The Los Angeles press conference took place a few days later.
As a major city on the U.S. West Coast, Los Angeles naturally had a denser population than San Francisco, and the live audience was even larger.
However, a significant portion of the crowd consisted of players who had traveled all the way from San Francisco. Among them were Lin Dengwan and his girlfriend.
After the Mega Drive's explanation and some game promotions, Kobayashi Tetsu took the stage as promised. But this time, he wasn't alone; he had brought an assistant.
"This is the first time we've met for some of you, but for others, it might be the second. I'm delighted to see everyone here and thrilled to announce the news about Sonic the Hedgehog 2. But before we get to that, I'd like to issue a challenge—"
Lin Dengwan raised his hand.
"Me, me, me!"
Kobayashi Tetsu pointed randomly.
"Alright, it seems someone already knows what we're up to. In that case, let's have these players come up on stage. The challenge is simple: we'll only use one button for control. If you can make the character run fifty meters, you've cleared the stage."
Though some of the audience had come from San Francisco, most were local Los Angeles users who had no idea what was about to happen.
Soon, the screen split into a nine-panel grid, each showing a different player's gameplay.
The Los Angeles players gasped in collective disbelief.
What is this?! It looks so crude!
But even with such a primitive game, it was clear that clearing it wouldn't be easy. The players on stage racked their brains, struggling to make a breakthrough. The chibi-style Sonic soared and dipped between spikes, dodging the missiles chasing him from behind, but no one could break the fifty-meter mark.
How simple! someone thought. If it were me, I'd nail it in one go!
Soon, a new group of players took the stage.
One batch after another took their turn, and it quickly dawned on everyone:
This game isn't simple at all! It looked easy, but in reality, most players crashed before even reaching ten meters.
Meanwhile, Kobayashi Tetsu just stood there with a confident expression, microphone in hand, strolling through the crowd. He offered a few words of encouragement here and there, occasionally suggesting a tip or two—his composure was maddeningly frustrating to watch.
Suddenly, the front row of the audience erupted in a brief surge of excitement, but it was quickly suppressed.
Everyone tried their best to remain silent, fearing they would disturb the player.
Lin Dengwan, making his second attempt on stage, had already flown 40 meters.
Forty-one, forty-two—
The entire audience held their breath, striving to make no sound, terrified that the slightest movement would interfere with Lin Dengwan's run.
Forty-eight, forty-nine.
Kobayashi Tetsu stood with his arms crossed, a look of absolute certainty on his face as he watched Lin Dengwan.
Fifty.
The venue remained deathly silent.
When Lin Dengwan reached 56 meters, he finally made a mistake. In an attempt to dodge a missile landing behind him, he crashed into a water pipe.
"Oh!!!"
The audience seats were filled with disappointed groans.
What a shame!
The guy had already flown over fifty meters; he might have done even better!
At this moment, Kobayashi Tetsu picked up the microphone.
"This truly surprises me. I thought it would take at least until New York before anyone could pass the challenge."
"But first, congratulations to you, player, and to everyone who enthusiastically participated."
"And now..."
Kobayashi Tetsu took a deep breath, pausing deliberately to gauge the crowd's reaction. Just before someone could rush the stage and dump water on his head, he announced: "We now proudly present the Mega Drive's masterpiece! Sonic the Hedgehog 2!"
In the front row, four players—including Lin Dengwan, who had just taken his seat—raised their fists and cheered wildly.
Exactly, man! This is what we've been waiting for!
Kobayashi Tetsu tapped the screen, introducing the game's features one by one.
The graphics and sound effects had been completely upgraded, and the characters were more three-dimensional and detailed. Sonic's oversized sneakers were clearly visible.
Dr. Eggman, the antagonist from the first game, had been defeated, and a new second character was set to appear. However, this didn't mean Dr. Eggman was out of the picture—he would be returning.
Just as Mario was forever battling Bowser, Dr. Eggman would always be Sonic's arch-nemesis.
A collective sigh of satisfaction swept through the press conference.
Finally, they got what they had been waiting for!
A local player from Los Angeles raised his hand and asked Kobayashi Tetsu, "Excuse me, what's the name of this challenge mini-game?"
"It doesn't have a name. It's just a small challenge used for testing. But if you're asking for a name..."
Kobayashi Tetsu smiled. "FLAPPYSONIC."
FLAPPYSONIC.
The next day, the entertainment newspapers in Los Angeles ran the story.
The blue little monster that stirred hearts, the alien hedgehog, and the unique challenge at the press conference.
A challenge that only one person in the entire United States managed to complete!
FLAPPYSONIC!
There were even accompanying photos and videos.
Although the photos were extremely blurry at the time's resolution—so much so that Lin Dengwan's face couldn't even be seen—years later, all the players who had attended the press conference swore they had truly seen such a mini-game. They described it as highly difficult and utterly unique.
Yet, no one ever found a FLAPPYSONIC cartridge on the market, nor was there even a shred of related information.
The mini-game vanished into the depths of history as if it had never existed.
Over the years, countless people tried to uncover the truth, but all they ever found were scattered clues, poorly preserved videos, and fleeting mentions in old newspapers—mere hints that such a game had ever existed.
Without any physical proof, it became nothing more than an urban legend.
Until one day in the twenty-first century, a player uploaded a video online titled: "After Fourteen Years, I Finally Found the Legendary FLAPPYSONIC With the Help of a Buddy!"
The video exploded, instantly racking up over ten million views.
No one ever expected it.
The urban legend was real! The game had actually existed all along!
Of course, that was all a story for the distant future.
In the present, beyond this minor challenge, what players truly cared about was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and another Mega Drive launch title from Atlas: Metal Slug.
Sonic was a blast, but Metal Slug was an even bigger surprise!
At the final banquet after the press conference, Michael Katz raised his glass enthusiastically.
"President Kobayashi, I have to say, your ideas are sometimes pure genius. To pull together a game like this in just one day to keep the players occupied while we finalized the cartridge production... It looks so polished, you could practically release it as a standalone title."
Kobayashi Tetsu smiled. "We had no choice. The situation was critical, and we had to do something. So, I used assets from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to create a simple mini-game. It gave the players a glimpse of what was to come, and combined with the on-site dioramas and posters, it sent the message that the game existed—it was just temporarily unavailable. If we'd waited until New York to reveal it, the players would have gone wild. We had to show it in Los Angeles."
Michael Katz nodded deeply in admiration, but a question still lingered: "But how can you be sure anyone can actually beat the levels?"
"Oh, I wrote in a built-in difficulty adjustment. Just press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A," Kobayashi Tetsu explained, "and it'll activate. In Easy Mode, the enemies' missiles will steer clear of you, and the gaps in the pipes will be wider. You'd notice the difference if you played for a long time, but for a quick demo, most people wouldn't even feel it. I just gave the Easy Mode to a random player—someone's bound to make it past fifty meters."
Michael Katz stared in disbelief. Fuck! You can actually do that!
The honest Michael Katz was utterly stunned.
But...
A "simple little game"?
Michael Katz was too embarrassed to even say it.
This was no simple little game! He'd heard that plenty of players at the demo were driven nearly insane by it. Even today, he could still hear people on the street talking about FLAPPYSONIC!
"A shame I didn't experience the game's unique charm," Michael Katz said, forcing a casual smile. "I missed out on President Kobayashi's wildly imaginative creativity."
Kobayashi Tetsu shrugged. "It's just a little thing. If you like it, you can have it."
After all, he'd only hand-soldered five or six cartridges. Keeping them was pointless anyway; giving one to Michael Katz as a souvenir was good enough.
Gameplay mechanics cannot be copyrighted, so others would inevitably create games using the same mechanics in the future. That was fine; Kobayashi Tetsu had no power to stop them anyway. As long as there was no "FlappySonic," it was enough.
Michael Katz's expression immediately turned serious.
"Give it to me? No, forget it. You should give it to the players here instead."
Kobayashi Tetsu raised a finger in agreement.
"Then I'll give it to the players!"
It was certainly possible to create a very simple work like this game in a single day.
In 2013, a Vietnamese game developer released a game called Flappy Bird.
The player had only one button: jump.
The character would clumsily navigate through pipes, requiring the player to jump at the right moments to gain height or let the character fall to avoid obstacles and pass the level.
The game's download count quickly surpassed fifty million, becoming a viral hit in an era when smartphones were not yet ubiquitous, and earning its creator a million US dollars a month.
However, this type of gameplay was not new. In fact, back in the era of feature phones, games called "Helicopter," "Submarine," or similar names had already appeared, all featuring the exact same mechanics.
Kobayashi Tetsu had even played the built-in "Submarine" game on his Nokia swivel phone.
However, Flappy Bird was undoubtedly the most famous game of its kind to date.
Given the urgency of the situation, Kobayashi Tetsu had simply written this small game, using assets from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to simplify the visuals and calm the players' frustrations.
As for the "Ode to Joy," it was a complete accident. Naka Yuji had just grabbed a royalty-free track and turned it into an electronic synth version.
Who would have thought that playing "Ode to Joy" after a player died would become a stroke of genius?
After all, if a game looks easy, seems easy to play, but you still keep dying, then the only possible reason must be your own fault!
Besides, the game was playing "Ode to Joy" for everyone! What malicious intentions could a game playing "Ode to Joy" possibly have?
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