if I can add a bit more...life, to the gray areas. It still needs an original layout.
This is a pretty early Volcanic Valley/Magma Mountain Zone (Haven't setteled on a name yet). The idea is to make the grass look dead and the sky filled with smoke, while darkening the rocks and mountains. I think its getting there, but the palette needs a lot of fine-tuning.
Well, thats all I have so far. Feedback is welcomed. Look forward to more screenshot updates if the response is positive. Until then, have fun evaluating what I have so far, and I will continue to work on this project until I can finally release a playable demo.
Welcome to MoFo! the first two screens are pretty convincing and definitely look like legit. Sonic zones and with a bit more tweaking I'm sure the third will be just as nice.
Keep up the excellent work! Looking forward to see how the game development progresses.
Oh, rest assured that they are genuine. This is all my work, and actual in-game screenshots off of an emulator. I wouldn't steal someone else's work. Thats low. People hack Sonic games not for fame or money or anything, but just for the sake of their love for the series. Its a passion. Stealing that is wrong. I get joy out of doing this.
I've setteled on renaming Mystic Cave Zone "Cryptic Cavern Zone", and Casino Night Zone's name change is pending, but I'm thinking of using a silver palette as the central color scheme, with some neon colors (maybe purple and green-ish) to accent it.
Oh, thought I'd mention that using a fan created utility called the Sonic MP3 Tool (Made by Qjimbo, a SWS2B Tech Member. I frequent that community often as a trial member), I've given this hack a custom MP3 soundtrack. Of course you'd need to use this utitlity in conjuction with my hack to make the custom soundtrack actually work, but we'll worry about that (much) later. It is as follows:
EHZ (TVZ): Undecided. Thinking SA bgm (input welcome)
CPZ: Undecided as well. Name and BGM pending
ARZ (TTZ): Little Plant from Sonic CD JP Ver.
CNZ: May use one of Sonic CD's JP Stardust Speedway BGMS
HTZ (MMZ/VVZ): Red Mountain Act 1 from Sonic Adventure
MCZ (CCZ): Mystic Mansion from Sonic Heroes
OOZ: name, palette, and BGM undecided. Help welcomed
MZ: Name and palette undecided. Final Egg from SA as BGM
SCZ: Sunset or night scheme, and Tornado Chase SA as BGM
WFZ: Name undecide, palette in progress. Sky Deck SA as BGM
DEZ: Will use "Event: Strain" from SA as BGM
Special Stage: Sonic CD JP special stage as BGM
Boss: Undecided
Final Boss: Thinking Final Fever from Sonic CD JP
Currently working out other jingles and musical cues.
At any rate, I'm having a tad bit of trouble of what to do with Chemical Plant Zone (as well as the other afformention ones). I cant think of a color scheme, or for that matter, an alternate name. The palette in that zone is a bit tough to work with, its an absoltue nightmare so far.
I'm sorting through the mess, but somewhat blindly. If anyone has any ideas as of where to go with this and any other zones, your ideas would be welcomed. Please feel free to throw in your suggestions for the zones. They would help immensly.
I think the palette for the first one (EHZ) isn't different enough: maybe it will look more drastic in action, but I thought it was an unedited screen at first.
Other than that, good work so far. Perhaps you could add special shields and the spin shield (press A in air) from Sonic 3.
Also, I hope you have a long and interesting (But not TOO interesting) stay here, Soylent Green.
Yeah, but I wasnt trying to make it too dratsic. It is actually harder on the eyes than you'd think. The subtle change can make a lot of difference. I will consider what you said, however. Thank you.
I'm afraid my hacking skills dont extend quite that far yet. I have yet to learn how to import stuff like that from other games, though I will look into it as I continue to research. As of now I can only edit object placement, tile placement, sprites, and palette.
Thanks for the welcome guys, and as always feedback and suggestions are welcome.
