The GHZ Forum

Prior to the release of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team published a four part article on their website that chronicled their experiences in South America. Despite being the type of material that would have been ideal for padding out the extras for Sonic Adventure DX, Sega’s western departments never released the article. Thankfully, Hari Hari, websmaster of Act Select, recently produced a (rough) English translation.

The text is too lengthy to post on this forum, so I have uploaded it here. As one would expect, there’s a number of interesting observations to be made.

When designing the locations of Sonic Adventure, Sonic Team felt that Casino Night Zone was the best level of the Mega Drive games. Identifying that the zone had been inspired by their first hand experience of Las Vegas, the team decided that a trip to South America was essential if they wanted to maintain a similar degree of quality when reproducing the styles of the location for Sonic Adventure.

It’s been known for some time that Pachacamac and Tikal derive their names from locations in South America, but it seems that snake-like qualities of Chaos and the revamped Master Emerald shrine were also inspired by the team’s visit to the region.

When discussing Sonic Team’s motive for the trip, the article references the sun-filled spaces of South Island, which suggests that the Green Hill Zone may have also been based on real life location, but the wording of the reference isn’t very clear.

^_^

Did anybody go to a creepy "Sonic live-action movie" place upon hearing this?

I mean, what with this new knowledge, not to mention Uwe Boll still making movies, I almost feel the need to write out a script before he gets the chance.

Someone should really arrest Uwe Boll for making my eyes bleed.

I remember reading this article a long time ago, before SA was released. And by "reading" I really mean reading, in english, and understanding it, I just don't remember where it was though...

Damn. I surely understand what they felt. I went to the Tiahuanaco ruins in Bolivia in mid 2004. When you get there and see those buildings and calendars engraved with solar patterns and stuff you can't even begin to realize how the hell they knew about and start to think about it all it's like a punch to the stomach.

And then someone told me that what I saw was only 10% of it, and the other 90% was still buried.

Pois é... well, it could also have been made by aliens. You know, just like the pyramids in Egypt. Or Times Square.

Or...Uwe Boll.

No self-respecting alien race would make Uwe Boll.

Well, the trip certainly does explain the distinct exotic feel that was in the Mystic Ruins in SA. It also explains why Knuckles changed up the temple.

What it does not explain is why Perfect Chaos comes off as a liquid Godzilla.

Hey, Japanese people need their Gojira fix every now and then.