Well here's some good news for those who do not want to use an emulator. Sonic 2 is available on Wii Virtual Console, PS3 Network, and XBox 360 Live.

I'm wondering if Sonic 2 was one of those games that had a true 'game over' in which you run out of continues have to start over from level 1. Not that the game is that difficult, but some of the later levels are challenging and if this is true we may have a long night on our hands!