Favorite Final Level in a Sonic Game?

[SpaceySpace]

What is your favorite final level in Sonic Game? Do you enjoy it because whenever you replay the level it gives you least amount of trouble? Or maybe you enjoy it not because of the gameplay but purely for what it represents the overall theme of the level. Or maybe there is just some other unknown reason you enjoy this level. I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

[Zaysho]

Hey there, SpaceySpace, welcome to the Stadium!

I'd like to point out we prefer topics with stronger opening posts as they're more likely to invite discussion and open the floor to other members to get the ball rolling. While, in most cases, I'd consider locking this, I'd like to give you the chance to edit and flesh out your post with your own thoughts since we actually don't have a topic like this and I think it could be interesting (when I have more time, I'd like to contribute, myself!)

[DeadAccount2]

Egg Rocket/Cosmic Angel Zone. (But moreso Egg Rocket for it's intense atmosphere and music, it really makes it feel like there is a lot more at stake.)

[JezMM]

Eggmanland, every time for me.  A controversial choice I know, but here are the key selling points:

It's MASSIVE

Even some of the longest final stages in Sonic games have tended to be about 5 minutes tops when played well.  Eggmanland meanwhile takes a good 40 minutes to an hour to traverse.  No Eggman base has ever felt so vast and intimidating, and you get to see every step of the journey from the entrance to the core.  While others have come CLOSE to this feeling (Cannon's Core in particular), they've still always been split into multiple maps.  Eggmanland really gains an extra something from being uninterrupted by fadeouts from start to finish, and I commend the stage designers for both risking such a controversial design decision and pulling it off on a technical level too.

It's INTIMIDATING

No other Sonic stage has ever felt quite so threateningly out to kill me as this one.  The colour scheme is violently aggressive, the stage is full of moving parts at all times, some aesthetic and some threatening.  The theme park motif with fairground rides and giggling Eggman faces creates a gorgeous dissonance where elements of a safe, happy place are twisted and placed into a hellish nightmarescape of a level, without going so far into the dark it doesn't seem like something Eggman wouldn't have made, full of his bombastic attitude.  Then you have particular set-pieces like tumbling down an air vent of spinning blades, trying to conquer a conveyor belt barely going slower than yourself in the opposite direction, and of course, the best part - a thrilling roller coaster that subverts your expectations of it being a scripted sequence by literally throwing you into a dangerous bobsled section off-guard... but you've done this before in Cool Edge, so it's not throwing you into the deep end without having even taught you to swim yet.  The daytime soundtrack definitely adds to this feeling.  It's not a complicated or particularly mindblowing track, but it has an utter relentless energy to it that never dies down even during the quieter sections.  The nighttime music feels more like you're carefully navigating and infilterating the place, but the reused main melody and instrumentation makes it clear that the danger is still all around you at all times, closing in.

It's HARD

Due to Sonic Unleashed's imperfect controls, this is the point of contention for most detractors of course.  It is a damn hard challenge, and there's no way around it.  Sonic Unleashed is not a game with any hand holding... in fact to it's detriment frequently, but for those who enjoy the gameplay and want to take on the challenge, they are given a very worthy final exam.  Full of multiple routes to discover too, an an extra life handed out at nearly every checkpoint, makes this a gruelling but fair challenge.  It's a shame that it would be spoiling of the overall effect to have broken it up with mid-level saves or even a warning before you go in that you won't be coming out for a while, though.

It's BEEN A LONG TIME COMING

Eggmanland has been spoken of as one of Eggman's biggest objectives since Sonic Adventure.  It didn't come up that often but didn't get forgotten about either.  Now it's finally here and, for the above reasons, every bit as grand as it deserves to be.  My only critique is the relative lack of fanfare for it before you travel there, with Tails just asking if you're ready to head to the last Temple of Gaia as if it's no big thing.

 

So yeah.  Like a lot of Unleashed, I to-ho-tally get why people hate this stage mind you, there's plenty of reasons to.  The lack of warning that this is a long stage before you're in it has probably lead to many players having to repeat a lot of gameplay due to either a Game Over at one of the few checkpoints that don't provide a free 1-Up, or due to simply having to quit the game mid-level.  The Werehog pipes section is notoriously cruel mainly due to very poorly thought out camera work making you fall off due to changes in relative direction and the distances of jumpable gaps unclear.  The hardest parts of Sonic's sections were simple QTE ramps which were likely impossible for many people who suffer dexterity problems due to age, disability, or just simply being people who can't process that style of instruction so fast.  Such mean QTEs are just fake difficulty and at the very least should have only appeared on optional, harder paths.  Finally, after the coolness of Sonic's sections, it's a shame that the stage ends on a bunch of challenging but typical arena fights after a slow and - unless you know the shortcut - very lengthy Werehog platforming section.  This is redeemed a little though thanks to the daytime boss letting you have one last spin with some totally vanilla daytime Sonic gameplay on the Gaia Colosuss.

Everything wrong with Unleashed, this stage has tenfold, so I get the hatred.  But it has everything great with Unleashed tenfold too, and just like the rest of the game, for me the good outweighs the bad.

^{Wish you were here! <3}

Edited November 23, 2016 by JezMM

[Wraith]

I'm gonna go with Final Egg. It's a huge stage that, somehow, takes more advantage of Sonic's physics than any of the previous levels with lots of twists, curves, and traps themed around these ideas. For the first(and last) time in this game, it feels like the training wheels are coming off. The atmosphere is the same as the above mentioned intimidating Eggman land. Not as huge and imposing, but the unsettling, run down look to it makes up for it. The fact that you get glimpses of it through the other characters's smaller campaigns before playing the full thing as Sonic is also neat. I guess it depends on what order you play the stories in for that, though. 

The songs that play are  awesome, especially this one when the intensity(aka the amount of Sonic auto-running sections) kicks up.

 

[Forte-Metallix]

I've always been fond of Egg Fleet/Final Fortress from Sonic Heroes:

Egg Fleet has a strong sense of energy. As you run, jump, fly, and glide from ship to ship thousands of feet in the air, tearing apart any Badnik that gets in your way, you're treated to a rocking tune that gets your blood pumping!

Final Fortress is more subdued in its energy, in favor of a strong sense of tension. You're at the end of your journey. Eggman is just one more Goal Ring away, but to get to it, you have to overcome dozens of supercharged mechs, city block-sized laser cannons, and a few flimsy platforms which are the only things standing between you and a one-way drop towards certain doom.

My only criticism towards this Zone is that it overstays its welcome a smidge- especially in Dark and Chaotix's stories! But I'll gladly overlook it if it means getting to tear through this armada with only three anthropomorphic animals!

[Nightly]

One of my favourites has always been Ice Paradise Zone.

This level always reminded me of going to Downtown Toronto as a kid in winter when night has fallen, what with it's background of a city of shimmering lights lighting up the dark, as well as the music which is joyous and cheerful, sounding like a high energy Christmas melody.

On top of that I really like how the level managed to find an ice gimmick that works well with Sonic. Instead of just having icy floors that reduces friction (or like any of the previous ice levels in Sonic games that pretty much just never really addressed the ice at all), on certain clearly defined sections Sonic just kinda slides down going in one direction and usually requires you to jump at the right time to get off of it and back to running. On one hand it's kinda limiting cause it reduces your movement, but on the other it's really not a huge deal, as it pretty much works as any other running set-pieces in Sonic where you just speed through bits that look and feel good to play, especially for a game as linear as Sonic Advance 2. 

[JezMM]

9 hours ago, Nightly said:

One of my favourites has always been Ice Paradise Zone.

This level always reminded me of going to Downtown Toronto as a kid in winter when night has fallen, what with it's background of a city of shimmering lights lighting up the dark, as well as the music which is joyous and cheerful, sounding like a high energy Christmas melody.

On top of that I really like how the level managed to find an ice gimmick that works well with Sonic. Instead of just having icy floors that reduces friction (or like any of the previous ice levels in Sonic games that pretty much just never really addressed the ice at all), on certain clearly defined sections Sonic just kinda slides down going in one direction and usually requires you to jump at the right time to get off of it and back to running. On one hand it's kinda limiting cause it reduces your movement, but on the other it's really not a huge deal, as it pretty much works as any other running set-pieces in Sonic where you just speed through bits that look and feel good to play, especially for a game as linear as Sonic Advance 2. 

While this is a good post (and I agree with your positivity for this stage), the topic is about your favourite final levels.

_{...Well unless you're talking about that one fangame Ultimate Flash Sonic which literally just had Leaf Forest and Ice Paradise as the only two levels in it.}

^{God everyone used to try and sneakily play that on school computers back in the day.}

[Nightly]

9 hours ago, JezMM said:

While this is a good post (and I agree with your positivity for this stage), the topic is about your favourite final levels.

_{...Well unless you're talking about that one fangame Ultimate Flash Sonic which literally just had Leaf Forest and Ice Paradise as the only two levels in it.}

^{God everyone used to try and sneakily play that on school computers back in the day.}

Whoops, I didn't even notice that it said "final" levels. Sorry about that, I dunno how I didn't catch that ^^;;

 

When it comes to final levels I've always liked Wing Fortress Zone.

This stage's always just really had a cool atmosphere to me, and it really communicates that it's a place that truly wants to stop you, even though there's only really two enemies here, the little chicken guys in turrets and the laser blast cannon things.

How it manages this is through both of those enemies having artillery and not just kinda being there and throwing something like most of the other badniks in the game. Guns are inherently violent, and seeing how you really haven't seen a ton of em aside from the Buzzers and seahorse things, having two of the obstacles firing at you gives you a sense of "Oh, Eggman's really not messing around here". Also with the stage being a flying air ship, there's an inherent fear of falling off into the bottomless pit you mess up.

On top of that, almost nothing in the stage seems specifically built to helping you progress. I mean technically there is, like the bars underneath the ship that you need to grab on to and jump off, but more than anything I feel like all the platforms on the stage mean to just be a part of the ship's general design. Like all of those things serve a purpose being on there even if it's not implicitly clear what all of them are for, and you're just taking advantage of them.

Then at the very end you have to face one of the hardest bosses in the game. I don't feel like I really need to describe it in depth, but it requires a bunch of tricky jumps around three floating platforms with spikes on the bottom that go all over the place along with a giant laser that you have to dodge. On top of all of this Eggman's off to the side gleefully chuckling at you. Now, you've been fighting Eggman throughout the entire game at this point building a grudge against him, or at least wanting to take him down. You may have noticed in those bosses that whenever he lands a hit on you he always grins. Here though, he's grinning all the time even when his robot hasn't hasn't hit you. He's so sure of himself and his invention that he feels like there's no way he could possibly lose, which makes the player really feel resentful against the guy, and makes them want to destroy this robot and get to him. Additionally, Eggman's over to the right blocking your progress. In film and games, moving towards the right symbolizes a character progressing, which obviously is something that all people want and can relate to. In this boss fight, not only are you boxed in stopping your progress, but also Eggman's over to the right where you can't reach him, enforcing the idea that he's blocking your progress and making you even more determined to get to and stop him. I feel like this boss might not have had quite as much punch to it, or at least would've felt weird is Eggman was say, over to the left instead of the right, so him being there really adds to things even if only a little bit.

Then after you beat it you get a short cutscene to give you some time to revel in the fact that you finally beat this tough boss (especially if this was you're first time), and it shows Sonic getting to the Death Egg to fight the final bosses of the game.

So yea, I think this level's pretty rad and I dunno how to end this post.

[Salamander]

I suppose there's an argument to be made about whether final zones which consist only of a boss fight or fights should really count; they're not full zones, certainly.

On 23/11/2016 at 7:19 PM, NanoRim said:

Egg Rocket/Cosmic Angel Zone. (But moreso Egg Rocket for it's intense atmosphere and music, it really makes it feel like there is a lot more at stake.)

That zone has lots of neat little touches; the way the Egg Rocket literally launches at the start of the level; the fact that it continues to jettison sections throughout; the way the second act is halfway between a continuation and another level entirely.  The realisation is really interesting.

For myself, I don't think I could pick a favourite - well, I could, and it's S3K Death Egg, but somebody will probably cover it better and in more detail than I can.  But I wanted to draw attention to Chaos Angel from Sonic Advance 3 for not having even the remotest hint of a technology or space theme, which is exceedingly unusual for the series and almost unique.  (The only other example I can think of is Pirates' Island from Rush Adventure.)

[SpaceySpace]

On 11/23/2016 at 7:33 PM, Forte-Metallix said:

I've always been fond of Egg Fleet/Final Fortress from Sonic Heroes:

Egg Fleet has a strong sense of energy. As you run, jump, fly, and glide from ship to ship thousands of feet in the air, tearing apart any Badnik that gets in your way, you're treated to a rocking tune that gets your blood pumping!

Final Fortress is more subdued in its energy, in favor of a strong sense of tension. You're at the end of your journey. Eggman is just one more Goal Ring away, but to get to it, you have to overcome dozens of supercharged mechs, city block-sized laser cannons, and a few flimsy platforms which are the only things standing between you and a one-way drop towards certain doom.

My only criticism towards this Zone is that it overstays its welcome a smidge- especially in Dark and Chaotix's stories! But I'll gladly overlook it if it means getting to tear through this armada with only three anthropomorphic animals!

Lol I thought I was the only person who enjoyed these stages. However, after replaying Heroes recently I have to say both of these stages are my all time favorite in Sonic Heroes. However ONLY with Team Sonic (due to the other teams have a longer version & because A-ranking Egg Fleet with Rose proved to be difficult). I can see why fans were upset that neither of these stages returned in Generations.

 

On 11/23/2016 at 1:41 PM, Zaysho said:

Hey there, SpaceySpace, welcome to the Stadium!

I'd like to point out we prefer topics with stronger opening posts as they're more likely to invite discussion and open the floor to other members to get the ball rolling. While, in most cases, I'd consider locking this, I'd like to give you the chance to edit and flesh out your post with your own thoughts since we actually don't have a topic like this and I think it could be interesting (when I have more time, I'd like to contribute, myself!)

I altered the original post now. Does it meet the standards or should I add more information & be more in depth?