Let's think up new Sonic zone tropes!

The Disco Zone. Falling Mirror ball obstacles, floating disco ball badniks that shoot out multicolored rays of death, short, stubby pimp-bot badniks that attack you with canes, badniks on roller skates, etc. The boss could be Robotnik in his Egg-O-Matic, with an attachment that alternates between firing laser beams and phonograph record projectiles.

It could be based on the obstacles that Father Maxi had to tackle to get the Holy Vatican law in Red Hot Catholic Love (episode of south park).....oh wait

 

And the boss is Eggman in the Pope mobile. :D

 

:O QUICK SOMEONE SHOOP ROBOTNIK'S HEAD ONTO THE POPE

 

Facebook Zone

Every two seconds the layout changes

 

I love this idea. I bet everyone else is going to be joining groups about how much they hate it though.

 

Here's what I have for an extra zone, if you collect all the emeralds:

Spore Zone: How will you save the universe as Sonic?

I also have an idea for the boss:

Mephilespode: The Mephiles-posessed version of the deity of creation, the anti-Spode, the deity of destruction.

Dang, I forgot to describe the zone. Wait, I just did. It is just the short version, though. Perhaps this should clarify things:

With Robotnik defeated for the second time (I'm talking about the SatAM Robotnik. This is a SatAM level idea, by the way), the only evil left to stop, is none other than Mephiles. Aided with the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic becomes none other than, Super Sonic. Now, Super Sonic, using Chaos Control, makes a quantum leap to the edge of the galaxy for one final showdown against Mephiles. However, Super Sonic is too late, as he finds Spode posessed by Mephiles, and henceforth becomes, Mephilespode. Determined to shake Spode off Mephiles's grip, Super Sonic charges at the evil of creation, and that is where you come in.

 

Unleashed kind of touched upon this, but a level where there are hourglasses scattered around (hold your screams of 'DEATH CHAMBER, PYRAMID CAVE), that change the background from day to night/vice versa, which open/close routes, or make areas easier/harder, like a cave area within the level containing spikes, bats etc that is pitch dark at night but like the rhombus tunnels in Aquatic Ruin regarding light in the day, or flowers that only bloom at night to be used as springs at night and platforms by day

Another I thought of for a game I want to make but don't have the resources, and hacking just won't cut it, is a rocket. Race to the cockpit against the clock to make it into space.

Another two-in-one level could revolve around water levels and floating platforms (a la Amy's Hot Shelter in SA1, especially the room with the 'left 1 right 3' door)

Finally, one that I made into a hack, and I think was also included in another fan game, is a level in almost/total darkness, except for Sonic, rings, monitors, spikes, badniks, etc. This could also incorporate light monitors/switches like Sandopolis 2, but either light on or light off, no graded light. Or this could be substituted for a cave full of poison gas, but with air pockets/bubbles of oxygen/air monitors/areas where the gas can't get (a la Noxious La-Lakoosha in Klonoa 2 for PS2)

Well, that's all I've got for now.

 

Auto Zone:

Sonic wrecked up his car in ASR and needs to get repairs for cheap because he forgot to collect alot of rings.

 

Both been done some time ago...

Egg Rocket Zone

Poloy Mountain 2

And I want the stage of Unleashed's opening sequence, quite frankly. The coolest environment of the game and we don't get to play it. ;_;

 

So basically the Egg Fleet but in space?

 

Awesome.

 

Err... yes.

Egg Fleet was by far my favourite level in Heroes, and my favourite level as a whole post-SA1 was SatSR's Levitated Ruin, which is effectively Egg Fleet on flying stingrays.

 

Drip Plateau Zone
Midnight Cliff Zone
Fog Slope Zone
Tetra Slopes Zone

Blue Arch Zone
Buoy Dive Zone
Tide Roll Zone
Lighthouse Reef Zone
Splash Harbor Zone
Slow Gulf Zone

Cherry Basin Zone
Prairie Bowl Zone
Crop Top Zone
Gust Pipe Zone

Greenhouse Mine Zone
Steel Funnel Zone
Bass Cavern Zone
Diamond Boom Zone

Saffron Safari Zone (a little long)
Amethyst Jungle Zone
White Cove Zone
Neon Edge Zone
Stratus Tracks Zone
Egg Rebel Zone
River Rush Zone
New Rapids Zone
-----------------------------------

The above were zones I already named. Uhhhh...

Cross Palace Zone
Sweep Cyprus Zone
Oak Drop Zone
Bishop Bluffs Zone
Bonsai Garden Zone
Clover Butte Zone
Sea Mine Zone
White Cove Zone
Windsock Terrace Zone
Emperor Ball Zone
Lime Court Zone
Stripe Balcony Zone
Cloud Catacombs Zone

I think palaces do need to be looked into as a trope. But they shouldn't be realistic, they should be like palaces that have things like Russian architecture

Or combine that with gothic architecture and so on, you should get some pretty kickass results from even thinking of the two together.

 

One of the more recent tropes is internet/cyber themed stages, as seen in Advance 2 & 3, as well as Shadow. For the most part, these were well designed levels, and something new to look at to boot. I think it was a clever addition.

Otherwise, fuck it. It's like saying Mario has too much of the same types of levels. There's only so many things you can do.

I think this is why a lot of people (myself included) tend to prefer the surrealism of Sonic CD (as opposed to the realist based levels of Adventure 2, or even Sonic 2), because most of those levels look truly alien, and it's not so easy to instantly classify places like Collision Chaos or Quartz Quadrant, even if they display similar gimmicks. Sonic games are gonna have bumpers and springs and conveyor belts. What do you want?

 

It's Spring Yard Zone 2 and a gem mine. They're not that unclassifyable.

I second the loev of mystical / alien zones, though; while maintaining a healthy regard for realistic-style ones of Unleashed. What's not cool about Skyscraper Scamper? '20s themed New York with ZEPPELINS flying overhead. Sweet. I'd have no objection to them putting one up against the other; screech out of the psychadelic musical drug-trip of Stardust Speedway and find yourself slap-bang in the middle of Station Square? It would be a cool diachotomy.

So I don't want them to bin the realism for the surrealism. Just have a healthy balance.

Some of these actually sound awesome. I have this vivid idea of Windsock Terrace Zone; sort of like Molten Mine in that Sonic's running over (and through, lol) a load of shanty houses stacked on the edge of this immense mountain chasm, but instead of the lava motif you've got wind as your enemy, blasting through crags and fissures and the whole thing being generally amazing. Jump too high and whoosh, you're blown back umpteen screens unless you smash A just at the right time to grab onto (what youthought was just a) background pole and shimmy yourself back down to ground level.

I demand an elaboration of Slow Gulf Zone.

 

I thought Tails Adventures didn't count as a Sonic game per se? Egg Rocket had completely escaped me, but in my defense, it is the only one that does spring to mind as a rocket trope. But yes, I agree totally with the space fleet idea- better than two successive Greece levels a Greek and another European style level.

 

Slow Gulf is exactly as it sounds, except you're actually near a Gulf, not on one. There's still a lot of water in the zone, though. The sky is olive green, and the zone itself has some of the most surreal gimmicks and enemies, like skating ducks with no eyes, just a black head an dozens of teeth. It's more focused on platforming (if I made a game, all of them would take platforming into account), but especially this zone.

I like how you're interpreting Windsock Terrace Zone. That's not what it is in my mind and in my concept art for it, but it's still really cool, and it's neat to see how other people interpret two words into something entirely different. That's what makes this thread so fun for me.

 

O_o

I was imagining kind of a lazy Emerald Coast variant, but with... err... slow-down beams.

But ebon, eyeless birds with razor teeth, skimming beneath a sky the colour of rotten flesh?

Has Zalgo been at your concept art like he's been at The Government's avatar?

 

A zone based on anatomy:

Rectum Asylum Zone