Best and worst zones in the 2D games

Sonic 1-
Best: Greenhill (Its the level that started it all, plus I like the music)
Worst: Labyrinth (those spears are annoying)

Sonic 2-
Best: Chemical Plant zone (Watch me run past the screen!)
Worst: Oil Ocean (I just found this level to be boring...)

Sonic 3-
Best: Hydrocity (This level is just plain fun. The speed, the challenge of not getting crushed at the beginning of act 2)
Worst: Launch base (Another level I just don't think was as fun as the others.. Carnival night had that problem with the platform but I actually had a lot of fun in that level and I was never stuck)

Sonic &K-
Best: Flying battery (I love the music and running through the spinning cylinders)
Worst: Sandopolis (Act 2 is long and boring with a dumb ghost gimmick)

Sonic CD-
Best: Stardust Speedway (The speed, the music, the awesome looking environment..)
Worst: Wacky Workbench (That bouncy floor pissed me off.)

 

Sonic 1:
Best - Starlight Zone (Just as fast as I like ^^)
Worst: TIE: Labyrinth and Marble Zone (Both slow, the former I have to wait for air bubbles all the time, the latter I couldn't even get past on my iPod because I kept falling off the platforms and having to go up there again)

Sonic 2:
Best: Chemical Plant Zone (Again, fast)
Worst: Death Egg Zone (Honestly, how are you supposed to beat Silver Sonic? How is it that people manage to beat this guy easy and I don't? Lack of Rings maybe? )

Sonic 3:
Best: Hydrocity Zone (Cool Music)
Worst: Carnival Night Zone (That **** barrel)

Sonic & Knuckles:
Best: Lava Reef Zone (Again, cool music)
Worst: Sandopolis Zone (You won't believe how much time I've spent on those slides ><)

Sonic Rush:
Best: Dead Line (Fast, AND cool music)
Worst: Altitude Limit (**** lasers, and **** hovercrafts!)

 

Sonic 1:
Best: Labyrinth Zone. Entirely because the music rocks and also because it was the one zone I could never finish when I was younger. It provides a sufficient difficulty barrier to keep me interested.
Worst: Final Zone. The music isn't my favorite and it's just a room with a zapper thing and large pistons of death. Worst final boss ever.

Sonic CD:
Best: Stardust Speedway Round*. I spent at least a minute or two bouncing back and forth in that twisty maze of springs and curved tube area. I forget which act but if you play it you'll know. Anyways, I made no progress but had a lot of fun!
Worst: Either Tidal Tempest (way harder than LZ for me!) or Wacky Workbench (BONUCY FLOORS AAAH!)
*Ha, I almost forgot that Sonic CD called them rounds not zones!


Sonic 2:
Best: Death Egg Zone. The music is pretty cool and TWO boss fights in a row! A metallic sonic replica which is easy to best! (Hint: hold a spindash right underneath him when he comes down from the sky, release right after the fourth hit, then jump over him and hold another spindash. That's like the first six or seven hits right there! Easiest boss ever!)
Worst: TIE: Metropolis Zone. The boss is kickass, but the music is only meh and the level is just way too damn long! Winged Fortress/Sky Chase. OH NOES, THE LEVEL IS FILLED WITH HOLE AND DEATH.

Sonic 3:
Best: Carnival Night Zone. That barrel brought me endless suffering when I was younger. Now I have mastered it! And the music is pretty cool!
Worst: Angel Island Zone. Whenever I play as Sonic or Sonic and Tails, there is that damn cutscene at the beginning. Makes it hard to start a new data and jump straight into playing. I really wish they'd have let me skip it.

Sonic & Knuckles:
Best:
Worst: Sandopolis Zone. The sub boss in Act 1 takes way too long to kill with no way to speed things up. Act 2 has those ghosts and that damn sand slide that I always miss the first time around.

Sonic Rush:
Forgive me, it's been a while and I never bothered to remember the names to the levels.
Best: That one with the street lights that turn on and off when you run underneath them. It has cool music!
Worst: None of the levels are memorable enough to me to call one worst. Except that last special stage. I cannot get that last chaos emerald!
[/quote]

 

Sonic 1:
Best: GHZ (Labyrinth was a close second, but GHZ is great. Nice music, waterfalls and those spike log things. Excellence)
Worst: Marble Zone. Too slow at most parts.

Sonic 2:
Best: CPZ (Very fast, many unique traps, and many different routes)
Worst: CNZ (It was a good level overall, I just wasn't into the feel. Odd enough I like carnival night from S3)

Sonic 3 & Knuckles:
Best: They were all incredible levels, I truly cannot decide.
Worst: Sandopolis. It had unique traps that gave a rush when trying to race to the finish to not die, but the whole desert tomb thing was just a bad atmopshere.

Can't speak for GBA titles.

 

Sonic 1
Best: Green Hill Zone - It's a classic! What can you say??
Worst: Labyrinth Zone - I tend to despite water levels, but this one absolutely takes the cake. This alone makes me never want to play S1.

Sonic 2
Best: Hidden Palace Zone - Wonderful music, light up bridges, cool backgrounds. One of my all time favorite Sonic levels.
Best (for those who won't accept HPZ): Chemical Plant Zone - Speed, baby!
Worst: Sky Chase Zone - It's just so damn boring. You can't speed it up. It's just clouds and turtles.

Sonic 3
Best: Carnival Night Zone - While it's pretty much like playing a bad fever dream about a carnival, with those melting platforms and all, the complexity of the two levels stuns me. There are just so many places; you could play the levels a hundred times and still find new areas.
Worst: Angel Island Zone - Too simple, and the post-fire look is so damn grainy and ugly.

Sonic & Knuckles
Best: Mushroom Hill Zone - Great music, cool graphics, and not to mention, you can get every emerald of the game here.
Worst: The Doomsday Zone - I've never been able to beat this goddamn thing. I'm fine with this game up until the Death Egg bosses and this level.

I'm not familiar enough with the other ones.

 

So I was playing through Sonic CD on my PSP mostly casually, and I suddenly stopped hating Wacky Workbench. When not trying to time attack it, it makes for some incredibly fun platforming.
And the bouncing floor is actually genius as well! How do games usually motivate you to be careful while hopping over things? By placing a bottomless pit, magma, or other insta-death trap below your feet. But not here! The bouncing floor doesn't kill you and actually helps you to go up again and try anew, while at the same time, it bounces you that high that it's annoying enough to make you want to avoid it, thus being more careful.
This game is perfect.

 

Sonic
I absolutely adore Green Hill Zone, even after all these years. Seemingly geared toward time-attacks (The latter two acts especially. I swear the first item box in Act 1 should have been power sneakers :3) the layout is just sublime; so many possibilities and routes. It's direct polar opposite in this respect? The hideously linear Marble Zone, which I hate.

Sonic 2
I swear that Metropolis Zone is a good contender for worst Sonic level EVER. Where do I start? Frustrating badnik placement designed to sap your rings (In many cases, unavoidably so), and nondescript art in a garish green which offends my eyes. And where is the scenery? At least the music is amazing, I'll give it that. And an awesome boss; so really it's not a total loss. But Sonic 2 has an assortment of great zones, such as Aquatic Ruin, which for me is the next Green Hill (Heh, Neo Green Hill Zone, much?) in terms of interchangeable routes. Shame about the huuuuge body of water in Act 2, but it's avoidable -- a factor which makes it the best water level EVER.

Sonic 3
All Sonic 3's zones suck. Sorry, people. That's where the situation lies with me. For a start, every zone bar one contains water. Variety, much? Secondly, they're all very long -- I like shorter acts, or at least ones with recognisable 'landmarks'. For me, challenge comes better from being tested in terms of timing and skill, NOT rote-learning the locations of hazards. I would like to say that the high-speed-although-underwater nature of Hydrocity marks it as the best of a bad bunch, and the sheer length of Marble Garden the utter worst. Sort of Ironic given my statement about the water, there.

Sonic & Knuckles
Of S3&K, this is where all the truly great zones are. I must say that Death Egg is again, too long and featureless. But it's hard to pick a best one out of the rest... I guess I'll plump with Flying Battery, since the soundtrack is a thing of true beauty. Close call though.

Sonic (SMS)
Jungle Zone, no contest. Act 1 is IMO the closest this version got to replicating the 'feel' of the MD layouts, and the music is utter sublime. Plus, great scenery. The worst has to be Sky Base, for that second act. Although it was a tough call. Don't like a lot of these layouts.

Sonic 2 (SMS)
I hate pipe-mazes, so unfortunately, the excellent-looking Scrambled Egg Zone gets my vote for worst. The best? Hmmmm, I'll have to say Underground Zone. Despite being quite the unconventional First Zone(tm), it has a lovely multilinear layout and is not a problem to play repeatedly.

Sonic Chaos
Tough, this has a lot of great levels. Gigapolis wins by a whisker for being a city in space... although Mecha Green Hill's music almost wins it. Almost. Worst of the bunch would have to be the slowdown-inducing Aqua Planet, but this is almost not fair, since it's still a great level.

Sonic Triple Trouble
I would like to confess my undying love for Meta Junglira Zone right now. Basically like S1SMS's Jungle Zone meets a little of Collision Chaos, I would most definitely love to see a 16-bit adaptation of this zone. Truly beautiful stuff. Worst? I'll go with the mob and say that the water level blows. Yes, I hate Tidal Plant Zone.

Sonic CD
Oh shit. Apart from hating Wacky Workbench for every reason you can think of, this is hard to call for the best. Probably Metallic Madness, for the Present music alone.

 

Sorry for the long reply but the reason I find that Generic looks exactly the same "technical for last level" art that most other games have.

When I was talking about the boss being boring, I was actually pointing to the round shaped boss. All you do is that you go up and down, up and down, up and down the tube, until the boss is defeated which I find really boring and repetive.

The first boss of Death Egg is not that bad actually.

 

You know you can spindash into upside-down mines to fire them into the boss, right?

 

Yeah I know that, but I always end up get hit, so I never do it though.

 

Sonic The Hedgehog
Best zone: Green Hill Zone. Without GHZ, you'd have a different Sonic. The level design is simple and without flaw. It looks beautiful, and the music is one of the best songs in the series.
Worst zone: Labyrinth Zone. Too slow, frustrating and complex to compare to the rest. Whenever I play through Sonic 1, it feels like I spend half the game playing this one level.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Best zone: Chemical Plant Zone. Fast, brilliantly designed and one of the most exciting levels in platform gaming. Again, incredible music.
Worst zone: Aquatic Ruin Zone. I really hate that flooded bottom-section.

Sonic CD
Best round: Palmtree Panic. The one of the only levels in the game that really thrives as a speed level. Utterly beautiful, too.
Worst round: Wacky Workbench. That bouncy floor is a fucking headache.

Sonic 3
Best zone: Launch Base Zone. This one really set Sonic 3 apart from the others, for me. It feels far more futuristic and cool than any level before it. Oh, and don't forget the music!
Worst zone: Marble Garden Zone. So fucking long and slow. It puts me off playing the game altogether.

Sonic & Knuckles
Best zone: Flying Battery Zone. Essentially a really tightly designed mix of Metropolis and Wing Fortress, but a whole lot faster. Really exciting, and the gimmicks all play to level's benefit. It's just a lot of fun.
Worst zone: Sandopolis Zone. I actually really enjoy the first Act, but Act 2 is terribly boring.

Sonic Pocket Adventure:
Best zone:Secret Plant Zone. Two new Chemical Plant acts are seriously welcome...
Worst zone:Aquatic Relix Zone. Two new Aquatic Ruin acts are seriously unwelcome (though the bit of Hidden Palace at the end is quite nice)

 

Someone should put these results into a spreadsheet and make a chart or something to see which zones are the most loved/hated.

Anyway I just remembered that I forgot the 8-bit games when I first posted, time to fix that.

Sonic 1 8-bit
Best: Bridge Zone, maybe because of the music, dunno, but I love this zone
Worst: Scrap Brain Zone. I always used to get lost in that maze when I was 8. I could never beat it and I was pissed off because it is so late in the game and I felt like I was wasting my time.

Sonic 2 8-bit
Best: Sky High Zone, I like the zone art (which is why I was porting it)
Worst: Aqua Lake Zone. The first act is ok, but the second one is just D:

Sonic Chaos
Best: Aqua Planet Zone. In before OMFG u like a water level. Yes, it has awesome music.
Worst: Turquoise Hill Zone. Probably the worst first zone in any Sonic game.

Sonic Triple Trouble
Best: Sunset Park Zone. Act 3. Need I say more?
Worst: the fifth special stage. I've lost countless lives there before I could find the correct path

 

Am I the only one who actually knows about to work the spinning discs in Marble Garden? D:

It's so simple... running makes them go up, stopping makes them drift down. As soon as they touch ground, they take off, so you have to be careful, that's all.

 

@Jayextee: The fact that the zones are large is one of the reasons I like Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) so much. In Sonic 2, the zones were too short and flavorless to me. In Sonic 3 there are tons of level gimmicks and explorable areas that makes the zones feel really caracteristic. And yeah, I agree with you. The water in such zones as Carnival Night and Launch Base were totally unecessary.

 

I actually kinda liked the use of water. It made the shield use a bit more interesting, and actually made the water shield worthwhile.

 

Sonic 1:
Best - GHZ, SYZ, SLZ [Awesome level layout, fun, I can actually clear them...]
Worst - MZ, LZ, SBZ [Too slow, MZ isn't much fun, and SBZ is evil.]

Sonic 2:
Best - Oil Ocean [I love this zone!]
Worst - Hill Top [Terribly bad IMHO, the earthquake sections ruin it, they're badly done.]

Sonic CD:
Best - Stardust Speedway [JPN music for this level is awesome, and it's so fast.]
Worst - Wacky Workbench [I have nothing to say. It is bad.]

Sonic 3:
Best - Launch Base, Marble Garden [So much fun...]
Worst - Hydrocity [It's not bad really, except that Act 2's start is annoying, especially if you screw up.]

Sonic & Knuckles:
Best - Death Egg [Why do people have so many problems with it? [BTW, this was the first stage I beat in S&K excluding MHZ]
Worst - Flying Battery, Sandopolis [Boring for Sandopolis, Flying Battery I couldn't beat for ages when I was younger...]

Advance 1:
Best - Egg Rocket/Cosmic Angel, Angel Island [All very fun levels.]
Worst - Secret Base [Not very inspired...]


Advance 2:
Best - Music Plant, Hot Crater [Very fun levels.]
Worst - Sky Canyon [Boss is evil, level is evil.]

Advance 3:
Best - Route 99, Ocean Base, Toy Kingdom [Fun, flowing levels]
Worst - Every other level [terrible design, especially Twinkle Snow]

Rush:
Best - Dead Line, Leaf Storm [Well designed stages.]
Worst - Mirage Road [Absolutely terrible design, the developers probably didn't play through it much...]

 

Best Levels:

Genesis

Sonic 1- Green Hill and Scrap Brain. The first because of the view the latter because of the music/difficulty.
Sonic 2- Wing Fortress and Hill Top- Love the mountains and love the sky high machine. (Death Egg had potential).
Sonic 3- Ice Cap and Launch Base- Music is excellent and the levels never proved tiresome.
S + K- Lava Reef and Sky Sanctuary- Being inside a volcano is excellent and the island in the sky that just breaks apart? Superb.

Game Gear/Master System

Sonic 1- Jungle and Sky Base- I love climbing the waterfall and Sky Base I found as a better climax to Scrap Brain.
Sonic 2- Crystal Egg- Pretty, although suprisingly easy for the final level in this game... (except act 3 of course)



Worst Levels:

Genesis

Sonic 1- Spring Yard and Labyrinth- The first grew tedious, really quickly and the second made the game move slower
Sonic 2- Casino Night and Metropolis- I hated the new gimmicks and the second was way too long.
Sonic 3- Carnival Night and Marble Garden- First was a remake of Casino Night, the second was too long.
S+K- Sandopolis and Flying Battery- I think these are underrated as levels. However, they are too damn long.

Game Gear-

Sonic 1- Labyrinth- Not as bad as the Genesis but still very slow.
Sonic 2- Green Hill and Scrambled Egg- The first for the "guess where the springs are!", the second for "guess where the spikes are!"

 

Sonic 1
Best: Green Hill Zone - Good BG, music and colors... I like it!
Worst: Marble Zone - Wier pallet, boring music, slow gameplay, and all that lava parts... I can't stand it!

Sonic 2
Best - Chemical Plant Zone - Good music, fast gameplay and nice loops!
Worst: Sky Chase - Uh!? Where is the floor, I hate that kind of zone..

Sonic CD
Best - Collision Chaos Zone - Nice graphics, that fantastic water reflection at the bottom and very exotic art. I love it!
Worst - Quartz Quadrant Zone - Slow gameplay, it's hard to reach the "Sonic Boom", and strange art.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Best - Hydrocity Zone - Incredibly fast gameplay, awsome music, nice graphics and smooth animations... Perfect!/Sky Sanctuary - Nice graphics and effects!
Worst - Carnival Night Zone - It has water, strange music, and too messy layout./Sandopolis - I hate that ghosts!

Sonic 3D Blast
Best: Diamond Dust Zone - I love the graphics and music.
Worst: Panic Puppet - Too similar to Gene Gadget

Sonic Rush
Best - Water Palace - Nice gameplay, cool graphics, chatchy music and awsome deformation effects underwater!
Worst - Altitude Limit - I don't like death fall pits.

 

Fixed. :v: