So I’m a huge fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog Classic Games, and my approach to video games is that I like to know the levels of the game. I like to know the development history of games, and the level designs and various other tidbits. It helps me play the game better. I believe that the most important part of a game is a functioning level design that is fun, and allows the other parts to work. I don’t care if the plot is good or bad (though if something is truly bad, I’ll dislike it). Even if the physics are whacked out, as long as they fit the level design, I’m okay with it.
The Classic Sonic games are full of interesting backstory. The original game had a variety of level designs because they didn’t know if players would want to play fast-paced levels all the time. It took the longest time for them to finalize Green Hill Zone. Marble Zone was created to slow the game down a bit. Spring Yard Zone was a pinball based level that required momentum usage. Labyrinth was originally the second level, but pushed back to fourth, it also gives Sonic his main weakness, water. Starlight Zone was the first city level, and another speed level, and Scrap Brain Zone Acts 1 & 2 functioned as the final base.
There are actually nine types of levels. There are the first five levels. Scrap Brain Acts 1 & 2 are very different from Scrap Brain Act 3 (which is actually Labyrinth Zone Act 4 according the game code), and then there’s the Final Boss. A lot of people have noticed the similarities between Sonic CD’s levels and Sonic 1’s levels. I see where they are coming from, but I’ve found that the levels share more in common with levels from Sonic 2, even from scrapped levels. And the development of the two games are sort of a prototypical Sonic 3 & Knuckles development history.
Sonic 2 and Sonic CD were originally meant to be one game, and each has its own deleted content story. Sonic 2 originally had CD’s time travel’s gimmick. It’s where the origin of Wood Zone comes from. It’s supposed to be a past version of Metropolis Zone. Metropolis Zone was originally supposed to be two acts followed by a Genocide City (later Cyber City), but Genocide City got scrapped. It became a third act of Metropolis Zone while its graphics were reused for a Sonic Spinball Level called the Machine. Sonic 2 actually had other scrapped levels, there’s Hidden Palace Zone, the most famous of the scrapped zones. Dust Hill has a screen shot to prove its existence. There was supposed to be a Winter Zone that reused graphics from Dust Hill Zone plus add in Hilltop’s Christmas Trees. There was also a Rock Zone. Death Egg even had its own full zone.
Sonic CD meanwhile has a single scrapped level that may or may not exist. The final level for the slot R2. In the good ending, you can see Sonic jump on a ruins based level that brings to mind Aquatic Ruin. It’s the second level after the Palmtree Panic. There’s also a single sketch that makes a ruins-based level. Personally, I think the video representation is actually Tidal Tempest before it got switched to R4. The good ending would actually show Sonic in Palmtree Panic (R1), Tidal Tempest (R4), Collision Chaos (R3), Quartz Quadrant (R5), Wacky Workbench (R6), Metallic Madness (R8), and Stardust Speedway (R7.) Already, three of the levels are in their final slots, and I’ve seen a North American soundtrack that lists Metallic Madness between Collision Chaos and Quartz Quadrant, thus pushing Quartz Quadrant and Wacky Workbench into their proper slots.
So here’s what I THINK happened. It originally went P.P., T.T., C.C., M.M., Q.Q., W.W.,S.S. Then the developers decided to push Metallic Madness back to the penultimate zone, and that’s when the good ending was made. But before finalizing the code, they decided to push Metallic Madness back to the final level. Finding it much easier to make an R8 slot, they left the R4 slot open to keep Quartz Quadrant, Wacky Workbench, and Stardust Speedway in their proper R5, R6, and R7 slots. Then the developers realized that Tidal Tempest couldn’t be kept at R2 because of the small story issues. Sonic CD has the same story as Sonic 1 except it takes place on this Little Planet and the Macguffin stones are seven Time Stones instead of Seven Chaos Emeralds. There’s one added facet. Eggman has created this robot called Metal Sonic and it kidnaps an acquaintance of Sonic, a female hedgehog with a crush on him named Amy Rose. If Amy gets kidnapped at the beginning of Collision Chaos with Tidal Tempest at R2, does Amy follow Sonic through Tidal Tempest? And if Metal Sonic kidnaps Amy at Tidal Tempest?
So they probably moved Tidal Tempest to the empty slot at R4, leaving R2 opening. They then got to work on creating another R2 level. But the final R2 level was confirmed to be scrapped because it didn’t meet standards. Some say it was to be a Desert level, some say going by the level it was supposed to an equivalent to Marble Zone, some say it was meant to be another ruins based level (Based off that sketch) and here’s where the full comparisons to Sonic 1 start breaking down. While Palmtree Panic can equate to Green Hill Zone, Spring Yard Zone goes to Collision Chaos, Stardust Speedway matches up with Starlight Zone, and Metallic Madness matches up to Scrap Brain Zone. What of Quartz Quadrant and Wacky Workbench? Going by that logic Quartz Quadrant would be the Marble Zone equivalent, and this is where my knowledge of Sonic 1 and 2 comes into play. Wacky Workbench would equate to Final zone. But what if this hypothetical R2? Well, since Scrap Brain Act 3 certainly qualifies as its one level type, it would seemingly confirm the Ruins idea from Tidal Tempest in the video and the artwork.
But these comparisions don’t quite match up. When I look at Metallic Madness, I think more of Metropolis Zone than I do Scrap Brain Zone Act 1 and 2. Quartz Quadrant evokes images of Hidden Palace and its past level reminds me of Wood Zone. Remember how I said Sonic 2 and Sonic CD were meant to be one game? Well, I believe that Sonic CD’s levels weren’t just inspired by Sonic 1 levels, but a pair of Sonic 2 levels influenced each zone, even scrapped ones. It would explain why I get Rock Zone vibes from the past in Wacky Workbench, as well as enough gimmicks to match Death Egg Zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Here’s how I believe the comparisons go:
Palmtree Panic matches up to Green Hill from Sonic 1 and Emerald Hill and Hilltop Zone from Sonic 2. This one is obvious. It’s a level with lots of green. Hilltop Zone has its fair share of platforming.
R2: I’ve already determined that it would share similarities with Scrap Brain Zone Act 3, as for the Sonic 2 levels, those will come later via process of elimination.
Collision Chaos: Obviously Spring Yard Zone from Sonic 1. The levels that equate with it in Sonic 2 are Casino Night and surprisingly Winged Fortress Zone. Winged Fortress matches Collision Chaos in terms of how precise you have to platform. There’s actually another level to the comparisons between Casino Night and Collision Chaos. The beta version of Casino Night was pink. It’s final color was blue. Collision Chaos present is pink. It’s good future is blue.
Tidal Tempest: Obviously Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1 applies here. But I’m going to surprise some of you with this. I’m going with Aquatic Ruin and Mystic Cave Zone. Aquatic Ruin works well here because both levels are actually set up in such a way that if you are skillful enough you should never drown. As for Mystic Cave Zone, some of you may be going huh? But read this through. Mystic Cave is known for its spikes and columns that crush you. It has badniks that have a tendency to pop in suddenly and hit you if you go to fast. The checkpoints are all over the place.
Quartz Quadrant: I’ve already pointed out that Marble Zone is corresponding zone here, but my Sonic 2 zones are both scrapped ones. There’s Hidden Palace Zone. The purple color scheme is similar. There’s a tendency to platforms to push you in one direction. There’s speed, but if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to get hit, and get hit a lot. The past of Quartz Quadrant is also very woody. As a matter of fact, it’s why believed that scrapped levels of Sonic 2 came into play. It’s too far of a stretch to believe that it’s a coincidence that Sonic 2 has a scrapped zone called Wood Zone created to be a past version of another level, and Sonic CD has a past version of a level be wood-themed. Especially considering the development history with this pair of games.
Wacky Workbench. I’ve already matched this with Final Zone. The crushers figure prominently into the level layout. My Sonic 2 zones are two more scrapped zones: Rock Zone and Death Egg Zone. The past of Wacky Workbench actually takes place in a desert canyon, with Rocks. Another coincidence? No. Rock Zone may have been scrapped from Sonic 2, but I’m willing to bet that some of those ideas got squeezed in Wacky Workbench. Death Egg Zone in Sonic 2 was supposed to have a full level. This is supported by the fact that the music track goes on for much longer than you hear in Sonic 2. It also works with Wacky Workbench because this zone throws so much at you it might as well be a Final Zone.
Stardust Speedway: Starlight Zone matches up here. Chemical Plant and Oil Ocean are also Sonic 2 representatives here. Stardust Speedway has boosters like Chemical Plant. It also has spike placement in inconvenient places like Oil Ocean. All the zones here are city-based zones. The level structure evokes images of Chemical Plant in its level structure. Stardust Speedway also has a part in Act 2 where you have to spring platform to the end.
Metallic Madness: Scrap Brain Zone Acts 1 and 2 for Sonic 1, while Sonic 2 sees Metropolis Zone and Genocide (Cyber City) as it’s counterparts. Metallic Madness actually has a color scheme similiar to Metropolis Zone. It has crushers. Like Scrap Brain Zone, it has chainsaws that come out, and it’s has those rotating platforming chains that are a pain to navigate. The upper pathway is also slightly easier and rewards you. Metallic Madness Act 3 has the only bottomless pit you’ll probably run into (There is one in a Stardust Speedway level zone, but you have to be trying to get there.) The Bad Future of Metallic Madness is all rusted and desolate, it looks “After The End” ish, sort of like a massive genocide wiped out the location. It’s very cybernetic too. The Good Future is the complete reverse of that.
So for a hypothetical scrapped 8th level in the R2 slot, process of elimination means that it would have to based off of Scrap Brain Zone Act 3, and it’s two Sonic 2 Zones would be Dust Hill Zone and Winter Zone. So it’s a ruins based level that involves water, climate-changing between desert and snow, as well as a little green. It’s like Sandopolis mixed with Ice Cap with a little bit of Mushroom Hill. No wonder it was scrapped due to a lack of quality. It would explain why Taxman created his own Desert level to enter as the R2 replacement for his 2011 release. (It met the same fate as Dust Hill Zone, it got scrapped, but a single screen shot leaves proof of it’s existence.) In order to create a Desert and Winter level into one, a climate changing machine would have been needed. A weather changing machine did actually appear in the next game, Sonic 3 & Knuckles in Mushroom Hill Zone Act 2.
So if an eighth level for Sonic CD was ever created, the pattern suggests that is what the eighth level would have been. Another interesting note is that Sonic’s first two companions were introduced in both games. Miles “Tails” Prower saw his introduction in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Amy Rose saw her introduction in Sonic CD. Both games feature a robot Sonic. Sonic CD has Metal Sonic. Sonic 2 has Silver Sonic. I believe that Sonic 2 and Sonic CD had all of these ideas back when they were one game, but that they were spread out over the two games.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles actually still shows traces of this. The first is that the full game is two cartridges that lock into each other. If this idea had been thought of earlier, we might have seen Sonic 2 and Sonic CD combined into one mega game of 18 zones. (18 Zones was originally how many zones Sonic 2 was planned to have.) It gets even better. All of the elements of that hypothetical R2 appear in the game. A pure winter level appears in the game as Ice Cap zone. It has water. Sandopolis is a desert level with ancient ruins. Mushroom Hill has that weather changing machine too with foliage as exotic as Palmtree Panic.
It’s not limited to the hypothetical R2 either. Hidden Palace saw its name reused for a zone within the game. Lava Reef is a rock-themed zone. Death Egg has its own levels after being reduced a hallway and two boss in Sonic 2, and it clearly draws from previous levels. Flying Battery has a boss similar to Quartz Quadrant while evoking images of Winged Fortress zone. Angel Island is in the forest like Wood Zone wouldh ave been, (while also combined level layout ideas from Emerald Hill, Green Hill, and Hilltop.) Carnival Night appears to be Collision Chaos combined with Tidal Tempest with the final color scheme of Casino Night. Sky Sanctuary is a Ruins level.
It’s also worth noting that Sonic 3 & Knuckles has no scrapped levels. It’s one long game split into two. It has three playable characters. (Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.) It introduces another robot version of Sonic called Mecha Sonic. Bosses are reused from previous games in Sky Sanctuary.
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