Let's think up new Sonic zone tropes!

Friend Zone: Sonic fails to get laid.

 

I thought you said new tropes? You just described Red Mountain with some flourishes and a cross between a typical Robotnik base and one of Robotnik's weird levels from Shadow the hedgehog. Props on the gameshow idea though, but you make it sound like Carnival Night when you should be going for the Price is Right.

 

How about having an airship stage after the space station stage? Like, you fall from space, a la the end of the classic games, and then Robotnik attacks out of nowhere from his backup airborne fortress, and you go fight him? And then, if you get the good ending, after you've beaten him, he drills into the center of the planet and you fight him again?

I suppose an airfield itself would be a good new idea for a stage. We've seen harbors and train depots, so I'm sort of surprised we haven't seen much airport-inspired things.

More of a fanservice, but seeing the ruins of past projects - the Death Egg, Egg Carrier - might be cool. Even a swamped Station Square!

 

Mental Meltdown sounds EPIC imo.

I'm seriously trying to think of new locations, but I can't think of any. Sonic has already been everywhere! From deserts to icecaps, lava filled underground caves to the sky and beyond, the moon to alien spaceships, inside a computer to giant casinos....EVERYWHERE!

Center of the planet has already been done in the form of the final battle with Dark Gaia

 

What about combining tropes? A Casino type zone combined with Robotnik's Base would be quite awesome, as would the ruins of some previous bases (If Sonic 4 has a level involving a sunken Death Egg I would have a fangasm).

 

An airfield's not a bad idea; there's been enough stages with airships already in the air. I can imagine these planes then taking off, making the next act.

 

How bout a "Macro Zone". Tiny Sonic in a giant house?

 

And then a Pumpkin Zone, and a Tree Zone, and a Mario Zone, and... wait.

Though that idea would be pretty cool. We've never seen Sonic tackle suburbia, have we? Or hell, what about farmland?

 

Oh yeah, like the level in Super Mario Land 2. That'd be fine for the setting, but what sort of gimmicks would it have?

 

The best way to think up new, fresh level designs is by looking at art. No shit. There's a fucking lot of cubism and fauvism in GHZ. That said, I'd love a haunted house zone based on Escher's Staircase merged with some African symbols. And make it brown. VERY brown.

 

I actually think up new zones is when listen to the music. For example, when I listen to the JP version of Collision Chaos Zone (Bad Future) I always imagine Sonic running in a metro-like area with the lights constantly going off and on. It's supposed to be a spooky kinda level and in the end, instead of a boss, Sonic gets chased by a giant train. :v:

 

You know, I've always wanted to see more spins on the themes we always have. When we get ice levels, they're ALWAYS icy mountains. Why not a forest or city for a change? Speaking of cities, Unleashed was full of them and they varied from what we normally expect. Shamar especially was a nicely different city, but as a desert it's what we always expect. Always an Egyptian (etc) styled one. The only time there was anything significantly different was Dust Hill and that got cut. It's always the same thing. I remember being pleased with Advance 2 and 3 for having music and toy themes for the bouncy levels instead on the usual casino/carnival/

 

A river. There has never been a zone to take place entirely on a single river. Not even Bridge Zone does that. It could involve jumping between barges, grabbing hold of water wheels, being dragged by a jetski badnik while on water skis, all kinds of stuff really. Thats actually an idea I had for a level forever ago and some of those concepts are adapted to stuff in Nexus.

 

Flooded Metropolis Zone: Imagine those depictions of New York City after the ice caps have melted. That would be the theme for this zone.

Thunder Forest Zone: Robotnik builds a weather machine in the middle of a temperate forest and sets it to flash flood mode.

Giant Robotnik Zone: Sonic has gone into giant Robotnik-themed mechs before (Sonic 3D Blast comes to mind), but this one is so large that it can serve as a Zone all to itself. Fat jokes optional.

 

Flooded Metropolis Zone: Imagine those depictions of New York City after the ice caps have melted. That would be the theme for this zone.

Thunder Forest Zone: Robotnik builds a weather machine in the middle of a temperate forest and sets it to flash flood mode.

Giant Robotnik Zone: Sonic has gone into giant Robotnik-themed mechs before (Sonic 3D Blast comes to mind), but this one is so large that it can serve as a Zone all to itself. Fat jokes optional.

 

Um, Sonic has done many cliches in games, in fact almost all of them, but I never did see him do a swamp zone. Also, there's never been an organic level, (not the plant type) but that's because Sonic isn't the type of game that a level like that would fit into.

 

Something like this?

:v:

 

Twilight Zone. The level is all black and white, and takes place in an American 1950's suburban area. There is a narrator, who narrates the various obstacles and enemies that you encounter in the level, as you encounter them. At the end of the 4th act (yes, this zone has FOUR acts) you discover that this narrator is the boss, and is in fact Robotnik's newest mech. Oh, Sonic has to kill gay vampire and werewolf badniks along the way.

 

Will Sonic have to face the ever-present danger of contemplating his existence and spontaneously popping out of reality when he realizes he is impossible?