Has anyone tried this rom hack? I tried it for the first time today and it's pretty cool. It's Sonic 2 with playable Knuckles/Tikal and you have to find the pieces of emerald throughout the levels. Kinda a cool twist on 2D gameplay. It also allows you to change music of the levels to different music from other sonic games.

As an avid defender of the Emerald Hunt stages, I'm surprised I didn't hear of this one sooner.

Tried it out and yeah, it's pretty nice. The menus are pretty clean, the Tikal sprite is cute, setting the music selection to random makes repeat playthroughs more bearable, and there's even a ranking system.

Speaking of the ranking system...

THIS HACK IS BRUTAL!!!



I managed to get an A-rank on Emerald Hill after about 30-ish attempts and it really was by the skin on my teeth. It's almost comical how hard it is to A-rank a stage.

The game wants nothing but pure perfection when it comes to overall time and rings, and you might as well re-start the ROM if you get hit because you're not getting that A-rank otherwise. (Although it's cute that the "SEGA" voice line when booting up the game changes voices depending on if you've picked Knuckles or Tikal in your last playthrough).

And another obstacle is just the inherent jank with Knuckles in Sonic 2, like climbing often not working right, the reduced jump height making it really hard to hit enemies and secret walls you can run through are almost impossible to do so. Not to mention since you can't look around in a 3D world like the Adventure games, it takes a lot more memorizing to figure out where an emerald shard is since you can't see one off in the distance.

Best strategy I found was to path out a route with a lot of rings and hope the emerald shards spawn conveniently on the way and just praying I don't get hit anywhere on the way, as well as so the shards don't spawn too close together so you don't have time to gather that many rings.

It feels very different from how Emerald Hunt stages are in the Adventure games, where they're more free-form and about improvising your way to each emerald shard, whereas here since you're punished so hard for a single mistake, it does feel like a bit of luck since an emerald shard in a hard-to-reach place is a guaranteed lost A-rank.

I don't take this as a complete knock against the hack, by the way. I'm a big fan of difficult games that drive me to perfect them, just wish there was a little less luck involved, as well as a quick-restart feature so I don't have to reset the whole thing if I mess up. But even then it's still very well made and a welcome change in playstyle for a hack as well.

Agreed with all that you said, really. I like hacks that actually do stuff to the gameplay and/or levels that is more than just a sprite swap for the characters. I've been exploring more rom hacks just to see what is good out there and I really liked the way this one made you have to explore the level rather than just speeding through the quickest path you can find.

I played this hack years ago. It's well made overall. Perfectly playable, albeit rather difficult depending on the stage and where the game chooses to randomize the emerald shards, much like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.

The option to choose Knuckles or Tikal is interesting, and there's a nice selection of ported music tracks that you can choose which is probably my favorite thing about it oddly enough. I'm not really a big fan of the Emerald Hunt stages in SA1 or especially SA2 to begin with, but this hack does its job well as a 2D equivalent.

For fans looking for a unique feeling ROM hack made from one of the Sega Genesis titles, I'd say this is at least worth a look.

P.S. There is a sound effect you can find in the sound test labelled "sandwich" or something to that effect. Listening to the sound turns the game into a sandwich hunt by replacing every emerald shard with sandwiches, and replaces Knuckles' "SEGA!" voice clip with his infamous "OH NO" voice clip from Sonic Adventure.

(02-11-2025, 05:36 AM)PolarNight Wrote: I played this hack years ago. It's well made overall. Perfectly playable, albeit rather difficult depending on the stage and where the game chooses to randomize the emerald shards, much like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2.

The option to choose Knuckles or Tikal is interesting, and there's a nice selection of ported music tracks that you can choose which is probably my favorite thing about it oddly enough. I'm not really a big fan of the Emerald Hunt stages in SA1 or especially SA2 to begin with, but this hack does its job well as a 2D equivalent.

For fans looking for a unique feeling ROM hack made from one of the Sega Genesis titles, I'd say this is at least worth a look.

P.S. There is a sound effect you can find in the sound test labelled "sandwich" or something to that effect. Listening to the sound turns the game into a sandwich hunt by replacing every emerald shard with sandwiches, and replaces Knuckles' "SEGA!" voice clip with his infamous "OH NO" voice clip from Sonic Adventure.

Yes! I do love the ability to change the music to tracks that are different. I didn't love the emerald hunts in SA1/2 but I didn't hate them. I was more on the opinion that they were good just not something I'd want to play a whole game of.

This hack is cool because I like how it makes you HAVE to explore the level rather than given the option to pass up certain paths. It's unique and not just a sprite swap. I'll have to try that sound effect. That's pretty hilarious!