It begins just after the end of Sonic 1, when the Chaos Emeralds suddenly teleport Sonic to a place where he can see Dr. Eggman's Death Egg being built far away. Sonic sets out to stop Eggman's plans and later meets Tails, who is eager to help him.
Check out the game and have fun: (First Version)
(SAGE 2012 Release)
A sequel named Sonic: After the Sequel has been released, and a side game called Sonic: Before the Sequel Aftermath has also been released.
This game provides examples of:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: All of the zone names (except for the Death Egg).
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Most of Sonic's boss fights work this way, final boss excluded. Tails fights the unnamed sphere badnik on-the-run in Perilous Paradise.
- And the Adventure Continues / Book Ends: The good ending leaves off immediately where the gameplay of Sonic 2 begins.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: The special stages.
- Behind the Black: In the opening scene, Sonic notices the Death Egg faaaaar away in the background, but ignores the seventh Chaos Emerald that was a couple feet away from him, hidden by the camera. In the Updated Re-release, this scene has been deleted. Instead there's a cold opening before the title screen that tells essentially the same scene, but without the Chaos Emerald being involved.
- Blackout Basement: Parts of Acts 2 and 3 of Titanic Tower Zone.
- Bonus Level: Can be entered from the third act of almost each zone (Cloudy Crowd's giant ring is oddly in Act 2, and Act 3 doesn't have one). They're called Special Stages as per series tradition, but they're inconsequential and just for racking up extra lives.
- Boss Rush: Available after beating the game with the good ending.
- Call-Back and Call-Forward: Lost Levels Zone pays homage to the scrapped zones of Sonic 2 in each act... a game that chronologically is yet to happen. Interesting paradox.
- Cutscene Incompetence: In the cutscene before Fortress Flow, Sonic gets hit by an attack he could have easily dodged so the player can know that the bubble shield offers no protection in this game.
- Double Jump: The Bubble Shield in Fortress Flow Zone allows Sonic to Double Jump.
- Diegetic Switch: Turning the lights on and off in Titanic Tower Zone also causes the music to switch in and out.
- Dubstep: One of the themes in Star Shores turns into this under the influence of Fuzzies, and Metro Madness Act 3's theme and the themes for Titanic Tower Act 3 and the boss have some elements.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Tails realizes he can use his... well, tails to move faster than he could by running.
- Foregone Conclusion: Sonic can't stop the launch of the Death Egg. Well, he can in the Boss Rush, but that's just a "FAKE END".
- Game-Breaking Bug: Thanks to a problem with older versions of the Sonic Worlds engine, the Oxygen Meter at Perilous Paradise Zone runs out at normal speed even if the game is lagging for you.
- Due to bugs with Adobe Flash, which all the of cutscenes run in, the game can crash on some systems as soon as a cutscene tries to load. This is a problem with the Sonic Worlds engine that is essentially unfixable, leaving some players no choice but to play the game with cutscenes off and go to YouTube to find out what they're missing.
- Unfortunately this introduces another bug. By choosing to select the cutscenes off, the game won't allow you to fight against the Perfect Run Final Boss, instead it takes you straight to the ending screen.
- Thankfully LakeFeperd included an option to skip through levels with the U key due to the fact that Mac users couldn't save, so you can still access the boss.
- Looks like Flash Player 18 works! Use Adobe's Flash Player archives and install it (direct download link here).
- In the Perfect Run Final Boss, if you hit Eggman after he starts exploding, the game becomes stuck and unable to finish, forcing you back a couple levels.
- Due to bugs with Adobe Flash, which all the of cutscenes run in, the game can crash on some systems as soon as a cutscene tries to load. This is a problem with the Sonic Worlds engine that is essentially unfixable, leaving some players no choice but to play the game with cutscenes off and go to YouTube to find out what they're missing.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: Most fights with Eggman either have Sonic chasing him or him chasing Sonic.
- Gravity Screw: Present in Arcane Altitude and Death Egg, both of which have gimmicks involving reversed gravity as well as increased and decreased gravity.
- Green Hill Zone: Star Shores Zone, which uses the past graphics of Palmtree Panic.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: Originally, after being defeated, the Final Boss blasts Sonic out of the sky in the ending cutscene. In the 2012 version, Sonic simply falls from the arena as it explodes and you get to fight the boss again as Super Sonic if you get enough time points to get the good ending.
- Hero of Another Story: Sonic and Tails spend the game alternating zones between them, so technically they're both on their own solo adventures, even when their paths cross in the latter half of the game. The only stage played by both of them is Arcane Altitude Zone.
- Interface Screw: Fuzzies inexplicably show up throughout Star Shores Zone. Not only do they distort the game around Tails, they also slow him down and alter the music. Act 3 in particular becomes Dubstep.
- Interquel: One that takes place between Sonic the Hedgehog & its sequel, hence the name.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: Happens to Tails after Titanic Tower, but is later triumphantly subverted. Then, happens again to enforce it on Sonic by Eggman.
- Level in the Clouds: The game has Cloudy Crowd. The cloud tileset is borrowed from that of the sky levels of Kirby Super Star, though it also features tiles from Star Light and Chemical Plant. Other features include a magnetic pole that operates with a switch, springs that can make you jump high or low (depending on which end of the spring is touched when jumping), fans that can blow away clouds, and a jet platform with lights that tell when it will burst flames.
- Mini-Mecha: Before the Sequel's final boss is a much smaller version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's final boss.
- Multiple Endings: There are three: the good ending you get if you complete the game with a positive number of time points; the bad ending, which you get if you have negative time points at the end, and the Boss Rush ending.
- Musical Nod: The soundtrack incorporates a lot of this, for example Green Hill in Hilltop Heights Act 2 and 3 and Green Grove in Star Shores.
- Lost Levels is full of this.
- Arcane Altitude Act 2 has a musical nod to Death Egg Zone.
- Star Shores Act 3 has a nod to Star Light Zone.
- The entirety of Cloudy Crowd Act 1's music is a remix of Believe In Myself from both Sonic Adventure games.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The blue mantis enemies in Metro Madness Zone react this way when you get behind them, since they can't attack you from behind.
- Tails gets a similar reaction when he flies in Arcane Altitude Act 2, as the level constantly shifts him around while he's flying, making it a bit harder to pinpoint a landing spot.
- Perfect Run Final Boss: In the SAGE 2012 edition only.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The entire soundtrack in the 1st version reuses songs ranging from other Sonic games to Kirby games. The 2012 SAGE Edition mostly averts this with an original soundtrack, although some songs (the Rotatatron theme and Breathtaking Vision) were left in, and the special stages and cutscenes were left intact due to time constraints.
- Recurring Boss: Eggman is at it again for Sonic, while Tails deals with a rather tenacious robot shaped like an Egg-O-Matic.
- Recurring Riff
- Every act has its own theme, but most Zones will either have a Recurring Riff incorporated into the themes, or the act themes will be similar thematically.
- Titanic Tower, for example, has a Recurring Riff first done in a sort of Daft Punk-style disco theme, then an '80s synthpop theme, then a more modern electronic style with some Dubstep elements.
- Scenery Porn: Like most of the original series, you can find notable landscapes in a couple of zones here and there.
- Secret Level: Hill Top Zone and Starlight Carnival. Hill Top is accessed by pressing U during the cutscene after the Hilltop Heights boss, while Starlight Carnival is accessed by spamming the U key in Rocky Ride to rapidly skip through the levels, which should end up taking you to the level after skipping the boss. Hill Top Zone seems to be finished, while Starlight Carnival is only 20 seconds long.
- Sequential Boss: Dr. Eggman's Unicycle Mecha in the 2012 version.
- Shout-Out: Ryu
Turtle Badniks?- The way Tails enters Lost Levels is a shout out to the intro to The Great Cave Offensive. It even uses the same music.
- Boss designs are based off the style of Stunt Race FX characters.
- The Star Shore Zone also includes Fuzzies.
- Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: The only dialogue in the game comes in the Golden Ending:Sonic: My plane!
Tails: Low fuel. - Space Zone: Arcane Altitude and Death Egg.
- Standard Snippet: The boss music of Perilous Paradise uses bits from Flight of the Bumblebee and In The Hall of the Mountain King, a stealthy nod to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Super Mode: Available as an Easter Egg. S Monitors are hidden in the levels and pressing a certain key in the full main menu unlocks Super Sonic.
- Super Not-Drowning Skills: Fortress Flow Zone, in which Sonic gets a water shield that's immune to damage. Instead, you lose your rings when you're hit. No such luck for Tails, who must scrounge for air bubbles in Perilous Paradise Zone.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: See Recurring Boss above. Sonic and Tails never get to fight each other's nemeses. On both occasions where Tails is present for an Eggman fight, the kid gets swept off into the sky before it can happen. The second of these, considering the events at the end of Cloudy Crowd, doubles as a Player Punch.
- Timed Mission: You have about two hours to beat the game, or the bad ending happens when you get there. Specifically, you start Before the Sequel with 3400 time points, you lose one every 2 seconds, and if your time points are a negative value after the final boss, you miss the good ending. Oddly, in the 2012 version, it still keeps counting time points during the Perfect Run Final Boss, but as long as you reach it, you still get the good ending.
- Updated Re-release: LakeFeperd re-released the game with better graphics, custom sprites, and an original soundtrack along with a demo of After The Sequel at SAGE 2012.
- Under the Sea: Fortress Flow Zone.
- Variable Mix: Lost Levels Act 3 has two versions of the same theme that switch back and forth as Tails moves between the "desert" and "frozen" areas of the stage.
