This mod is an attempt to recreate Hidden Palace Zone, a legendary scrapped zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Sega Genesis.
If you were a kid or a teenager in 1992, do you remember seeing this level in magazine and video previews of Sonic 2, but then notice that once you bought the final game, it was nowhere to be found? There's a good reason for that- Like I said, it was scrapped. It was one of the first levels to be worked on, and it was one of the last scrapped levels to get the axe. And ever since it was scrapped, fans had wanted to play it, and as a result, Sega made a new zone under its name in Sonic 3K which was definitely NOT the same zone, the same in name only. But in the later 90's, a Canadian Sonic fan named Simon Wai leaked an early prototype of Sonic 2 which DID contain the level onto the Western internet after he found it on a Chinese GeoCities website.
Subsequently, an entire prototype game archival scene had developed, including the Sonic Retro wiki. Were it not for him, this level might never have truly seen the light of day outside of China.
After that, in 2013, some very well known Sonic ROM hackers were hired by Sega to make mobile ports of some of their classic Sonic games, under the engine they created (The Retro engine) and in their port of Sonic 2, Hidden Palace Zone was finished and rose from its grave, and it was entered by jumping into the massive, inescapable pit in Mystic Cave Zone Act 2, which contained nothing but spikes in every other version of the game prior. The Retro engine was later used for Sonic Mania.
The mod adds the Hidden Palace Zone dimension, several mobs, and many blocks. I'm currently working on the mobs and making some structures for the map.
Credits for assets:
Non-custom/edited Sounds, sprites, block and mob textures: Sonic Team and Sega.
BGMs: Masato Nakamura
Credits for record music:
FFMusicDJ - Hidden Palace Future
Masato Nakamura - Mystic Cave Zone 2 Player, Hidden Palace Cutscene demo
WARNING: MOB SPAWNING IS STILL A PROBLEM, BUT MIGHT POSSIBLY BE PLAYABLE IN SURVIVAL! PLAY IN CREATIVE MODE (ON EASY, NORMAL OR HARD), OR PEACEFUL (ON SURVIVAL), OR YOU WILL MIGHT BE SWARMED BY HOSTILE MOBS!