Hidden content

The remains of the scrapped level Hidden Palace Zone, found by hacking the final ROM of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Hidden content refers to content that is not documented in any instruction manuals nor seen in normal play. This can range from cheats that require the player to input hidden passwords or button sequences at certain points, Easter eggs programmed in by developers for clever players to find, debugging tools, or even unused code.

Often when a video game struggles to meet deadlines, planned features need to be scrapped before they're fully finished in order to get the rest of the game in stores by a certain date. However, in many circumstances the data is not removed from the game, instead simply being "turned off" and therefore is unable to be accessed through traditional means. Luckily, with the aid of modern technology we are able to take games apart and find these lost features.

This category documents all of these hidden tidbits found in prototype and final release versions of Sonic the Hedgehog games, be it unused graphics, music, or otherwise. This does not include content unlocked in normal play unless there is a hidden code to unlock it immediately.