Dear lord, please help us traverse through this post and make it entertaining for the readers and informative as well. Amen.
Mystic Cave Zone - Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Special Edition
Late in the lifespan of the Genesis/Mega Drive console, Sega released a peripheral called the 32X, an add-on that gave the machine added hardware capabilities, much like the Sega CD before it(albeit cartridge based).
When combined with the Sega CD, however, the Genesis 32X CD created a virtual powerhouse that ran such high quality games as Night Trap and Slam City with Scottie Pippen. But there was one other game that is as infamous as it is completely unknown.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Special Edition came to be as a result of Yuji Naka’s angered reaction to the upcoming Sonic X-treme. Aware that the terrible game would never beat Nintendo, Naka told his developers to just remake Sonic 2. By the time it was in development, Naka admitted to being sarcastic, but by then it was too late.
Among other changes to the game, Sonic 2: SE runs on a belief based engine, as in if you don’t believe such a game could exist, its quality deteriorates. It also includes a number of secrets, claiming to be “like goddamn JFK” and features a treasure trove of unlockable characters, ranging from Knuckles to Uncle Chuck to Tiara Boobowski to Fighty the Thompsons Gazelle.
It went more or less unknown for a decade until a Something Awful forums user named Doc Future(getting the game from his uncle who worked at Nintendo/Capcom) released a Let’s Play of it back in 2007.
This is the version of Mystic Cave Zone that played if you didn’t believe enough. Odds are you still don’t.