Sonic 2 Beta - Hidden Palace Zone

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Hidden Palace Zone is the final scrapped level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It is an unique underground zone with water, featuring sparkling gems, batflaps and dinosaur badniks. Hidden Palace Zone is perhaps the most infamous of the scrapped Sonic 2 levels due to its widespread appearance in gaming media before the game was released.

Hidden Palace is a colourful affair with ground made of golden crystals, straight gold platforms for surfaces, and crystal pillars of green, purple and gold, complete with glowing circles. The background is made up of rows of more purple and blue crystal rocks and through them are beautiful waterfalls cascading down throughout this jewel encrusted cave. The structure is fairly enclosed, with tunnels and passageways, and the ground is very step-based. There's water looming along the bottom of the level, long, twisting green pipes to add speed, and check out those cool green bridges, which light up as Sonic walks over them.

Hidden Palace was removed but not forgotten. The name was recycled in Sonic & Knuckles for use in an unrelated level, and some of the background art was re-used in Sonic Spinball's Toxic Caves. Some elements like the glowing bridges and spheres were used later in Sonic 3's IceCap Zone as well.

Here ends my Sonic 2 Beta run. Thanks for watching folks.

[zekeram]

In response to the description, S3&K Hidden Palace and S2 Hidden Palace have more in common than you might think. Hidden Palace S2 was originally going to be where you're sent when you collect all 7 Chaos Emeralds, and you had to complete it to unlock Super Sonic. Sonic 3&K's Hidden Palace Zone was not only where the Master Emerald resides (Don't forget that the Master Emerald is like the Chaos Emeralds' boss), but if you have the full Sonic 3 & Knuckles assembled, it's also where you're sent through the rings if you have all the Chaos Emeralds, where you must unlock the Super Emeralds to unlock Hyper Sonic. Sound familiar?

[zzrnltf]

This level is so beautiful, the background, the design, the music, EVERYTHING! Such a shame this was scrapped :(

[tonys]

Man imagine how much the dynamic of the Chaos Emeralds would've changed in future Sonic games if this stage was completed. Instead of them just granting super powers instantly, they instead act like these macguffins that transport you to this mystic cave where you obtain the powers there

[Metalders]

I find it unfair for them to scrap a level and leave its song in the game's memory. I remember I played all of the songs in the option menu and the only one I didn't know where it was from was this one. :-(

[kirakiraboshi]

Is it weird that I watch this video daily because I love the music?

[jesuschrist.official]

A fact: That was about to be used when you collect the 7 chaos emeralds after the special stages, to be Super Sonic. It's a shame that all the hard work and effort on that level has gone to waste

[mrmeme]

This is the only beta stage that got saved from being forgotten forever

[scribble]

They could keep hilltop zone but not this? Hidden Palace was the most polished of all the scrapped levels. Leaving its soundtrack behind was a tease.

[pimps]

I would've loved playing this level; I love the background music, the underwater stuff and...that's about it.

[AndyHappyGuy]

HIDDEN PALACE ZONE

Hidden Palace Zone is a scrapped level from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It is an underground zone with purple water, featuring sparkling gems and dinosaur-esque badniks. Hidden Palace Zone is perhaps the most infamous of the scrapped Sonic 2 levels due to its widespread appearance in gaming media before the game was released. The majority of the art in the level was created by Craig Stitt.

Hidden Palace Zone was never completed for the original release; however, a good portion of the first act is playable in the Sonic 2 Nick Arcade prototype and the Sonic 2 Simon Wai prototype. It was one of the first levels to be worked on, however progress stopped early during production. It was nevertheless kept in the game throughout most of Sonic 2's development cycle, with its removal being a last minute decision. This is contrary to Wood Zone and Genocide City Zone, which, culled much sooner, were largely kept a secret.

Notable features of Hidden Palace include green bridges which glow if Sonic or Tails walk on them. This is actually the same object as the bridge in Emerald Hill Zone, but is set to glow if the level number is that of Hidden Palace's. Also featured is a large ramp towards the end of the level, whose collision means it cannot be climbed without positioning Sonic on it with debug mode. Moving up this ramp will lead to the top of the screen, however using debug mode again will show that it continues at the bottom of the level, leading to a bridge covered in waterfalls and inevitably a platform to nowhere.

Unlike other scrapped levels in Sonic 2, Hidden Palace Zone still remains in a corrupted form on the final version of the cartridge, though can only be accessed through game enhancers such as Game Genie. The level plays the unused track 10 in the final game, but opted for the Mystic Cave Zone 2-player music track in the Simon Wai prototype. A second act can also be accessed, but it is a barren version of the first act in all versions of the game. The zone has an icon, intended for the level select screen, but is never seen in normal play. Oddly, it does appear in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 however, as this game recycles Sonic 2's level select with minimal alterations.

An interview with Yuji Naka revealed that Hidden Palace Zone was originally intended to be a level where the player would be warped to after collecting the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Once there, they would receive the power to morph into Super Sonic. The idea was ultimately killed and the ability was given to the player immediately.[1] Craig Stitt, in an interview with ICEknight, mentioned that Hidden Palace Zone started as two acts but then switched to a single act before being canceled.[2]

Many parts of the level were once grounds for debate, such as the so called "Master Emerald" which blocks a pipe. In actuality, this was meant to be just a breakable object similar to the ones found in Hill Top Zone and Chemical Plant Zone.[2] The Tails 1-up monitor was once thought to be a sign that the level was a Tails-exclusive zone, though we now know it exists due to object subtype changes, as the monitors in this Zone seem to have been placed with the subtypes from the original Sonic the Hedgehog in mind.

Some hacks, like Sonic 2 Delta and Sonic 2 Long Version, have attempted to restore the level using the graphics from the prototype version and level map and object data from the graphic-less version in the final release.

Hidden Palace was removed but not forgotten. The name was recycled in Sonic & Knuckles for use in an unrelated level, and some of the background art was re-used in Sonic Spinball's Toxic Caves, also designed by Craig Stitt. Some elements like the glowing bridges and spheres in the background were used later in Sonic 3's IceCap Zone as well. The zone was finally restored 21 years later, as a single-act level in the 2013 remake of Sonic 2.

The Sonic the Hedgehog 2 remake for mobile platforms adds Hidden Palace Zone as a bonus single-Act Zone, courtesy of Taxman and Stealth from Sonic Retro who worked on the project. Uniquely, this level is not encountered in the normal level progression; instead, it is a secret Zone whose entrance is hidden in an existing stage. The Zone's entrance is located in Act 2 of Mystic Cave Zone, replacing what was previously an inescapable pit of spikes. In this version, jumping into the pit will instead initiate the transition to Hidden Palace Zone.

The level has been completely reworked based on the original assets and sprites seen in the Sonic 2 prototypes. This version of the level uses a brand-new level layout created from scratch, though some areas intentionally share similarities with the layout seen in prototype versions of the original game. The music used for this zone is the 2-Player music for Mystic Cave, as was seen in the Simon Wai prototype. New gimmicks have been added for this version of the stage, including water pipes which blast you through tubes, and ziplines which thrust you upward using the slanted shafts seen in the prototype layout. The curved water slide now functions as intended, and the large Emeralds are now breakable objects concealing springs. The Redz, BBat, and Stegway (formerly Stego) badniks are fully functional and present throughout the stage. Redz now behaves differently to the original scrapped version; in addtion to simply walking back and forth, it now stops occasionally to breathe a stream of fire from its mouth. In addition, an all-new badnik exclusive to this version of the game, Jellygnite, inhabits the underwater sections of this level.

Also exclusive to this version of the game is the boss of this stage, Brass Eggman. Eggman pilots an Eggmobile with a gigantic trombone attachment, which emits loud blasts of noise that cause rockfalls from above. He also drops large bombs into the water, which will explode creating a brief vertical jet of water. If the water jet hits the player, they will take damage; however, if the jet instead hits Eggman, it will briefly disable his Eggmobile and he'll fall to the ground, allowing the player to damage him with a Spin Attack.

As of version 3.0.9, the original version of the stage, as seen in prototype versions of the original game, can be accessed through a code on the stage select menu. After entering the debug mode cheat, playing the sounds 03, 03, 03, 0B, 10, 10, 10, 04 and selecting "Hidden Palace" will take the player to the Proto Palace Zone, which is Hidden Palace's original layout as seen in the Simon Wai prototype. Unlike its revised counterpart, this version of the stage uses Track #10 as its default background music. The single giant emerald present has a unique behaviour only seen in this version of the stage, acting as a warp which takes the player back to the stage select.


Credits: Sonic Retro

[ScreenBlaster]

I hope they include this stage in Sonic Mania, it looks so good, it's a shame it was scrapped from the original Sonic 2.

[ConejoZing]

For a Stalker and a porcupine there is a Hidden Palace ZONE. It is indeed hidden, full of nostalgic sadness and a sense of awe, far beyond the Ocean Palace.
Purple and Green eye stones dominate the sparse design.

[roachaximus]

Honestly if space was an issue, oil ocean zone we could have done without. Or hilltop zone. Id trade in either of those for this one.

[neux]

I always thought I had to do some Pokegod-level tasks like beat the game 10 times in a row or something to find out what the track was used for. But I'm glad they left it in, it's one of the best tracks among many others to listen to hours on end.

[woofle]

this level actually still exists i remember when I downloaded sonic 2 in my tablet (samsung) while I was playing mystic cave i fell by accident i thought I was gonna die but instead I fell into hidden palace and I got to the boss with robotnik I didn't defeat him because I never knew about that boss so I lost all my lifes but I did realize that in order to hit him you have to make the big bomb explode on the same position robotnik is in

[amarioguy]

In the 2013 remake, Hidden Palace is where you warp to after you go down the "no escape" spike pit. In recent updates, the Proto Palace Zone was added which is what the Genesis level was supposed to be, without the garbled mess. Completion of both will take you to Oil Ocean

[SoS]

I was playing sonic 2 on mobile I discovered this level by accident, I was just speeding through mystic cave zone until I accidentally fell in a hole and I screamed irl but I kept falling and I end up in hidden palace zone, I'm still mind blown lmfao I didn't know this level existed

[coltonk.]

Replacing THE PIT with this level is to this day the best surprise I've ever found in a game. Thanks, Taxman!!

[enessan]

Currently, Hidden Palace Zone is now in Sonic 2(2013) and is accessed through Mystic Cave Zone Act 2's infamous spike pit with the spikes now removed. If you go through it, you'll be taken to it and hear the Mystic Cave Zone 2p music.

[bronimdude]

This was a real stage, design and all. Stage 2 was a copy without assets. So this is a real stage