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Welcome to Zone: 0! This is a new, and growing site that aims to provide the most indepth information for Sonic the Hedgehog games available anywhere. The project features a blend of original strategy guides with a general information resource, presented with screenshots and level maps. The content is being built up gradually, but everything for Sonic 1 is currently complete, and Sonic 2 is now being worked on and uploaded, page by page.

Recent Updates

31st August 2008
Miscellaneous page added to the Sonic 2 section, completing all content for that game!

31st July 2008
Other Modes page added to the Sonic 2 section

23rd July 2008
Gameplay page added to the Sonic 2 section

Not to worry, I'm not dead. Just busy. Unfortunately juggling a full time job and work on the big Zone: 0 reinvigoration that finds itself falling further and further behind schedule, is not easy, especially when your job is looking at a computer screen all day anyway. Still, progress has nonetheless been fairly consistent, and to recap, I'm planning a massive revamp to the whole site. Although the actual writing will receive only minor amendments, based on the suggestions that visitors have helpfully sprinkled across the pages (so if you've suggested something good months ago that I haven't done yet, don't worry, it is probably coming!), and the overall layout and organisation of the site will remain the same, all of the underlying code has basically been completely rewritten in order to offer fully dynamic content, with lots of new features. It may still be two or three months off at least (and there will therefore be no more updates until that time), but hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Right now I'm working on a new, very comprehensive admin system for me to control the layout of the pages, and I'm almost done, so it'll make the whole process so much easier from here on out, and hopefully I'll be able to bash out several dynamic versions of old levels and pages in a matter of days. Visually, the new design is already there and it's a vast improvement and I'd like to think that the whole thing will help Zone: 0 become more and more recognised in the Sonic community as I continue to add new pages of content. It's just unfortunate that the place has to sit quietly in suspended animation for the moment, and I can see my visitor stats decreasing as a result.

Before I talk about Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Unleashed, was I the only UK-based Sonic die-hard to be crushed in disappointment while leaving the Video Games Live event in London last Friday? Don't get me wrong, it was a great show, but after 3 or so years of wanting to go, and after all the excitement of finally getting to see the excellent compositions of Sonic 1 performed by a live orchestra against the background of a history of Sonic game clips, they chose not to include the Sonic segment this time around. I don't mind telling you, I was mighty pissed off. If you don't know, Video Games Live is a world wide tour of game music from across the generations performed by a live orchestra, and with over 50 segments each dedicated to a particular game, I suppose it's not surprising that they only have time to include 20 or so in each show. I suppose it was my own fault for not realising this beforehand, but according to their FAQ on the site, favourites like Mario and Zelda are performed almost every night. You would think, given that Sonic is listed as seventh in their list of 50 titles, that he would be included among that elite group as well. I would try and go again next year, but how will I know if I'm not to be disappointed again? Posting up a list of the segments planned for each event beforehand would be helpful.

My, rather belated, two cents on Sonic Chronicles then. I've played, I'm guessing, past the half way point now, into what I would assume is the so-called second act of the game, and I must say, I'm really impressed by it, and I'm not sure I was necessarily expecting to be either. Sure, the prospect of a Sonic RPG from Bioware sounded great at first, but I soon found the eventual cascade of videos and behind the scenes documentaries to be not-that-riveting, under the mighty shadow of Sonic Unleashed anyway. Still, it's a game that needs to be played for quite a while before you can form a valid opinion of it, and initially I was a bit put off by a certain quality about its comic-book style cut scenes and opening sequence that, while subtle, was at the same time jarringly un-SEGA-like. Indeed, the game starts off a bit slow and boring, with limited attacks to use and at first there's little immediately outstanding dialogue, as everyone said there would be. Before you know it though, a change happens quite quickly and if you're anything like me, you'll start to love it as new characters, moves, strategies, enemies, puzzles and plots emerge. I'm no big turn-based RPG fan, in fact the only one I've really played in full is Pokemon, and generally I can't be arsed with the more strategic approach to a video game battle, but despite this being a Sonic game, which generally insists on a more care-free style of play, Bioware have somehow managed to take those characters and let you use them in an environment where levelling up, buying moves and employing particular strategies for attack and defence against various enemies actually works. All of which are things that have largely failed in past Sonic games, such as Secret Rings, in my opinion.

In Sonic Chronicles, I'm not in the mood to rush through scenery and get on with things as fast as possible anymore, I want to explore, to hone my skills and spend time finding out more about the story, and for Bioware to pull that off where others have failed, to successfully stretch Sonic rather than stretching the properties of an RPG, is actually quite an achievement in itself. Further kudos to them for finally focusing back on the story of the echidnas and Angel Island (although it does present some continuity errors, seemingly mistaking the large piece of land capable of holding several levels - and the Death Egg - that it actually is, for the often mistaken tiny piece of land shown in Sonic Adventure that is actually just an internal plateau used to hold just the Master Emerald). It's nice to see this story, undoubtedly the best ongoing arc they've ever come up with, brought back again after Sonic Team have seemingly forgotten about it entirely, leaving Knuckles as little more than a second sidekick to Sonic, and whose exploits with Angel Island and the Master Emerald usually appear only in his instruction manual bios.

One thing I'm really not big on though is the music. Most of the tunes come straight from Sonic 3D, largely the PC/Saturn soundtrack by Richard Jacques (often hyped up, but I personally prefer the Mega Drive alternative), though it's not that that bothers me, in fact that moment where you match up a tune in a new game, unexpectedly with a track from a previous game is always one of those somewhat rare joys in Sonicdom. No, it's the incredibly minimalistic and uninspiring technical translations of these tunes to the DS hardware, which I thought was capable of a lot more, as the superb soundtrack of Sonic Rush Adventure certainly proves. It's all very slow, thin and low quality techno-sounding, the likes of which you'd probably expect more from the Gameboy Advance and I really don't know if I want any of it in my personal Sonic music collection, despite the links to past tracks. I can see what they're going for with the more subtle approach in levels that you tend to spend more time in than in platformers, but it really feels like they've just slapped on the soundtrack at the last minute as an afterthought (and the re-used tunes actually add some weight to that argument methinks), and Sonic music should NEVER be an afterthought.

Although the game feels a bit rough around the edges in places in terms of its presentation, the fantastic drawn area maps give it a real unique graphical touch, and although before playing I had concerns that there wasn't going to be much of a puzzle element to the game, which I suppose is still true, it doesn't really matter that much, as the battles, story and missions requiring you to explore the maps are enough to keep you hooked. Most maps do have one puzzle each however, where you use the characters to press certain buttons at certain times in order to interact with the puzzle presented to you. Such tasks include recognising patterns that are within a grid of squares and avoiding ones that aren't and the good old match-a-tune-by-hitting-buttons-in-order chestnut. Although thinking about it, this statement isn't saying a lot, as I can't really think of a non-platformer in the Sonic series that really ranks up there with the best platformers, but I would go so far as to say that Sonic Chronicles is probably the best Sonic spinoff game yet.

Meanwhile, Sonic Unleashed is really getting to the point now where I'm seriously in danger of seeing too much before I play the game, with, frankly ridiculous amounts of new trailers coming out that are spoiling specific level contents for me and official websites that threaten to reveal all the level locations and names! Disaster! This happens every time, I end up seeing bits of virtually every level in the game, thus degrading, to various extents, the thrill of exploring brand new environments. It's a simple thrill, but one that's important to me, so I really need to employ more self control and keep my eyes away from these tempting morsels. From the amount of new media and info that's been flooding in over the last couple of weeks, you wouldn't think that we still have a whole month to wait! I saw four new movies last night for crying out loud! Still, I've managed to stay away from anything in the official sites, and there remains at least three, perhaps four levels that I'm yet to see anything for and I'd really like to keep it that way. I'm going to have to try and ban myself from taking in any new information for what will be an extremely long month now.

I must say I'm finding it difficult to match my enthusiasm for the Wii version with that of the 360. I plan on getting both, as they're clearly quite radically different from each other in terms of levels, which make the game as far as I'm concerned, so they may very well be classifiable as separate games in their own right. It's just difficult to truly accept the low end graphics when the 360's look so gorgeous, but the endless, unnecessarily wide and empty roads seen all too much in the Wii footage don't do it any favours for me either. Looks more like courses in a racing game in some places.

My hopes are really high for the title in general though. I'm sure it won't get amazing reviews, largely down to the Werehog, but it seems to be on course to at least inspire hope in the disillusioned. One of the reasons that the failure of the last primary platformer, Sonic the Hedgehog, came as such a surprise was, I think, due to the lack of decent information about how it all played out in the months leading up to release. I remember looking for previews in the latter weeks, and finding only a foreign one that seemed positive, though the translations were hard to make out, and that's about it. There was no warning - any other, earlier previews neglected details about poor frame-rates and dodgy controls etc, and we were lead to believe the demo was based on a much older build, which of course turned out to not be so different from the final release. This time however, there have been loads of previews that haven't been afraid to give us the full story, poor frame-rates and all, and the good news is that the previews have generally been getting more and more positive the further on the development gets. Check out IGN UK's opinions on several level's worth of a near final build. They report minimal technical issues and what's more, fun gameplay on both sides of the coin, and this comes from generally one of the biggest Sonic critics out there as far as I'm aware. I think the final proof will be all down to how the whole story mode plays out in full, but it's all certainly looking very positive. Exactly how good the game needs to be in order to win over some people into thinking that Sonic still has it remains to be seen. It doesn't bear thinking about if we end up facing another critical failure.

Sorry my blog posts have to be so few and far between for the moment, but my free time is fairly minimal so I need to devote most of it to rebuilding the site, and blogs always take much longer than you expect them to. I'll probably return to discuss the Sonic Unleashed demo whenever that decides to pop up, if indeed it precedes the actual release. Fingers crossed! And I'll certainly be offering a highly thorough verdict on the final game too.

LiQuidShade

A mere two months or so away from Sonic Unleashed, the whole community is waiting with bated breath to see if this is the one that gets it right, or at least does well enough to retrieve the respect that Sonic deserves. As always, I'm most interested in the levels that we'll be getting, and I'm particularly intruiged by how they'll be organised. We've been told they'll be sorted in a new way, unlike the Zone-Act system, so I've been thinking about how that might be, and I thought I'd share with you my main ideas. In a few months from now, I'll look back on this and either gloat as I get it bang on, or, more likely, shudder at my huge miscalculations.

Note that I'll be using the word "level" to describe a whole, well.. level, and the word "stage" to describe sub-parts of that level, e.g day and night. To avoid confusion.

We know the main elements, every level will have a Sonic stage, a Werehog stage, and there will be small hub "village" areas that allow access to these stages. The most interesting interview that throws a new twist in all this though is this E3 one from Joystiq with Patrick Riley, the game's producer. He claims...

"Certain parts of the action stages are built for both day and night gameplay. When in these areas and when in the villages, in-game time will pass and Sonic will transform. However, we're making sure that the player won't be "stuck" in a form they don't want and it will be easy to automatically advance the clock. Other parts of the action stages are built specifically for day or night gameplay. While Sonic is in these areas, in-game time will not pass."

Although this is about the only thing I can find that talks about this aspect, it does correspond with these incriminating images of the African jungle stage at both daytime and sunset, and also in this gallery from the Japanese official site, you'll find what looks to me like a more hilly region of the Mykonos level, at sunset. So, unless they pull another Sonic '06 and ditch the changing day (don't you dare guys, I've waited too long for this feature!), we'll be able to see the effects of time gradually shifting across the day in certain Sonic levels. If we're to take the above quote literally, it'll take place in certain parts of individual action stages, meaning those parts will be built to accomodate both Hedgehog and Werehog, but other parts are stuck in a set time period. These could, I supposed, be strictly divided as separated parts much like Sonic 06 levels, but that would make all the levels pretty long, and a pain to restart if you lose all of your lives. In Gamespot's E3 showcase video, Ken Balough seems to make it clear that the stages we know best will be separate to each form of Sonic, tailor made for the appropriate playing style, and each stage in Mykonos was accessed separately from the demo's menu.

I believe that Patrick was referring to this spectrum occuring over several sub-stages within a whole level, rather than in single action stages as we would know them. So we know about day-only and night-only stages, but I would suggest that there is a third stage to each level, possibly set around a similar, but slightly different location (like S3&K variations between acts) where this transition will take place throughout its duration, and you'll be able to play as either form in layouts that are hopefully largely platform-based; not too fast to exclude the werehog, and not too open to ruin the streamlining of Sonic's style, although there would ideally be several routes and areas only accessible to a particular form. Potential examples linked above would be the more serene hillsides of Mykonos, where there are fewer houses, and the African jungle - as opposed to the African city which would be the main area of that level (I'm yet to see a single screenshot that features both environments together, so there's nothing to say for sure that they're part of the same, long-ish stage). Perhaps it's wishful thinking, but this would allow the developers to be more careful and considerate with their level design, so as to make sure it runs smoothly no matter which form you're in, and they could make them more complex, with hidden areas - an idea I thought might be good would be to hide the Chaos Emeralds in these stages, much like in 8-bit Sonic 1. It's already been stated in the Gamespot video that Sonic is on the hunt for the emeralds, to bring them back to inidvidual temples, restoring power to each. We haven't heard anything about Special Stages, so perhaps this is a way to include them as an extra challenge, as opposed to something that happens automatically.

Presumably, this is the first major 3D Sonic game that will be one long story, as opposed to multiple character stories that you chop and change between at will. There are seven emeralds, which suggests seven different levels, three stages each, which makes 21, plus villages and bosses. Roughly the right amount of gameplay that you would expect from such a game these days, although as many as nine whole levels have been suggested by different sources such as previews, but not directly from Sega as far as I'm aware, so I don't see that as being confirmed. Seven different locations seems more likely to me, if you consider how detailed the currently known stages actually are. That takes time and effort. I reckon there will be a small village per level (and that screenshots that depict this area are subtle reveals of the African one - Sonic is always shown to be walking through). So typical progress through a level could be as follows:

Wander around the village in the day, find entrance to day stage.
Play day stage as Sonic.
Return to village at night, transform, find entrance to night stage.
Play night stage as Werehog.
Return to village, which now operates on a free time scale.
EITHER
Find entrance to Boss, beat boss and go to next level
OR
Find entrance to the "freestyle stage" and hunt down a Chaos Emerald maybe? You can come back later and do this, so freestyle stages could essentially be optional.

When entering the freestyle stage, the time of day at which you enter will carry on into the stage. I'm not sure what this method of fast forwarding time will be, perhaps just an option to automatically wait for 12 hours or something. Bosses, we've only seen as regular Sonic, but I'm sure there'll be one per level and possibly some will be Sonic only, some Werehog. I doubt they'll make a different version of each boss. In the villages, I'm sure some side quests will be there, as indicated in interviews, but I don't know what completing them will offer, just emblems to collect or something. Perhaps some are necessary to open up the entrances to the stages, thus increasing the story mode's lifespan.

Now, levels. These different level environments we know from screenshots and videos:

- Mykonos (now believed to be called Windmill Isle)
- Europe (possibly the rumoured Spanish Villa stage)
- Africa (city and jungle areas)
- China
POSSIBLE: Egypt (included in the first Wii screens)

The following are suggested from interviews:

- New York (It's been in more than one report, I recall, but here's one anyway)
- London ("Sonic will be running on the hands of Big Ben in London", although the full translated text doesn't seem to be available.)

Rumoured:

- Arctic level (As far as I'm aware, this only exists as part of this initial leak, way back when the first details and media were revealed on the EspioKaos forum).
- Brazil (I don't really put much stock in this one. It's from this Brazillian article and if the translation is reliable, I would suggest that it is in fact merely the director admitting that Brazil would make a good Sonic Unleashed level).

Egypt bothers me a bit. There we were, happy enough with, seemingly, two African stages when a third suddenly pops up out of nowhere. However, in that same, first batch of Wii screens and more recent ones, we can see what looks like a slightly alternate version of Europe. It surely can't be a whole new stage to both, so I believe it's just the Wii's version of Europe. So, is Egypt the Wii's reinterpretation of the African city? Look closely at the screens, and you do start to see city aspects, like walls and gates and possibly houses, slightly similar to what you might also find in the 360's African "sand castle" city. Either that or the African jungle and city are in fact one and the same level, and Egypt is the freestyle variation.

With that in mind, this is me officially making my bet regarding what levels will make the cut and in what order and we'll see how close I get..

#1 Mykonos aka Windmill Isle
"Freestyle" stage will be the area shown in the hilly sunset screens.

#2 Europe aka "High Europe" aka Spanish Villa
The rumoured Spanish stage is, I reckon, the Europe one we're all familiar with. Granted, I've never been to Spain, so I may be completely wrong about their architecture, but google image searches suggest something that isn't a million miles away. Also note that Europe is supposedly the fourth stage, supporting my theory of three Mykonos stages.

#3 Africa
Sandcastle city (360/PS3) / Egypt ruins (Wii/PS2) for main area, jungle for freestyle. OR Sancastle city and jungle for main area / Egypt for freestyle.

#4 China
Mountain levels are always in the middle of a game, although perhaps more conventionally swapped around with the next level type, this order seems to flow better to me.

#5 Arctic
Although it's a mere rumour, I think it's a likely stage type to fit in, if only because it's different from all the others. I think going down the abstract route, like the African city, wouldn't be a bad idea here as it'll be a bit plain otherwise. Just go all out and make a big elaborate ice palace guys, no one would mind.

#6 New York

#7 London
Add thunder and lightning for climactic drama. Sonic racing down the Thames would be an awesome sight to me, not least of all because I now live and work in the city.

Nine levels is always a possibility, and it would indeed be great, especially if they go with my freestyle stage idea too. But then, although we would probably find a home for the Egypt level (and that supposed Brazil one, for that matter), if there's going to be nine, one day and one night stage each might well be enough anyway, thus ruining my whole big theory. Oh well, 7 x 3 is my official prediction and I'm sticking to it until proven wrong. In any case, that shifting daytime stuff has to fit in somewhere.

LiQuidShade

Update: Miscellaneous page added to the Sonic 2 section, completing all content for that game!

The misc page is up to round off Sonic 2 once and for all. Convenient timing, as today also happens to mark four years since I decided to sit down and start writing my first piece of content for this place (although checking my log, that may actually have been yesterday.. damn). Although I haven't quite managed to create the definitive collection of all Sonic game information that I had envisioned I would by now, I think it's quite an achievement just to still be as passionate about it now as I was then. As always, real life gets in the way though - I've spent the last month moving to London and starting a new job, and any spare time I've had I've put towards the new site design, so apologies that this final Sonic 2 page has come much later than it should have.

Well, it's good to have two whole games under my belt now, even if they have progressed at the rate of roughly one game per year, and that's even after I've already written most of the content. Hmm, that's not great is it? Thanks to the work of user Mercury, Sonic CD and hopefully then Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles won't take nearly as long, as I won't need to painstakingly place objects in all of the maps, which has proved the most time consuming element. With this in mind then, I hope to have Sonic CD, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles all up and running by this time next year. Tall order? Possibly, although after that I'll be returning to Uni for my final year, where updates will no doubt be thin on the ground, so I want to get as much done as possible by then, while juggling other stuff in my life.

Before any of that though, the next thing is the site redesign, which I want done by the time the Sonic Stadium's Site Awards comes around again, which should be soon. It's done, it's looking rosy, I just need to finish converting it into PHP code so that it can read all of the existing database content, which I'll need to tweak, and convert the older Sonic 1 pages to a dynamic form, as well as adding minor alterations along the way (of which I am keeping a list, so any suggestions and errors any of you have pointed out, chances are, they're on there and will be dealt with!). I need a new home page and blog system too, but after that it'll be good to go live. I can worry about my own new admin system afterwards, and just use phpMyAdmin in the meantime I reckon. No idea if anyone bothering to read this is savvy to these sorts of things at all but what the hell, my blog, my waffle.

Oh and by the by, this is an awesome interpretation of my very favourite Sonic tune.

LiQuidShade

All images and text contained within this website are © Zone: 0, unless stated otherwise, and should not be used without credit being given. In particular, please ask permission before using any of my writing or maps for your own website etc. Screenshots, maps and official artworks represent game content owned by SEGA. Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters etc © SEGA. Zone: 0 is a strictly fan-made website that is not officially linked with SEGA in any way, and is intended to promote the Sonic franchise and provide support and knowledge to its fanbase. Please contact me for any issues regarding these matters.