So I recently came across this map from this thread. Intruiguing, and suggests that if S3K were a Metroidvania, you might see direct connections between Angel Island & Marble Garden and Hydrocity & Lava Reef/Hidden Palace. But there seems to me to be just one area, the jungle(?)-like area right in the center of the island, that isn't represented by a zone - directly connected to Ice Cap, Launch Base, Marble Garden and Sandopolis. Has anyone else noticed this before, come up with any kind of theories to do with it, or possibly even toyed around with the idea in a hack?
Ha I always tried to imagine where every zone would be located on that island sprite. That's a pretty good theory. Though I believed Carnival City was actually a city nearby the island, as Knuckles was said to be the sole resident of the island in the manual. Or so I understood.
The jungle area in the center could just as easily be Angel Island if you went right to get to Hydrocity instead of left. Seems way more appropriate as a starting location, too- that little inlet is just a particularly inviting spot to land a plane.
I've been craving a Sonic Metroidvania for a while now. CD and 3K already planted the seeds: CD with its levels built for backtracking, and 3K with its seamlessly connected Acts and Zones.
So, did Knuckles build the pyramid, Marble Garden and stuff of the island or what? Except that this part seems higher than the stated there, therefore Sonic and Tails wouldn't be scraping (correct word missing?) the ocean when coming to it.
From the Sonic & Knuckles Japanese Manual. Might be worth a look. I'd have posted it directly, but apparently I'm not allowed to use the image extension on this board...
I think that map is wrong, I think Lava Reef is actually towards the left of that sandy area, rather than to the right, because of where the death egg ship landed in Sonic & Knuckles' title screen:
As I see in game and in that title screen, Death Egg lands just in the centre of the island, right rightwards the zenith of the mountain which will be Ice Cap. It doesn't let us se the whole mountain because of the perspective, but we surely cannot see the waterfalls of the left side. Then Lava Reef would be not on the right side of Sandopolis but behind it. Also, now thinking a bit more, Angel Island zone cannot be there because it would have been destroyed when DE crashed in there, but when we play as Knuckles we can see the whole zone standing there and not just a hold-right-to-win bowl hole. What still bothers me is where the hell is Knuckles's part of Sky Sanctuary where you can see the island. Unless it is yet another floating structure and not part of the island itself; or that it was at the beggining, but after a serious part collapses on Sonic's plot, it remains as a separated scructure and portals still work thankfuly.
I always figured Sky Sanctuary was like a ring around Angel Island to keep aircraft from just flying over to it. Evidently, whoever built it failed to consider something dropping from orbit onto it. The Master Emerald getting nicked also screwed it over and eventually it just got too weak to handle anything more than characters running around on it, collapsing when Mecha Sonic detonates on it and leaving Angel Island open for certain individuals to just fly on over and shatter/steal the Master Emerald.
To be honest, always viewed Angel Island as just having a simplified style that only puts hints as to whats to come in the actual game, if the island showed literally every single zone in the game, it'd be a huge clusterfuck to the eyes.
One thing I notice about Mr. Lange's edit is that it puts Flying Battery in the right place given the original zone order from before the game was split into two. I was a little confused at first because the blue line, which previously represented the levels in order they're played, now no longer makes sense (Death Egg before Sandopolis lol), but in pure geography that seems a lot cleaner.
I hardly edited the lines, just a quick edit mostly to show placements. Although I would place Sky Sanctuary more towards the right, possibly overlapping the Death Egg or center of the island, but didn't for clarity.
To be fair, it doesn't matter WHERE Flying Battery is. The clue's in the title - it can fly from wherever it needs to be on the map TO wherever it needs to be to leave it, while Sonic is running around trashing robots.
It does matter where it is in the level order, though - the final game's level order requires Carnival Night and Ice Cap to be adjacent, but with the Flying Battery inserted between them this is no longer the case; instead Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis must be adjacent.
I do wonder what the intended method of getting from Mushroom Valley to Sandopolis was. S3Complete has it so Sonic's blown into the air, was that based on anything in the data? I know Mushroom Valley and Sandopolis were listed in Sonic 3 alone, so...
I always figured the mountains in Carnival Nights background were the mountains seen at the beginning of Ice Cap 1, but that's just me. Mushroom Hill to Sandopolis is a head scratcher though.
I put Carnival Night at the base of the mountain seeing as your shot out of a cannon towards the caps of Ice Cap.