These sprites may be seen more clearly by pausing and pressing to advance one frame at a time. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, the player can press both and to cause the current character to quickly scroll through all his available sprites. This highlights foreground sprites and darkens background sprites.

Additionally, in this game and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, 'Night Mode' may be activated by holding while entering a level from level select. In Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic can enter object placement mode but Tails cannot. In Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic cannot die from spikes while Debug Mode is active, simply bouncing off them in his hurt animation until he is no longer touching them. Although each game's Debug Mode shares the same basic controls, there are also slight differences between each. Pressing will return to the title screen, holding will cause the game to run at half speed, and will advance the game by one frame. While Debug Mode is active, the player can perform certain actions while the game is paused.

However, some Zones allow the player to place objects that are not found in normal gameplay, such as scrapped enemies. These lists usually include the current Zone's Badniks, certain platforms, and other obstacles or scenery. Pressing will cycle through placeable objects, and while holding, pressing the button will cycle backwards through the list of objects. In Mega Drive and Sega CD games, the player may press to activate and deactivate object placement mode, which replaces the player character with an item that can be freely moved around the stage with and placed by pressing. Generally, the HUD changes to show the player's coordinates in place of the score counter. Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic Mania each have a Debug Mode that activates the same basic set of features.

Sonic 1 debug mode