What is Collision Chaos supposed to be?

Collision Chaos seems to me like Sunset Park with a pink overlay.

 

I always kind of assumed Collision Chaos was the bit where Sonic ascends the chain, despite the absence of any chain to ascend - Amy isn't captured until that point in the game (despite some manuals saying she was kidnapped before Palmtree Panic), and the whole upside-down-land-at-the-top-of-the-level thing sorta lends itself to that theory as well (though which side is Never Lake/Earth and which side is Little Planet is ambiguous - I always figured upside-down was Little Planet, but I can't provide any evidence to support that).

Though what it is beyond that, anything that'd justify all the bumpers, flippers and neon signs everywhere... I dunno, your guess is as good as mine.

 

If boiling it down simply, I think of a mix of urban city with jungle gym/pinball-inspired scenery and aesthetics. But this is pretty much how I perceived Spring Yard Zone, though I find Collision Chaos a bit wackier and funkier in music.

 

I always thought that the "land in the sky" was the result of vertical background scrolling combined with too vertical a level layout. Isn't there a similar effect during the pseudo 3D ramp sequence in Palmtree Panic 1?

 

The structure in PPZ is a loop, not a ramp. They were going for this. Can't apply to CCZ unless gravity is being warped somehow.

And just for kicks, you can also see that inside loop effect applied a bit more readably in Silhouette Mirage and this Dezaemon game.

 

I'd say Collision Chaos seems a lot like a flashy, colorful, and overall crazy kind of acid trip where you hope to god that you don't land in the flustered pack of bubbles near the end of Act 2 and immediately get hit by a bed of spikes, making you lose your chance at a special sta-wait, where am I going with this?

 

It goes even further than that, both levels are the third zone in the game, thanks to R2.