Donkey Kong 3 1/2

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY 3 1/2
=========================

I'm a fan of old video games and visit the local video game store everyday. I'm also friends with one of the Clerks who goes to pick up the stock of video games and I always ask for old NES and SNES games. One day, he said "Hey, have you heard of the Donkey Kong Country series?". With excitment on my face, I replied that I had, and he handed my a DKC3 box. Something was different: there was duck tape with a sharpied 1/2 after 3 so I said thanks and headed home. When I got home, I pulled my SNES out and started the game. It had a save file, which was strange for a game mint in the box. It was a single player file that was just started with 00:00 and 0% the name was DEMO.

I guessed it was just a tutorial file and played it. Dixie jumped off the cliff and swam onto Wrinkly's save cave. Wrinkly was just playing her Nintendo 64 and she said "Not even my favorite game can erase the horrid image in my head". Dixie just walked out with a worried face. I moved Dixie to Bazzar's and when I entered the level, Bazzar wasen't there and the Blue's beach hut theme played instead of the upbeat normal one. Dixie would simply leave at the command of any button. I moved on to Funky's Rentals and inside Funky said "Here's that bratty cousin of yours". Kiddy fell onto the floor screaming like he does when you die as him, then Funky said "Get out of my house". The screen then turned black and popped back on with Dixie, Kiddy and the motor boat at the island next to Funky's. I moved on to Lake Orangatanga and entered the first level called Boardwalk Battle. Oh good, a normal level name. Maybe all that was a glitch. I entered the level to find out it was a bridge level. The first thing I noticed was the music was the water theme and the Kobbles moved slower and looked depressed. When I jumped on a Kobble, they would have a lower pitched version of Kiddy's scream. Dixie and Kiddy had terrified expressons after the first Kobble was defeated.

I completed the level and moved to the first mill level called Deadly Neckties. In the level the camera didn't scroll but when Dixie reached the right edge of the screen she did the point and screem from DKC2 then the camera scrolled to find a Kobble swaying on a noose. There were also empty nooses that could be grabbed to make it through the level. At the end, there was the only real enemy in the whole level, which was a Kobble who would say "MEISTORE EHKZ" before saying "He is horrible! He abuses us more painfully then K.Rool could deliver!". Then he paused and sniffled then he sat down and said "Please end my hell!" when I walked into him he would stop me and say "Please" and this would make Dixie backtrack a few feet before he died normaly.

After the level was beaten I entered Wrinkly's and Wrinkly was gone. Dixie said "We should save; its the way she would have wanted it" before the the Save and Leave options appered. Back on the map I swam to Barnical's to find that he wasen't behind the counter. He was hanging himself at the center of the room with an anchor firmly tied to his chest. Once again, Dixie leaves using any button. I moved on to find the next level, which was called K.Rool Kell. It had K.Rool in a cell where he had broken an egg shell. He was just sitting in his cell and he said "Well, well, well, if it isn't those Moron Monkies". Dixie just left. Skidda's Row and Murky Mill were exactly the same except that Skidda's Row had a pile of dead, pale, icy Skidda's and Murky Mill had mouse traps with Sneeks crying and painfully struggling to escape them. Swanky's Sideshow was the same, but Swanky was gone and there was a big sign that said "OUT OF BUSINESS," Then I reached the Boss level, which was called Dead House.It was just a Mill corridoor with a lot of Kremling corpses laying on the floor and in piles. At the end, the cannon came out and shot Dixie all the way to Kastle Kaos, which was now called No One Has Seen. Terrified, I entered the level to find that the boss was a unused enemy from DKC2 named Mr.X he hovered around the room then would throw a kannonball that would be stuck in the ground with a Krook hook, then he would hover above it, I used Kiddy to crowbar the kannonball upwards into Mr.X the second it met his sprite the game faded black with Bleak's laugh. I wrote a jounal to remember parts of the game in case of it breaking or files getting corupted, if I ever find anything new I shall write it down.

* * *
["Deadly Neckties" is actually a pretty good level name. - Owner]

Sonic.exe

SONIC.EXE
=========

I'm a total Sonic the Hedgehog fan much like everyone else, I like the newer games, but I don't mind playing the classics. I don't think I've ever played glitchy or hacked games before, though I don't think I want to play any after the experience I had...

It started on a nice summer afternoon, I was playing Sonic Unleashed (I liked how you get to explore the towns in it) until I noticed, out of my peripheral vision, that the mailman had arrived and put something in my mailbox as usual and left. I paused my game to go see what I got in the mail...The only thing in the Mailbox was a CD case for computers and a note. I took it inside.

I looked at the note first and realized it was from my dear friend Kyle (Let's just call him that), whom I hadn't heard from in 2 weeks. I know that because I recognized his handwriting, though what was weird is how it looked; it looked badly written and scratchy and somewhat difficult to read, as if Kyle was having a hard time writing it down and did it in a hurry.

This is what he wrote...

/"Tom,/

/I can't take it anymore, I had to get rid of this thing somehow before it was too late, and I was hoping you'd do it for me. I can't do it, he 's after me, and if you don't destroy this CD, he'll come after you too, he's too fast for me..../

/Please Tom, destroy this god-forsaken disc before he comes after you too, it's too late for me./

/Destroy the disc, and you'll destroy him, but do it quick otherwise he'll catch you. Don't even play the game, it's what he wants, just destroy it./

/Please.../

/Kyle"/

Well, that was certainly weird. Even though Kyle IS my best friend and I haven't seen him in 2 weeks, I didn't do what he asked me. I didn't think that a simple gaming disc would do anything bad to him, after all it's just a game right? Boy, was I wrong about that....

ANYway, I looked at the disc and it looks like any ordinary computer CD-R disc, except it had black marker on it written "SONIC.EXE", and it was much unlike Kyle's handwriting, meaning that he must've gotten it from someone else, like a pawn shop or eBay. When I saw "SONIC" on the writing of the CD, I was actually excited and wanted to play it, since I'm a Sonic fan.

I went up to my room and turned on my computer and put the disc in and installed the game. When the title screen popped up I noticed that it was the first Sonic game, I was like "Awesome!" cuz like I said earlier I liked the classics. The first thing I noticed that was out of place was when I pressed start, there's was a split second when I saw the title image turned into something much different, something that I now consider horrifying, before cutting to black.

I remember what the image looked like in that split second before the game cut to black; The sky had darkened, the title emblem was rusted and ruined, the SEGA 1991 was now instead SEGA 666, and the water had turned red, like blood, except it looked hyper-realistic.

But the most freakiest thing that was in that split second frame was Sonic, his eyes were pitch black and bleeding with two glowing red dots staring RIGHT AT ME, and his smile had stretched wider up to the edge of his face. I was rather disturbed about that image when I saw it, though I figured that it was just a glitch and forgot about it. After it cut to black it stayed like that for about 10 seconds or so. And then another weird thing happened, the save file select from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 popped up, and I was like "WTF? What's this doing in the first Sonic game?", anyway, then I notice something off, the background was the dark cloudy sky of the Bad Stardust Speedway level from Sonic CD, and there were only three save files. The music was that creepy Caverns of Winter music from Earthbound, only it was extended and seemed to have been in reverse. And the image for the save file where you see a preview of the level you're on is just red static for all three files.

What freaked me out more was the character select, it showed only Tails, Knuckles and to my surprise, Dr. Robotnik! Now I was sure that something was up, I mean, how can you play as Robotnik in a classic Sonic game, for crying out loud?

That's when I realized that this wasn't a glitchy game, it was a hacked game.

Yeah it definitely looked hacked, it was really creepy, but as a smart gamer, I wasn't scared (or at least I tried not to be), I told myself that it was just a hacked game and there's nothing wrong with that. Anyways, shaking off the creeped out feeling I picked File 1 and chose Tails and when I selected and got started. the game froze for about 5 seconds and I heard a creepy pixelated laugh that sounded an awful lot like that Kefka guy from Final Fantasy before cutting to black.

The screen stayed black for about 10 seconds or more, then it showed the typical level title thing, except the simplistic shapes were different shades of red and the text showed only "HILL, ACT 1". The screen faded in and the level title vanished revealing Tails in the Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1, the music was different though, it sounded like a peaceful melody in reverse. Anyway I started playing and had Tails start running like you would in any of the classic Sonic games, what was odd was that as Tails was running along the level there was nothing but flat ground and a few trees for 5 minutes, that was when the peaceful music started to lower down into slow deep tones very slowly as I kept going.

I suddenly saw something and I stopped to see what it was; it was one of the small animals lying dead on the ground bleeding (That was when the music started to slow down), Tails had a shocked and saddened look on his face that I never saw him have before, so I had him move along, and he kept that worried look on his face. As he kept moving I saw more dead animals as Tails moved past them looking more and more worried as the music lowers and he moves past more dead animals, I was shocked to see how they all died, they looked like somebody killed them in rather gruesome ways; a squirrel was hanged on a tree with what appeared to be his entrails hanging out, a bunny had all four of his limbs torn off and a duck had his eyes gouged out and his throat slit. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw this massacre and apparently so did Tails. After a few more seconds there were no more animals and the music seemed to have stopped, I still kept Tails to continue.

After a minute passed after the music stopped, Tails was running up a hill and then he stopped, it wasn't until I saw why; Sonic was there on the other side of the screen with his back against Tails with his eyes closed. Tails looked happy to see Sonic but then his smile faltered, obviously noticing that Sonic wasn't responding to him, if not acting as if he was totally oblivious of Tails' presence. Tails walked slowly toward Sonic, and I noticed that I wasn't even moving my keyboard to make him move, so this had to have been a cutscene.

Suddenly I began to have a growing feel of dread as Tails walked closer to Sonic to get his attention, I felt that Tails was in danger and something bad was gonna happen. I heard faint static growing louder as Tails was but inches away from Sonic and stopped and stuck his hand out to touch him. That foreboding feeling in my gut was growing more stronger and I felt the urge to tell Tails to get away from Sonic as the static grew louder.

Suddenly in a split second I saw Sonic's eyes open and and they were black with those red glowing dots, just like that title image, thought there wasn't a smile. When that happened the screen turned black and the static sound was off.

It stayed black for about 7 seconds and then white text appeared forming a message, saying, "Hello. Do you want to play with me?"

At this point I was creeped out, I didn't want to continue with the game, but my curiosity got the better of me when I was taken to a different level with the level title now saying "HIDE AND SEEK".

This time I was in the Angel Island level from Sonic 3 and the it looked like everything was on fire.

Tails looked as though he was scared out of his wits this time. He actually looked at me and made frantic gestures to me as if he wanted to get out of the area he was in as fast as possible. I was starting to get freaked out by this...I mean Tails was actually breaking the forth wall, trying to tell me to get him out of there.

So I pressed down on the arrow key as hard as I could and made him run as fast as he could, a pixelated version of that creepy theme when you meet Shadow at the ARK as Robotnik from SA2 was playing as I made Tails trek through the desolate forest, trying to help him escape from whatever he was trying to run from.

Suddenly I heard that creepy laugh again...that awful, Kefka laugh...right after 10 seconds have passed as I helped Tails run through the forest, and then I started seeing flashes of Sonic popping everywhere on the screen, again with those black and red eyes.

The music changed to that suspenseful drowning jingle as I see Sonic behind Tails slowly gaining up on him FLYING; Sonic wasn't running, he was actually FLYING! The flying pose his sprite was making looked very similar to Metal Sonic's flying pose in Sonic CD, except it was just Sonic and he had the black and red eyes again, only

THIS time he had the most deranged looking grin on his face, he looked as though he was enjoying the torment he was giving the poor little fox as he gained up on him.

Suddenly when Tails tripped (another cutscene) the music stopped and Sonic vanished. Tails laid there and started crying for 15 seconds. The scene was rather upsetting to watch and I kinda teared up myself. But then Sonic appeared right in front of Tails and Tails looked up in horror.

Blood started to come down those blackened eyes of Sonic's as a grin slowly grew from his face as he looked down at the horrified fox, I could do nothing but watch.

Just in a split second Sonic lunged at Tails right before the screen went black, there was a loud screeching noise that only lasted 5 seconds. The text returned only this time it said "You're too slow, wanna try again?" and then that god-awful laugh came with it.

I was so shocked by what had happened...did Sonic murder Tails? No, he couldn't have....He and Tails are supposed to be best friends, right? Why did Sonic do that to him?

I shook the shock off as I was brought back to the character select, the save file that had Tails was different; Tails was no longer in the box itself but in the TV screen itself, which was flickering with that red static, Tails' expression scared me, his eyes were black and bleeding, his orange fur had gone black and he had an expression of anguish on his face, Trying to ignore it I picked Knuckles next.

The laugh came again and the screen cut to black again and stayed there for another 10 seconds, this time the level said "YOU CAN'T RUN".

I was really freaked out by now, I couldn't really tell if this was a glitch, or a hack, or some kinda sick twisted joke...or anything really. But despite my fear of what happened next, I kept playing.

The next level looked much different, it had the ground of the Scrap Brain zone, but the sky background looked like the main menu; it had the dark reddish cloudy sky. But it was the music that creeped me out the most: It sounded like Giygas' theme right after you beat Pokey in Eathbound. I also noticed that Knuckles looked afraid just like Tails did, though not as much, more rather he looked a little unnerved. He broke the forth wall just like Tails and looked as if he wasn't sure about going on, but I made him move anyway.

He ran down the straight pathway in this dark level, and as he did the screen started to flicker red static a couple times and then that maddening laugh came again.

Then after a few seconds of running I notice several bloodstains on the metallic ground, I felt a growing sense of fear again thinking something horrible is gonna happen to Knuckles. He looked nauseated walking down this bloodstained road, but I still kept him going.

Suddenly as Knuckles ran, Sonic appeared right in front of him with those black and red eyes and then red static appeared again, when the static vanished showing nothing but black screen with text saying "FOuNd YOu!", I was now scared, Sonic found Knuckles already?! What was going on?!

Anyway red static came again and then I was back to the level, Knuckles looked like he was panicking, and Sonic was nowhere to be found. And this time that high-pitched squealing from the Silent Hill 1's final boss was playing.

Was this some kinda boss battle with Sonic? I hoped to God it wasn't, honestly.

Suddenly Sonic appeared right behind Knuckles in what appeared to be pixelated black smoke, I made Knuckles turn and then punch Sonic, but Sonic vanished in black pixelated smoke before I could even land a hit, that terrible laugh went off again. Then Sonic appeared behind Knuckles again and then I made him punch again, and Sonic vanished again laughing. Knuckles was panicking even more, and even I felt like I was going crazy, Sonic was practically playing with us, he was playing a sick twisted little mind game with me and Knuckles...

Another cutscene played as Knuckled fell to his knees and clutched his head sobbing, I felt his agony, Sonic was actually driving us BOTH crazy.

And then in a split second Sonic lunged at Knuckles and the screen went black with another distorted screeching noise that lasted for at least 3 seconds.

Another text message appeared, "So many souls to play with, so little time...would you agree?"

What the hell...Just what is going on? I started to think Sonic was actually trying to talk to me through the game...But I was too scared to think that.

I was brought back to the main menu and this time the second file box had Knuckles in the TV screen, his red fur had darkened to a reddish gray, his dreadlocks were dripping with blood and his eyes were black and bleeding too, and he had a look of sadness on his face. I began to think that those are the actual characters trapped in those TV screens on the save files, but I couldn't believe it...I didn't wanna believe it....

So I shut off the game and took a break. I took a nap, wish I hadn't, 'cause I then began to have the most disturbing nightmare, I was in pitch black darkness, though I was under the light given off by a lamp that hung high above my head. I could hear the cries of Knuckles and Tails nearby. They were saying stuff like, "Help us..." and "Why did you give us to him?" and "Run away, before he gets you too..."

Their cries died out as I then heard Sonic laugh, his laugh...it sounded a lot like the distorted Kefka laugh.

"You're a lot fun to play with kid, just like your friend Kyle, though he didn't last long..."

I was scared and looking around for the source of the voice...

"Won't be long now until you join him and all my other friends..."

I saw him walking toward me, flickering in and out in several directions...

"You can't run now, kid. You're in my world now. Just like the others..."

When he grabbed me and I saw his bleeding black and red-eyed, grinning face, I woke up with a fright.

After a couples of hours I decided to continue playing the game. I dunno why, but I had to know, I had to figure out why this was happening...So I turned on the computer, turned on the game and selected Robotnik next.

I still thought that was wacky, playing as Robotnik, but anyway the level title appeared again and this time it said "...", which I found really freaky.

This time I was in some kind of hallway, didn't really look like it was from any of the classic Sonic games, though it has the pixelated style; the floor was shiny and checkered, the walls were a dark grayish purple with animated candlelights and a few dark bloodstains here and there, and there was a dark red curtain hanging above on the top part of the screen. Every 12 seconds or so that red curtain sways very slowly, but whenever you're playing the game you can barely see it move. The music was rather freaky, it sounded like a pixelated version of the Battle with the Red Queen song from American McGee's Alice , except it sounded just a tid bit off, like it was playing slowly, though it wasn't that really noticable.

Robotnik didn't look entirely nervous like Tails and Knuckles did, but he did have a susupicious look on his face as if he was just a bit paranoid. He did a little animation when I just left him standing, he turns his head to the left and then to thr right at least twice and then shrugs at me, as if he has no idea where he was or what was going on. Even though I was scared outta my mind about what was gonna happen, I had Robotnik continue onward. He did his usual running animation (You know, when you've beaten him at the end of a classic Sonic game and you chase him) as we continued going through the hallway.

Then I stop at a long flight of stairs leading downward, now I was nervous, even Robotnik seemed unsure of himself, though I pressed onward.

As I led Robotnik down the stairs, I noticed that the walls havew gotten darker and more reddish, the red torches are now an eerie blue. Then we landed onto another hallway, this one was longer than the last one (or at least it felt like it) and then we headed down another flight of stairs down, this one was much longer, took at least 1 full minute.

And then I heard that horrid Kefka laugh again and then the music slowly faded until it was quiet, as it did the walls turned more dark red and the torches were a black flame now.

When Robotnik landed onto the 3rd hallway, I noticed he now looked really creeped out, though he tried to hide it, I couldn't blame him, I was scared too.

* * *
[Well, that ended abruptly. This one's really famous, I suppose it must have been a pioneer of "hyper realistic blood and it was like this other game where___ and oh god I'm so scared". Hmm, should I give it a low rating for being so bland, or bump it up for apparently being original for a few minutes? Decisions, decisions.. I'm giving it a 2 because it looks like it deserves that. - Owner]

4 (unlicensed SNES cartridge)

4
=

I collect old video games; whether they're on the NES, the Genesis, the SNES, or even obscure things like the PC Engine. I visited a Pawn Shop in the city which was reputable for collectors of retro technology. While in there, I stumbled upon a game that was "given back" multiple times. The clerk gave me an SNES cartridge. It was oddly-shaped and colored, kind of like those unlicensed Bible games from Wisdom Tree. The cartridge was a very neon-ish yellow tint to it, and the label seemed to have been hand-drawn, albeit with good detail.

The name of the game was simply "4", and had an illustration of four colored blobs all next to one another. Thinking it was a generic platformer, I took it home to play. When I started the game up, I was surprised to find out that the language wasn't English. I couldn't match it with a part of the globe, but I would have to say it best matches Southeast Asian typography. The first level of the game was mildly eerie. It was a Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired game where you played as four different characters. The multi-char thing was a ripoff of Donkey Kong Country, as you had to break them from rusty cages. The level was urban-themed, and involved the player escaping from (what seemed to be) blob-thing catchers. All of the sounds in the game were either taken from other SNES games, or seemed to have been recorded. I noticed many low-quality voices, grunts, etc. Besides the characters, the enemies and objects were terribly-rendered and designed. Most of them were geometric shapes, or sprite edits from other games. I noticed that every time you killed an enemy, the Hell Knight scream from the original Doom played, and a sentence of text appeared on screen.

As creepy as it was, the red flags started to appear. Each time you "lost" a character, the scenery and sprites changed to become darker, and less colorful, until everything is black and white. As you progressed further in a level (regardless of how well you're doing), the scenery becomes gory, and somewhat psychedelic. The levels are all cliché. Urban, forest, clouds, snow, etc. In the middle of the game, it appears as if it's designed so that the player cannot progress, and continuously dies. When you lose all four characters, the screen becomes very dim, and to my shock, a low-quality scream, as well as unintelligible sentences BLAST at high volume, accompanied by pixelated, low-res images of generic gore pics; presumably from wars. The final picture shown was a pixelated image of an Asian family at a wedding. The dimmed background turns white, as a sentence appears on screen, and a voice speaks the unintelligible language.

I thought the game froze, but upon inspection, it wasn't. I turned up the volume way up. A low buzzing noise could be heard from the game, as the screen dimmed again. The Game Over screen was a close-up shot on the four main characters looking happy. The screen gets darker, line-by-line. Their faces get visibly sadder and sadder, as a generic "Wah wah wah" song comes on. The game did another buzzing sequence, prompting me to turn up the volume. Surprising me due to the noise and creepiness, a loud, long sound byte was played; which sounded like a man + woman arguing. This went on for a while, when it just stopped. The screen turned black, and in white text, three sentences appeared on screen. I tried turning the SNES off, but I couldn't. I took out the cartridge, and the image on the screen became distorted, as the upper half was white. Becoming genuinely scared, I pulled out the power cord, and re-plugged it.

I couldn't turn my SNES on. The whole "Corny horror movie" emotion overwhelmed me, so I took the game back to the pawn shop. The clerk didn't give me my (small amount of) money back, simply because he said he wouldn't know the cash value.

Goat Jump

GOAT JUMP
=========

Old video games tend to be a source of weird shit – PC titles, obviously, but even unlicensed cartridge games were fairly easy to do on a lark, as I’m sure some people remember first-hand and others have heard.

I like to collect these weird games when I can; most of them are just shiity shit made by mongoloids, but some are funny or even creepy. Take Goat Jump – I got it from a pawnshop owner that I know who knows I buy old games. I don’t know if Goat Jump is the actual name, because the original label has been peeled off and a small one affixed with just those two words.

Anyway, Goat Jump is an apparently unlicensed NES game. Pop it into your NES and it starts right up. There are no credits, no start screen, and no explanation. The graphics consist of a scrolling ranch/prairie with the player being a really shittily-rendered, small cowboy. The ‘goats’ don’t really look like goats, but I guess they don’t look like anything else, either. A makes you jump, while B doesn’t do anything. Pressing start will pause the game, where the screen is mostly filled with the word ‘STOP’ in white block letters; pressing select will make your character stop moving and a loud buzzing sound will play. The music is low-quality psuedo-western beeps. Walking into a goat causes the same buzz to emit as if you’d pressed select, and the screen switches to black with the word ‘LOSE’ filling the screen. The game has to be manually reset from there.

The gameplay consists of you jumping over goats. Your apparent reward for this is one point per goat, with the scroll speed and number of goats slowly increasing. Around the fifteen-minute mark, things start getting strange. The music is occasionally interrupted by loud beeps or scratching tones out of sync with the music. The goat sprites begin to become varied, with color errors and such; some are really just incoherent masses of colored pixels. Your cowboy sprite kind of flips back and forth, so it looks like he’s moonwalking. This gets steadily more severe, and the terrain is eventually effected, too, with gray sky, brown trees, and red pixels which I assume are supposed to be blood. By this point the music is incoherent screeching and beeping with no tune, your sprite is gliding along on his back, and the goat sprites are half-sunk into the terrain. You come to the end of your journey around the half-hour mark, where you enter your first and only building rendered shittily in gray brick. From there, your sprite glides into some sort of threshing machine or something and a shitty ‘scream’ plays; you get 100,000 points. A black screen with ‘YOU ONE’ [sic] pops up, with a really fucked-up goat sprite dancing below the words.

Again, the game has to be manually reset. Graphical and sound glitches appear earlier or randomly in subsequent playthroughs. Goats are replaced with your cowboy sprite laying on its back with ‘blood’ on it (and occasionally missing pieces). Randomly, your cowboy is replaced with a goat, and, bafflingly, a large boot.

Like I said, weird. I’ve never found any information on Goat Jump anywhere. I assume it was a joke or a personal project or something. What the fuck.

* * *
[I LOVE this one, can't fully explain why, but it's up there in my top faves. I must be the only one who loves this so much. FSR I recall another version where at the end, the cowboy simply glides and lands into a grave, the end. ??? - Owner]

Genocide City (Sonic the Hedgehog) (K. L. Simpson)

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: GENOCIDE CITY
(KI Simpson)
=================================
Deleted levels in video games have always been a source of fascination for gamers, and one of the best known examples of them is the four deleted zones in Sonic 2. Hidden Palace, Wood Zone, Dust Hill, and Genocide City are all listed on the level select screen of a publicly available Sonic 2 beta. Hidden Palace and Wood Zone can be partially played, and there is an old preview picture of what is believed to be Dust Hill.

Genocide City, however, is a mystery. Selecting it in the beta will simply load a blank screen where Sonic will instantly fall to his death. The lack of information and excessively threatening name have made this zone one of the biggest mysteries in gaming. Recently, I came across what was claimed to be a more complete beta of Sonic 2, which had all the missing zones intact and fully playable. I was skeptical that such a thing would exist, since most deleted levels are cut because they were never finished, but the download description claimed every zone had been completed, and removed for an unexplained reason.

I started playing the beta, aside from Tails not being present in gameplay (he was on the title screen), the game initially seemed identical to the final version. After completing Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, however, I ended up in Dust Hill. Dust Hill was pretty similar to the lone screenshot of it, a standard desert themed level. The oddly slow banjo music in the background was a little unsettling, but everything else felt just like a normal Sonic 2 zone.

The Robotnik boss was his standard vehicle with robotic arms holding six shooter guns, although they fired the standard energy bullets. After Dust Hill, I went through Aquatic Ruins, Casino Night, and Hill Top Zone with no differences from the ones in the final game. After Hill Top, I entered Wood Zone. Like Dust Hill, this fit in perfectly, with the exception of some odd textures on carved wood platforms, they looked almost like faces. The music had a tribal feel to it, Robotnik was fought on a few floating platforms above a spiked pit, he used an axe attachment to his vehicle to eliminate platforms and attack you.

In Mystic Cave Zone, I noticed the first difference from the final version besides the added levels: I collected the seventh Chaos Emerald in it, and didn't get any message about Super Sonic, just a "Sonic Got Them All!" message. I couldn't turn into Super Sonic either. After completing Oil Ocean, I went to Hidden Palace Zone. It was pretty much like the version in the well known beta, nothing unusual until I got to the end of the second act. Tails was tied to the Master Emerald, Robotnik was hovering above him, doing a laughing animation. Sonic turned into Super Sonic, and ran past the Master Emerald, grabbing Tails, right before Robotnik fired a gigantic beam at the emerald, shattering it. I got a message saying "Sonic Saved Tails!", and the screen faded. Metropolis Zone started, I could change into Super Sonic with 50 rings now, and Tails was following me. The rest of the game was just like the normal version, Genocide City Zone never showed up.

Confused about Genocide City's absence, I looked around online trying to find information about the version I had just played. I couldn't find anything, so I decided to try replaying the game without collecting the Chaos Emeralds.

Everything in the game was identical until I reached the end of Hidden Palace. Tails was still tied to the emerald, Robotnik was still above him. Sonic ran to the emerald to try and save Tails, but Robotnik fired an energy beam diagonally, knocking Sonic back. Robotnik fired his huge beam at the Master Emerald, hitting Tails this time. I heard a loud, high pitched shriek, which I guess was supposed to be a voice sample from Tails. When the beam went away, Tails and the Master Emerald were both gone without a trace. Robotnik did a laughing animation, and flew away. Sonic did an animation I had never seen before, where he fell to the ground and just lay there. The words "You Couldn't Save Him." appeared on the screen, and the level faded out.

The next zone, as I was expecting, was Genocide City. When it loaded, it was a blank screen, just like the well known beta. Sonic fell to the bottom, and died. I had 14 lives when I reached it, and this falling sequence repeated itself 13 times. When I was down to one life, though, the level finally loaded. The best way I can describe the graphics is a combination of Chemical Plant and Metropolis Zone, with many objects in the background on fire. The music seemed like a remix of the title screen music, but played with nothing but deep bass tones. There didn't seem to be any rings in the zone, so being down to my last life, I proceeded with caution. There didn't seem to be any enemies in the zone either, in their place were the sprites for the animals you free from badniks, lying on the ground, not moving.

More and more animals appeared as I went deeper into the level, soon the floors were covered with them. The only challenges in the level were some simple platforming sequences, had to jump over gaps in the floor that lead to a burning fire at the bottom of the screen. After going through what felt like a normal Sonic 2 level in length, I reached the goal sign. There was a small gap in the floor before the sign, after touching the sign instead of running to the right like he usually does, Sonic turned around and just looked in the direction of the gap for about 30 seconds. Then he ran into it, falling to his death.

I got the game over screen, I had forgotten that I had earned a couple continues earlier in the game. I selected the Yes continue option, but I heard an earsplitting buzzing noise, like games do when you choose a menu option you aren't allowed to. I tried a couple more times, but the game clearly wasn't going to let me continue. I finally chose no, and got a game over screen similar to the bad ending in Sonic 1. Except instead of juggling emeralds, Robotnik was juggling the bodies of the creatures you free from badniks. I had to reset the game to get away from that screen.

I was disturbed by what I had just seen, this certainly explained why Genocide City had been removed from the game, but I couldn't imagine what made Sega even consider doing something like this. Even though I had already played through the game and gotten the good ending, I felt like I had to do it again, that I couldn't leave the game the way my second playthrough had ended. So for the third time in one day, I started the Sonic 2 Beta.

The first oddity was the title screen. Tails was gone from it, Sonic didn't seem to notice, there was just a bit of empty space the circle both of them are coming out of. I started the game, and it seemed normal until I collected 50 rings and entered the first bonus stage. Instead of rings coming at me, wave after wave of bombs appeared. I dodged them for as long as I could, but finally got hit. Instead of doing his ring losing animation, the 3D Sonic model did a death animation, and the bonus stage ended. The results screen listed 0 for every stat, but the message at the top was different, in solid black text: "You Can't Bring Back The Dead."

Getting really scared at this point, I collected another 50 rings as quickly as I could, but the bonus stage I entered was identical, ending with the same message. I deleted the beta from my computer, and downloaded it again so I could get the good ending again. I nearly screamed when I saw the title screen without Tails on it, and as I feared I got the impossible bonus stage again. But this time the message was different when I lost:

"You Can't Reverse Your Mistakes."

I was terrified, and was clinging to the irrational belief that if I could just get the good ending again, everything would be better. I went on a different computer, downloaded the Beta, and got the same title screen. Acting on baseless instinct by this point, I went into the bonus stage again. The message this time:

"You Have To Accept Your Mistakes."

I deleted the beta from this computer as well. I realized that the computers were sharing an internet source, that there was a possibility this was some kind of trick or virus. I went to my trusty Genesis, took out the Sonic 2 cart I had had for 17 years. If I could just see Tails in it, I knew everything would be okay.

But I still haven't gotten up the courage to risk it. Every rational part of me knows the beta couldn't possibly affect my cartridge, but I'm too afraid, afraid of what will happen if I see the title screen without Tails in it. I dream about it every night, but I just know that it could get so much worse.

+ + +

It had been about two weeks since I had played the Sonic 2 beta, I had kept dreaming about it every night. The dreams were getting worse and worse, I was waking up from them covered in sweat, I couldn't get back to sleep, I was too tired to function during the day. I knew I had to try my Sonic 2 cart, it was the only way I could move past this. I was too afraid to try it by myself, however. I invited a friend over, and not wanting him to think I was crazy, I casually suggested playing Sonic 2. I turned on my Genesis, heard the familiar "SE-GA!" voice, and then the title screen came up. Tails wasn't in it, and I screamed at the top of my lungs.

My friend was understandably startled, and asked what the hell was wrong with me. Barely holding back tears, I blurted out the whole story in a barely coherent babble. When I was finished, my friend just stared at me for a few seconds, then spoke:

"What are you talking about? Tails was on the title screen, just like he always is."

I wasn't able to respond, somehow this made things seem even worse, now I wasn't even sure if it really was some kind of curse, or if I had just gone crazy. I sat in complete silence for a few minutes, my friend made up an excuse about having to be somewhere and left, I can't blame him. After the initial shock wore off, I tried actually playing the game. Tails wasn't there, and the bonus round was impossible. I got this message after losing:

"You Can't Run From Your Failures."

I had absolutely no idea what to do at this point. I considered checking myself into a mental institution, but that last message about running from my problems made me afraid to ignore the game. Thinking about the messages, I decided I only had one option, even if nothing good was likely to come of it: I had to play through the game again.

I decided to do the next playthrough on my Genesis, holding a controller, being in front of a TV, using a system from my childhood made me feel safer than playing the beta. Aside from the lack of Tails and bonus stages, the first two zones were completely normal. I wasn't surprised at this point when Dust Hill came up after Chemical Plant, but after going a few screens into it, I saw something new in the background: Tails, hanging from a noose on one of those old west style stands you see in Hangman games. This image would repeat itself in the background every few screens worth of scrolling. When I got to where I had fought the boss before, there was another image of Tails being hanged in the background, Robotnik wasn't in his special boss vehicle, just the generic Sonic 2 floating vehicle he makes his escapes on. He did a laughing animation, and flew away. There was no victory screen, it just faded out and went to Aquatic Ruins.

The zones that are in the final game were normal, but when I got to Wood Zone, there was another change. I had noticed textures in the wood that looked like faces on my first two playthroughs, but now they were much clearer: Tails' face, in a twisted scream. These were carved everywhere in the level, when I got to the boss the biggest carving yet was in the background. Again, Robotnik just did a laughing animation and left, causing the screen to fade out. Mystic Cave and Oil Ocean were normal, then I reached Hidden Palace. Hidden Palace had changed a lot more than Dust Hill and Wood Zone, there was no music at all, and no enemies either. I walked through two empty levels, until I reached the part where Robotnik had killed Tails. Nothing was there, not the Master Emerald, Tails, or Robotnik. Sonic went into his despair pose from when Tails had been killed, and stayed like that for about 30 seconds, until the screen faded out.

Genocide City started, and it to was very different. This time it was filled with enemies, demon shaped robots covered in fire. There was no way to kill them, and the level was still lacking rings. There were also lava spouts shooting up from the bottom of the screen, and fireballs falling from the sky. This was one of the hardest platforming levels I had ever played, but after several deaths I made it to the goal sign, which still had the floor gap next to it. I touched the sign, and this time I did the trick that lets you control Sonic during the end of level score tally. It worked, and Sonic didn't run into the pit. The victory message was in that familiar black text:

"It Won't Bring Him Back."

The screen faded, and Genocide City Act 2 appeared. The graphics were different here, the fire had burned out, replaced by ashes and soot covered ruins in the background. Again, there were no enemies, the corpses of the animals that became badniks had returned, but this time they were all laying in a pile of ash. Also like my first visit to the zone, the only obstacles were some small gaps in the floor, this time they looked like holes that had been burnt through it. I reached the end of the zone, Robotnik was in his vehicle, at the right end of the screen, about level with Sonic. He didn't move, so I attacked him. He made the usual flashing damage animation, so I kept doing it. After eight hits, he still hadn't reacted or been defeated, but the black text appeared again.

"What Do You Hope To Accomplish?"

Not sure what else to do, I kept attacking Robotnik. After a few more hits:

"Killing Him Won't Bring Your Friend Back."

I continued to attack Robotnik, the message changed every few hits. I'll post them in the order they appeared.

"You Let Him Die, That Will Never Change."

"Revenge Won't Soothe You Forever."

"Like The Past, He Is Lost Forever."

"You Can't Get Your Innocence Back."

"Your Enemy's Blood Can't Wash Away Your Mistakes."

"You Have No One To Blame But Yourself."

"Take Responsibility For Your Failure."

"You Are Attacking The Wrong Person."

After getting all these messages, I got an idea of what the game wanted me to do. Instead of jumping at Robotnik to attack him, I walked into him, causing Sonic to take damage and die. One final message came up:

"You Have Paid The Only Acceptable Price."

The game reset, and the title screen came up. This time Sonic wasn't there either, there was just an empty circle. I started the game, and the screen the common beta sends you to when you select Genocide City appeared. There was no timer, no Sonic falling to his death, nothing. I turned the system on and off and tried again, the same thing happened. I tried the beta on my computer, same thing, same screen. I tried another Sonic game, it was the same, everything in the series had erased him. I haven't tried to play a Sonic game in quite a while now, but I see that one screen every time I close my eyes.