******************************************************************************* ---------------------------------------- S O N I C T H E H E D G E H O G 2 A C H I E V E M E N T G U I D E ---------------------------------------- Microsoft XBox 360 Achievement Guide, Version 1.0 Last Updated - 14/09/2007 By Crazyreyn (crazyreyn_faqs@hotmail.com) Copyright (c)2007 Matthew Reynolds. All rights reserved. ******************************************************************************* +--------------+ | Legal Notice | +--------------+ The ONLY sites that may have this FAQ and all my other FAQs are the following.. http://www.gamefaqs.com http://www.neoseeker.com http://faqs.ign.com/ http://www.cheats.de http://www.cheathappens.com http://www.xbox360achievements.org You will find the latest versions here. I'm sorry, but these are the only sites that I am allowing to host the FAQ. This way, its easier to update my guides, and not get outdated email from sites that don't regularly update the FAQ's. If you DO see this FAQ on a site other than those above, then please contact me straight away. +-----------------+ | Contact Details | +-----------------+ If you see a fault of ANY kind or you want to contribute some data to me, then either email me at crazyreyn_faqs@hotmail.com OR speak to me on MSN Messenger on crazyreyn_faqs@hotmail.com, or on AIM at Crazyreyn. If you are emailing me, then please have the subject title as 'Sonic 2 Achieve FAQ' or something similar, otherwise it will not be opened. Full credit will be given in due course. Or feel free to ask me any questions you wish, comment on this FAQ, ask if you want this posted on your site etc. then do that same as above. If you could, rate this FAQ so I can get some feedback. Thank You. =============================================================================== ---------------- INTRODUCTION ---------------- =============================================================================== Hello and welcome to the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 : Achivement Guide. This guide will give you a details on all the additional options, features and Achievements that the Live Arcade version of this classic platformer offers. Including a full Achievement guide, I hope this guide helps you get the most out of the game! Enjoy a classic, - Matt =============================================================================== --------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS --------------------- =============================================================================== 1. Version History 2. Achievement Guides 2.01. Achievement List 2.02. General Achievement Guide 2.03. Detailed Achievement Guide 3. Menu 4. Differences and Extras 5. Conclusion and Special Thanks Searching - Simply copy and paste the section you want to go to into the Find box (to open it, press CTRL+F). Now press enter twice and you will be taken to your selected section. =============================================================================== ---------------------- 1. VERSION HISTORY ---------------------- =============================================================================== +--------------------------+ | Version 1.0 - 14/09/2007 | +--------------------------+ The first version of this FAQ. Everything is complete. =============================================================================== ------------------- 2. ACHIEVEMENTS ------------------- =============================================================================== ---------------------- 2.01. Achievement List ---------------------- This list is taken word for word from the List in the game. - Emerald Hill - Clear the Emerald Hill Zone 1 (5G) - Fast Emerald - Beat Emerald Hill Zone 1 in under 35 seconds in single-player or co-op mode. (15G) - Fast Chemical - Beat Chemical Plant Zone 1 in under 45 seconds. (20G) - Casino - Get to the Casino Night Zone. (10G) - Super Sonic - Become Super Sonic. (20G) - Extended Super - Stay in Super Sonic mode for one minute. (20G) - Chaos Emerald - Get one Chaos Emerald. (10G) - Chaos Master - Get all the Chaos Emeralds. (40G) - Conquering Time - Beat the game in under an hour. (10G) - All Multiplayer - Play all four multiplayer zones. (5G) - Xbox Live Racer - Win 10 versus zones on Xbox Live. (10G) - Win - Beat the game. (35G) So there you have it. Most of these are very easy to obtain, and some of the scores you get for them are odd. For example, 35G for winning, yet just 10G for doing it under an hour? Plus the Super Sonic ones are stupidly easy, so as soon as you get the Emeralds, there is an extra 40G for about 2 minutes work. However, the speed runs provide a nice challenge. ------------------------------- 2.02. General Achievement Guide ------------------------------- OK, here is a guide for each achievement. Although they aren't that tough to obtain, the speed runs are somewhat hard to manage, as well as all the Emeralds. If this is your first time playing Sonic 2, then PLEASE play the game through normally. Don't rush and get these achievements. Enjoy the game and get used to it. Once you have done this, or if you are a seasoned Sonic fan, I recommend doing them in two runs. General points for these runs are - - Just use Sonic. Tails gets in the way, especially on Special Stages. - SAVE SAVE SAVE all the sodding time. About to start a Special Stage? Save it. Mess up? Exit the game, load it back up. It's that easy. Annoying, but saves you a lot of time and frustration. On the Speed Run you'll be doing this over and over and over to get it more or less right, but I guess that's part of the challenge! Emerald Run - Chaos Emerald (10G - Chaos Master (40G) - Super Sonic (20G) - Extended Super (20G) Your aim is to play the first few stages and get the Emeralds as soon as you can. You can get them all within Emerald Hill (7 posts) otherwise you can take your time and get them within a few stages after that. Once you have them, become Super Sonic for an achievement, get 10 rings and stand still for the Extended Super. Done. Note that you will also get another few achievements such as Emerald Hill if you go past the first stage, but this run aims to just get you these four. Once you have them start again. If you need a guide for the signpost locations, Sirhic has a guide on how to get all of them within Emerald Hill - http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/file/563343/30565 Speed Run - Emerald Hill (5G) - Fast Emerald (15G) - Fast Chemical (20G) - Casino (10G) - Conquering Time (10G) - Win (35G) This is a speed run to finish the game in under an hour. Impossible, you may gasp! However if you follow a Speed Run from the internet (link below) then they do it in 20 minutes. Even if you follow them very loosely you'll do it no problem. Along the way you'll get Emerald Hill, Casino and Win too as they stack up. There are Fast Emerald and Fast Chemical as well, but again, if you follow the speed run they do these a good 10 seconds under the required time. If you didn't read the notice above, then SAVE at the start of each stage, play the speed run and remember what to do, play it and when you get to a point, save it, play the speed run etc until you finish the act. There are a lot of tricks and glitches, all of which are detailed more later on. Speeddemosarchive - http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic2.html -------------------------------- 2.03. Detailed Achievement Guide -------------------------------- If you want details on just a few of the achievements, check them below. EMERALD HILL - Clear the Emerald Hill Zone 1 (5G) ------------------------------------------------- This is pretty simple, clear the very first act in the game. If you are having trouble with this, then check a walkthrough. FAST EMERALD - Beat Emerald Hill Zone 1 in under 35 seconds in single-player or co-op mode. (15G) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Download the speed run from http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic2.html and this will be the very first act. Follow it as close as you can, saving when you have done a section correctly. If you cannot download it, then here is a quick guide - - Spin dash your way to and over the bridge, across the gap, jump the next gap and leap up to the upper ledge next to the spikes (ignore the spring). - Leap over the spikes and get the SPEED SHOES box. Now hold right to speed up the wall, press down just as you leave it so you fly into the air as a ball, and hold right. - You should land on the top of a loop-de-loop, with some luck bouncing off an invincibility box. If you bounce, continue to hold right and hopefully bounce off a few more boxes / enemies. - With both Speed Shoes and Invincibility, you should be able to just run through the level with ease. Note that if you take the upper route of the level and use the corkscrew at the end, there is a spring at the end so be sure to leap it. FAST CHEMICAL - Beat Chemical Plant Zone 1 in under 45 seconds. (20G) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Download the speed run from http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic2.html and this will be at 1 minute 52 secs. Follow it as close as you can, saving when you have done a section correctly. If you cannot download it, then here is a quick guide - - Spin Dash up and over the quarter pipe, and Spin Dash again taking the lower route. - Follow the hill and loop-de-loops round, progress right until you come to a column with moving blocks. - Get up them and over, going through the booster and through the loops. After the first loop, SAVE YOUR GAME. At the end of the third loop you can jump upward just before / on the quarter pipe to reach a gateway above the path you are supposed to follow. This is quite tough to time right, and I found it helps to hold Up and jump just before the quarter pipe to shoot near vertically up to reach it. If you are confused, check the speed run. Assuming you saved it, keep trying it until you do it. - If you managed it, then Spin Dash up the gradient, past the blue spheres to the Finishing Post. You should finish with in a good 30 second time. CASINO - Get to the Casino Night Zone. (10G) -------------------------------------------- This is Stage Four. You'll get this on the way to Win or Conquering Time. SUPER SONIC - Become Super Sonic. (20G) --------------------------------------- To become Super Sonic, get all the Chaos Emeralds (see CHOAS MASTER achievement). Now when you get 50 rings, jump and press A in the air to turn into Super Sonic to get the achievement. EXTENDED SUPER - Stay in Super Sonic mode for one minute. (20G) --------------------------------------------------------------- As Super Sonic (see SUPER SONIC achievement) stay in this status for a minute. This is very easy as the rings count down once a second, and as you already have at least 50, then that's 50 seconds. Get another 10 rings and stay still for an easy achievement. CHAOS EMERALD - Get one Chaos Emerald. (10G) -------------------------------------------- Complete a Special Stage to get this (get 50 rings in a level and find a signpost). For tips, see CHAOS MASTER. CHAOS MASTER - Get all the Chaos Emeralds. (40G) ------------------------------------------------ Complete all the Special Stages to get the seven Emeralds to unlock this achievement. To reach a special stage, get 50 rings in a level and find a signpost. You can do this as you play through the game, and it's possible to get all seven Emeralds by the time you reach the Chemical Plant Zone - there are (at least) three signposts in each of the first acts of Emerald Hill Zone, meaning you can get the seventh in Chemical Plant. A few general tips - - SAVE every time you start a stage, and at each checkpoint. - Play as just Sonic, as Tails always gets in the way of the bombs as his reactions lag behind yours. - Aim to get as many rings as possible before each checkpoint, as they accumulate. For example if you need 50 for the first checkpoint, then 80 for the next, getting 55 for the first means you only need 25 in the next section. Aim to get at least 5 above the target to make it easier, and save between each checkpoint. - If you hit a bomb, reload the last checkpoint and try and memorize their locations. - If you fail to meet the checkpoint, then you SKIP that Emerald and go on to the next. You can replay it as you come round again. For example you miss Emerald 6, so you need to play 7 in order to get round to 6 once more. CONQUERING TIME - Beat the game in under an hour. (10G) ------------------------------------------------------- Beat the entire game in under an hour. The easiest way to do this is to follow a Speed Run, and to keep saving and loading to perfect sections of the game. http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic2.html This is, of course, easier said than done. The Speed Run uses pixel perfect jumps, some insane skill and use of glitches in order to make a time of around 20 minutes - three times under what you need. I have followed the Speed Run myself and it is ALL possible to emulate yourself, just takes a lot of patience (save, load, save, load until you get it right) and some knowledge of how the glitches and tricks work. Here are some that he used, with some explanation how to do them. Super Speed Dash Trick - You'll notice that the Speed Dashes performed are much quicker than what yours are like. All he does is hammer A very quickly in order to shoot off. You'll need that to make some gaps, so practice this. Hill Top (Act One) Cable Cart Glitch - After scaling the walls and traveling down the cable cart, you'll see him purposely falling into the lava just before the cart reaches the end, and him falling through the lava and backdrop to appear down the bottom of the level, missing out most of the cave area. How this works is that you need to get into the corner of the lava pit before the cart falls, so it pushes you into the lava as it touches you, forcing you down through the caves to the bottom. If you die on the way down, reload and move to the side slightly (but still under the cart). Oil Ocean Zone (Act One) Oil Dash Trick - Instead of following the platforms up and across the level, he skips across the oil and under the platforms 80% of the Act. The trick is to avoid the fans after the sticky platforms, and then jumping and holding right across the oil. When it comes to the platforms that block your path, sink into the oil and Spin Dash just as you are underneath the supports (they sometimes glitch in). As soon as you do it, tap A to jump back up to avoid touching the bottom of the screen and dying. You must Spin Dash as walking underneath means you touch the screen edge, whereas being a ball doesn't do this. However you need to be very quick in order to avoid touching, so be on the mark with jumping upward. This is a very hard trick to manage, so if you cannot do it, then take the platforms above as it shaves off only a few seconds in places. If you can do it at the end though, you'd save a lot of time! Metropolis Zone (Acts One, Two and Three) Screw Glitch - I personally think this is wonderful. At a screw, run left so it touches the bottom, and stand over it. Hold down so Sonic scrolls the screen, then press jump and Up. This forces the screen to scroll round and back to where you were. Doing this causes Sonic to get stuck behind the Screw. Wait so the camera is back on Sonic, and jump; he will fall behind the level to the passage below. You really should follow the speed run to see where to do this, but it's very clever and in some points shaves off a lot of time! Wing Fortress Shortcut - Not a trick or glitch, but a feat of stupid level design. After jumping across the hangers, you are forced to go up and left. However there are fans on the right blocking access to the rest of the level. Walk into them to get injured, meaning you can just walk through them and bypass most of the level! You literally save minutes here. ALL MULTIPLAYER - Play all four multiplayer zones. (5G) ------------------------------------------------------- You just need to start each of the four multiplayer games, not complete them. Easiest way to get this achievement is to do it locally with another controller, then quit as soon as it starts, load up the next etc to get this within about 80 seconds. XBOX LIVE RACER - Win 10 versus zones on Xbox Live. (10G) --------------------------------------------------------- Beat ten opponents on Live. The Special Stage is arguably the quickest to do this under, and if you are boosting you can get this even faster (let your friend beat him ten times). Note that if you are joining games lag is terrible, so Host your games to get good response times. WIN - Beat the game. (35G) -------------------------- Complete the game. You can do this while completing the CONQUERING TIME achievement. =============================================================================== ----------- 3. MENU ----------- =============================================================================== When you boot up the game, you come to a flash menu system, with a small box showing the emulated game on the left side. Here are the options. Single Player Multiplayer Leaderboards Achievements Help & Options Return to Arcade ------------- Single Player ------------- Here you can choose whether to start a New Game or Load a saved one. If you are starting new, then pressing the A button at 'Play As' to go between Sonic, Sonic & Tails or Tails. ----------- Multiplayer ----------- Three Options here - Local Co-Op Game, Local Versus Game, or XBox Live Versus Game. Local Co-Op Game is basically Single Player, with Player One controlling Sonic and Player Two controlling Tails. Local Versus Game and XBxox Live Versus Game are the Multiplayer modes that existed in the original, with the latter obviously being online. You can pick to host a game with Live, and I recommend hosting to avoid lag (which seems to be a real issue right now). ------------ Leaderboards ------------ In typical Live Arcade game fashion, your score is ranked against other players that have played the game. You can see the Overall leader board, Your Score (where you are) and Friends. Press LB and RB to go between the two. Note that I'm not sure which score of yours is counted, or when it updates; I've done two games so far, and it only recorded the first and hasn't updated, annoying since my second score is much much higher. If anyone knows, gimme an email. -------------- Help & Options -------------- Quite a few handy options in here. How To Play gives you some general pointers, ideal if you are playing the game for the very first time. Control allows you to view the controls and change the buttons, and Settings is a very useful area to edit how the game looks. Within Settings, SMOOTHING smoothes the jagged edges on the screen making it look much better, WALLPAPER toggles if you want the background wallpaper to be displayed around the edges of the emulated game, and SCREENSIZE allows you to stretch the screen however you want. If you are playing the game on Widescreen, I recommend adjusting the Smoothing and Screensize settings. Finally CREDITS gives you the credits of those who ported and emulated this version of the game. ---------------- Return to Arcade ---------------- Returns you to the Arcade portion of the Dashboard. =============================================================================== ----------------------------- 4. DIFFERENCES AND EXTRAS ----------------------------- =============================================================================== So, what's new? Simply put, not a lot. The game itself is exactly the same, there are no levels or abilities. If anything, they have stripped away certain features due to the overriding menu system when you boot it up. This is so that you cannot use cheats for achievements, and that multiplayer operates through this new menu making it more Live friendly. Removed Features ---------------- - Overriding Menu system, removing access to the Start screen, in-game options and multiplayer - Cheats cannot be inputted - No sound test, level select Added Features -------------- - Great emulation - Screen stretching and manipulation for widescreen - Smoothing option for graphics - Save Feature (three slots, save anywhere) - Achievements (200 total, 190 offline, 10 online) - Leaderboards for scores - XBox Live Online modes for multiplayer Other Notes ----------- - Costs 400 points (approx £4.50) - Emulation is perfect - Analog Stick slightly hard to get used to, but plays fine - Glitches still work - Two player for co-op - Tails is still incredibly stupid (good or bad? you decide) So there you have it. In short, the game is the same, certain extra elements are removed whereas others are added. =============================================================================== ----------------------------------- 5. CONCLUSION AND SPECIAL THANKS ----------------------------------- =============================================================================== That's just about it, folks. I hope that this document has been of aid in one form or another, and that it has been easy to use. If you could, please either ask me questions, suggestions, comments or contributions at crazyreyn_faqs@hotmail.com. Also could you rate this FAQ so I could some feedback. Thank you for reading. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Special Thanks to these who have contributed to the guide in some way... | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ CJayC (Gamefaqs) - For accepting this guide and for creating the best site on the internet. Thanks! http://www.gamefaqs.com IGN - For accepting this guide and for creating an awesome video games site. Thanks! http://www.ign.com Sonic Team - For creating this brilliant platform game! Speed Demos Archive / - For doing a Speed Run, which is the basis for my Joe Stanski Speed Achievement tips. Absolute genius. http://speeddemosarchive.com/Sonic2.html ASCII Generator - For producing the text ASCII for my Crazyreyn sig. Thanks, and is a great site if you need any ASCII text. http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ +-------------------------------------------------------------+ | Special Thanks to these who are my good GameFAQS friends... | +-------------------------------------------------------------+ Robert Lane (Lanerobertlane) Richard Arnett (Guitarfreak86) Ryan Harrison (RHarrison0987) Thomas Carter (Carter12) Duncan Hardy (Super Nova) Rebecca Skinner (Karpah) Martin Dale-Hench (Fox) Brian Sulpher (BSulpher) Trace Jackson (Meowthnum1) Richard B. (Gbness) Steve McFadden (Psycho Penguin) Chris Noonan (Merca) Colin Scully (me frog) Tom Hayes (THayes) If I have forgotten you, then please contact me and I'll fix your name up here! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ___ / __|_ _ __ _ ____ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ | (__| '_/ _` |_ / || | '_/ -_) || | ' \ \___|_| \__,_/__|\_, |_| \___|\_, |_||_| |__/ |__/ http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/27600.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Crazyreyn (crazyreyn_faqs@hotmail.com) Copyright (c)2007 Matthew Reynolds. All rights reserved. +------------------+ | Copyright Notice | +------------------+ This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. ================================END OF DOCUMENT===============================