3D Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Added Ring Keeper Mode To Keep It From Being “Unbeatable”

3D Sonic the Hedgehog, the Sega 3D Remaster Project’s port of the original Genesis game to the Nintendo 3DS, will be coming to the Nintendo eShop this week. In addition to stereoscopic 3D graphics, this version of the game also includes a Stage Select and Ring Keeper Mode to make the game more accessible to players. The Sega Blog shared an interview today with Yosuke Okunari, Sega Games Producer, and Naoki Horii, M2’s President, that discusses how the two features made it into the game.

Okunari stated that Sega and M2 like to include at least two new things in each Sega 3D Remaster Project title that weren’t in the original releases, aside from the 3D effects, and for 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 the Stage Select and Ring Keeper were added to make the game more accessible to both returning players and people enjoying it for the first time. Okunari stated, “The last boss battles against Mecha Sonic and Eggman Robot were so difficult, that even I, as a heavy gamer back then, lost to them countless times. Thus, instead of recreating an unbeatable game, we wanted to offer a more fun, casual game play, which was possible through Ring Keeper mode.”

In 3D Sonic the Hedgehog, the Ring Keeper mode allows a person to keep half of their rings if damaged by an enemy. Normally, Sonic loses all but one ring when hit. This allows him to keep half. Okunari also reminded people, “Another important thing to note is that Sonic will have ten rings when the game starts, so going against a boss shouldn’t be too bad even if you have to get hit a couple of times.”

The full 3D Sonic the Hedgehog 2 interview can be found at the Sega Blog and also discusses the effort needed to make Versus Mode and the Special Stages playable in the port. The game will be available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop on October 8.