Special Stage (Sonic the Hedgehog 2)


 * For Special Stages in general, see here.

Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are a series of special levels. When the player enters the Special Stage, the playable character will run down an endless, half-pipe cylinder highway. During this, the player's perspective is shown from behind the playable character. The player's objective in these Special Stages is to collect enough Rings to enter the next round or to obtain a Chaos Emerald. During these Special Stages, the player has to keep an eye on the half-pipe route, which can be littered with bombs and hard curves.

These types of Special Stages are also featured in the locked-on version Knuckles in Sonic 2 and later made a reappearance in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure. Since their first appearance, there have been many different incarnations of these type Special Stages through the Sonic the Hedgehog series.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
In order to enter the Special Stage in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the player has to collect 50 Rings and reach a Star Post. Upon reaching the Star Post, a circle of red stars will spin above the Star Post for while, which serve as the entrance to Special Stage. The player then has to jump into the sparkling ring above the Star Post to enter the Special Stage. There are a total of seven Special Stages, each containing a Chaos Emerald at the end of the stage.

Each of the Special Stages are cut into three parts, where the playable character(s) are running through a half-pipe. Here, the player must collect a certain amount of Rings in order to move on through the Special Stage. When the player come across a checkpoint along the road of the Special Stage and has collected the required amount of Rings, the player moves to next part to collect another amount of Rings otherwise, he/she will be transported out of Special Stage. The character(s) used to play the Special Stages determines the number of Rings required.

Along the Special Stage's path, Rings lies in numerous strings of (even double on row) that curve around the half-pipe route's structure. As the player progresses through the Special Stage, bombs will appear, which can make the player lose 10 Ring when colliding with each Bomb. Bombs can be set in strings and even create large ring-formations surrounding the whole path; in this case, the player can do a Spin Jump to overstep them. As the player enter more Special Stages on higher levels, the difficulty and the amount of Rings needed to be collected will increase.

After collecting all Rings required for all three checkpoints in the Special Stage, a Chaos Emerald will be given to the player, signifying that the player has completed the Special Stage. Depending on the Special Stage the player enters, the color of the Chaos Emerald he/she receives will be different. Once all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected, Sonic/Knuckles can transform into Super Sonic/Super Knuckles when having fifty Rings in his possession. In addition, the game's ending also changes.

When returning to the main stage, whether Sonic/Tails have collected the Chaos Emerald or not, they will have no Rings in possession, and all the Rings in the Zones are at their original positions, as if the player have never collected them. However in Knuckles in Sonic 2, Knuckles will still retain the number of Rings he had before entering the Special Stages, making it easier to access them at the next Star Post.

Some of the Special Stages are also available in 2P mode of the game, where the players are competing against each other to see who collects the most Rings during each round. The layouts in these Special Stages are like the same in normal 1-player mode. If both players win one of the two acts of the zone in multiplayer, the competition will be settled with one last Special Stage with the same rules as previously mentioned.

In the 2013 re-release version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Special Stages have been graphically modified in 3D. If the player activates the Level Select code, the player can play a track from 00-07 (inclusive) in the Sound Test and then select the Special Stage from Level Select to play its corresponding Special Stage. (00 will play the first Special Stage, 01 will play the second Special Stage and so on.) An eighth Special Stage has been added which has a more challenging layout and can only be accessed via this method.

Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure
Special Stages in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure feature almost exactly the same half-pipe highway as in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. However, in order to enter these Special Stages, the player has to gather 50 Rings, reach the end of the first act of each Zone and then jump into the Giant Ring that appears there. Because there are only six regular Zones with two acts (including Sky Chase Zone which serve as one act, while Aerobase Zone second as the second act with boss), the game only features six Special Stages, each holding a Chaos Emerald, while the seventh Chaos Emerald remains in the hands of Dr. Eggman which the player can acquire through normal gameplay.

The Special Stages here are mostly same and have identical features to those in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Here, the player has get through all three rounds of each Special Stage by collecting a given amount of Rings while avoid bombs that can take the player's Rings away. Inside these stages, the player can do the Spin Jump and run around the half-pipe route. However, these Special Stages feature different layouts for the object inside them than in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Additionally, there are certain rounds, where there is a small flashing flower set on the half-pipe route which grants a Continue once touching it.

Trivia

 * In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, many players find it hard to play these Special Stages with both Sonic and Tails (especially the later ones), as the reason for this is when Sonic moves, there's a slight delay before the computer controlling Tails follows what Sonic is doing which can lead to situations such as when Sonic moves across the half-pipe when a series of spike-balls are about to hit him, Tails hits the spiked-balls instead and loses the rings Sonic/Tails have collected.
 * As there are a total of seven Star Posts in Emerald Hill Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it is possible for the player to achieve Super transformation at the end of the first zone given that the player always has fifty Rings before touching the next Star Post and is very experienced in doing this type of Special Stages.
 * Special Stages in locked-on version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 notably has many segments for Knuckles, where a lower ring count is required than the Special Stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 2; in line with retaining Rings when finishing a Special Stage, it is easier to achieve Super Knuckles (by collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds from Special Stage) than achieving Super Sonic.
 * However, in the 2013 re-release of Sonic 2, Knuckles' ring quotas now match Sonic's (or Tails') ring quotas and no longer retains Rings when finishing a Special Stage.
 * In the Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, Sonic, Mega Man, Tails and Rush had to go through a half-pipe that is similar to the half-pipe Sonic and Tails go through in this specific Special Stage.

Videos
Music = Playthrough = 8th Special Stage =