This is a sub-page of Prerelease:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis).

To do: Add Genocide City/Cyber City recreation info Add any relevant interviews

Sonic 2 is infamous for how many stages were cut from the final release, ranging from well known to name-only.

Hirokazu Yasuhara would design enemies, gimmicks, and maps for a zone, laid out as rough blocks/chunks. These maps were then given to the artists alongside suggestions for the level's theme. With the art direction being so open, artists were free to flesh out the levels as they wished.

I would be given a paper map and some suggestions as to what the theme of the level was like. I would then rough out some ideas and show them around. When I had something that eveyone liked I would start making all the little pieces of art that could then be put togther to make the level.

Once this base art was done (a couple hundred tiles) I would then sit down and carefully place the art in the actual game. This part was sometimes fun, sometimes tedious. (as was drawing the art since most of it was done pixel by pixel)

Sega had it's own proprietary art-development stations that were used to paint and animate everything in the game. The were called "Digitizers" although you didn't really digitize anything with them, it was all by hand.

I should remember more about Oil Ocean, since this is one of the levels I worked on. All the forground art is mine, although the background is Yamaguchi's (no one liked my background, including me)

I don't remember what the orginal art direction given me was. It was pretty open though. Basically I think I was told that the level was going to have slippery oil flowing through it and undter it, with lots of elevators and timed jumps (like most Sonic levels).

I decided to go for a cross between the GoldenGate bridge and an oil refinery.

— Craig Stitt

I remember right, the actual art/look of Hidden Palace was left up to me. I was given a map, but it was just laid out as rough blocks and paths. I can't remember if I was asked to make it underground or not. I don't think it even had a name until after I had finished it. If it had I probably would have made it more 'Palace' like.

The one thing that was just a given was that it had to match the general look and feel of the Sonic Universe. I wanted to d0 something a little different. Back then you were REALLY limited by how much unique art you were allowed, and how may colors you could use. 'If' I remember right, I was allowed 256 8x8 pixel blocks and probably only 8 colors on any given screen (there were ways you could fake more colors, I.e. the underwater color shift. These 8x8 blocks where then put together to make larger tiles (I believe 8x8 if the 8x8s... but I can't remember exactly)

I wanted to do something 'crystalline' in nature. The color palette was left up to me.

— Craig Stitt

For unknown reasons (perhaps due to language barriers), stages that entered development later were given concept art by Yasushi Yamaguchi in addition to Hirokazu Yasuhara's maps. Artists were given a more strict art direction with Yasushi Yamaguchi overseeing their work.

Yamaguchi oversaw all the art production he would give a drawing of the bvasic feel & look. Yasuhara would give the maps and a layout of the blocks needed and the individual artist would do the rest under Yamaguchi's keen eye

— Tom Payne

The stage concept arts by Yasushi Yamaguchi (credited as Judy Totoya) were first released as part of the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Art Book. These images would later be uploaded as part of his interview with Beep21. Since the game originally featured South Island as the setting, some of the scrapped stages appear to be based on those from the Master System/Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Scrapped Zones

Levels that didn't make the cut.

Ocean Wind Zone#

What was meant to be the second stage in the game after Green Hill/Emerald Hill, Ocean Wind would've been a coastal area with piers and rock structures in the background. Based on the map documents, it would've occupied slot $01 in the level index, which is unused in all prototypes and the final game. Its placement on the map concept art suggests it would've been analogous to Bridge Zone from the Master System/Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Slot $01 shares its music with Green Hill/Emerald Hill in the Simon Wai prototype. This appears to be a leftover from Sonic the Hedgehog, as slot $01 in that game uses music $82 (Labyrinth), with the same being true in the Nick Arcade prototype.

According to Yasushi Yamaguchi, when asked about Ocean Wind and other cut stages he had this to say.

Some zones are only concept art and zones that are in the process of being built are no more work than the screen shots in the magazine or what was included in the test version.

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi)

Based on this information and known development materials, it appears that no actual work on Ocean Wind was done beyond concept art.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse elements from this zone's concept art, such as the ramp, for Angel Island.

Wood/Secret Jungle Zone#

Initially known as Woods in the map concept art before being shortened to Wood in the 1st timeline document, this stage was a dense jungle with Sonic running into various trees designed by artist Brenda Cook. Concept art shows an alternate name for Wood, Secret Jungle, featuring spring branches to guide Sonic up. This level was partially implemented in the Simon Wai and August 21st builds of the game, albeit incomplete and without objects. It occupied slot $02 in the level index. Its placement on the map concept art suggests it would've been analogous to Jungle Zone from the Master System/Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Slot $02 shares its music with Metropolis in the Simon Wai prototype. This appears to be a leftover from Sonic the Hedgehog, as slot $02 in that game uses music $83 (Marble), with the same being true in the Nick Arcade prototype.

On December 12th 2023, a VHS containing a portfolio of art from Brenda Cook was released by the Video Game History Foundation ¹. This included a previously unseen animated mock-up, featuring an earlier version of the conveyor belt and the palette, as well as animated spikes piercing the floor. These spikes are not present in any prototypes containing the zone.

Brenda Cook stated in an interview that assets for the level were roughly half-way completed before it was scrapped.

About half way done, I’d guess. Or a bit more.

I remember the woods zone having pink flowers somewhere. Hey, I am a girl… heh.

— Brenda Cook

According to Yasushi Yamaguchi, it got scrapped due to problems during the test map phase.

The Wood Zone was cancelled because of gameplay issues that came up during the test map phase.

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi)

■ウッドゾーン ブレンダの担当していたステージで、初期段階で石渡がエメラルドヒル、クレッグがオイルオーシャンを作っていたのと同時期のステージです。

途中まで作成され仮のマップがベータ版にも入っていたせいでマニアの間では広く知られているステージです。

キャンセルになった理由は途中まで仮マップを組んでグラフィックの具合やゲーム性の検証を行った際にグラフィック容量的に自然な感じの木を表現するのは難しく、立体感が出し切れていないのと、どうしても途中でバッサリ切れたブロック感が出てしまったり、葉っぱもブロックのつなぎ目が目立ちました。またマップの構成上縦移動が主軸となってしまうため、序盤用のステージなのにソニックのスピード感が出せないということでキャンセルになってしまいました。

■ Wood Zone "This stage was created by Brenda at the same time that Ishiwata was creating Emerald Hill and Craig was creating Oil Ocean in the early stages.

This stage is well known among enthusiasts because the temporary map was created partway through and was included in the beta version.

The reason it was canceled was that when they tested the graphics and gameplay with the temporary map created partway through, it was difficult to express natural-looking trees due to the graphics capacity, and the three-dimensional effect was not fully expressed, and it inevitably had a blocky feel that was cut off partway through, and the joints between the blocks of the leaves were noticeable. Also, because the map's structure is centered around vertical movement, it was canceled because it was unable to express the sense of Sonic's speed, even though it was an early stage."

Wood's test map, from the Simon Wai prototype.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's concept art for Mushroom Hill.

Sand Shower Zone#

Also referred to as simply "desert" in development materials, Sand Shower was a western themed desert designed by artist Brenda Cook. Based on the map documents, it would've occupied slot $03 in the level index, which was used for Green Hill/Emerald Hill in the Nick Arcade prototype, but unused for all other prototypes and the final game.

Oil Ocean's music plays in slot $03 in the Simon Wai prototype, suggesting it was originally composed for Sand Shower. Oil Ocean itself would use Casino Night's 2-Player music until the September 14th prototype, further suggesting this.

Being amongst the earliest levels worked on, no concept art for it exists. Instead, a mock-up using a mix of placeholder and level assets was created for use as reference material in development and for Sonic 2's promotion in magazines. The mock-up shows two Buzzers and a Gator badnik, although these were likely just placeholders and not intended to appear in the level. The Gator badnik's sprites used for this mock-up were found in a floppy disk owned by Tom Payne. Sprites from later in development were also found in the Nick Arcade and Simon Wai prototypes.

I would only grab images to use as placeholders when showing my art in various stages.

— Brenda Cook

In the Brenda Cook Video Game Art Portfolio, an animated video of Sand Shower's mock-up was revealed, showing moving sand as well as previously unseen animation for the flowers.

Partial assets from Sand Shower's mock-up were found on a floppy disk owned by Tom Payne. Sonic's palette is being used here.

This is a reconstruction of its palette, based on potential colors as seen in the Sandcrab's Digitizer file.

According to Sand Shower's artist, Brenda Cook, assets for the level were completed.

I think it was completed. I couldn’t have gone on to create the woods zone if it hadn’t been. They just didn’t have time to add it to the game.

— Brenda Cook

The map layout would have featured underground and above ground sections, with the level's main gimmick being quicksand.

I think half above ground, and half below. It would depend on the level. Sonic would travel through the sand or snow tunnel, depending on which palette was being used.

— Brenda Cook

The only thing I can really remember about it was that the 'hook' for that level was lots of quicksand. Sonic would slowly sink if he wasn't fast enough or jumped wrong.

— Craig Stitt

Yasushi Yamaguchi explained that the zone was scrapped due to graphical issues with the moving sand and its pace.

As for the desert zone, it was also cancelled because it did not fit well with the graphic representation of moving sand in the testing phase and the gameplay of 2, which wanted to emphasize speed representation more than Sonic 1.

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi)

■サンドシャワーゾーン 雑誌の掲載写真用に取り敢えず2画面ほどテストで作られたステージです。 ここの担当もブレンダ。

グラフィック自体は悪くなかったのですがカラーチェンジで流砂が流れているように見せようとしたけれど大きい面積だと流れているように見えなかった点とソニックが砂にはまると水の中同様動きが重くなってギミックそのものがソニックのスピード感を損なうものがメインとなるため、この段階ではそれ以上にアイデアが煮詰められていなかったという点でキャンセルされることになります。 これによって非常に申し訳ないのですがブレンダが担当したステージはどちらもキャンセルされる事となりここでプロジェクトから抜けることになります。 これはたまたま彼女の担当したステージのグラフィックの難易度が高く、初期のタイムトラベル要素があったもっと多くのステージを作ることになっていればスピード感のないステージが1つ2つあっても残っていたと思いますが、数を絞る段階でソニックの持つスピード感を損ねるステージはどうしてもキャンセルされる方向になりました。

ちなみにこのステージはカラーチェンジと一部サボテンなどのグラフィックをクリスマスツリーに差し替えることで氷のステージに変える予定もありました。

最終的にこれらのステージはアイデアを練り直してソニック3以降に引き継がれることになります。

■ Sand Shower Zone "This stage was made as a test with just two screens for magazine photos. Brenda was also in charge of this.

The graphics themselves were not bad, but they tried to make it look like quicksand was flowing by changing the color, but it didn't look like it was flowing on a large surface area, and when Sonic gets stuck in the sand, his movements become slower just like in water, and the gimmick itself mainly reduces Sonic's sense of speed, so at this stage the idea had not been further developed and it was canceled. As a result, both stages that Brenda was in charge of were canceled and she left the project. This happened to be because the graphics of the stage she was in charge of were difficult, and if they had made more stages with the initial time travel element, I think one or two stages without a sense of speed would have remained, but at the stage of narrowing down the number, the stages that reduced Sonic's sense of speed were inevitably canceled.

By the way, there were plans to turn this stage into an ice stage by changing the color and replacing some of the graphics such as cacti with Christmas trees.

Ultimately, these stages were reworked and carried over into Sonic 3 and beyond."

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) - Beep21

Hirokazu Yasuhara designed a sand crab enemy for Sand Shower and Rock World, featuring a different palette depending on the level. It would be buried in the sand or snow before popping out of the ground, sending Sonic flying if he jumped on its springs/shell. It was later repurposed as Crawl for Casino Night.

Tom Payne also designed several enemy concepts for the level before it was scrapped. A scorpion badnik would later be used for Sandopolis in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Sprites for the Scorpion, Vulture/Pterodactyl, and Sand Crab badniks were found on a floppy disk owned by Tom Payne.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's desert theme for Sandopolis and Desert Palace and a similar concept and design would also appear in Sand Hill from Sonic Adventure. Sand Shower would later serve as the inspiration for the scrapped Desert Dazzle in Sonic CD (2011) and Mirage Saloon in Sonic Mania.

Before the release of prototypes and information from development documents, Dust Hill name was mistakenly used to refer to Sand Shower in Sonic communities. The origin for the name mix-up is unknown.

Tropical Sun Zone#

Initially called Tropical Plant and Tropical Summer between the two concept arts for the past maps before being renamed to Tropical Sun in the 1st timeline document, this stage would've taken place on an island with waterfalls and palm trees. Based on the map documents, it would've occupied slot $05 in the level index, which is used for Metropolis Zone Act 3 starting with the Simon Wai build.

As with Ocean Wind, it appears that no actual work on Tropical Sun was done beyond concept art.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's concept art, likely for Angel Island.

Blue Ocean Zone#

Initially called Blue Lake on both concept arts for the past maps, it was later renamed to Blue Ocean in the 1st timeline document and took place under the sea featuring an underwater cavern. Based on the map documents, it would've occupied slot $06, which is used for Wing Fortress starting with the September 14th prototype.

Emerald Hill's 2-Player music plays in slot $06 in the Simon Wai prototype, suggesting it was originally composed for Blue Ocean.

Photocopies of potential concept art for this zone were discovered in Tom Payne's development document. Ice platforms on the water's surface and a unique submarine mechanic are shown, seeing Sonic travel to the bottom of the ocean on a path, before exiting it and entering the underwater cavern seen in the concept art. Sonic then traversed the cavern vertically to reach the island's surface and goalpost sign.

Tom Payne designed some badniks and objects for the level before it was scrapped.

Sprites for the Lobster and Squid badniks were found on a floppy disk owned by Tom Payne.

In an interview, Craig Stitt mentioned a zone with an Atlantis theme. Due to the Greek/Roman underwater ruins seen in Yasushi Yamaguchi's concept art, it's possible this is referring to Blue Ocean.

I can remember a variation on the Atlantas theme that got as far as a map and some rough art, but that's all I can remember (Mark Cerny designed that one)

— Craig Stitt

According to Yasushi Yamaguchi, he had no idea that other sketches existed, as no digitizer material was provided him.

自分が描いたコンセプトアート以外のスケッチはその存在を知りません。 アメリカのスタッフは蛍光灯の光が苦手なため私とは別の部屋で作業していました。 私は間接照明が苦手。 私が知っているのはデジタイザー画面のみなので彼らがそのようなスケッチを作成していたことは今まで知らなかった。

I do not know of the existence of any sketches other than my own concept art. The American staff worked in a separate room from me because they are not good with fluorescent light. I am not good with indirect lighting. I did not know until now that they had created such sketches because all I know is the digitizer screen.

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi)

Hidden Palace Zone#

Perhaps the most famous cut zone in Sonic 2, Hidden Palace is an underground cave full of crystals and dinosaurs designed by artist Craig Stitt. Its original name was Olympus on the concept art for the past map, before being changed to Hidden Palace on the 2nd timeline document. An alternate name, Secret Palace, can be seen in development material but ultimately went unused. It occupied slot $04 in the Nick Arcade prototype before being moved to slot $08 by the Simon Wai prototype, where it remained for all subsequent prototypes and the final game.

Mystic Cave 2-Player's music plays in slot $08 in the Simon Wai prototype, suggesting it was originally composed for Hidden Palace. Hidden Palace's final music first appears in the August 21st prototype but wouldn't be assigned to slot $08 until the CENSOR prototype. It is unknown if this song was repurposed or originally intended for Hidden Palace.

Being amongst the earliest levels worked on, no concept art for it exists. As with Sand Shower, a mock-up using a mix of placeholder and level assets was created. This mock-up shows an earlier background, featuring a cavern obscured by rocks with barely noticeable stalagmites in the distance. Partial graphics for this early background still exist in the data of the Nick Arcade and Simon Wai prototypes, suggesting this iteration of the background may have been implemented in-game at an earlier point in development.

The removal of Hidden Palace was a last-minute decision, being scrapped in order to create Sky Chase, Wing Fortress, and Death Egg for the game's ending. A title card and Level Select icon were created for Hidden Palace, remaining in the final game's data. The icon can be seen in Sonic 3's Level Select by scrolling over to the second 2P VS option.

I did Hidden Palace first and then Oil Ocean.''

I'm trying to remember… I think the only input I remember getting from Yasuhara was the map. I don't even know if many sketches exist. In my sketchbook, there's a couple of sketches that show the beginnings of that crystalline polygon-shape stone structure that ended up being the foundation for Hidden Palace. The core of that was that rock formation and just being a cave, but wanting to make it something more than just rock. I don't know if there was any palette input from the Yasuhara or Yamaguchi. I don't remember.

— Craig Stitt

■ヒドゥンパレスゾーン ここはオイルオーシャンゾーンの後にクレッグが担当したステージです。

グラフィックも出来が良くマップも途中まで出来ていたのですが、ギミックも煮詰めきれておらずボスのアイデアもまだ決まってなかったのでプロジェクトもかなり終盤だったためにその段階でプログラマー側からスケジュール的にこのステージを作るとスカイチェイスからデスエッグまでの流れとボスを作る時間がないので選んでくれと言われてしまい、泣く泣くキャンセルせざるを得ませんでした。

グラフィッカーサイドからすれば本当にこのステージ残したかったのですよ。それでもゲームとして締めがないとまずいので苦渋の選択でした。

後年になってゲームが移植される際にこのステージがサルベージ復活して未完成だったギミックのアイデアや新規でボスも追加され、日の目を見ることとなりました。本当に良かったというかやはり本来の形で当時発売したかったですね。

スケジュールが後3ヶ月あればこのステージは間違いなくソフトに入れることができたし、短縮されたデスエッグゾーンも本来の形で再現できたと思います。（容量的には微妙なラインかもしれませんが、最終段階で容量の余りがどのくらいあったかは自分は把握していません。） 自分としては機会があれば本当にちゃんとした形でデスエッグゾーンを作りたいと今でも思っているんですよ。 プランナーとプログラマーも後二人いればキャンセルかけたウッドゾーンとサンドシャワーも作れたかもしれない。 まあ、その場合さらなる容量とセーブ機能が必要だったとは思いますが。

■ Hidden Palace Zone "This is the stage that Craig was in charge of after the Oil Ocean Zone.

The graphics were good and the map was half done, but the gimmicks hadn't been fully worked out and the boss idea hadn't been decided yet, so the project was nearing the end and the programmers said that if they made this stage, they wouldn't have time to create the flow from the sky chase to the Death Egg and the boss, so they asked me to choose it, so I had to cancel it.

From the graphic designer's perspective, I really wanted to keep this stage. Still, it was a tough decision because the game needed to have a conclusion.

When the game was ported years later, this stage was salvaged and resurrected, and the unfinished gimmick ideas and a new boss were added, and it finally saw the light of day. I'm really glad, or rather, I wish it had been released in its original form at the time.

If we had had three more months in the schedule, this stage would definitely have been included in the game, and I think the shortened Death Egg Zone could have been reproduced in its original form. (It may be a delicate line in terms of capacity, but I don't know how much capacity was left over at the final stage.) Personally, I still think that if I had the chance, I would like to make the Death Egg Zone in a truly proper form. If we had two more planners and programmers, we might have been able to make the Wood Zone and Sand Shower that were almost canceled. Well, in that case, I think we would have needed more capacity and a save function."

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) - Beep21

Christian Whitehead, who developed the 2013 remake, revealed in 2015 that Sonic Team told him that quality concerns also played a role in its demise.

The implementation of Hidden Palace Zone was something that I was primarily behind, yes, although naturally I ran many of the concepts by Simon to get his input, too. HPZ was something we really wanted to ensure would be part of the Sonic 2 release, since it has such a huge cult following behind it, and this was the first real opportunity to make it happen. However, to make it in the remaster, logistically HPZ needed some redesigning to get approval with how the final version of Sonic 2 ended up.

We’d received feedback from Sonic Team that the original team were not happy with how the level was panning out during development back in the day. Some of the first comments we had received were that Sonic could not move through the stage fluidly and fast, and as a result didn’t have the right ‘feel’ for Sonic. In addition to that, the concept of Hidden Palace was essentially recycled in Sonic & Knuckles; it was now the resting place for the Master Emerald on Angel Island, and allowed the players to get Hyper powers.

— Christian Whitehead

A later plan for the level after the time travel story was scrapped was that Sonic, after collecting all of the Chaos Emeralds, would warp to Hidden Palace, where he would learn how to become Super Sonic.

Actually, no, the basic idea was about the same as it was in Sonic and Knuckles. You'd encounter the stage through normal play by collecting the emeralds. The idea behind the stage was, "Where do the Chaos Emeralds come from?" That's where Sonic was originally supposed to be granted his Super Sonic powers. We finally were able to use it in S&K;, though it wound up being quite different from what we had planned in Sonic 2. But even from Sonic 1 we'd been throwing around those sorts of ideas. Still, when we were running out of time, we looked over things quickly trying to figure out what to dump ... and CHOP went the Hidden Palace. There's simply no way we could have thrown that in by the deadline at the rate we were going.

— Yuji Naka

According to Craig Stitt, it was also planned to be a small hidden level within Mystic Cave at some point in development, an idea that came to fruition when a finished version of Hidden Palace was added in the 2013 iOS and Android port as a secret level accessed by falling into a certain pit in Mystic Cave.

There was never a Boss 'room' designed for Hidden Palace because it was meant to be a small 'hidden' level within Mystic Caves. The Boss level that is seen now was created just for the re-release (and I had nothing to do with that). I was told at the time that HP was cut because there 'was not room on the cartridge'. (I only found out 3 days before we shipped the game from STI to SEGA of Japan).

— Craig Stitt

One of the 'fall to your infinite death' holes in Mystic Cave… you would fall and not die. You would fall and find yourself in Hidden Palace Zone, which is why I think it works now [in the 2013 port]. I think that's how they implement it now… is the way it was supposed to be. Although now I think it is just a hidden level, it doesn't do anything, where before it was the Chaos Emeralds and it was part of the story and part of the gameplay, as opposed to being just another level, which is why it didn't have a boss level or it was only two levels. It was a separate little thing on its own, which is probably the also reason why it got cut. It was a tangent thing to do something cool, and it was the easiest thing to cut when they ran out of time. Other than the fact that it was being done by an American.

— Craig Stitt

During a 2025 interview, Craig Stitt was asked about his feelings on Hidden Palace being cut from the game.

It's changed over time. I remember going in to like the conference room to sit down and play Sonic 2 just for fun and went to pull up my- cause I said, that was the first level I did. I moved on and was working on Oil Ocean and really close to the end of the game [project]. I remember it being really close to the end of the game, but then checking dates, it's gotta be a little… based on other people's information, there had to be a little more time before the game actually shipped. I remember going to pull up what was the official (at that time) version and it was gone. You couldn't access it. So I went and talked to… I may have asked Yasuhara, but I know I remember talking to Roger Hector and he told me that it had been cut because of memory. Cause they didn't have enough memory, enough room on the cartridge. I remember being really pissed. Like once again, that's my favorite art period to this day.

So I was very pissed. Then the game ships and… then the cool part of that- tangent here, I got to carry the chipset from Sega of America over to Tokyo, cause it was faster and more reliable to physically carry the chipset back then versus to electronically transmit it. I got a free trip to Japan for- I have no idea why they chose me. Then again… While I'm on the plane on the way over, they discovered an A bug, so they did end up actually having to at least electronically transmit something.

The game had shipped and within a few weeks or months of the game being out, people had used… was it GameShark, Game Genie? One of those to hack into the cart and found Hidden Palace Zone, or a ghost of Hidden Palace Zone. I was pissed. "Well there was room cause it's still there. It's on the cartridge." But it actually turns out that they just didn't have time to program it. They had to do a quick rewrite of both story and… That's where you were supposed to get all the Chaos Emeralds and get your Super Sonic powers or something was in Hidden Palace Zone, by completing Hidden Palace, or something like that.

There were only ever two levels to Hidden Palace Zone, and there was no boss level. When the guy, I don't remember what his name was [Christian Whitehead], did the handheld phone version of it that brought it all back to life again, he added that weird organ [Egg Gauntlet]. No idea why it's an organ [laughs], but there was no boss on the original.

I think it was maybe memory as well, but it was definitely they didn't have time to finish the programming and get it into the game proper. I'm actually lucky that parts of it were still on the cartridge and that there was this huge mystery and all these urban legends. Also the fact that it's named Hidden Palace and it's hidden, literally, in the game, kept it alive. I think that's why it is in the game officially now, finally, as of a few years ago. That whole thing kept going cause it did exist. I'm really glad it. It took a couple of decades, but the artwork's out there now.

— Craig Stitt

The design of Hidden Palace served as the basis for Toxic Caves in Sonic Spinball. Its graphics were also reused for an unreleased STI game called Segapede (or Astropede) in 1994-95 by Craig Stitt, to save a few weeks on making graphics for the playable demo and even expanded the tileset of Hidden Palace to include new ramps and slopes. It was uncertain if Hidden Palace's art would have stayed in the game past that point.

My first major game after Sonic 2 was a game called Astropede. This was a game that I had designed from concept on. Unfortunately after about 14 months, and a LOT of frustration, the game was put "on hold". The game was a solid game and most likely would have done well, if it had been better managed.

Astropede was the only reason I stayed at Sega as long as I did. There were some issues with managment that made it very difficult to work. Once Astropede bit it, I started looking around.

— Craig Stitt

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse the glowing bridges and spheres in Ice Cap, with the idea of Sonic going to Hidden Palace to learn how to become Super Sonic being revisited in a level by the same name.

Rock World Zone#

Also referred to as simply "ice" in development materials, Rock World was a palette swap of Sand Shower designed by artist Brenda Cook, replacing the cacti with Christmas trees and giving it a winter/ice theme. Based on the map documents, it would've occupied slot $09 in the level index, which is unused in all prototypes and the final game.

Sky Chase's music plays in slot $09 in the Simon Wai prototype, suggesting it was originally composed for Rock World.

Since it was designed at the same time as Sand Shower, no concept art for it exists.

The desert zone was as you see in that image, with cactus and assorted plants. It was designed to have a palette change, which turned the sand into snow, and you’d have a winter scene. We had to be fairly ingenious with such a limited palette. In the winter zone, (that’s what I call it), instead of cactus, I had created Christmas trees, which I thought looked kinda cool.

Sonic would travel through the sand or snow tunnel, depending on which palette was being used.

— Brenda Cook

ちなみにこのステージはカラーチェンジと一部サボテンなどのグラフィックをクリスマスツリーに差し替えることで氷のステージに変える予定もありました。

最終的にこれらのステージはアイデアを練り直してソニック3以降に引き継がれることになります。

"By the way, there were plans to turn this stage [Sand Shower Zone] into an ice stage by changing the color and replacing some of the graphics such as cacti with Christmas trees.

Ultimately, these stages were reworked and carried over into Sonic 3 and beyond."

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) - Beep21

In the Brenda Cook Video Game Art Portfolio, a mock-up of Rock World was discovered, showing off the Christmas trees.

I don't think it was late. I just think that we ran out of time and they cut my art. I was pretty disappointed, but when you work for a company and they hire you as an artist, that's a possibility. I did the desert level, which transformed into a Christmas level. It was only very, very recently that we were able to uncover the Christmas art because one of the guys that was really following this stuff for many years was just always bugging me. "Do you have the Christmas level? Do you remember the Christmas level?" [sarcastically] To get him off my back I went and looked at all these old VHS tapes and I sent them to this historian, and he was able to find them. They were over the moon, and sent me copies of them. I'm like, "Yep, that's it."

— Brenda Cook

Brenda confirmed that the stage was Yasuhara's idea, rather than something she had came up with on her own.

I think that was Yasuhara's idea. He's the game designer.

— Brenda Cook

As was the case with Sand Shower, Brenda was unaware of Rock World's name.

Oh, I don't know about the names. They were called Wood Zone… I called it Christmas Zone, I guess they would have called it Winter Zone. Whatever Yasuhara called them. I just created what he asked me to create.

— Brenda Cook

According to enemy concept art, Rock World would share badniks with Sand Shower Zone.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's ice theme for Ice Cap.

Similar to the Dust Hill name being mistakenly used to refer to Sand Shower, Sonic 3 concept art for Ice Cap has been confused as Sonic 2 concept art in Sonic communities due to the reused ice theme. However, this concept art has never been released by Hirokazu Yasuhara or Yasushi Yamaguchi alongside any other Sonic 2 concept art and it has a style matching the other known original Sonic 3 level concept art (Sky Sanctuary and The Doomsday).

Genocide City/Cyber City Zone#

Designed by artist Tom Payne and planned as part of Sonic 2's finale, Genocide City was a palette swap of Metropolis with a more futuristic high-tech design. Concept art shows an alternate name for Genocide City, Cyber City, given to this stage.

I think it was the teams not quite complete grasp of the english language So it was changed to Cyber City?

we may have brought it up to them that genocide city has some rather bad connotations

They may have been looking for a name that sounded dangerous and got on the wrong track

— Tom Payne

Genocide City can be selected in the level select of the Simon Wai prototype, but the acts themselves are empty. It occupied slot $0E, which was used for Death Egg Zone starting with the September 14th prototype.

Slot $0E shares its music with Chemical Plant in the Simon Wai prototype. It is unknown if this was a placeholder.

On December 12th 2023, The Video Game History Foundation ² worked together with Tom Payne to preserve development materials still in his possession.

Hirokazu Yasuhara's level chunks. These show various gimmicks that Genocide City Zone would have contained, including fans, a green vertical "elevator", midair conveyor belts similar to those seen in Metropolis Zone, and what seem to be conveyor belts lined up on walls and ceilings.

Hirokazu Yasuhara's maps.

Tom Payne's Digitizer pages.

A reconstruction of the fan object.

Concept art by Tom Payne for palette data, objects, and variations of Metropolis's tiles. The later name, Cyber City, is also shown.

The concept art for the future map shows that the level would take place within the two Death Eggs destroyed by Sonic, each one representing a separate act. Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) confirmed this connection in his Beep21 interview.

本来であれば、コンセプトアートのように地球の見える宇宙を背景にデスエッグの要塞の表面で遊ばせるACT1と要塞内部（イメージ的にはコンセプトアートのサイバーシティのような感じ）のハイテクメカの広大なマップのあるACT2の途中で、中ボス（メカソニック）戦、ボスエリアでエッグマンとの最終決戦、そして要塞破壊からと脱出という流れで作りたいと考えていました。

"Originally, I wanted to create ACT 1 [of Death Egg Zone], where the player plays on the surface of Death Egg's fortress with the Earth visible in space as a backdrop, just like in the concept art; ACT 2 [of Death Egg Zone], which takes place inside the fortress (reminiscent of the Cyber ​​City in the concept art) and has a vast map of high-tech mechas; in the middle of that, there is a battle with a mid-boss (Mecha Sonic), a final battle with Eggman in the boss area, and then the destruction of the fortress and escape.

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) - Beep21

Based on this information, it's possible that Genocide City 3 was an early concept for what would become Death Egg Zone later in development, representing the third and final Death Egg on the future map.

Some of the graphical art created for Genocide City would be repurposed for the unreleased game B-Bomb and The Machine in Sonic Spinball.

I got to recycle some of the art for Cyber City Zone into Spinball

— Tom Payne

Earlier Versions of Zones

Levels that made it into the final game, but were significantly altered from their original planned design.

Dust Hill/Madness Mountain Zone#

What appears to be concept art for a zone that would eventually become Mystic Cave, with Madness Mountain being an alternate name given in development, showing an earlier castle/dungeon-like theme. The zone's final iteration features multiple stage gimmicks that appear to be carried over from this earlier theme, including drawbridges and similar brick tiles seen on the concept art.

A quote by Yuji Naka further suggests this shift in theme.

The feel here is a haunted-house (obakeyashiki), isn't it. But we ended up making a cave stage instead.

— Yuji Naka

While Mystic Cave is called Dust Hill in earlier prototypes, early concepts for the game suggest that Dust Hill name actually belonged to a crumbling version of Green Hill³, so it still remains unclear if Dust Hill was an early name for Mystic Cave or if Mystic Cave simply took up Dust Hill's level slot and wasn't renamed until later.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's concept art.

A "mountain" level with many hazards abound was seen in the Game Gear iteration.

Neo Green Hill/Emerald Isle Zone#

Concept art for Neo Green Hill, with Emerald Isle being an alternate name given in development, while the name Aquatic Ruin was eventually used for the final game. This zone is notable for not being included in the map concept art, as it was added later in development. A scrapped volcano themed zone called 火の山ZONE "Fire Mountain Zone" in the 2nd timeline document was a possible early idea for this level, which would have also occupied the same slot $0F (between Genocide City/Cyber City and Death Egg) as Neo Green Hill/Emerald Isle.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's concept art. Both ideas for a volcano stage and an ancient ruins stage played prior to the Death Egg's launch would be revisited in Sonic 3 & Knuckles with Lava Reef and Sky Sanctuary.

Death Egg Zone#

Initially planned as two separate zones, Death Egg and Neo Death Egg in the 1st timeline document, before being condensed down to one in the 2nd timeline document. Unlike the final game's iteration, this earlier concept for the Death Egg was a full zone and featured exterior parts of the level in space as part of Act 1, while Act 2 would take place within the Death Egg itself. Starting with the Simon Wai prototype, Death Egg occupies slot $10 in the level index, which is used for Sky Chase in the final build.

Death Egg's Act 1 was to reuse graphics from Chemical Plant Zone and even had a test map implemented before getting cut due to time restraints.

■デスエッグゾーン 本来であれば、コンセプトアートのように地球の見える宇宙を背景にデスエッグの要塞の表面で遊ばせるACT1と要塞内部（イメージ的にはコンセプトアートのサイバーシティのような感じ）のハイテクメカの広大なマップのあるACT2の途中で、中ボス（メカソニック）戦、ボスエリアでエッグマンとの最終決戦、そして要塞破壊からと脱出という流れで作りたいと考えていました。

そこでマップはボス2連戦のエリアのみと脱出口、グラフィックは一部パーツを付け加えたケミカルプラントゾーンの流用という形になります。 途中の段階で背景を宇宙に変えて適当にケミカルプラントゾーンの足場パーツを並べたダミーのデスエッグゾーンのマップは存在していたのですが、何もかも間に合わないため削除されました。 最近ソニックマニアのMODで初期のデスエッグゾーンのコンセプトアートを再現した動画を見つけました。

割りと悪名高いリング0でのボス2連戦ですが開発スタッフでバランスチェックしていたときに早い段階で簡単に攻略できるパターンを見つけてしまったのでこのぐらいのバランスでもいいんじゃないか？ということになってスタッフ的にはウィングフォートレスのボスのほうが難しいと感じていたのと、ボス戦のみでチェックしていたためセーブ無しでそこまでの長い道中をプレイしてきたユーザーの目線が抜けていたのがありました。 この辺は反省点ですね。ただこの頃はスタッフ全員修羅場しゅらば状態だったので頭の中がみんなハイになっていました。

■ Death Egg Zone
"Originally, I wanted to create a flow in which ACT 1 lets you play on the surface of the Death Egg fortress with the Earth visible in the background, as in the concept art, and ACT 2 has a vast map of high-tech mechas inside the fortress (it has an image similar to the Cyber ​​City in the concept art), with a mid-boss (Mecha Sonic) battle in the middle, a final battle with Eggman in the boss area, and the destruction of the fortress and escape.

So the map will only have the area for the two consecutive boss battles and the escape route, and the graphics will be reused from the Chemical Plant Zone with some parts added. At one stage, there was a dummy Death Egg Zone map where the background was changed to space and the scaffolding parts from the Chemical Plant Zone were lined up randomly, but everything was deleted because it was too late. Recently I found a video of a Sonic Mania MOD that recreated the concept art of the early Death Egg Zone.

The two consecutive boss battles with zero rings are infamous, but when the development staff was checking the balance, they found a pattern that made it easy to beat early on, so they thought this level of balance would be fine. As a result, the staff felt that the Wing Fortress boss was more difficult, and because they were only checking the boss battle, they hadn't considered the perspective of the users who had played the long journey up to that point without saving. This is something to reflect on. However, at the time, all the staff were in a state of chaos, so everyone was high in the head."

スケジュールが後3ヶ月あればこのステージは間違いなくソフトに入れることができたし、短縮されたデスエッグゾーンも本来の形で再現できたと思います。（容量的には微妙なラインかもしれませんが、最終段階で容量の余りがどのくらいあったかは自分は把握していません。） 自分としては機会があれば本当にちゃんとした形でデスエッグゾーンを作りたいと今でも思っているんですよ。 プランナーとプログラマーも後二人いればキャンセルかけたウッドゾーンとサンドシャワーも作れたかもしれない。 まあ、その場合さらなる容量とセーブ機能が必要だったとは思いますが。

"If we'd had three more months in the schedule, we could have definitely included this stage [Hidden Palace Zone] in the game, and I think we could have recreated the shortened Death Egg Zone in its original form. (It might have been a fine line in terms of capacity, but I don't know how much capacity was left over at the final stage.)

Personally, I still think that if I had the chance, I would like to create the Death Egg Zone in a truly proper form. If we'd had two more planners and programmers, we might have been able to create the Wood Zone and Sand Shower, which we almost canceled. Well, in that case, I think we would have needed more capacity and a save function."

— Judy Totoya (Yasushi Yamaguchi) - Beep21

In his presentation at Digital Dragons, Hirokazu Yasuhara referred to the Death Egg and Sonic 2's ending as "The Last Battle in Space".

Sonic 3 & Knuckles would reuse this zone's concept art, revisiting the idea for the Death Egg as a full zone.

Other

Ideas that were thought up by members of the development team, but never part of the game's development plan.

Craig Stitt's Concepts#

During an interview with artist Craig Stitt in 2001, Sonic researcher ICEknight asked if he remembered coming up with any stage ideas for the game. Craig revealed an idea for a circus themed zone he had worked on, prior to learning that the Japanese side of the team had already planned out all of the game's levels.

I can remember working up some ideas for a circus level, with big clown heads and a roller coaster. I know that there were other ideas, but that was a long time ago and a lot of levels have gone through this head in that time.

— Craig Stitt

It wouldn't be until 20 years later that concept art for this circus level idea would be shared in a followup interview held by Sonic Retro user DefinitiveDubs.

This is the first page in that book that appears to be related to Sonic 2. I have to assume that these were done shortly after we found out we would be doing Sonic 2, but before we knew that Yasuhara already had plans for what the game was going to be.

I have a VERY vague memory of working on a red & white circus tent on the Digitizer. If I remember right, the elephant was an idea that Sonic would run along his back (the elephant would be HUGE). I really liked the idea of playing with the track and having more complicated loops. I think the circus idea didn't go too far, even in my own head.

This [mountains and a geyser in the bottom right] would have been something different, playing with alternate loop ideas. It looks like the only reference to the short-lived circus idea are on this page of this sketchbook, the elephant and the two very faint tents. I think what probably drew me to the idea of a circus level was all the ready-built shapes (top ridge of the tents, trapeze wires, etc) that would have easily lent themselves to a 'track' for Sonic. That is also about the time I first heard of and watched "Killer Clowns From Outer Space" so I might have had wild clowns and circus tents on the brain at the time.

I really wanted to see something new/cool with the loops. I remember being really excited and impressed when I first saw the barrel roll loops (and glad that I wasn't the only one wanting to push the loops in new directions)!

— Craig Stitt

Craig also revealed an additional level idea he had, alongside some early Hidden Palace concept art.

I also had some ideas for a level/track to be a huge ring around a planet. This page has an 'Egg' style Death Star. As well as some concepts for what became HPZ (the buckets full of gems).

I can't take credit for that [inventing the Death Egg], but who knows. It's a pretty obvious idea that probably happened simultaneously. It just isn't much of a stretch to take Robotnik's circular/egg fixation and if you are doing anything in outer space, to convert it to something like the Death Star.

I doubt I had any knowledge Sonic was going into space. Given that none of my ideas were based on the story concepts that Yasuhara later pitched, I have to assume that my drawings were done as 'blue sky' ideas before we had any real info or direction from Yasuhara (hence circus and ring worlds). Going into space was also kind of an obvious/logical direction to take Sonic someplace new.

I remember just wanting to come up with more interesting tracks than just the wave forms and simple loops. I kind of remember thinking if we made the up close environment (which would just be a golden track) very simple we could maybe do something cool in the background, like have a planet below, and be able to see the distant track (with loops and twists) on the far side of the planet.

— Craig Stitt

More sketches for the ring world level idea, alongside a clown boss concept for an unrelated scrapped STI game known as Spinny & Spike.

This one is a little confusing. Clearly the ring/track was for Sonic, but next to the funky clown I have a little guy in a rhino outfit w/ KK'91 next to it (KK for Kid Chameleon...not sure why KK and not KC). Thinking about that giant clown, it may have been a concept boss for 'Spinny & Spike' and I just have the Kid character there for scale...in fact the more I think about that I pretty sure that's what it was actually for.

— Craig Stitt

Additional concept art for the scrapped Spinny & Spike game, alongside potentially early Hidden Palace art, a vine, and a rabbit idea for the internal competition to create Sonic's sidekick.

This is the next page in the sketchbook. I'm not sure what the multi-segmented creature is that is being ridden. Possibly something once again for Spinny & Spike. The vine is my playing with how to make some vines in the poly style of Sonic, with the lower drawing on the other side possibly being some early concept for HPZ. I have to guess that the 'rabbit' in the upper right is an idea for Sonic's buddy.

— Craig Stitt

Concept art for Kid Chameleon, alongside more potentially early Hidden Palace art.

The next page is also confusing because it clearly has sketches for KidC (the dragon head with the castle tower and the 'reaching hand') but the rest look like they are early HPZ. The next page is almost for certain for HPZ.

I would have sworn that we were DONE with KidC when we started work on Sonic 2. I'm not sure why there is so much crossover in my sketchbook, other than I possibly did little thumbnails on new pages and then went back and used the unused areas of the page for Sonic? I stopped using an actual sketchbook for ideas and instead went to using loose sheets of paper, probably for this very reason. And the loose paper helped me not get hung up on 'using a page' from a hard bound sketchbook. Also, I didn't worry about making a crappy drawing on a loose sheet whereas I was worried about having a crappy drawing be part of my sketchbook forever.

Sadly, this also meant there are probably a LOT of early concepts and rough sketches that went right into the trash. At the time, I didn't want anyone to see them, but now I know that people want to see the crap along with the good. It all comes down to trying to hide the fact that I felt like I was out of my league and did what I could to keep the illusion up that I could actually draw...pretty classic imposter syndrome self BS (but I am still guilty of it when I draw. I don't want anyone to see anything that I am not happy with, but that's actually pretty normal...so maybe EVERYONE feels like an imposter?)

— Craig Stitt

References

References#