Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Special thanks to Adiash73 for the idea from Sonic 1.

I've seen many nice guides to get this done, but an idea of how long to take per level hasn't really been shown on here, so I thought I'd throw it down, so that others can benefit:

Emerald Hill Zone 1- 34 seconds
Emerald Hill Zone 2- 68 seconds
Chemical Plant Zone 1- 30 seconds
Chemical Plant Zone 2- 89 seconds
Aquatic Ruin Zone 1- 41 seconds
Aquatic Ruin Zone 2- 85 seconds
Casino Night Zone 1- 46 seconds
Casino Night Zone 2- 106 seconds
Hill Top Zone 1- 81 seconds
Hill Top Zone 2- 105 seconds
Mystic Cave Zone 1- 56 seconds
Mystic Cave Zone 2- 72 seconds
Oil Ocean Zone 1- 139 seconds
Oil Ocean Zone 2- 135 seconds
Metropolis Zone 1- 116 seconds
Metropolis Zone 2- 122 seconds
Metropolis Zone 3- 211 seconds
Sky Chase Zone- 126 seconds
Wing Fortress Zone- 172 seconds
Death Egg Zone- 101 seconds

This totaled out to 1,935 seconds (32:15) leaving plenty of time leftover. Happy hunting.

I think the record for completing Sonic 2 is around 20 minutes - therefore doing this in under an hour is definitely possible and not as hard as it sounds.

The trick is to avoid distractions, only take out enemies that need to be taken out, keep enough rings to stay alive but don't go out of your way to get them and most of all - avoid the special stages!

It is also a wise idea to make use of the save anywhere feature - save after every level that you deem to be of a considerable time limit, maybe make use of all three save slots to make sure you don't need to revert back to a very old save or from the beginning.

If you are that paranoid about how long it's taken you, make a mental note of the time taken after each level and add them up in your head.

Also, you only need to do this as one of the characters - either Sonic or Tails (or Sonic and Tails together if you wish)

The best way to achieve this is to try to beat most of the levels in under 2 minutes.

If you get to the Metropolis Zone's and have beaten every level in 2 minutes or less you'll have 32 minutes to finish Metropolis Zone 1,2,3 Sky Chase, Wing Fortress and The Death Egg Zone.

Make liberal use of the save feature, save after every level or frustrating parts that you don't want to do again if you die. Also, make sure you save before each boss fight and if you don't have any rings, save after each hit.

Even the casual gamer should be able to get this achievement with a little persistence and a lot of smart save points.

The first video is a full achievement guide.
The second video is the quickest way to get through The Death Egg zone.

All the other solutions have good tips and videos to help you though but for those of you who want to keep track of what you have done more accurately than just a mental note or pen and paper, and want know exactly what you need to get on your remaining levels (so you don't have to go at breakneck speeds though the whole game and hope you did it fast enough) I made a spreadsheet to keep track and calculate what the bare minimum that needs to be done. (When I finish it will have my times on there for your reference) using simple math 1 hr = 60 min = 3600 seconds divide this by the number of levels (20) and you need to finish with an average time of 3:00 (180 seconds) in every level to meet your goal. Some you can do much less but if you always beat 3:00 you will get done in time. Note:There were a few levels I finished in upwards of around 3 minuets. This is OK as long as you even it out with some runs under 1:30. My spreadsheet should help you see if you can afford to keep your 3 minuet run or not.

General strategy its a good rule of thumb to use all 3 of your save slots for each level. I usually saved the top one at the levels title screen so I always had a 0:00 starting point for that level in case things went south. then take a short burst and get as far as you can in 20-30 seconds and save. If you think you can get farther then exit and reload your first save and try to beat your last time. Just keep "lunging" though the levels hard parts and alternate your saves in the 2nd and 3rd slots whenever you come to a safe area

I took the time to build this little spreadsheet to help pace myself but now you can use it too. simply put the time you completed the level in column C for the corresponding level and it will calculate the average time you need to complete each remaining level. so if you are really slow on one part but want to know how it will affect the rest of your run you can enter a high time or the time you got. The only annoying this is you have to enter the time in hh:mm:ss format so you have to type out 00:00:35 for a 35 second run. if you have any other questions just let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AglL6s3ynxQNdGR...

Here is what the blank sheet looks like:


Here is what it will look like as you go along and update with your times. Notice how the time remaining per level recalculates based on what you have done and what you need to do.


Final Run Times


As you can see with these times that really are not that hard to get. most were done with very little practice and on the first run

Final note: I'm not sure if the chaos emeralds count against your time but as there is no timer on those special stages its hard to tell. Also collecting 50 rings and finding the checkpoints takes away valuable time so unlike Sonic 1 I would suggest making this a separate run from your emerald hunting run.

Good Luck!!

x2i4eva and XxTime's solutions are great and their advice works.

I would just like to share these videos from youtube that gave me a rough idea of where to go in each stage as i wanted to knock out this achievement as well as this one at the same time:
Save often! But really milk it for all its worth at any time in a stage!

Beating the game in an hour is really not that tough, i would quickly watch the fastest route in the video and then try to copy. Even though i would fail most jumps and shortcuts i still managed to unlock the achievement despite some poor looking times. Main reason being was that i would save often and if i made any stupid mistakes i would instantly reload, especially if i had run out of rings too!

So realistically any deaths should mean an instant reload, bonus zones are always a no go during a speed run and any hits that knock Sonic/Tails down a floor or any mistakes that make you need to backtrack should also result in an instant reload!

When using the Save/Load dont be afraid to try out risky paths or shortcuts, obviously if it results in a fail you can just reload. In levels with lava or spike paths abuse the 2 or 3 seconds invinciblity you will have when damaged by possibly skipping swinging platforms or longer paths.

All together there are 20 Zones:

Emeral Hill Zone 1 & 2
Chemical Plant Zone 1 & 2
Aquatic Ruin Zone 1 & 2
Casino Night Zone 1 & 2
Hill Top Zone 1 & 2
Mystic Cave Zone 1 & 2
Oil Ocean Zone 1 & 2
Metropolis Zone 1, 2 & 3
Sky Chase Zone
Wing Fortress Zone
Death Egg Zone

As XxTime said you should easily be able to beat all the zones upto Metropolis withing 30 Mins, this leaves you plenty of time to finish the rest of the game with the time you have remaining.

Good luck.

(Credit to SpeedDemosArchiveSDA/Joe Stanski for the amazing videos)

here were my times, i just got this one today, and it was really easy. this guide should give you some room for error, i think its around 45 minutes. my suggestion is just to save as much as possible. hope this helps have fun!!!

:39, 1:12
:45, 2:05
:43, 2:07
1:39, 2:55
1:33, 2:15
1:26, 2:08
2:30, 3:00
2:39, 4:09, 4:27
2:09
4:57
1:56

Hello and welcome to my guide since all the videos in the above solutions are not available anymore i searched youtube and i found this one its very hard to copy the movement in the video you just need to memorize the best path you need to take and how to beat the bosses fast and save often to make things easier if you screwed up, enjoy