History YMMV / SonicTheHedgehog2

** Whether the Hidden Palace Zone in the mobile remakes should've used the DummiedOut track instead of Mystic Cave Zone's 2-player music.

* BrokenBase: Sega's apparent decision to not release the remastered version on PC or consoles and keeping it on mobile devices has gotten a bit of hate, not helped by the additional content that will probably remain exclusive to the mobile versions.

** The Underground Zone boss in the Game Gear version is considered tougher due to the smaller resolution mentioned above, making it harder to avoid the bouncing balls. And that's the ''first boss in the game''. [[note]]Making matters worse, some boulders fall low and others bounce high, whereas in the Master System version they all bounced low and were easily jumped over. Every boss afterward is, comparatively, a pushover, though you don't get rings for any of them.

** The loss of rings when entering a special stage in the Genesis version, which can be frustrating for those who want to get all 7 emeralds early on.

** The Underground Zone boss in the Game Gear version is considered tougher due to the smaller resolution mentioned above, making it harder to avoid the bouncing balls. And that's the ''first boss in the game''. Every boss afterward is, comparatively, a pushover.

** Death Egg Zone; [[BossOnlyLevel see the That One Boss entry above]]. It would be much easier if the game would just ''give you rings.''

*** Additionally, it has the most 1UPs and Rings out of any zone in the entire game, with the very first act having a whooping ''FIVE 1UPs and well over 200 rings''. This makes (re)stocking on lives ''insanely'' easy [[note]] run thru most of the level collecting the goods, die towards the end, and [[InfiniteOneUps repeat until you're satisfied on lives]][[/note]]. And you'll need [[NintendoHard every last one of them for the rest of the game, too.]]

* {{Fanon}}: There's no canon indication that [[http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111219152401/sonic/images/7/7a/1Silver_Sonic.png Silver Sonic from the Game Gear game]] is the same [[http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091121095828/sonic/images/3/34/SQM3-SilverSonic.png "Silver Sonic" from the Genesis game]], but the fandom treats them as the same robot out of simplicity.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Amazingly, the ''' ''final boss'' ''' of the Genesis version can become this if you [[spoiler: lure it to one side of the room, hit it before it recovers from the recoil of its homing attack, and retreat to the other side of the room before it shoots its spiked arms at you. Rinse and repeat.]]
** Similarly, the boss will be a cakewalk if you [[spoiler: approach it from behind by running to the right edge of the screen during the Robotnik chase and staying there until the mech is done rising. When behind the mech, it has no offensive moves while it moves, leaving you free to hit its jetpack unopposed. When the mech levitates, if Sonic stays on the right quarter of the screen and stays to the right when it lands, it will remain behind the mech, away from the spiked arms. The player will have to deal with two bomb attacks, easily avoided by going just under the mech for the first wave, then away from it for the second. Rinse, repeat.]]

* {{Fanon}}: There's no canon indication that Silver Sonic from the Game Gear game is the same "Silver Sonic" from the Genesis game - and in fact, the Game Gear's official art of Silver Sonic is drastically different from the Genesis sprite - but the fandom treats them as the same robot out of simplicity.

** Silver Sonic, the second-to-final boss. With just the right timing, he can be defeated in roughly 10 seconds. If anything, he's just a warm-up for the fight against Robotnik's giant robot.

* BestLevelEver: Chemical Plant Zone is a common favorite, due to being one of the fastest levels in the Genesis games. It's in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' for a reason! The other favorite is Casino Night Zone, which codified the CasinoPark style level for both the series and for subsequent games. It was in the 3DS version of ''Generations'' instead.

** Mecha Sonic, the second-to-final boss. With just the right timing, he can be defeated in roughly 10 seconds. If anything, he's just a warm-up for the fight against Robotnik's giant robot.

** Death Egg Zone; [[BossOnlyLevel see above]]. It would be much easier if the game would just ''give you rings.''

** Some players consider Oil Ocean Zone to be one too, although it's nowhere near as bad as Metropolis Zone, which comes right afterwards. The sea horse and octopus badniks that shoot at you are extremely hard to avoid, making the whole level a bit of a headache if you're trying to retain your rings. The sea horses can also fly at you from out of nowhere.

** Metropolis Zone (GEN), mostly due to the enemies there being the toughest non-boss enemies in the game and some are even placed poorly in the level such as one of the Slicers being at the top of a yellow triangle spring wall you have to bounce up to making it hard to avoid the boomerang blades and avoid running into the slicer at the top of it.

** While not ''terribly'' difficult, Robotnik at the end of Casino Night Zone is pretty tricky, and its extremely difficult to beat him with all your rings still intact by the end (tragic considering how many rings one can end up with on this level).

** Granted, the final boss becomes a [[MarathonBoss very long, tedious fight]] if you do this.

* NightmareFuel/ TearJerker:
** The bad ending of the MasterSystem/ GameGear version implies that Tails is ''dead''. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCQZOh2faww Trauma Ensues]].