What if one of the most ignored features of the Classic Sonic series not only became the spotlight of the game, but also became vital to your survival? Well, we already answered this question last year, so what if we did it again, but on a different game? Sonic 2 - Score Rush, direct sequel to Sonic 1 - Score Rush, is here to get you rushing for score once more! You probably already know the drill, but in case you haven't played last year's installment, here's a nice refresher. Essentially, this ROM hack focuses around one gimmick: the Score Rush. You start with 5000 points, and your job is to keep your score as high as possible. Defeat badniks, collect rings, get power-ups, touch starposts, beat levels, beat bosses, and so on. However, the score will gradually decrease, and you absolutely, truly don't want it to get to 0. Of course, a score based challenge would be easy with the 50 thousand points bonus given to you by the score tallies, so I got rid of the score tallies entirely, meaning that only what you actually do in the level matters, in terms of score collection. Now that this refresher is out of the way, let's talk features. All three gamemodes return! That's right, every single one of the three gamemodes from last year returns! Score Rush: The original gamemode from back in 2020, when Sonic 1 - Score Rush first got the gameplay scheme it's been known for, now in Sonic 2! Get to the end of the game with the highest score you can. Endless Rush: With its randomized level selection, progressing in difficulty as it goes on, the Endless Rush is sure to provide you lots of fun! Beat as many levels as you can while keeping your score up! Quick Rush: Whether it's for training, or to get a quick burst of fun, the Quick Rush lets you play one singular level of Sonic 2 with the Score Rush gimmick! How high can your score get? Even more new moves! All of the moves that have been added to Sonic 1 - Score Rush have been brought back for Sonic 2 - Score Rush. And there's more! In fact, here's the full list of new moves! Drop Dash: Originating from Sonic Mania, this move is sure to provide a quick burst of speed to Sonic, which is useful in this time sensitive scavenger hunt for points! Super Peel-Out: This move, from Sonic CD, is a pretty solid alternative to the Blue Blur's already established Spin Dash! (NEW) Insta-Shield: With the power of this move from Sonic 3, Sonic becomes immune to even the mightiest of hazards if timed correctly, and can even be used to quickly decimate Sonic 2's more hazardous boss fights! (NEW) Flight: With the presence of Tails in this game, it's just fair to bring some difference in gameplay amongst characters. The flight from Sonic 3 will allow you to reach new heights, as well as achieve ridiculous combo chains! (NEW) Flight cancellation: Because I didn't think Tails was enough of a beast in this ROM hack, flight cancellation has been added, allowing Tails to roll back into a ball and FURTHER extend your combo chains! Beware, though, once you cancel a flight, you can't go back to flying! (NEW) Bullet deflection: The (arguably overpowered) bullet deflection system from Sonic 3 makes its way to Sonic 2 - Score Rush, especially protecting those characters with a moveset focused on aerial movement from a number of bullets coming on their way! Love the sheer power? Abuse of it at will! Don't like this much power, and prefer a more vanilla gameplay experience? Or do you just want to give yourself a handicap? You can revert all the way down to the original Sonic 2 experience by going to the settings! Keen eyes may have noticed I've mentioned "characters with a moveset focused on aerial movement", and, aside from Tails, who else would fit this requirement? Ray the Flying Squirrel? Charmy Bee? No way, it's naturally... Knuckles! Exactly, you can play the entirety of Sonic 2 - Score Rush as Knuckles, who's been fully integrated in the game and brings with him his moveset! Achieve EVEN MORE ridiculous combo chains by gliding and strategically clinging onto walls! Such diverse characters with such unique movesets, playstyles, and skill ceilings. Surely it would be unfair if they shared the same leaderboards. Well, lucky for you, there are... So many leaderboards! Three leaderboards, one for each character, times two difficulties, means six leaderboards for the Score Rush, and six more for the Endless Rush! And for you fans of the Quick Rush, one hell of a scoreboard to fill out! And, just like its predecessor, all of these leaderboards, among with your settings, are stored in SRAM, allowing the game to remember your best achievements. And, for those of you who can't play along with SRAM, you don't actually need it to enjoy Sonic 2 - Score Rush as it is! Of course, just bringing over the gimmicks from Sonic 1 - Score Rush to Sonic 2 with no modifications wouldn't make for an enjoyable experience, so here's a list of the most important changes: The invincibility is even more invincible! While you're invincible, the Score Rush timer will halt completely! Rack up points, or blast through the level with no worry of the ever looming, ever present score! This should make for interesting changes in routing! Sky Chase is banned! From Score Rush and Endless Rush, and it's because of an exploit that allows you to get hundreds of thousands of points. You can still play it in the Quick Rush, though! You can touch starposts in any order! No more touching starposts in a specific order to maximize points! Route things however you want! However, they just give you points now. No more checkpoints. Choose your direction in Chemical Plant! The tubes used to be timer based, but with the timer gone, new solutions had to be adopted. Hold up as you enter to take the upwards route. Don't hold up as you enter to not take the upwards route. No. More. Gambling. All slot machines in Casino Night have been changed into score dispensers. Speaking of, you can only use each individual dispenser once, getting booted out at a second attempt at getting free points. If you're a returning player, I hope you've been looking forward to play this installment of the Score Rush! If you're new around here, I hope I managed to get you interested in this hack! And, if you haven't, also check out Sonic 1 - Score Rush, available here! Spoiler: Credits Project Lead, Programming and Debugging: Giovanni Playtesters: BladeOfChaos DarkShamilKhan DashZick DaxKatter DeltaWooloo Inferno KGL MDTravis Scrap Sorra TomatoWave_0 (Tomatoes in game) yami Additional artwork: MDTravis CKDev MunchJrGames Slick-Nick (Slick Nick in game) thelilcoin Giovanni Additional sound: DeltaWooloo Giovanni Additional code: heyjoeway redhotsonic MoDule Esrael Neto flamewing MarkeyJester vladikcomper Selbi Puto MainMemory Devon Kilo Additional tools: MainMemory kirjava Promotional media: Froozex Special Thanks: Sonic Hacking Contest redhotsonic Sponsors: for sticking around back when I was making Sonic 1 - Score Rush, and for watching me make and test Sonic 2 - Score Rush RadiantNexus: a good chunk of their people went on to help out with the development and playtesting of Sonic 2 - Score Rush redhotsonic, Argick, NicoTB, Froozex: for their immense support back during the showcase by the Media Panel of Sonic 1 - Score Rush Monopattino, fuzzybit: for being some of my closest friends ever, and listening to me infodump about Sonic 2 - Score Rush TomatoWave_0, DeltaWooloo: for additional work that ended up being scrapped from the final release D.A. Garden (listed in game as DA Garden): for reporting some last minute errors before the SHC deadline SEGA Sonic Team EDIT: Version 1.0 has been recalled, in favor of version 1.0.1, which allows you to actually play the game without SRAM. A failsafe was put in place, but for some reason, it had stopped working. It's back with version 1.0.1. Save data from 1.0 is compatible.
Thank you for enjoying Sonic 2 - Score Rush! Here's one last surprise for you all. It's open source now. There are two branches in this repository: main features only the moveset changes, without the Score Rush. score-rush is version 1.0.1 of Sonic 2 - Score Rush. Parts of the new moves either come from Sonic 2: Community's Cut or MainMemory's Knuckles guide. Pretty much all of the code featured within is either mine or from public sources, like the guides. The disassembly's organization may not be up to par, especially when it comes to the code of the new characters. Feel free to reorganize it however you feel is best. Also, there's an unfinished port of DynPaletteTransition for Sonic 2 in here. I really only use it for the "GIOVANNI" splash screen, but if you can get it working, feel free to use it! I have only two conditions I expect you to follow, if you use this repository: Don't use the actual "GIOVANNI" logo. The splash screen's code is fair game, but the logo itself is mine, and I ask that you don't use it. If, for whatever reason, you want to make a "Sonic 3 - Score Rush" out of this, I'd love it if you reached out to me in private! Speaking of, don't expect a "Sonic 3 - Score Rush" from me, at least for the foreseeable future. I got burnt out from making Score Rush hacks, and I would like to get back to doing other stuff related to ROM hacking. I hope you understand. See you at SHC2023 with the exact same build as seen in this thread!
With the contest results out, I am pleased to say that Sonic 2 - Score Rush won awards at this year's Sonic Hacking Contest! Precisely, like its predecessor, it got awarded the Mania Trophy by the judges, for bringing some of the best concepts to the table while basing myself off of existing concepts. Things did not go as well with the Community Mania Trophy, which ended up being given to Hellfire Saga. Admittedly unexpected, as I was actually moreso anticipating CrazySonic CD snagging that specific trophy, but I can't say it's an undeserved win. Far from, actually, I much appreciate the competition, and I offer Red Miso Studios my biggest congratulations for the astoundingly amazing work that was put in their ROM hack. However, Score Rush pulled a strong enough fight to get an Honourable Mention, so I'd like to give my biggest thanks to those who voted for it: it's only thanks to you that I got this Honourable Mention, so it brings warmth to my heart to know people love the work I do! Might be a tad bit egotistical to claim, but the fact that I was able to bring something to the table that was capable of competing with some of this year's titans, even in just this one category, does bring me pride. Thank you all so much for playing. Like I said in the previous post, you won't see me pick up the idea of "Sonic 3 - Score Rush" for a good while, as I wish to focus on different things, like level design, the one thing I originally came to the scene for. Though, I much appreciate being able to do technical work on this level, and never in my eight years of stay in the scene I had expected this outcome from me. Hopefully, my future projects will be able to impress both you and myself, and you'll be looking forward to what I do. Thanks for sticking around!
