Worst Stage in Any Sonic Game

[azoo]

Crisis City. Even if 70% of the whole game sucks, it's probably the worst stage ever made in a 3D Sonic game.

That's weird; I thought Crisis City (along with Kingdom Valley) were the best levels in the whole game.

Anyways, what I would consider the worst stage..... hmm....

The verdict has to be Labyrinth Zone. (Waiting for the flamewar..) The level looks very bland, and as if the stage being filled with water was bad enough, the whole stage was smothered in countless hazards that made the stage a living hell to play. And not just that, but the fact that the level is really slow (and that's not counting the water parts either). The whole level just seemed very sluggish and boring, and the only fast(er) parts were completely scripted into the gameplay. Also to note that it felt like ages to get out of that level. And the neverending "boss" (which is really just a fleeing Eggman) doesn't help the stage's length either.

EDIT: I'm sorry I jumped the bandwagon, as I just noticed Egg Quarters isn't AS bad as I remembered.. but still, I should now consider that mostly all of the SA2 Knuckles / Rouge stages were really bad. Reasons? 20 minutes of being lost, with a radar that lies, bland design, not-so-good combat & hearing R&B/Hip hop music loop at least 20,000 times before finishing the level (and don't hate; I like R&B & hiphop too, ya know).

Edited April 19, 2009 by Azukara

[JezMM]

I agree with a previous poster who didn't understand the Egg Quarters hate. It's much better than the huge confusing Death Chamber, and I love the scramble to the shadows when the beetle robot spots you. It's actually rather tense and a very cool gimmick for the level. I wish there was more "simple" stealth like that involved in Rouge's levels. The only other stuff we got similar to her spy role was the navigating through laser grids in Security Hall.

[Erazor]

I will forever hate Silver's Dusty Desert in Sonic '06. That ball puzzle... ugh. Even the glitch to get through it was unreliable.

[CreamyBagel]

I hated Crazy Gadget, I tried time after time to do that stage and every time I failed. It was the part where you have to jump on those gun robots with the electric shield to get to the other side then at the last minute dash across a trail of rings. It also took me quite a while to figure out what to do on those coloured boxes.

Cannon's core was also tricky during Sonic's mission as everytime I tried to jump on that blue alien (with the stretchy arms) I would end up getting hit and fall into the pit.

I hate that first stage in ShtH because I've been forced to play it so many times over and over again. It makes me cry ;_;

As for the 2D games I really hate Chemical Plant Zone and Aquatic Ruin. I kept falling off the stage in Chemical plant zone and I kept falling into the water and drowning in Aquatic Ruin.

[Semi-colon e]

Route 280 is a piece of shit and shouldn't even be a level.

Worse still though is Black Comet. Final Haunt is bad enough but having the exact same but longer and with those fucking annoying saucers while THERE'S SO MUCH SHIT TRYING TO KILL YOU is lame as hell, and unlike many annoying stages (Crazy Gadget, Lost World etc) it never gets enjoyable.

[lounge]

I'd have to say Mystic Mansion. It's a pretty bad layout for a sonic game. Not bad as in poor, but bad as in not exciting at all. All the rooms are the same. No loops, no slopes, and that music drives me absolutely crazy. I can't believe people say they actually like this level's music. It's SO IRRITATING to listen to. It's all poorly made electronic, with no real instruments used.

The ghosts are real lame. The only thing I like about them is that they have the same face as some of the faces on those pumpkin hill mountains, lol.

Also, who can forget the very last room in the level, with all those damn colors in the background. That literally hurt my eyes. And it's very easy to fall off those bridges with no hand rails.

The art design in the level is nice though. Nice detail. I also liked the look of the outside when you get to the goal ring. There's a serene, green field in the background.

And for 2D, I hate Labyrinth Zone. Horribly designed. Extremely slow, and boring. And that spike placement is irritating.

Edited April 19, 2009 by lounge

[Tyranno]

Labyrinth Zone and Wacky Workbench need to die. /o/

[CreamyBagel]

I'd have to say Mystic Mansion. It's a pretty bad layout for a sonic game. Not bad as in poor, but bad as in not exciting at all. All the rooms are the same. No loops, no slopes, and that music drives me absolutely crazy. I can't believe people say they actually like this level's music. It's SO IRRITATING to listen to. It's all poorly made electronic, with no real instruments used.

The ghosts are real lame. The only thing I like about them is that they have the same face as some of the faces on those pumpkin hill mountains, lol.

Also, who can forget the very last room in the level, with all those damn colors in the background. That literally hurt my eyes. And it's very easy to fall off those bridges with no hand rails.

The art design in the level is nice though. Nice detail. I also liked the look of the outside when you get to the goal ring. There's a serene, green field in the background.

I hated that stage as Team Dark/Team Sonic. Those damn pumpkin ghosts always ended up hitting me and then I would lose all of my rings and die or fall off the edge of the stage because the button for the dash would never work correctly.

Yeah I love the goal ring scenery too, it's so pretty.

[Frozen Nitrogen]

That's weird; I thought Crisis City (along with Kingdom Valley) were the best levels in the whole game.

^ This, for Crisis City anyway. I did hate the level 'cos it was so freaking frustrating trying to get Sonic's S-rank on Hard, but after playing it umpteen times trying to do precisely that, the familiarity kinda makes it grow on you. And now I love it - a crazy, post-apocalyptic hellscape with FLAME TWISTERS THAT THROW CARS AT YOU. What's not cool about that?

I love End Of The World too, even if that's also frustrating as anything. The spherical tears in reality look just like the Eye of Sauron.

16-bit Labyrinth Zone, though... oh man. The drowning music used to make me run out of the room crying when I was little. So... much... trauma...

[Rusty Spy]

Underground Zone can burn in a pool of lava. Now you may be thinking: "It's not fair to judge an entire stage off of just one act." Well, frankly, IT'S THAT BAD.

[Phos]

Sonic 2 GG only gets harder from there, with a brief respite of GHZ.

[Dark Qiviut]

For 2D, it's Carnival Night, Act 2. *kicks the stupid barrel* That barrel made me hate this game for a long time as a kid, and I still avoid the level because I still hate the level so much.

Underground, Act 3 is a close second, because the first level alone was incredibly, stupidly hard to beat. Sonic 2 (GG) is my least favorite Sonic game.

For 3D, it's Casinopolis (Sonic) and Final Fortress (Team Dark). I found Casinopolis to be incredibly confusing to get around, and the ring-collecting felt exceedingly tedious. Team Dark's stages are hard for a good reason, but my GOODNESS, this was really difficult. After getting a "A," I haven't played that level as Team Dark since.

[Surge]

Casino Night Zone in Sonic 3. I absolutely hate any and all casino levels! I can't run through them without being bounced around

[JezMM]

You guys need to play the Master System version of Sonic 2, seriously. The Game Gear version is a terrible port in terms of difficulty. You're seriously missing out on one of the best 8-bit Sonic games.

Don't write off Sonic 2 8-bit due to the GG version. This might be a bit of an extreme example, but that'd be almost like writing off the original Sonic The Hedgehog based on playing the terrible GBA port.

Edited April 19, 2009 by JezMM

[Silvereclipse]

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle

Meteor Herd was just so big and I always got lost on this level.

Egg Quarters was hard because of the Security Robot just circling around the stage, but it was the only stage that made me feel that I had to be stealthy while playing as Rouge.

Cannon's Core was kinda easy when playing as Eggman, Tails, and Rouge. Knuckles and Sonic however were just plain difficult.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Lost Impact is very long and it doesn't make it any better if you defeat all the Artificial Chaos except for one and have to backtrack and listen to Maria to find it. The music does soothe you when you feel like your about to explode from anger. I solved this stage once and I cannot do it again. All I can say is that its very tempting to do the Neutral Mission instead of Hero.

Cosmic Falls: Pretty much like everyones says, the camera is your enemy on this stage. You can never make the jump because at the last minute the camera changes. Oh well at least Vector was there to entertain you.

Sonic 06

I hate the Mach Stages because they are very hard to control. The only stage that is easy is Crisis City. The rings there are your best friend to help you throughout that stage when using your Lights Speed Dash.

I think the End of the World stage is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, but there is so much crap trying to ram into you making it easy for you to die. And Amy's stage in White Acropolis is friggen hard not to die from because she runs so slow and she's a magnet for getting hit by boxes. Its very hard to get an S Rank.

Sonic and the Black Knight- 350 Ring Chain in Avalon

The stage is beautiful and I love the music, but I can't stand having that Giant One make me lose my Ring Chain in which I pretty much fail the mission.

[JEV3]

Sometimes it isn't the stage itself as much as a specific area, in those cases I'll note it.

In no particular order:

Labyrinth Zone (S1)

The Cauldron (SBK)

Misty Lake - Will o' the Wisps(SBK)

Final Fortress (SH - Dark and Chaotix)

Mystic Mansion - Final Trials (SH - Dark and Sonic)

Metropolis Zone - After I get bored (S2)

Hot Shelter - After I get bored (SA)

Apotos Night - After I get bored (SU)

Sky Babylon - Only the final balloon gimmick (SRA)

Levitated Ruin - Some Towers (SatSR)

Carnival Night 2 - The flooded area... barrel was fine when I knew what to do (S3)

How much they bother me really depends on what kind of mood I'm in at the time. Some of them really don't bother me other than the fact that they are repetitive and dull, of which Metropolis is the highest offender. Aside from the first few stages (which are only really boring on replay because I was still learning the first time), the Werehog on the Wii actually was quite enjoyable. I need to stress though that the Misty Lake mission I'm talking about is the one where instead of throwing hoards of enemies at you, everything is covered in Will o' the Wisps, and the only thing you can attack is surrounded by flocks of citizens. I still haven't got past the blockaded rail. The cauldron really only bothered me because of the lack of respawn points and the un-fun bonus missions.

Fortunately, Sonic and the Black Knight offers plenty of enemy-heavy levels for you to take out your anger on. There is nothing so satisfying as cutting through the hoards of spiders in Great Megalith... without soul surge.

Edited April 19, 2009 by JEV3

[Rusty Spy]

By the way, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Mad Space from SA2. Take ridiculously large levels like Meteor Herd and add terrible controls and you've got a shit fest like no other.

[Sean]

Mad Space was indeed pretty awful, though it could have been better (and a lot more enjoyable when you're not trying to A rank it) if it weren't for the selective gravity. Actually, I didn't really like any of the space stages in SA2, except for Meteor Herd (really fun) and Cosmic Wall (extremely easy). I suppose Lost Colony counts as a space stage, but since it's pretty early in the game, it's not really mind-numbingly annoying.

While I'm tempted to say Wacky Workbench, I can't blame that level for having such funky past music (it's still the worst-designed level in the 16-bit era), but I think some of the worst levels ever are really Casino Park and BINGO Highway. Casino Park's pinball mechanics weren't really pinball mechanics at all, nor were they much like the regular physics in that game either, making way for an extremely tedious process of trying to get your characters past every table. BINGO Highway suffers from the same problems as well as those tedious pits in the bingo slides.

They really should have just stuck with SA1's pinball mechanics in Casinopolis. That level was pretty fun.

Edited April 19, 2009 by Sailor Jakey

[SuperStingray]

Worst levels...

Underground Zone - THAT CLAW. THAT GOD DAMN CLAW.

Lost Impact - I would have been fine if you didn't have to find every single god damn one. Thirty out of fourty-five would have been fine.

Kingdom Valley - Just really drawn out. It had my favorite mach section in the game simply because of the ambiance, but the controls still sucked for it.

Aquatic Base - Also way too long. And just dull really.

Dusty Desert (Silver) - That ball puzzle makes Sonic 3's barrel child's play.

By the way, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Mad Space from SA2. Take ridiculously large levels like Meteor Herd and add terrible controls and you've got a shit fest like no other.

I've got no beefs with Mad Space. Okay, trying to get past the equator on the spherical planet was more of a chore than it should have been, but I don't think the level was that big; most of it was taken up by empty space. In fact, it's probably my favorite treasure hunting stage because I like those pseudo clues. They're easy to figure out, but it's fun to decipher the backwards ones and the ones that tell you not to do something are kind of funny.

[Yong]

All Sonic 06 DLC levels.

Not only do you have to buy these seperately from the game, the Team Amigo and Boss Attack levels are all single long consecutive 20 minute levels.

"OMG, I'm gonna get that S rank! *dies on last section 20 minutes* FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-----!!!"

[Thirsty Pocket]

I was playing Amy's story on Sonic Adventure last night.

God damn is the Hot shelter just plain awful. That first "move the colored blocks" bit was pointless. at least the second one had you avoiding Zero. To tell the truth the only stage I genuinely enjoyed as Amy, was Final Egg.

Labyrinth Zone was pretty bad, but then again, so are almost all water levels in any video game.

Wacky Workbench in Sonic CD wasn't any treat either. I think there was a stage just like it in Sonic Triple Trouble.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Lando The Bat

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Labyrinth Zone was pretty bad, but then again, so are almost all water levels in any video game.

The ones in Ecco the Dolphin were pretty sweet.

The "music" could drive you into a crippling spiral of existential paranoia and loneliness, though.

Good times.

Edited April 20, 2009 by Frozen Nitrogen

[DC111]

Shadow the Hedgehog, Air Fleet, dark mission. I'm actually surprised nobody else has mentioned this yet. It's easier now, but it took me so long to beat that mission. It's a thousand times worse than Lethal Highway - beating that alien tank thingy is NOTHING compared to this. You have to shoot at the damn escape pod CONSTANTLY or it doesn't work! You get to the near-end where you're going down on the elevating platform and you're thinking, "Okay, I shot this thing through the WHOLE DAMN LEVEL and sent it down EVERY DAMN RED PATH and picked up ALL THE DAMN AMMO I could find - it HAS to die!" And it just doesn't! It doesn't. *walks of crying and sucking thumb*

[Frozen Nitrogen]

Shadow the Hedgehog, Air Fleet, dark mission. I'm actually surprised nobody else has mentioned this yet. It's easier now, but it took me so long to beat that mission. It's a thousand times worse than Lethal Highway - beating that alien tank thingy is NOTHING compared to this. You have to shoot at the damn escape pod CONSTANTLY or it doesn't work! You get to the near-end where you're going down on the elevating platform and you're thinking, "Okay, I shot this thing through the WHOLE DAMN LEVEL and sent it down EVERY DAMN RED PATH and picked up ALL THE DAMN AMMO I could find - it HAS to die!" And it just doesn't! It doesn't. *walks of crying and sucking thumb*

That pod's freaking INSANELY armoured. Even if you're blasting it with the SHADOW RIFLE all the time you're still by no means guaranteed to kill it before the end. I still think the Lethal Highway pod is harder, because that thing gets away from you much easier, but then again I've had WAY more practice on Air Fleet than Lethal Highway.

Doing Air Fleet on Hero is no joke either, though. It's not as bad as The Doom for missing the one baddie and never being able to find it, but tracking down all the Arms is certainly no picnic.

Still, I can't bring myself to dislike Air Fleet because the level design is IMO amongst the best in StH. And it's really the only time we get to see the United Federation's skyships!

[Silencer226]

Any Space level that contains Sonic or Shadow, filled with pits. Even in the 2D games these levels were insanely cheap, the fact that they had sections where you couldn't see in front or below you was maddening.

Edited April 20, 2009 by silencer226