30 Days of Sonic DAY 3 - Poll of the Week 1: 'Green Hill Zone' [30DOS22]

[Dreadknux]

Welcome to Day 3 of 30 Days of Sonic! Fridays are Fun days, so every week our activity will be super easy...

Poll of the Week

All you need to do to participate in VOTE in each week's poll, and post a reply in this topic so that we can tell you voted (you don't have to tell us which way you voted if you don't want to... but it might cause some fun debate!). To keep things light, we kept all of these Poll questions as fun and silly as possible!

For taking part in today's activity (you have between now and Monday 6 June at 23:59 UK Time the end of the month), you will be eligible for the following badge...

This is the BLUE badge for Poll of the Week. This is rewarded to all users who participate in ONE Poll of the Week activity throughout the month of June (regardless of which day). The more Poll of the Weeks you participate in, the more badges you get!

Poll of the Week

Which version of Green Hill Zone is the best?

Don't give me any chat about missing versions of GHZ, we stuck to a solid six and you have to pick your favourite from those only (although if you want to rant and rave about a version we omitted in the poll, feel free to talk about how awesome that version is in your post - just let us know that you voted in the poll first so we can track your participation!)

I'm not telling you how I voted. Yet.  

OK, I'll tell you how I voted. I actually went with Sunset Hill from Sonic Advance 3. As much as the other GHZ renditions are more iconic (and perhaps more important), it was really cool (back in the day) to see such a different interpretation of the stage, just by switching the time of day. There were some great level gimmicks as well, and the music was insanely good (except for Act 2) too. Just a really unique turn on the old 'bring back GHZ' trope.

Go!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Personally speaking, this is a tricky one for me because GHZ hasn't really ever been one of my favourite zones. Given Heroes was my first game, I have more nostalgia with Seaside Hill as a starting stage than I do with GHZ.

That said, out of all of them, I'd say Generations - particularly Modern Sonic's version of it is my favourite version of the level. It takes what is generally a simplistic stage and turns it on it's head with great implementation of boost-era gameplay tricks. Rail grinding, the fish chase, the trick system, the generally great sense of speed you get from it, it's easily my favourite remake of it (Keeping in mind I never played SA2's version). Mania's a close second at least for the Death Egg Fight alone though.

[Teoskaven]

Sonic Mania from my limited experience seems to have the better version just because it's refined and plays with your expectations at the end.

[Sonic Fan 3,183]

Fun fact, so far no one has voted for Forces. Green Hill looking a lot more like sad hill.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Nobody voted for SA2’s because no one unlocked it LOL

[Iko]

I voted Sunset Hill because the Advance series deserves more love, even though I hate Advance 3's level design.

The objectively best version is either the original, or the Mania revamped version which is the same but with more stuff. In general I prefer the original for being simpler and more intuitive, but I do like some parts of the Mania version too, which I also replayed recently (I dropped it at the spider boss of Flying Battery out of rage after getting a gameover from unfair deaths).

I don't dislike the more blocky look of Forces' Green Hill, I think it's more faithful to the original version which already was very geometrical... the one in Generations looks cool but a bit too much messy for my tastes.

[Jake_LeOFFICIAL]

I love Sonic Generations' take on Green Hill, but I have to go with Mania here. The nice Act 1+2 combo in Act 1 and the mix of new level design with GHZ Act 3 in Act 2, plus both bosses, are all pretty neat.

The SA2 version is cool as well, love the callback. Original GHZ is super iconic, and I never played Advance 3.

we don't talk about forces.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

13 minutes ago, SIXTH-RATE SOMA said:

Nobody voted for SA2’s because no one unlocked it LOL

 

13 minutes ago, Sonic Fan 3,183 said:

Fun fact, so far no one has voted for Forces. Green Hill looking a lot more like sad hill.

One of these days, I'd love to unlock SA2 GHZ lol.

[iDEATH]

Went with Sonic Mania, having the death egg robot in the first level is a fun twist. 

[NegaMix]

It was close between Generations and Mania for me... but ultimately, Mania just inches the win. Both are great first stages to showcase the skills you'll be using throughout each game, though I think Mania's take gives you more options and pathways to discover, on top of showing off how the elemental shields have evolved since Sonic 3 (key example being the Flame Shield burning down those spiked log bridges).

Generations' version is also a lot of fun, especially when trying to set a new time record, but I personally find myself less inclined to return to it once the Red Rings are all collected.

[Winston]

I’m going with Sonic Generations Green Hill, because we get double the Green Hill in one package! But in all seriousness, I’ve probably had the most fun with that version, even above Mania’s, but that would be a close second.

[Stasis]

Sonic Generations Modern Green Hill is one of those stages you can blast through and have a good time with. 

[TheOcelot]

The original GH is iconic. Has good design and I can't really find any faults. SA2's GH is a fantastic recreation in 3D, fun to play and controls pretty well. Gens Modern stage is a solid enough first stage (the classic version less so). SA3's GH has the craziest design out of all the games in this poll. Forces GH (like most of that game) is unremarkable and boring.

Mania's version has a few minor flaws, but is overall a fun, well designed, creative reimagining of GH. Adding Death Egg Robot at the end was genius...and pure evil

So I choose Mania.

[NikoS]

I voted for the OG Green Hill, since it's the one that kickstarted it all, both the Sonic series and the Green Hill trope, and it's the only one that managed to keep me from beating it for months.

But I need to shout out Generations's Green Hill, it's the one that made me pay attention to the series again after some years, so it have it's credits too

[Adamabba]

I voted for SA2's Green Hill. It's not even necessarily my favorite one to run through, it's just a really cool reward for %100ing the game.

[Cosmos Rogue]

Sonic 1's Green Hill Zone is still the ideal of what a Sonic level should be, the standard by which all other stages are judged. The blend of platforming, exploration, and speed is sublime.

[Solister]

Sonic 1 (1991) because it is the original one.

Although it's a pretty popular opinion how overused the level is, and despite not being as iconic, levels like Chemical Plant and Sky Sanctuary are much more interesting.

[Dr. Mechano]

Sonic Mania.

It's like a spruced-up, fancier version of the original zone we all know and love. It even has cavernous sections reminiscent of the 8-bit version. 

It's by far my favorite version of this very heavily re-re-reused zone.

[Celestia]

Voted for Sonic Mania, natch. This is almost too easy, it's a really cool update with a lot of layers to it even in the first act. Though I'm especially fond of Act 2, the pulleys are really fun and I love the underground concept as a sort of reference to the 8-bit Green Hill. That and the music is one of the best and most memorable tracks in the game.

Also I still think it's clever how they refitted the Death Egg Robot into being a reasonable first boss. I mean you have Rings, but also the geometry and it's attacks give you a much easier time of hitting it. (...Also you can kind of just chill in the corner and hit it from below if you want.)

[Ducktor Naldush]

hey, buonasera, remember when in Day 1 I said this?

Quote

(...) but Sonic 1? I absolutely loved it. Even now, I would stand by the opinion that 1 on the MS is actually better than the one on the Mega Drive, but I know those are dangerous words, so I'll stop here.

Yeah, my answer would be "Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 on the Master System", but you fiends found it unworthy, dishonor on you, dishonor on your cows.                                                 

 

That being said, I guess my vote will have to go Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 on the Mega Drive. Iconic, the start of it all, can't go wrong with that. Unless you keep milking it for cheap nostalgia tokens. 

 

[Covskin]

I think I'm going to have to go for the original. Opening levels are always important, and in the context of a new franchise even more so. I'm thinking particularly of Act 1, a level which can be completed in as quick as 30 seconds when you know what you're doing but way longer if you want to explore. It has all the trappings of what a classic Sonic level is. As stated above, its what all other levels get judged against.

Sonic Advenutre 2 is a cool idea and a genius reward but never quite sat right. The 3D doesn't translate as well as it could.

Generations is great fun, but a couple of the stop/start segments with wall jumping / stomps drag it down a little for me.

Mania is a great version too, but (and I'm being hyper critical here) its kinda over-complicated with gimmicks for a first stage?  Like, if its your first Sonic game you're missing out on all the fan references and there's a lot going on. Its a great level, but doesn't match the highs of the original.

Never played Sonic Advance 3. This post took me longer to write than it did to play the Forces stages.

[JezMM]

I went with Sonic Adventure 2, because it holds the most meaning for me.  Back then, youtube wasn't really a thing (in fact, I didn't really use the internet much until Sonic X came out, Heroes sorta time - and this was the time where it took a whole day to download a 240p realplayer format Sonic X episode - an entire week for a high quality 480p .avi file!!), so I had no way of knowing what it even looked like.  The promise of a 3D recreation of the first zone from the series sounded so incredibly novel and cool at the time (if only I knew eh?) so with my 100-page printed copy of a GameFAQs 100% completion guide in hand, I set to my task over the school holidays to get every last emblem.  Some of those A ranks were hellish, and the chao gardens were such a timesink, but I nowadays I relish the memories of those laidback days where I had all the disposable time in the world to play.

Finally seeing it for myself was unforgettable, I felt no time had been wasted.  What's funny is that it took me by surprise how it looked!  Because of a combination of Sonic Adventure 2's realistic art style and typical "humans can't imagine stuff they've never seen all that well", in my head I envisioned it as having realistic textures and resembling Green Forest a fair bit, with realistic grass and rocky terrain etc.  Seeing the bright, colourful geometric shapes took me by surprise for a moment.  And because I grew up with the 8-bit games, I didn't actually know Green Hill Act 1 like the back of my hand, so the accuracy of the recreation was lost on me - I ended up going back and forth between Sonic Adventure 2 and Mega Collection, in awe of how accurate the remake was once I studied the original (as well as how wildly different he sense of scale is in 2D vs 3D, even though relative to Sonic, all those cliffs are the same height more or less!).

In fact... I've always had trouble holding full Sonic stage layouts for most of the 2D games in my head, my memory works much better in 3D environments.  In the end, I only know GHZ Act 1's full layout perfectly nowadays because of the easier-to-remember 3D version acting as an aid.

[Multikaris]

I could say Advance 3 due to nostalgia and the soundtrack… but design wise it’s the Mania version. The sheer amount of things you can do there, and the nods to basically every past version of it, and that exciting boss fight… ahhh.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I went with the OG, even though technically Mania is the better stage.

[Guy Strong]

Mega unpopular opinion, but my vote goes to SA2's green hill. 

I love how they ported the original green hill in FULL 3D as faithfully as they could. No 2D crutch sections, just all 3D all the time. I think it's such a nice reward bonus for 100%ing the game, and it's a neat little taste of what a traditional Sonic type of stage would play like in full 3D, even if it isn't perfect. It's almost comical how different green hill is from the rest of the game, but I think that makes it all the more fun!

I love this stage and I wish they'd do something like this again.