Chemical Plant is the only one original out of those. Green Hill: A green hilly place. Ice Cap: Ummmm.... theres freaking ice caps everywhere. Mushroom Hill: A hilly place with mushrooms. Im all for original names, but the classics wernt always original with there names either.
If thats the case then my bad, lol. Simple fact is White Park and Green Hill both arnt really original names.
I'll just leave this here NiGHTS into Dreams... ~ NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Spring Valley ~ Pure Valley Splash Garden ~ Aqua Garden Mystic Forest ~ Memory Forest I wat'd
I don't mind White Park, nor do I mind any Color Place Zone names. Sylvania Castle is just weird though. Why not just call it... Forest Castle? That's not to say there hasn't been more weridly named zones.
THAT'S the only zone of which I am feeling odd about. After the explination of what Sylvania means im better with it, but I don't feel thats a Sonic zone due to the name.
Guys. Guys. Guys. Be familiar with your own goddamn planet. It's seriously ticking me off how narrow-minded people are. Hell, how is it we know about Apotos being Myokonos if we don't catch the even more obvious Transylvania pun?
From Wikipedia: Sylvania literally means "forest land" in Latin. The term can be used in a variety of contexts: It has nothing to do with Dracula land.
We did catch it. A while ago... Anyway, does anyone get the feeling they named it that simply because they were really trying to avoid using any "rehashed" names/words like 'hill' or 'forest'? Perhaps they were just trying hard to be unique, in case people are turned off by reused names. Personally though, I think Forest Castle Zone would have been fine. White Park seems cool too, though to avoid using a color, they could have used something like Frigid Park, or Snow Park etc.
Sonic Zone names aren;t exactly known for their originality historically, I think we've established this by now. =P For what it's worth, I don't think the ones we've heard of for 4 are that bad, albiet Sylvanian Families does keep springing to mind for Sylvania Castle...
Do you guys really want to get into the semantics of zone names? Alright, I'm game. Let's run down the S3&K zones. Angel Island - One of only three interesting zone names—then again, there is an island named Angel Island in San Fransisco Bay. Hydro City - It's an underwater city—therefore, Hydro City. Marble Garden - It's a garden with marble rock in place of normal sedimentary rock. Carnival Night - It's a carnival. At night! Ice Cap - Previously mentioned. Ice caps are a natural phenomenon. Launch Base - It's the base of the Death Egg's launch. Mushroom Hill - Also previously mentioned. A hilly landscape with giant mushrooms. Flying Battery - It's a battery-powered aircraft that's taken flight. Sandopolis - Portmanteau of sand and metropolis. Kinda creative, I guess. Lava Reef - It's a reef cave full of lava. (technically magma but SEMANTICS) Hidden Palace - It's a palace that's hidden. Sky Sanctuary - It's a sanctuary that's in the sky. Death Egg - Not even sure if this one counts, considering it was in Sonic 2 originally. But hey, being a pun on Death Star, it's still at least somewhat creative. Doomsday - Doomsday! Fate of the world and all. Zone names have rarely been "creative." I could seriously go on with examples from other games if I wanted to: Aquatic Ruin, Flame Core, Rusty Ruin, Windmile Isle, Collision Chaos... Yeah, I'm done.
Amen to that. No disrespect to anyone, but I cringe a little when I see the names of some fan-made zones. People are grasping for complicated, vocab-word stuff or bizarre juxtapositions. The best Sonic zones are interesting in themselves. The banal names become remarkable in retrospect because the level itself made an impression.
I'm pretty sure that you don't actually fall into a bottomless pit if you fall there. Because, surprise surprise, the Advance games had alternate paths. (EDIT: Not trying to imply the level design is as good as the Genesis games, but rather that it's better than some other commonly disparaged games in the series.) The various trick movements (forward/backward/up/down, the move you're seeing is the up-trick) are also in every level off any ramp or spring, and are actually extremely useful, and IMO add to the game rather than detract from it. Even if it is required in a few instances I'd expect the player at that point in the game to be aware of it. There is a reason that games come with manuals. Would you rather have Omochao there to drill it into your head?
I think that Sylvania Castle sounds pretty dumb, but so do a ton of Zone names. The fact is, they were named by people who are native English speakers, so words like Sylvania to them are just cooler-sounding ways of saying their synonyms.