A friend suggested an interesting alternative to April Fools Day earlier; it involves posting a fact that you consider interesting with sources rather than making stuff up. I would like it if this took off so here's my fact:

Sonic 2 was originally going to have an elaborate time travel plot involving going back to the past, then going to a version of the present where Robotnik took over, going back to a version of the past where the island flooded and then going to the future ( https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Sonic_t.....e_Travel_Story ). This idea seems to have been scrapped by the time the Simon Wei prototype was made but there were theories about Dust Hill Zone being linked to Mystic Cave Zone due to the level with that name in the SW prototype using MC assets as well as Wood Zone using Metropolis Zone's music and containing an inactive conveyer belt which could only be seen via debug mode ( https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic.....Wai_prototype) ). While Cyber City contained no data in the SW prototype (and was missing in the Nick Arcade prototype which predated that), enough assets have been found to have a go at recreating it ( https://www.sonicstadium.org/articl.....nveiled-r1778/ ) and artist Brenda Cook has shown off some art for levels which didn't make it into the final game ( https://tcrf.net/Prerelease:Sonic_t.....Scrapped_Zones ). Oddly, the beta Hidden Palace screenshots, which look different to the version in the NA and SW prototypes, and the screenshot of the desert level were actually publicised in magazines with the latter being used in an advert ( https://sonic.fandom.com/wiki/Sand_.....r_Zone#Gallery ).