What is the best and worst classic sonic zones?

youtube.com/watch?v=H2OWC5Hosv8

Best: Lauch Base or Lava Reef rewards you the most consistently for being good by keep ing up the flow while still having some nice exploration.
Worst: Sky Chase/Wing Fortress, because a bad level is better than a boring level, and dear god do those levels put me to sleep.
Actually, how do you guys play sonic 2? It stops being fun after Casino night and every sexond I play I'm thinking "I could be playing S3&K right now". I haven't finished a sonic 2 play though since middle school.

>marble garden as the worst
cringe taste
marble garden is a blessing compared to 2nd half sonic cd zones
it also has a good theme
youtube.com/watch?v=hlZQs88r1m0

Sonic 2's level design quality kinda tanks in the later half of the time due to the game having a bit of a rushed development, so while the beginning of the game feels great, the second half takes a bit of getting used to, especially Metropolis Zone, as much as everyone has already said that before me. Though I actually don't mind Wing Fortress, it's almost like a proto flying battery, it's sky chase that puts me to sleep.

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Sky Sanctuary is a severely underrated top 5 at least. The worst, either Labryinth Zone in 1 or Sandopolis

>tfw wanted to see them expand on Sky Sanctuary to make it a full level instead of a one act venture to the death egg in Mania
Imagine how that place could have benefited from all those graphical touchups.

As a kid Wing Fortress scared the fucking shit out of me because I didn't want a Game Over and you could easily lose sight of the platforms in the background, but Sky Chase was incredibly non-threatening on how basic and easy it was

The music doesnt help

Best: Launch Base or Death Egg (S3&K)
Worst: Wacky Workbench or Metropolis
Fuck all the plebs who hate Marble Garden ITT. Fuck is wrong with you all?

Sky Chase is boring because it's a breather level after the fucking bullshit marathon that was Metropolis, but it has a great theme. Wing Fortress is a straight up great level. But you're right about Sonic 2 having a weak second half. Hill Top is pretty good, though.

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Sonic Mania 2 when?

If only Sega would tell us, user.
I don't get the hate for the level either, I used to not like it that much for the longest time, but finding the right paths made it a lot more enjoyable for me. I think the only part I truly hate are the spikeballs that tend to blindside you more times than not, and bubbles for being bubbles. Other than that, it's a nice level for me, especially the music.

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youtube.com/watch?v=e7nB-wNDDpw

>Play Sonic 1
>Expect Scrap Brain Zone Act 3
>Get Labyrinth Zone Act 4

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Pop Quiz:
fix Labyrinth Zone without removing it

Simple, make it more like Hydrocity.

Make it more horizontal instead of blocky, vertical, and shitty. Done.
Or what the other user said. Hydrocity is possibly the best water level in vidya history, so you can't go wrong with making it more like that.

Sonic 1 Best: Star Light
Worst: Labyrinth

Sonic 2 Best: Emerald Hill
Worst: Metropolis though I still love pretty much every zone

Sonic 3 Best: Hydrocity
Worst: Marble Garden

S&K Best: Death Egg
Worst: Sandopolis

Sonic Mania Best: Studiopolis
Worst: Uh, the Sky Chase sequence in Mirage Saloon I guess, because I would've loved to see a huge ass train level in a Sonic game

Best: Flying Battery
Worst: Labyrinth

icecap zone and city escape are 2 examples of perfect level design. Nothing has ever came close

i have clocked in way too many hours in sonic 2, so at this point i kind of know how i feel about each level. so im going to rate them best to worse based on enthusiasm doing the levels, like the initial feeling of the ACT 1 starting up and ripping through it

chemical plant > oil ocean > mystic caves >
wing fortress > metropolis > aquatic run >
emerald hill > casino night > hill top >>>>>
sky chase

it is weird seeing casino night so low, but thats kind of the vibe i get. i think a lot of this game is nostalgia too, cause when i play i get all sorts of feelings and sensations from the past

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Best: Hydrocity (learn 2 stay over the water fags)
Worst: Marble

>Ice Cap Zone
Unironically the weakest zone in S3. Fuck are you talking about? I sure love how missing the platforms drops you all the way to the bottom in that one section. You must also be a fan of the looping drops. The slingshots are also fucking cool, right? How about act 2's water death pits?

It has a great theme and aestshetic, we all know that, but it's not even close to perfectly designed. It's still good, like 7/10 good, but Hydrocity is the closest S3 gets to perfect level design.

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Indeed

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give the level an actual boss fight instead of some shit chase sequence pretending to be one, besides that labyrinth zone is as fine as it is.

spbp

>Sonic 1 Best: Star Light
Agreed. Also some of the greatest vidya music.

youtu.be/RVAzxhh_cB8

Ya'll hate it because you were shit at it as kids. Marble Zone and Scrap Brain Zone are harder.

Best/worst Sonic 1: Starlight zone/labyrinth (drowning gave me panic attacks)

best/worst sonic 2: chemical plant/mystic cave (fuck getting softlocked in the spike pit)

best/worst sonic 3K: ice cap/carnival (fuck that spinning barrel)

Less water.
And I'm not saying that because OMG ME DROWN DUH MUSIC IS SO SCARY!
I'm saying that because it slows you down and makes the stage a total slog to go through. Especially when combined with all the spikes and fireball in small cramped areas.

Starlight/Labyrinth

Aquatic Ruin/Oil Ocean

Lava Reef/Flying Battery

When they say marble garden, they probably mean marble zone. THAT makes more sense then marble garden zone being the worse.

sonic 1
best is starlight
worst is scrap brain

sonic 2
best is chemical plant
worst is aquatic ruin

sonic cd
best is quartz quadrant
worst is wacky workbench

sonic 3
best is launch base
worst is marble garden

sonic and knuckles
best is death egg
worst is sandopolis

sonic mania
best is press garden
worst is titanic monarch

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>Sonic 1
Best: Marble Zone
Worst: Labyrinth
Bestworst:Scrapbrain for that labyrinth part.
>Sonic 2
Best: Oil Ocean Zone
Worst: Metropolis Zone
>Sonic CD
Best:Wacky Workbench
Worst: Tidal Tempest
>Sonic 3
Best: Marble Garden
Worst: Hydrocity Zone
>Sonic&Knuckles:
Best: Sandopolis|
Worst: Mushroom Hill
>Mania
Best New Zone: Studiopolis
Best reused Zone: Flying Battery
Worst Zone: Titanic Monarch

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I used to like Chemical Plant, but the recent Sonic games (especially Forces) have made me come to despise it.

there are no bad zones

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based

That would've been a piss-off after Green Hill and Chemical Plant already got rerecycled from Generations. You're not wrong about how good it would have looked though. Maybe if they do Mania 2 and still have to reuse levels.

BEST: Collision Chaos
Best music, best gimmicks, best artstyle and colours, cute badniks. What's not to like?
WORST: Sandopolis
It's not even about the ghosts. It just goes on forever while feeling really samey, and the music drags. It's like a 2D Sonic Heroes level.

nice music tho

>Actually, how do you guys play sonic 2?
I usually stop playing at Sky Chase. I like Hill Top still, and Mystic Cave is pretty cool. Oil Ocean is meh and Metropolis kinda blows, but I'll usually still manage to finish it without just powering off the machine.

Metropolis act 3 is the worst of the lot, acts 1 and 2 are annoying just because of some obnoxious enemy placement. Also, if you're unlucky enough to have an earlier revision of the game, you can get stuck on the vertical spring shafts.

god, Sky Chase is so boring
and I'm not a fan of Wing Fortress either

Scrap Brain is honestly easier, largely because you're not dealing with the water physics while the spikes you're jumping over pop in and out like twice before you slowly make it over them.

I like Ice Cap. I forgot there was water in that level until I went through it with Knuckles a week ago, because you barely get to see it as Sonic. There's one annoying looping section that would be a lot less annoying if the game expected the player to spindash instead of being launched with a spring, but it's not even that bad. It's got come cool gimmicks, cool music, and has a good bit of platforming in it.

Carnival Night 2 is the weakest part of S3. It's long, there's a lot of water in it for some reason, and there's the barrel (which doesn't trip anyone up anymore, but it's still not a particularly well thought out gimmick). Did I mention it's long? Fucker is like 6-7 minutes until I reach the boss for me still. I'm looking up other people doing it (glitchless), and it's still a 5-6 minute level.

wait, what's wrong with Flying Battery

as nice as the music is, chemical plant zone always sucked for me
couldn't progress for shit

Flying Battery has shit music, bleh art design, and boring level design

ok i guess

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I hated TM the first time going through it, but I dunno, it's pretty cool. Not a fan of the gravity balls in act 2, and there's one bit in Act 1 where there's a massive section of moving ground where you can get crushed, but those are my only two major issues. It's a fairly long stage, but it's entertaining.

Chemical Plant fucked me up as a kid, but there's huge ways to skip all the dumb shit I'd mess up on way back when.

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I never got this
What's wrong with it besides the tops?

I dislike Marble Garden because I hate the spinning top things they force on you. They're just sluggish and not very fun to control. Music and art is nice, though.

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The level design is only boring in 3K, the Mania version is one of the most fun Sonic levels ever.

>Carnival Night 2 is the weakest part of S3
Strong candidate, admittedly. I think Act 1 makes up for it. Maybe my distaste for Ice Cap comes from how overrated it is. Half the answers here are calling it the best zone when it's just "alright". Extraordinarily good music goes a long way.
>wait, what's wrong with Flying Battery
He thinks Aquatic Ruin is the best Sonic 2 level. He's unwell. Also, he thinks the music's bad. He's unwell.

Best: Ice Cap in S3aK
Worst: Metropolis in S2, Lord only knows why Sega gave the worst zone THREE acts

There's an even better way to do that, my man.

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spike balls are annoying, tops are really fucking shit as a gimmick, I've walked into a crusher as it was opening (so, I shouldn't have even been able to fit in it) and gotten crushed like a dozen times, there's a lot of crushers
it has some cool shit, and when none of the above is on screen, it flows pretty well

but it's just annoying
also, that boss, especially as Tails alone (where you have to nudge the fucker with your ass), is fucking retarded

i don't know the best, but the worst is Wacky Workbench

Fuck me, that's cool. Learned something new.

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Not like it would have made playing it any less tedious, but act 3 was supposed to be Genocide City. they dropped the idea of giving the level it's own theming and assets and used the layout for Metropolis act 3 anyway.

Yeah, abusing physics is a wonderful hobby

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That's a shame, this would've been cool
youtu.be/S3PjyWdakFQ

I appreciate it not being piss easy though
It also has maybe the best exploration in the game
Even better yet, if you stop a little past those blocks at the beginning of that webm (right after that booster) and spindash jump left you'll end up on a secret path with a bunch of ring boxes and an invincibility that ends right at the boss

Glad you knew about that too.

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Sonic level design is really something else. My brain just doesn't completely have a grasp on how they do it.

Because Sonic is fast, he needs to have great big levels to traverse, but at the same time making big levels takes a lot of work, so they recycle a lot of assets and throughout any given level Sonic will do the same things a couple of times, what I don't understand is the FLOW of a Sonic level and how they figure out where to put all this stuff. A traditional 2D sidescroller is a lot more simple. Levels tend to just "go right" and there may be some platforms going up or pits that you drop down. This shit here is way more dynamic.

Here are more maps if you wanna check them out, post them in this thread.
soniccenter.org/maps/

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that ain't it chief, just an ancient rom hack before anyone knew shit about GCZ other than it's name.
what graphics were drawn for it got reused in The Machine level of Sonic Spinball by it's artist, Tom Payne (same reason there's reused Hidden Palace art in Toxic Caves).

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Labyrinth is ass but i love the music

The art and theme for MG is great. But for too long the level was the worst slog for me. Even after perfecting my runs it still has a horrible layout. Maybe it's not the worst design objectively, but it competes.

Wacky Workbench was also annoying af

more concept art for ya

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its actually amazing how linear this actually is
sure sometimes it might lead you back to the left, but its still the only way you can go, its just good use of space
The only actual branching paths seem to be Tails or Knuckles paths

Supposedly Evening Star is asking for 3D artists recently, but that could mean anything, really.

>Sonic 1
Best: Star Light
Worst: Labyrinth
>Sonic CD
Best: Stardust Speedway
Worst: Anyone who doesn't say Wacky Workbench is a liar
>Sonic 2
Best: Chemical Plant
Worst: Tie between Mystic Caves and Metropolis
>Sonic 3
Best: Launch Base, Hydrocity a very close second
Worst: Carnival Night
>S&K
Best: Death Egg
Worst: Sandopolis

Well its not that TMZ is bad, it's just compared to the other Sonicmania stages its not as good. Mostly since Sonicmania had a lot of great stages.

I love Wacky Workbench, its a fun vertical based stage. I especially love the aesthetic of the past version.

That's fair. My least favorite in Mania is Hydrocity, because it really doesn't understand what made it so fun in S3.

Best:
>star light
>mystic cave
>ice cap
>flying battery
>metallic madness

Worst:
>labyrinth
>sky chase
>carnival night
>sandopolis
>collision chaos

FUCK metropolis zone

FUCK those goddamn starfish, FUCK that fucking praying mantis with homing scythes, FUCK that arm extending crab with a microscopic hit box on its head but with a hurtbox extending well past there it’s claw is, fuck that yellow pad “elevator” that empties you out right in front of a mantis, and most of all, FUCK THE GODDAMN NUTS YOU HAVE TO REV UP

>Sonic 1
Best: Green Hill/Star Light
Worst: Labyrinth
>Sonic 2
Best: Mystic Cave
Worst: Metropolis
>Sonic 3&K
Best: Hydrocity (pronounced “hydro city” btw)
Worst: Sandopolis
>CD
Best: Stardust Speedway
Worst: Wacky Workbench
>Mania
Best: Metallic Madness (old), Press Garden (new)
Worst: Hydrocity (old), Mirage Saloon (new)

Titanic Monarch was an amazing last level. Mania overall was the most consistent in quality.

>FUCK that arm extending crab with a microscopic hit box on its head but with a hurtbox extending well past there it’s claw is
really, fuck this thing
the mantis is easy, and I'm numb to the starfish after all of these years

but those crabs have the dumbest fucking hitboxes

>no Sonic Mania maps
fuck

Got you covered, bro.
info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Mania/Maps

Not to mention probably the most consistently fast.
Once you know what you're doing in Mania, you'll rarely be going slow or stopping to wait for things.

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sonic mania was goty

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I spent pretty much all of fall and winter of 2017 enjoying it in and out. It was worth the wait.