Sonic 2’s Hidden Palace Zone
The Hidden Palace Zone was supposed to be included in Sonic 2. But due to tight deadlines, the level was cut before the final product shipped. Since the level had been covered in game magazines leading up to Sonic 2’s release, some mistakenly thought that the Hidden Palace Zone was supposed to be a secret area, spending hours collecting Chaos Gems in the hopes of unlocking it.

But that never stopped fans from sharing the Sonic 2 that could’ve been. A copy of a beta ROM was stolen from the Sonic team at a 1992 toy fair in New York and it wasn’t long before the unfinished build with the incomplete Hidden Palace Zone made its way around the internet.

Sonic 2: Long Version, a fan-made version of Sonic 2, attempts to add in the missing levels featured in the prototype build. For more fan-made versions of games, be sure to check our Crazy ass ROM hacks feature.

Above: The beta build of Sonic 2 featuring the Hidden Palace Zone is a bit buggy. Area two starts you off in the middle of a wall of rocks

Shortchanging Sonic
The missing Hidden Palace Zone wasn’t the last time deadlines forced the Sonic team to cut content. According to game designer, Yuji Naka Sonic 3 was only half a game. “Sega management back then wanted the game out at a certain time and we only had half the stages done, so we had to put the leftovers into Sonic and Knuckles. So when you bought S&K and attached it to Sonic 3, you got the whole of what Sonic 3 was planned to have been,” said Naka in an interview with GameSpy. There you have it. If you want to play the real Sonic 3, try finishing Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles back to back.