Level cliches that Sonic Games Haven't Used Enough or Haven't used at all?

[Johnny Boy]

I'd like to see more forest stages that aren't tropical jungles. There's so many other ways to do the trope, so why do they all have to look so similar? They did Mushroom Hill back in 3K and nothing since except Frozen Forest in Free Riders. And Free Riders is lame so another take on the icy forest would be great, or haunted forest. Oooh, yes please more haunted stages.

I'd really love to see a forest level that is based off of North American forests. They can also blend it when some Native American esque ruins and have ancient spirits in the background.

[FleeingToMexico]

I'd like to see some tropes combined to make some wacky new stages. For example, picture Lava Reef combined with Mad Matrix. Sonic could activate switches that poor virtual water onto pixelated fire! And the Robotnik fight would be Sonic trying to "empty Eggman into the trash bin" by activating flame switches that destroy the virtual platforms underneath him. xD

Edited June 27, 2012 by Justin Bieber

[Spooky Mulder]

Have we ever had an Eggman Empire naval fleet zone?

An American frontier themed zone would be cool.

Haunted ruins would be an interesting take on a familiar trope. Same with underwater, ocean ruins...kind of a combination between Ocean Palace and Coral Cave.

[FleeingToMexico]

How about a level with multiple Seasons, similar to Click Clock Woods in Banjo Kazooie. I always thought that level was cool because something you would do in one season would affect the level in the following seasons. Perhaps they could do something similar, like have multiple acts for a level and each following act is a different season.

For example, maybe in the first Act (Fall), there could be an object (like a bolder or something) that needs to be moved/destroyed that is currently blocking a path that will appear in Act 2 (Winter), entering the path in Act 2 will feature a breakable object and breaking that object will open a new path for Act 3 (Spring) and after performing a similar event to this in Act 3, a path in Act 4 (Summer) could appear which would finally have some kind of unlockable or secret power you can obtain like from the Adventures... or this could all lead up to the Zone's boss.

Of course, this is assuming that the level and all it's acts would feature some kind of motif and repeat a certain area/section in each act to work. I think it could work, but I'd recommend making this optional (unlockables as I mentioned above), as this kind of design might intrude if made mandatory...

Not necessarily a Level Cliche I think, but it's an idea nonetheless...

I like this idea. Mushroom Hill sort of did a similar thing with the seamless progression of Autumn and how it got screwed over by Robotnik.

[-Mark-]

Food levels. Outside of Sonic Advance 2 (I think) and Sonic Colours, I don't think they've done very many of those, which is a shame. They're generally pretty insane designs, which make them some of the best looking.

See, I'm really going to have to disagree with this one, personally.

Whilst Colours had an excuse for it since it was basically Eggman's theme park, other 'crazy' levels like Music Plant and Toy Kingdom just bug me. Not because they're bad levels per se, but because they just look so ridiculously out of place in a Sonic game. It looks like they don't fit with the rest of the game, or even the Sonic series in general. They look like stage themes taken from Rayman/ Ristar/ Mario and thrown kicking and screaming into a Sonic game.

Even at their wackiest, Sonic stages generally always have at least one foot somewhat grounded in reality, but stages made out of toys and musical instruments is a bit too out there and doesn't have enough context that it should exist, in my opinion. Again, it's not to say I dislike them, I just feel that they're uncomfortably out of place and unfitting for Sonic stages.

Edited June 28, 2012 by -Mark-

[PerfectChaos]

<p>

Um, there wasn't a food level in Advance 2, or any game other than Colours. And frankly, I hope it stays that way.

Erm, why?

[K.T.E.]

TROPICAL ISLANDS LLOLZ

I think we need more dystopian industrial levels. I've always wondered what the Land of darkness from the OVA would be like as a level, which is actually kind of similar to the destroyed station square in SA1 when you face Perfect Chaos

[Indigo Rush]

You know what I think would be cool? A level in an enchanted swamp.

Like, there's probably some underwater sections, maybe with some murky water gimmick where it's hard to see, but essentially I imagine this dense forest with fog and maybe some rain. Add to that some glowing plants and fireflies everywhere to light the way, giant trees, some boats, maybe some vine-swinging and crocodile jumping, kinda like in Lost Jungle from Heroes. Only less glitchy.

Toss in some lighting-bug, crocodile, shellfish and frog badniks, and perhaps some Egg Pawns playing the banjo with a straw-hat, and you have yourself a pretty cool southern bayou trope. At night, with the moon.

Maybe add a get-stuck-in-the-mud-have-to-spindash-or-boost-out-of-it gimmick, too. So many possibilities...

Edited June 27, 2012 by Indigo Rush

[MetaShiruken]

On the volcano topic, seeing Sonic and friends run through an active volcano is a very interesting idea. Maybe having Sonic jump from rocks floating in lava would make great platforming sections. AND, this would also make a great level for the return of the Fire Shield from Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

[JezMM]

Have we ever had an Eggman Empire naval fleet zone?

Nah, that'd be neat though, especially if it had underwater sections too. We had Huge Crisis in Sonic Rush but that was heavily implied to be owned by GUN due to it's similarity to the Prison Island stages on Sonic Adventure 2. I like the idea of Eggman not running quite so tight a ship, or Sonic going totally reckless on the place and busting open walls resulting in areas filling up with water.

Man that'd be a neat final stage actually. The difficulty and fear of a water stage but with the grandeur and epicness of an Eggman stage.

[Spooky Mulder]

Nah, that'd be neat though, especially if it had underwater sections too. We had Huge Crisis in Sonic Rush but that was heavily implied to be owned by GUN due to it's similarity to the Prison Island stages on Sonic Adventure 2. I like the idea of Eggman not running quite so tight a ship, or Sonic going totally reckless on the place and busting open walls resulting in areas filling up with water.

Man that'd be a neat final stage actually. The difficulty and fear of a water stage but with the grandeur and epicness of an Eggman stage.

I really like your ideas.

An Eggman navy would probably look very different from GUN's ships just given his creative spice and his tendency to go over-the-top. I picture something akin to the Egg Fleet from Sonic Heroes except on sea.

I really hope we get to see an Egg Naval Fleet at some point

[Speedy]

I don't think there's many totally new stuff that would need to be added but a lot of stuff we've already had varied a little. Like someone on the last page said, different light situations/weather would be cool if tried out. Quite a lot of Sonic stages have blue sky and bright sunlight. There's nothing wrong with that, I love beautful stages a lot, but the few stages that have had rain or sunset lighting were kind of cool because of that. Also, with what graphic engines can handle today, I'd love to see a real thunderstorm, night stages with starry skies, maybe a meteor shower or something like that.

I think Eggman's headquarters should be given more attention, too. I found Eggmanland really awesome, it had a pretty cool atmosphere and I'd love more of this in the future.

And some really surreal stages would be cool, something totally odd and crazy.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Speedy

[- Eternal Paradox -]

I think we have a lack of "indoor" levels. Sure, sonic's been in eggman bases, twinkle parks and what-not, but to my knowlage he's never run through an old curio shop, a restraunt or a muesum.

And I'd love to see him run through a muesum. Just imagine grinding down this:

http://www.nms.ac.uk/idoc.ashx?docid=855fb0cd-9245-4e8d-b7fc-a3de0cd0e28a&version=-1

Wouldn't that be cool?

[Wentos]

Unrelated, but may I suggest a thread title revision?

"Unused or Underused Level Clichés"

Edited June 27, 2012 by Hatsune Miku

[Speedy]

A museum? Yeah, that'd be cool. Grinding down the tail of a tyrannosaurus, take a spring onto a life-size viking ship, hop over to the pirates and shoot yourself out of a canon into the middle age room with armors standing around everywhere. Okay, for most parts, we've had that in games before, but I still think it'd kick ass.

Indoor is good anyway. Have Sonic race through a shopping mall or something. When you miss your turn, you crash into shelves with canned food, trip into the next best fridge or end up in a pile of clothing.

[Jango]

Unrelated, but may I suggest a thread title revision?

"Unused or Underused Level Clichés"

Ya, at first I thought it was saying "glitches" xD

Anyway, I would like to see more ice levels, but not just white snow and blue caves, but something like that:

And also more surreal worlds, something like Planet Wisp, with that awesome aura and planets on the background:

Edited June 27, 2012 by Jango

[- Eternal Paradox -]

Anyway, I would like to see more ice levels, but not just white snow and blue caves, but something like that:

And also more surreal worlds, something like Planet Wisp, with that awesome aura and planets on the background:

I second this. It's ABSOLUTELY beatiful.

I realised recently, that there's never really been a "proper" 3D casino level except Heroes, and that had too much focus on the pinball...

Edited June 27, 2012 by Paradox

[Semi-colon e]

My favourite Sonic levels are often either water levels or highway levels. Solution?

COMBINE THEM.

Whether it's like Crisis City but watery (and ergo like the Perfect Chaos setting) or an actual underwater city with underwater highways and stuff, that would be so rad.

Also Generations Planet Wisp and White Park needed to combine their two settings more really, it would have been more effective than simply going from one straight to the next.

Also there aren't many underwater bases, especially ones that have you spend a decent amount of time underwater (I was so disappointed that Ocean Base wasn't much of a water level and Twinkle Snow was actually the water level of the game in terms of amount of water sections)

Edited June 27, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[LoseR]

Musical instrument levels haven't happened at all have they? Wait maybe in Advance 2... I dunno...

We NEED more of those.

[Blue Blood]

My favourite Sonic levels are often either water levels or highway levels. Solution?

COMBINE THEM.

Whether it's like Crisis City but watery (and ergo like the Perfect Chaos setting) or an actual underwater city with underwater highways and stuff, that would be so rad.

I think Riders ZG did a great job of merging a futuristic city with the water trope:

Aquatic Capital and Tempest Waterway looked really, really cool.

I think Sonic tropes are quite often set in their ways a little too much like I said in regards to the tropical jungle stages before. Or let's compare the casino/carnival trope for which Sonic is famous. How many of these stages aren't set in a neon city at night? It'd be really refreshing to run through a street carnival during the day. I thought about that when playing Rocky Coaster in ASR.

[Sarah Jane Smith]

More ideas - an underwater level involving sinking ships or flooding submarines. You'd have to move quickly to avoid the rising water.

Swamps/marshes. They could even be strewn with litter such as tires and old appliances to provide some unique platforming. Sorta like the swamp levels in Donkey Kong Country 2.

I always liked the concept of Bridge Zone for some reason.

[The Weeb with No Name]

Seasonal or holiday themed.

[Milo]

I'd like to see a level that features a forest/meadow at night. Or a level that takes place in a large house or store or resturant, so Sonic and co. are like the size of action figures in it or something. The gimmicks and level hazards are pretty much provide themselves.

[C.J]

I would like to see more haunted levels like Hang Castle or Mystic Mansion, they haven't been used for a while. I don't mind if they bring the same genre but I would like to see more temple/ruin levels, the cybertracks are also a little underused so I wouldn't mind seeing those again, maybe an electric circuit level would be quite fun, passing through light speed tunnels etc. I also wouldn't mind seeing more levels based on real locations similar to what Unleashed did! and more themepark levels would be pretty fun it would bring more diversity IMO:) As for levels which haven't been used I think I'd like to see autumn seasoned type of level which could take place in a forest etc or maybe a level with an aceleration path going through different parts of the level (a mix of Grand Metropolis/PP and ST from ASR) and maybe an swamp level where characters would have to go through vines, bushes, pass through water using gimmicks or creatures as pathways. Maybe we could also have cave levels hich can feature platforming or a Sky themed level set a night, using a rainbow as a path (or something similar) with clouds and other planets featuring in the background, could be pretty sweet.

[Johnny Boy]

I'd really like to see a human body themed level. Come on, it might be a bit gross but it would be cool to see.