Surprisingly, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Game Gear is not a stripped down port of the original Genesis title. Rather, it is an all new game that lets the title character ride railcarts, fly on hang gliders, float in bubbles, and spin on flywheels. The running, jumping, spinning action will be very familiar to fans of the attitudinal hedgehog, but the levels, which consist of seven zones each composed of three acts, have new patterns to memorize. The small Game Gear screen causes too many blind jumps and inadvertent crashes into obstacles, but the speed of the game and the graphical detail are impressive given the limitations of the platform. One disappointment with this fun, but overly easy game is that Tails is not a playable character -- he must be rescued from Dr. Robotnik.