The quintessential Zone

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 3:45 pm

Rather than actually using a poll field, I thought, for this question, it'd be better to just post your nominations and explanations.

So, what's the best Zone ever, from any Sonic game? Your nomination can be based on anything at all about the stage: level design, visual design, you once had a blowjob while playing it, whatever.

My vote goes to Lava Reef. It is, as far as I'm concerned, the absolute pinnacle of Sonic level design. The balance between speed and platforming segments is ideal, and the BGM is, to this day, my favorite chunk of Sonic music. Even the name of the Zone is cool, "Lava Reef."

Honorable mentions would be the Metropolis Zone and Twinkle Park.

Spazz · Post by **Spazz** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:00 pm

Casino Night. Music and visuals, and just fun too goof around in.

I'll probably end up thinking of more later.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:56 pm

Oooh. Tough choice. There are three that come immediately to my mind. Hill Top Zone, Casino Night Zone, and Speed Highway. All of them effectively convey a different aspect of Sonic's overall experience.

The Hill Top Zone, with it's rising lava and see-saws definately seems to me the best example of Sonic in a traditional platforming enviroment. Spinning around and blasting out of caves before your hedgehog ass gets fried . . .

Casino Night totally gets the pinball aspect of Sonic - bouncing off of bumpers and springs, and into slot machines.

Finally, Speed Highway is Sonic's speed, the frantic run through a beautiful city full of enemies. With Sonic finally reaching daybreak and the peace of morning.

If I have to choose, I'm going to say Speed Highway - simply because it's the best representation of Sonic's overall experience and atmosphere.

But Casino Night and Hilltop will always remain special to me, too.

Interestingly enough, though it's the best of the series - I don't think any of the Zones in S3K work well on their own as a representative of the entire series. Instead, each Zone works better when shown alongside another - and don't really hold up well individually, in my opinion. It's like pointing to a certain layer of a lasanga and saying "Hey, that's the spot right there that makes it tasty".

Jaden · Post by **Jaden** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 5:23 pm

Marble Garden. Its just a fun place to mess around in... So many places just to go too... And I say one of the best boss fights... Another plus is the many gimmicks that are it, the zip rings are my favorite...

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 6:46 pm

I think Flying Battery was pretty cool despite it not doing anything that the series hadn't done before. Also I found myself playing Final Rush over and over again for no reason at all so I guess I liked that one quite a bit. I'm going to have to think about the absolute best zone though.

plasticwingsband · Post by **plasticwingsband** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:56 pm

Hill Top and Starlight Zone are my favorites.

aso · Post by **aso** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 8:34 pm

Spring Yard was great. Not only was the BGM oddly addictive to listen to, you could have a lot of fun springing around on the bumpers and taking one of any number of paths. I'm not quite sure why there's a city in the background, but meh.

Then there's Sonic's Lost World from Sonic Adventure. As soon as you fall in, you get into what is the best representation of ancient ruins the series has ever had. The music is one of the very best Sonic songs ever, and while the Snake bit is a complete and total chore, the rest of the level plays fairly well and is a lot of fun to get through, especially the 'Running from Rock' segment.

chriscaffee · Post by **chriscaffee** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 9:36 pm

My absolute favorite would have to be the Mystic Ruins. The place is great because you have Tails' workshop, Angel Island, the rain forest and access to Red Mountain, Lost World and Sky Deck, which are some of the finest of the 3D Sonic's. Sand Hill is pretty ace too, as is Ice Cap. Finally it is also the location of the all "3000 years ago" sequences which are integral to the story and interesting to explore. Lastly, it houses Metal Sonic and he's a bad ass.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:33 pm

I'll have to agree on Spring Yard. It also balances out platforming and speed like Gibbon mentioned about Lava Reef. Also the boss makes you plan ahead cause if you take to long to kill him you are fucked.

CE · Post by CE » Fri Aug 20, 2004 11:11 pm

I'm going to have to go with the Special Stages of 3D Blast for the Saturn. They combined the best sepcial stage concept (Sonic 2's half pipe) with sweet sweet polygonal graphics, a bit of platforming, and an overall coolness that has yet to be matched.

Special mention goes to Metal Harbor, Speed Highway, Sky Sanctuary, Lava Reef, Doomsday (assuming you never press the A, B, or C buttons), Casino Night, Star Light, and of course, Green Hill.

Dash · Post by **Dash** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:53 am

Gotta agree with Gibs: Lava Reef is the zone. No matter how much I think about it thats the conclusion I always come to. It's just so damn epic and flows with coolness(err, pardon the pun there).

Chaos Control · Post by **Chaos Control** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 9:10 am

Other than that Infernal Barrel (thanks, Green Gibbon!!), Carnival Night is my favorite zone.

#2 is a tie between Lava Reef(act 2, especially) and Casino Night.

WhoopA · Post by **WhoopA** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:11 pm

I'd have to go with Green Hill - the quintessential introduction and the first Sonic stage I played.

Owen Axel · Post by **Owen Axel** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 4:06 pm

Unoriginal though it sounds at this point, I really have to go with Lava Reef Zone. The design of the level is simply amazing. I just love the perfectly balanced diversity of platforming elements. Not to mention the looks and music of the level are a right damn pleasure to experience.

It also has S3&K basic design perk, in that you actually get the feeling that you're moving forward from one geographical location to another, with props and backgrounds changing as you progress, rather than just going from point A to point B on a course that's identical all over which is the case of the Advance levels.

It's also considerably larger than most Sonic levels, in that it fits a number of completely separate routes for Sonic and Knuckles respectively, with traps, enemies and obstacles adjusted to fit the play style of each character (something the Advance series never even bothered to consider).

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 9:53 pm

......maybe i was to young to appreciate it, but i dont see what the big deal is about lava reef zone. course, i havent played it in a while and i forgot the music....i dont really have a favorite level though, but i like the music in ice cap zone, and the sonic 2 special stages

Post by **G.Silver** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 4:06 am

My choice is Spring Yard as well. It's hard to beat the GHZ for being the icon of Sonicness, you can't really look at checkers the same way after that level, but Spring Yard represents, for me, the ideal level of sureality that I like from Sonic. I don't know that it represents all of Sonic that well, but for me that's where they hit the nail on the head.

I think Twinkle Park is definitly the best execution of 3D Sonic has seen, the inward-spiral design just works really well, and the level is really fun to explore and highly exploitable for those who like to find shortcuts (plus you can jump on the boats!), and you get a real feeling of progression playing it as it continually moves upwards towards the roofs. Most other levels (even ones that made a bigger initial impact, like Speed Highway or Sky Deck, or my personal favorite Red Mountain) just go from point to point, with no real tangible structure to them. I think GG! actually pointed this out on Gamiko and the significance of it hadn't really clicked. But even so, Sky Deck was the level that made me stop and realize just how crazy the game up to that point had been, so I think it really defines Sonic Adventure for me. SA2 and Heroes never pulled off anything that cool and crazy.

My outstanding memory of Metropolis Zone was the first time I got there and somehow managed to get myself caught in one of the chutes lined with bumpers on either side and somehow couldn't get myself out of them, I had totally no control and had to wait until the game timed out in order to keep playing. I don't like Metropolis Zone much at all.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:55 am

Spring Yard almost made my list. I think it's probably my favorite in terms of visual style because, yeah, it's just surreal cool. Especially for the era, I don't think anything like that had been done up to that time, especially not in platformers where it was always either "jungle level" or "snow level" or whatever. Then along comes Sonic and you get to Spring Yard and there's all these pinball bumpers and flippers and some dark city and purple mountains with orange clouds. I believe Pop mentioned this before, it takes everything you expect to see in a platformer and turns it around.

DarkPrime · Post by **DarkPrime** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:58 pm

Ice Cap. Sonic 3. Just wish there was a bit more o' the snowboarding bit. Of course, Sonic Adventure kinda settled that bit. Just wish there was a 2D equal to it.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 2:59 pm

I don't have an specific favorite zone, but I do have an fave one in each game (from the ones I've played):
Sonic 1- Starlight- -the first "city" level. Interesting background and wonderful BGM.
Sonic 2- Metropolis -for the same reasons as you all, plus the techno music.
Sonic 3- Hidrocity -it was the first time I've seen Sonic so fast (with all those chain connections that make him faster and faster and running over the water), and the music is awesome in act 2.
S&K- Sky Sanctuary -it has one of the best "cutscenes", and (playing with Knuckles) made Metal Sonic my favorite character in the series.
Sonic 3D- the volcano zone -nice music, nice locality and interesting enemies.
Sonic Adventure- Final Egg (with Sonic/Metal Sonic) -sorroundings are good enough, and the music kicks ass in mid-level.
Sonic Adventure 2- City Escape -I remember now. THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE! FROM ALL!! High speed parts, perfect background, challange in the right state, and the music...OH, THE MUSIC...

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:17 pm

The snowboarding was lame, if you jumped you'd miss like 15 or 20 rings. However I did like the rest of the level and it was excellent for a quick Hyper Sonic screw around run because you had 97 rings before you knew it.

Chaos Control · Post by **Chaos Control** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:12 pm

The snowboard thing rocked, even though I only saw it once.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 7:05 pm

Light Speed wrote:The snowboarding was lame, if you jumped you'd miss like 15 or 20 rings. However I did like the rest of the level and it was excellent for a quick Hyper Sonic screw around run because you had 97 rings before you knew it.

true, the snowboarding was lame. either go down a hill and get some rings, or jump and miss a few.....wow.......what they should have done was make it like a sonic 2 special stage or something.....

Nova · Post by **Nova** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:48 pm

Well I love the Ã¢â‚¬Å“casino themeÃ¢â‚¬ï¿¾ mixed with pinball we have in the first Genesis sonic games. And basically any level that makes you jump a lot even if you donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t want toÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Dunjohn · Post by **Dunjohn** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:41 pm

I have to say I can't stand Spring Yard. It was always my least fave Soic one level. It's too... orangey. And too... annoying. That tune is irritating; it even wrecked the credits medley. And the boss was so despairingly difficult he lamost wrecked my poor newbie mind all those years ago.

Other than all that, though, it's cool.

Mushroom Hill had EVERYTHING; speed, massive area, dangerous badniks, multiple paths no matter what character you played as. It'd be weeks before you knew every inch. And, once you did, you could show off by being super/hyper before ever seeing Robotnik.

Red Mountain (Knuckles): By the time Sonic Heroes rolled around, Sonic Team had utterly forgotten what "non-linear" meant. This level was good for the same reasons as Mushroom hill, but in three-dee! With flying. You could go anywhere you liked, and you'd probably find at least a rings monitor!

The two Tornado sections of SA were neat.

Metropolis also gets the nod. This level didn't try to beat you, it made you want to lie down and sob every time you lost a life. Fantastic.

Lakwren · Post by **Lakwren** » Mon Sep 20, 2004 6:30 am

I think Speed Highway was awesome, because you got to run around a helluvalot, and I loved the bit where sonic had to run down that building - the music kicked ass too. Another one would be Hill Top Zone. and the snowboarding bit in Ice Cap, I think it was called (SADX). I loved jumping really high on those ramps and getting to 'secret' areas.

City Escape was pretty good too, because when you jumped off a ramp, you would pull all sorts of cool tricks depending on how fast you would go. I didn't like the last bit where you had to run from GUN's truck, that was boring and just borrowing old concepts.