Sonic The Hedgehog: The Lost Worlds is a hack of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 by ExecByte. This hack features all of the zones that were cut from Sonic 2 during development. Some zones have been ported from the Sonic 2 Simon Wai Prototype and then finished up, and some have been created based on magazine pictures and information from interviews with people who worked on Sonic 2.

This is one of those rare Sonic ROM hacks that actually feels like a totally new Sonic game on the Mega Drive/Genesis. Each level (aside from one) is either a scrapped zone that didn’t make it into the game due to time constraints or is made from scratch based on a single magazine picture or simple word of mouth. The level layouts in this game (aside from Casino Night Beta) is all new and original from Execbyte.

The Lost Worlds:

1. Dust Hill Zone – Uses graphics similar to the mockup screenshot of Sand Shower Zone, which was at the time thought to be Dust Hill Zone. A very hot and dry Texas style desert area filled with lots of Sonic stopping badniks and traps.

2. Rock Zone – This zone seems to be completely original as no information exists about this one. The whole area is a giant rocky mountain set at sunset filled with lava pits and other traps to slow you down. The Rexons that appear out of the lava pits can sometimes be fatal to jump on as they sometimes crash the game (a bug that was carried over and never removed from the base Sonic 2 game in Hill Top Zone). The music played here is the 2 Player Mystic Cave music.

3. Wood Zone – A large wooded forest area with giant tree trunks and many secret passage ways. The music used here is the beta version of Metropolis.

4. Winter Zone – Is a colour palette swap of Dust Hill Zone with some small art changes such as winter trees aligning the background instead of Cactus trees. This zone becomes infuriating for many badnik placements and it has the sea horses from Oil Ocean in it.

5. Hidden Palace Zone – Is the premium zone of the game and no doubt, the zone most people wanna play the most. Probably the most talked about unfinished, scrapped zone from Sonic 2 made by Craig Stitt. This zone is a giant cavernous palace where the original Chaos Emeralds were meant to come from, this zone also has original new level layouts in it to explore and background music is the intended music for the level. Mystic Cave boss is used with the only alteration that the sequence of picks and rocks is omitted. Also, the bat badniks are utilised, which ended up being unused in the final Sonic 2.

6. Casino Night Zone (Beta) – This zone didn’t really need to be here as it’s basically the same as the final except parts of the slot machines are missing and it has a different colour of paint. Would have preferred something totally original go in it’s place instead.

7. Cyber City Zone – This zone has it’s art taken from Sonic Spinball’s ”The Machine” level and serves as Eggman’s secret lab of the game. The badniks are taken from Sky Chase Zone. The music is 2 player Casino Night Zone.

NOTES: 

If you’re hoping this game is gonna be a ”hold right to win” Sonic Advance 2 clone then think again. It is almost impossible to progress really fast in the levels as there are so many badniks out to stop you and many spike and bottomless pits to fall into. You really do have to play it safe and think carefully when exploring.

Super Sonic is still available when collecting all 7 Chaos Emeralds.

The ending credits is totally original by simply having the words scroll through the clouds in Sky Chase.

The Special Stages are identical to the original Sonic 2 and require 50 rings to enter.

The Rexons in Rock Zone can cause a crash sometimes when destroying them. It’s a bug that was in the base Sonic 2 game in Hill Top Zone where sometimes a crash would appear when jumping on the Rexon badniks.

In Hidden Palace Zone, accessing and beating or losing in a Special Stage causes some sprites to glitch at Stage ending.

This hack predates many other more sophisticated Sonic ROM hacks that feature Hidden Palace Zone and some of the other zones in them like Esrael’s ”Sonic 2 Delta” and the mobile port of Sonic 2 by Christian Whitehead.

This works on real hardware 100% and there is even a reproduction cartridge available from many places out in the wild.

Inside the ZIP file you’ll find the patch, it is in Lunar IPS format and simply needs to be patched to the Sonic 2 REV A ROM.