View CommentsThe Short, Sad Life of Sonic 2 HD

Here is a news post about the fan community…Sonic 2 HD, an ambitious high definition Sonic 2 remake, has been canceled, just weeks after the Alpha release. For those of you who are not aware of this project, or its history, allow me to fill you in. The Sonic 2 HD project was started in early 2008, with a tech demo released later that year. Information poured out slowly for some time, with only some screenshots, a trailer, and some wallpaper being released over the years. March 27th of this year, however, saw the Alpha release of the game, a demo containing Emerald Hill zone. The game was initially well received, and the fans waited for more. However, the game was almost immediately cast into controversy. Right away, modders began to complain due to the restrictions in the code, prohibiting people from tinkering with the engine. As if that wasn’t enough, anti-virus software began to target it as a threat, which led to the REAL controversy. In early April it was reported that a dangerous keylogger (A trojan) was in the game, and the internet became alive with warnings to delete the demo and double check all secure data on their computer. Needless to say, this wasn’t good press for the Sonic 2 HD team. As it turned out, the keylogger wasn’t dangerous at all, it was used to store data relating to the game. However, in light of all the bad press, the team began to lose members. Allegedly, one of the members even took the code of the game with him, refusing to share it with the remaining team. That leads us to today, where the team officially announced that they were closing down the project. It should be noted, however, that they do claim that this decision was made months ago. I’s hard to deny, though, that this announcement could not have come at a worse time.

Four years, a lot of hype, and it ends in shambles. On a personal note, I hope that one day someone continues this project, and creates something truly wonderful. If you haven’t checked out the demo, you can download it from their official site,  as well as viewing some screenshots and getting some wallpaper. http://s2hd.com/

So, what do you think about the project? Are you sad it ended? Do you hope that this one day gets finished? What did you think about the demo?

Tyler