Zone: 0 Blog http://www.soniczone0.com Blog of Zone: 0 by LiQuidShade - The comprehensive Sonic the Hedgehog Game Guide Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:40:00 +0000 http://www.soniczone0.com en <![CDATA[Zone: 0 Guides Complete!]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:00:01 UTC LiQuidShade Thanks for Playing!

The final guide update is complete, Sonic & Knuckles is now wrapped up with Death Egg Zone, and the Stages and Stories, and Downloads pages. This is where, sadly, Zone: 0 must draw a line under its new guide content and ride off into the sunset.

I sat down and started writing these guides eight years ago this very day. My projects at that time had a history of fizzling out after a few months, and I don't quite know how this one has managed to hold itself together for this long. But I'm grateful that it's received as much support and respect from fans and the Sonic community that it has done, which has allowed me to keep going when it's been a chore as much as it has a complete joy. Although I've said my interest has dwindled in it in the past, I never failed to feel a great sense of pride and accomplishment with every new level guide that I've published, and I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I have writing them.

I can't deny a big part of me wants to carry on, my love of Sonic level design and the series as a whole begs me to appreciate more of the games in the same way, and I'm sure getting back into writing (since I haven't actually done a great deal of it in years) would be really fun and invigorating. But there are so many more projects I want to do, and I can't just leave this place hanging, waiting for a promised guide that takes ages to come because I'm doing so many other things, and I have very limited free time anyway. Never say never, I may get the itch again and decide to write up Sonic Adventure or something, but don't hold your breath - at least not any time in the next few years. I just don't want to tie myself down to any more of it right now, I'm sure you'll understand.

What's next? Well, I don't know exactly. As well as being a web developer I also make small games as part of my day job, so a mobile phone game app is something I've been thinking about for some time now. And then of course there's also my ultimate dream - to use my knowledge of Sonic level design to create my own original fan game levels; something I've always wanted to do, and I hope to make at least one of them (and I mean a really awesome one) during my lifetime. However, before you think I'm trotting off to pastures new forever, remember that all I've said so far is that there won't be any new guides written for the forseeable future - that's not to say that guides won't be amended and updated with new pieces of information that you guys have provided me with over the years, or new downloads. Sonic CD for instance is desperately in need of an update to account for the popular 2011 re-release, and I hope to get around to everything that needs amending in due course, after a short break. I would also like to see what I can do about a new look and some new site features, now that I've developed a few new tricks since 2009, when I launched the current design. This blog will also remain in regular use too, for any further Sonic musings I may have or project updates you might be interested in. So if you think I'm now just going to allow this place to gather dust and rot away, think again. At the very least, it will definitely stay online for as long as I can afford to host it (and on that note, may I highlight the new ad banners and invite you to click on a few should they peak your interest.. cough cough).

Zone: 0, now and then


I thought it would be nice at this point to include some fun stats, including visitor analytics since the current design launched on February 22nd 2009:

- Total number of page views: 1,011,342
- Total number of unique Sonic fans that have visited Zone: 0: 134,372
- Total number of images across the guides: 4558
- Total number of words across the guides: 254,061 (wow)
- Number of community awards won: 3 (I think)
- Number of Zone: 0 maps that have appeared in gaming magazines: 2
- Total time taken to get this far: 8 years on the dot.

Not bad going for a hobby, especially the fact that I've written over 25 times the typical length of a University dissertation just on five Sonic games - that's pretty scary in fact. Why did I do it? How did I do it? Simple really; I love Sonic. I want to tell you everything I can about Sonic because I love it that much, and I wanted a site like this to exist, so I made it exist. I hope that's come across in everything you see here, from the amount of detail I've put into writing about the level structure and visual iconography of Marble Garden Zone, to the placement of every last ring on the map of Spring Yard Zone.

The overall concept has changed a little since my original vision of it came to me - it's more of a strategy guide now than I had originally intended - but I think if the me eight years ago, with his sudden passion for his brand new project idea were to be able to glance ahead into the future and see the final outcome of his wildly ambitious ideas, I would hope that he would be pretty amazed. I would hope that he would put aside the mild disappointment of the fact that I'd covered only five out of sixty-odd Sonic games, and instead see that it's not the quantity but the quality that makes Zone: 0 what it is. I would hope that he would be amazed that a little idea that popped into his head one day had gradually evolved, appeared on screen and slowly grew into a huge virtual library, something truly unique in the community and respected and praised as such, and is only just now coming to an end, as all good things must do at some point. This has not been a flash in the pan, this has been an unlikely idea turned into a reality, after an immense amount of work.

I'm truly grateful that since launching the site, I haven't heard a bad word about it. Everyone genuinely seems to love what I've done here, and I couldn't be more proud about that. It's been my biggest undertaking and it's easily the greatest thing I've ever accomplished. I'm not happy unless I'm working on some sort of significant project, and if this place inspires anyone at all to take up a similar philosophy with their hobbies and passions then that would fill me with joy. I encourage you all to do something, big or small, that makes you feel good and gives you pride to say, "I made that. It took me ages, but I think it's awesome." It doesn't have to be a massive website that takes nearly a decade to make, it can be anything. Don't just play and watch and read without comment. Do something to make people see how it makes you feel and how it inspires you. Those of you loyal readers who have been following the site for a while know that it definitely can take me a little while to get things done around here, but at no point did I want to give up until it was done. Trust me, when you keep going even when what you're doing is tough or tedious, being able to step back from it when it's all done and look at what you've accomplished is so worth it. It makes you glad that you persevered, and made something worthwhile. I love these games, they are my childhood and for me, they're icons of all that is fun and great in life. To think that I have made something personal, yet useable, something that demonstrates my passion, yet something that helps and hopefully inspires, fills me with a special satisfaction that money can't buy. Get out there and show us what you're passionate about!

I want to thank every single one of you that have passed through this site during the last five years that it's been live, and have found it even a little bit useful or interesting. I want to thank anyone who has ever sent me an email or message saying how much they've enjoyed my work - these have been from kids, parents, young people who grew up with Sonic as I did, but have found things here they never knew about (as I did too during my research), new fans experiencing the games for the first time, and Sonic fans who already know everything but love seeing it written and mapped, and who are always eager to add information and make this place the best it can be. I want to thank the regular posters who have always been keeping an eye on my rambling blogs and adding their voices to the comments sections. I won't name you all because I don't want to miss anyone out, but you all know exactly who you are and you should know that I appreciate all of you.

There are two people I will name though, whom I've thanked before but will thank again regardless. Ricky Earl for his outstanding artwork contributions to the Sonic 1 and 2 guides, a brilliant artist and an all round great guy to talk to - I wish him well with his art, and his new life in Sweden. And Mercury, whose talent for programming has made the maps for Sonic CD, and Sonic 3 & Knuckles not only possible, but so much easier. Good luck to him with his new AeStHete game engine and fan game projects. I suggest you click on the ad banner for that, which will remain in circulation.

So what more can I say? I've had a great time, and I hope you've enjoyed my contribution to the Sonic community. Though this chapter ends, it allows new ones to begin, and I hope that my contributions can continue further - I'm pretty sure I'll never stop loving Sonic, and as long as I have ideas, you'll be hearing a lot more from me..!

Enjoy,

LiQuidShade.]]> <![CDATA[Free banner week starting NOW!]]> Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:57:07 UTC LiQuidShade post for how to submit.

Hope you're looking forward to the final update, only a few more days to go! I'll either put it up at midnight GMT on the Wednesday night/Thursday morning, or it might be during the Thursday evening, GMT, depending on what's convenient for me. It's all ready and raring to go though so should be no delays :) Expect Death Egg, Doomsday, the game endings and the Downloads page, to wrap up the Sonic & Knuckles guide and the whole Guides section of this website.

See you on Thursday! You won't want to miss it.]]> <![CDATA[Zone: 0 interview at RadioSEGA]]> Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:58:36 UTC LiQuidShade Check it out!

Still accepting banners for my FREE ad banner week, starting 27th August! Check out the previous post for more info!]]> <![CDATA[Advertise your site FREE on Zone: 0 from 27th August to 2nd September!]]> Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:04:21 UTC LiQuidShade
For those of you not familiar with what I've been up to here, Zone: 0 is a Sonic the Hedgehog fan project that's been in the works for eight years and online for five. Its range of information may be specific within the huge Sonic universe, but it makes up for this in its extreme detail, covering complete guides for the original Mega Drive/Genesis games, including thorough written notes, tonnes of screen shots and most popular of all, the kind of maps you really don't get anywhere else. Popularity and visitor numbers have constantly increased, the site's won community awards for its design and content, and so far this year over 100,000 visitors have passed its gates! Not only that but its wealth of content has them flicking through multiple pages and getting lost for ages in its libraries, and always coming back for more too!

Sadly though, it's a big site and therefore comes with a bit of a hosting price tag, one that's getting harder to afford in my current situation, so it would be nice if the site could start paying for itself, at least in part, using banner ads. To start the ball rolling and gather interest, I thought I'd offer the first week completely free! There are honestly no strings attached to that, if you own a site, you can submit a banner and have me put it up just for that week and that week only - no money, no link back to me, that's fine! However, if I could tempt you to carry it on into the following month for a small cost, on which I'm open to negotiations and deals, then I think you'll consider it worthwhile!

What types of sites and pages are applicable?

What no one really wants though is for this site to be covered in intrusive banners for products that have little or no relevance to anyone and don't match with the type of users we have here (that means you, gambling and porn sites). I want banners on here to be reflective of sites and services that visitors would actually conceivably be interested in, so they're actually useful and not annoying. I found my hosting company through a random ad banner for example, so it doesn't even have to be directly related to Sonic or gaming specifically. I may have to turn you down if your site isn't appropriate, but other than that, my ideas for partners are pretty broad. I would say my visitors typically range from pre-teens to twenty or thirty somethings, often young free and single, yet I've also had lovely messages from Mums and Dads who enjoy the site with their young children too. As such, the types of sites best placed to appear in banners here would be:

- Other Sonic and SEGA fan sites (a no brainer really)

- Other game fan sites (either games in general or particularly Sonic-like games, be they popular kids or classic franchises)

- Other types of gaming sites; reviews, strategy guide sites, etc (and when I say gaming, I DON'T mean gambling)

- Sites that offer online gaming, be it free little flash games or larger ones

- Commercial sites for toys, technology, or anything "geek" related!

- Building a game or some other cool software as a mobile phone app? Advertise it here!

- Don't have a site, but got a Sonic blog, youtube channel, deviantArt account or a page on another type of creative online service? Got something special on there that you've been working hard on? Why not be a part of this as well!


I'm open to all suggestions, so just run your site/page/whatever past me and I'll let you know if I think it has potential to get a few clicks on here!

Where do the banners go?

Banners will go in places where they don't detract too much away from the content, so users can enjoy the site as easily as they always have, but noticeable enough that they're not simply ignored. I have three places in mind, each a different size.

1. Top header banner, 468 x 60 pixels, sitting strikingly at the top of the home page and also any of the individual blog pages. Most visitors will arrive on the main page first, and the blog section remains popular. Your site here will be extremely noticeable! Click here to view.

2. Side square banner, 250 x 250 pixels, sitting to the side of the home page, just beneath the top two stories, and on the side of all blog pages, where it can afford to be the biggest of the three! Click here to view

3. Side square banner, 125 x 125 pixels, positioned alongside all game guide content pages - though this is the smallest banner, it'll catch the eye of the user most frequently as they peruse the many pages of the game guides! Click here to view

During the free week, I can only accept a banner for one of the above spots per site, but if you're desperate, you could buy one or both of the other spots as well for $3 each, for that week. Banners on all three spots will appear on rotation, so a new one will pop in on each load. Therefore, going for less used spots may prove prudent as you might just get more views! Note that if I receive lots of banner requests, the two types of side banner spots may extend to hold more than one banner at a time.

What do I have to do?

- Prepare a banner of exactly the dimensions listed above for your chosen banner spot. It can be an image (jpeg, animated gif or png format), or a flash banner of .swf format.

- If you're going for a flash banner, make sure you make the whole thing clickable, and it links to your site. I can apply the link to an image file, but not a flash file. You'd need to do that yourself. Also, no sounds in there please, they'd probably be quite annoying!

- Please aim for a file size no larger than 100kb for any one banner. A few k over might be ok, but anything significantly bigger might be rejected and in which case you'll be asked to make it smaller!

- Email me your banner and site link, please don't just leave it in a comment on this post or any other method of contact you may have for me, as I may miss it. Send your emails to ads@soniczone0.com

- If you're interested in purchasing space for more than one banner spot, for $3 each, let me know. I can only accept payment through Paypal though!

- The free banner week runs from Monday 27th August to Sunday 2nd September. You can submit your banner at any time between now and the end of that Sunday, but all free banners will be taken down after that time, regardless of whether you were there for the whole week!

What happens after the free banner week?

I'll be accepting paid banners for durations, typically, of one month, in the same banner spots as listed above. Please contact me for pricing though, as there are plenty of deals to be made with multiple banners, and there may be discounts on offer if you're a non-profit site such as a fellow fan site! I'm open to negotiation so please get in touch! I'll be asking any of those who have submitted banners for the free week if they would be interested in extending their time into September for a very reasonable price, but you're under no obligation to do so. If you're interested already, you can contact me now for banner placements in September and beyond, on the email address above.


I think that's pretty much everything! Hopefully I've made it clear enough that it is not my aim to bombard this place with sleazy, annoying ads to make a tidy profit. Acquiring banners for sites and services that are actually potentially useful to my visitors is my main aim here, along with raising enough money to cover hosting bills, so we can all benefit from this! You can help by getting the word out as much as you possibly can, and letting any site-owning or particularly creative friends know about this opportunity to get more hits their way, particularly if they're in need of them! Though I've already said that there will be no new guides after Sonic & Knuckles completes on the 30th August, more ads mean that Zone: 0 is much more likely to continue to exist and branch out into whole new areas as yet unexplored! Stay tuned, and don't forget to give a click to any banners that appeal to you!

Hope to hear from you soon,
LiQuidShade, site owner. ]]> <![CDATA[Zone: 0 guides to reach completion on 30th August]]> Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:25:13 UTC LiQuidShade
I know it's still a bit of a wait, but I've planned out everything I want to do and given I mostly only have an hour or so each weekday evening to do it all at the moment, it's still a realistic time frame for me. However, 30th August also happens to be the very date, in 2004, when I first sat down to begin writing my earliest drafts of my guides, so to wrap it up neatly in exactly eight years would be awesome. I'll do my best.

Hate to do the whole "announcements of announcements" thing, but website owners will also want to listen up, including other Sonic site owners (particularly smaller ones in need of more exposure), fansites of other game series, similarly geeky sites or any site that my visitors might conceivably also have an interest in. I have an offer planned to coincide with the final update that I'm sure will interest! Come back very soon to find out all about it!]]> <![CDATA[The road to Death Egg starts here]]> Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:39:47 UTC LiQuidShade Miscellaneous Page covers off some cheats and a couple of other versions of the game worth mentioning.

Now we're heading towards our final destination, not just of this guide but this series of guides. The next update will be the last, in terms of new guide content, and will comprise of Death Egg Zone, The Doomsday Zone, game endings and the Downloads page. Expect this hopefully within the next couple of months, to wrap up the whole thing neatly into a project that has lasted a full, and quite astounding eight years.

Other than continuous small tweaks and amendments that are likely to still be ongoing, I'll let you know what, if anything, will be going on around here after, or shortly before the final update occurs. It won't be new guides, but it MIGHT be something else. I still haven't decided yet.

Start getting excited, we're almost there!]]> <![CDATA[Sonic Generations Custom Levels]]> Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:58:42 UTC LiQuidShade pre-ordering the English version of the History of Sonic book that was recently released in French by Pix'n Love. You can find out more about it here.

Anyway, that's all by the by, I mainly just wanted to flag up something really interesting going on over there on Sonic Retro - Sonic Generations hacking. You may have seen this video already but in case you haven't, it demonstrates Sonic Unleashed levels being imported into the Sonic Generations engine and thus being playable on PC and perhaps even perfected a little bit:



It's now gone even further than that though, videos of the same treatment on even older levels have been popping up all over the place, albeit still in very much a work-in-progress form. Still, the possibilities are getting even more exciting. Check these out...







First of all, the prospect of updating and re-imagining old levels that, with enough talent behind enhancing textures and re-modelling, could look as good as the ones that were actually re-made for Sonic Generations, is tantalising enough. This is all clearly still in the earliest stages, and from what I've read they are understandably still working things out, and importing old levels is obviously a very good way of doing that. I'm amazed at how much they've already managed to achieve, there's some amazing talent around in the community.

But the Sky Troops one interests me in particular because it looks a lot more customised and demonstrates the exciting possibility of being able to create your own entirely new stages. At this point in time it all seems way beyond me to get my hands dirty with it, and I'd need a decent PC for a start. But I'm a budding level designer, with a particular passion for coming up with fresh ideas in every aspect, and hope, over the next few years, to start realising some of these ideas I've had knocking around in my head for ages now. I've always imagined them as 2D, but I adore the modern Sonic Generations levels so much that I can't help but get extremely excited about the possibility of my levels taking that form as well. Problem is of course that while I reckon I can work my way pretty far through the creation of a 2D game with a bit (ok, a lot) of dedication, 3D is a completely new domain for me, I know next to nothing about it and frankly would struggle to make a model of a perfect cube.

However, for anyone with similarly colossal aspirations, I recommend keeping an eye on this scene as from what I've seen of 3D Sonic fan-made engines over the years, this looks like one of your best bets. Sonic fan game or hacking projects are notorious for getting scrapped along the way, and this is complex stuff that really requires collaboration, something that's very difficult to hold together within an amateur context. Plus I do have some concerns about SEGA's view on all this. Editing 20 year old games to put new characters in and change the colours a bit is one thing, but this is messing around with a very current engine that could be used to create very similar, rival content to new official Sonic games.

Still, that all being well, I'm hoping that these clever guys can come up with some nifty tools to make the whole process a lot more user-friendly and easier for less-technically minded, but more creative people to bring their imaginative ideas to life. Even then, creating a massive 3D Sonic level of the quality of those in Generations - or indeed any for that matter - has to be a huge undertaking if you want to do it properly, and I'm sure it will always require a lot of dedication and a willingness to understand new concepts. My mind is twirling with the possibilities of my imaginary level, but I'm trying to remind myself it's going to take a hell of a lot of work and perhaps collaboration with others. To that end I'd be particularly interested to hear from any of you for whom this has also got your brain ticking about what you could do with this engine given the best tools and capabilities at your disposal. Perhaps we could discuss further and share some ideas - believe me, I have a lot of them!

The best place I've seen so far to follow these developments is on this lengthy Sonic Retro topic. Spend a bit of time going back through the last pages and look at the kind of stuff they're working on. I think their goals seem to align with what I've mentioned above, and it all sounds really promising.]]> <![CDATA[An update at last!.. S&K Other Modes]]> Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:06:44 UTC LiQuidShade
Ordinarily the Miscellaneous page comes along with the Other Modes page, as it's typically quite a short one. However I'm moving to a new flat this weekend and will be without Internet for two or three weeks. You've waited long enough so I thought I'd finish up Other Modes for now, and then add the little Miscellaneous page when I can.

Other Modes of course comprises of a number of additional important areas of the game that don't fit into anywhere else, including the Special Stage, Bonus Stages, details about Super and Hyper forms, and a bit about the three lock-on games, and it's the biggest of the non-level pages, so go and have a look!

As a kid I was rubbish at the Blue Sphere Special Stage for ages, then one day I finally did about five in a row and my friends and I became obsessed with collecting and sharing passwords and trying to work out how many levels there were. I don't know at what point we gave up but I'm pretty sure it wasn't anywhere near the ridiculous 134 million that there actually are. I hope you weren't expecting me to go into detail on every last one of them though because, well, I haven't. A while ago I did wonder if I could cover some of the recurring layouts that appear repeatedly across the game, which would make for a nice little guide that I don't think anyone has done before, but then, where do you draw the line? There must be loads of them. Perhaps I'll return to it eventually, on a rainy day, or if someone else wants to write about them, they're more than welcome.

On the subject, Hyper_Sonic alerted me to this exciting looking thing in the comments of the last post: Blue Spheres Forever, a fan version of the game that features a level editor! Oh how excited the younger version of me would be to see this, with all his own designs for the Special Stages drawn out on grid paper. I can't get it to work on my computer yet, but it's still being refined and looks amazing. I think there's a new version just released that I'll have a go at when I get a chance.

Sit tight, I'll be back before you know it!]]> <![CDATA[Sonic 4 Episode 2: Review]]> Mon, 21 May 2012 19:30:26 UTC LiQuidShade

Momentum On Our Side

One of the least favourite aspects of episode 1 was its poor grasp of Sonic physics. It worked, sure, and on its own terms it was a perfectly competent platformer, but a good Sonic experience has a beautiful flow and sense of momentum to it. Episode 1's physics had much more of a literal way about them - Sonic pretty much only moved when you moved him deliberately with the thumbstick - release it and he tends to stop dead, so jumping felt weird and you can completely forget about rolling Sonic gracefully down a slope and watching him pick up speed all by himself.

For episode 2, the PR people made sure to highlight that such concerns were being addressed and that we would see some significant improvements. Tweaks are definitely noticeable but as I suspected, it's not exactly a complete recovery. You don't have to play too far into it before you realise Sonic moves around in a much more familiar way now. Spin dash, release and then jump without holding forward and you'll find Sonic whips through the air and lands on the ground in the kind of neat arc you would like to see - rather than witnessing the untimely and immediate death of your speed as soon as you've pressed jump. Sonic even spins faster depending on his speed, just like in the originals. It's not pixel for pixel with the classics, but it feels like a happy medium between them and episode 1 that I think most people will find satisfactory. You'll also, quite rightly, have much more trouble walking up curved vertical walls this time too.

Jumping around is fine, but rolling still feels a bit off. It's hard to say, as I'm no expert on the exact maths behind what Sonic should be doing in any given situation, but I can't help but feel he should be rolling down slopes at a choppier pace than what he's doing at the moment. I think it probably has been improved from episode 1, and there is speed gained by rolling down a slope, but not much of it and it has to be quite steep. Most of the levels are designed in such a way that this isn't always particularly an issue, but in speedy sections of Sylvania Castle and particularly in the rollercoasters of White Park Act 2, you'll feel like you should be going faster. Frustratingly, the spin dash appears to be exactly as weak and disappointing as in episode 1, the developers having apparently not played Sonic Generations, which boasts a classic spin dash that is so quick and convenient that it will take your thumb off if you're not careful. I must admit, I kind of miss being able to just hold and release X for a quick boost. Sorry purists - it's wrong, yet it feels so right.


The New and Improved Powers of Team Work!



Lets not forget one of episode 2's USPs - Tails! Firmly happy being back in Sonic's shadow, he tags along, picking up the extra ring as ever he could. He can also now open items, pass checkpoints and acquire shields and power-ups along with you. The X button (on the 360) can now be used to summon him instantly and perform one of two team work attacks depending on whether or not you happen to be in mid-air at the time. Jump and press X to have him carry you while flying. It's a similar control set up to Sonic 3, just press A to gain a boost up, however this boost is a bit more powerful so it requires careful practise, and as well as being limited by time as you always have been, it now appears that Tails can only go to a certain height too. You have to press X to release yourself, and will often have to use this move in order to reach a boss, so then quickly pressing A to home in on them is tricky.

Press X while on the ground to initiate the controversial double spin move where Sonic and Tails join in a manner that cannot be comfortable, in order to batter their way through walls and obstacles at a generally quicker pace. This tends to go on and on in one direction until you press X to break out of it. I ponder that they may have dumbed down the spin dash and the roll on purpose in order to make way for this move, though it's an awkward substitute. Still, these moves go some way, I suppose, to add a bit of variety without straying too far away from the tried and tested classic formula - plus there's an occasional power-up that allows you to perform an action not unlike Sonic Heroes' Team Blast. It was a while before I managed to stop forgetting that they were there at all though, much to my peril in Oil Desert Act 3's scary sand crushing segments, as the handy panels that help spell out which one you need to use start to disappear further into the game. A bigger gripe though is that I was constantly calling up the wrong one by just getting my timing wrong as to whether or not I was pressing X while on the ground. I think perhaps they should have had separate buttons.


Sonic 4 Episode 2: Attack of the Clones?

High on the list of big let downs in episode 1, and a personal favourite complaint of mine, was that it simply wasn't original enough, relying instead on what I like to call "level clones"; levels that are obviously based very heavily on one particular other level from a previous game, in terms of appearance, structure and objects (the patented Zone: 0 "three magic factors"). It's done in the hope that people will say "Yay! Green Hill Zone! Casino Night Zone! Just like I remember them", but really most of us say "Oh for God's sake, if I see another Green Hill style level I'm going to ram a palm tree into Ken Balough's moustachioed cake hole". I can speak for myself only but I think a lot of people share my opinion, that I don't need to be reminded of classic levels, I play them all the time. I need to be entertained by new ones, with their own original concepts and features. They don't necessarily have to be entirely new types of places or an entirely new trope, just a set of ideas, maybe some new, some old but from a variety of sources, that identify them uniquely from any other level.

That's what I had my hopes held high for with this game, especially when we were told that only one stage took its cues from a previous one. The fact that this is, as it turns out, a blatant lie is infuriating, but it does at least offer me the justification to use the highly appropriate Star Wars pun that heads up this section.



Naturally, this one level could only be the first level, Sylvania Castle, an Aquatic Ruins inspired clone that, satisfyingly enough doesn't actually feel that much like the Sonic 2 source material, even though it borrows almost everything from it. Perhaps I'm a more simple creature than I would have liked to think that I am, because it could be that all it takes is just a simple shift from daytime to (beautifully done) morning and night time, and a slight tweak from ancient ruins to more castle-based ruins to get me to be more accepting of this particular clone. It dips in and out of numerous but fairly shallow water pools by way of loops and curved roads with a mixture of new badniks and old, and features borrowed from Aquatic Ruin, as well as Marble Garden, and some simple new rotating and moving platforms in Act 3. The floating spring that needs to be flipped with a homing attack is a nice new touch though. In terms of the difficulty of this level, I was curious as to whether they'd treat it as a first level to a new game, or a fifth level to an existing game, as it's technically both. It has a similar problem that Mushroom Hill Zone had - to be straightforward enough for new users to complete, but challenging enough to conceivably be placed in the middle of a larger game, and it actually tackles the problem very similarly. It is straightforward to complete, but has a larger range of unique objects and structural features than you would normally expect to find in a first level, much like Mushroom Hill.



The next two levels were most exciting of all - finally levels that actually have some individuality to them, and not obviously based on one particular predecessor. Probably my favourite is the second level, White Park, as unimaginatively named as it is (come on people, Christmas Carnival Zone surely!). It's a beautiful cross-breed of two Sonic staples, the snow level and the carnival level, and alternates its emphasis on each from act to act. Act 1 is a catchy, festive frolic with all the trimmings, whereas Act 2 sees Sonic and Tails take to the rollercoasters and avoid being crushed by lots of huge moving pieces of track. Act 3 is mostly submerged in the chilly waters where you'll probably find your first real challenges of the game, particularly towards the end, where seal badniks that freeze the water into impenetrable spheres create a very tricky trap. Although annoying, it's a nicely done idea that sees enemies interacting in their environment very well. A great zone.



Oil Desert is the type of locale that I've actually seen more than once or twice in fan games, but it's never quite been done in an official game. It takes place on Eggman's oil mining operation (presumably one of the sources of his apparently unlimited funds) in the middle of the harsh, windy desert. Sand storms blow you across the gantries and rigs and new badniks such as the dung beetle and flame throwers that set oil slicks alight prove annoying, though nonetheless kind of welcome for the sake of originality. In terms of other objects, you'll find many nods to Oil Ocean and Sandopolis in particular, including oil slides and quicksand in Act 2. If you thought the rising sand segments of Sandopolis were tough though, wait until you see what Act 3 has to offer you. It took me ages before I remembered that I had my new team moves to help me through it, but it was at this point in particular that switching between them became a noticeably fiddly and frustrating process.

As is now customary for any new Sonic platformer, there comes a point during the time between announcement and release that I lay low for a while, by turning off Twitter and avoiding Sonic news sites in the hope of keeping my eyes and ears away from the spoilers of every single level that will inevitably emerge, either from hackers or SEGA themselves. As such, I managed to keep away from anything to do with the final level until I reached it myself in the game. Imagine.. a completely brand new level, with brand new ideas that I was about to experience all at once. A lovely and rare Sonic moment if ever there was one. I was excited. What could it be?.. Well, I'll tell you what it is..



Wing F*cking Fortress.

I can't tell you how annoyed I was. The fourth level is not one but two clones in one neat little disappointing package. The first act of Sky Fortress (well, at least its highly original name is masking its true origins) is a more frustrating version of Sky Chase Zone, and the other two acts are Wing Fortress with a pinch of Death Egg and little else. They're all well and good as levels, and Act 3 at sunset feels very climactic and everything, not to mention beautiful, but it's just such a wasted opportunity. Make a flying fortresss level by all means - in fairness we haven't actually had one for ages - but at least try to do something different with it. Even a different colour scheme for the ship would be something.

Fortunately we're not quite done yet, as there is an additional semi-level as part of the final bosses, which sees Sonic and Tails take another trip up into space to discover exactly what Eggman has been up to with Little Planet. It actually unites the stories of all of the classic games quite nicely, albeit with little complexity. This is nothing very groundbreaking, but at least it doesn't look exactly like anything else. I can't help but think a really cool level could have been made by blending the wacky world of Little Planet with its new mechanical outer shell though, and it's disappointing that although quite epic and exciting, Sonic essentially retraces incredibly familiar steps in the last quarter or so of the game.


The Difficult Second Game

One thing you can say about this game is that it is definitely a challenge. More so than the first episode and in fact, more so than most Sonic games of recent years. And in general, it's the right kind of challenge too, which is a very good thing. There are death drops sure, there always are, but the level design mostly doesn't rely on precarious platforms balanced above them, awaiting any small mistake at any point in the level. It feels cheap if this keeps happening, but like the classic games, episode 2 restricts its biggest platforming challenges to very specific points in the levels, creating potentially terrifying areas that you may lose strings of lives on and may get frustrated with, but there is a kind of mutual understanding there. You get the rules, you understand why you're messing up as you gradually figure out what you have to do and how to do it. This is how it should be, and in fact makes these levels perfect candidates for Zone: 0 guides (though don't get too excited, I probably won't be writing them).



It also makes the game feel longer than it would be otherwise, and therefore gives it a bit more value for money. That said, most of the acts have a very healthy length to them anyway, taking anything from 2 to 5 minutes after a couple of goes, potentially much longer on your first try. It's hard to say having only played each act no more than a handful of times, but the downside of these impressive lengths appears to be that the all-important factor of multiple routes may have been sacrificed, as I haven't spotted too many other entrances and exits to alternate paths in most of the acts. One addition to longevity is the inclusion of our new friends, the red star rings, and there's one tucked away somewhere in each act. Although I haven't picked up a lot of these yet, I have at least seen quite a few of them, and I figure that if there were lots of other routes to take, the level designers would hide them on those that are less well-trodden. It's not a big deal right now but multiple routes are the real key to 2D longevity, and I fear their absence will have a big impact on this aspect of the game.



Bosses are invariably the most frustrating bits in the main game though, and this instalment is no exception, with some real tough cookies. You will face Eggman and Metal Sonic alternately at the back end of each zone, and gone are the little Egg-mobile attachments, to be replaced by larger machines that require lots of hits and lots of time. A shame really, I do think the smaller scale boss is something that 2D games should hang on to. Thankfully though, they are at least entirely free of cloning and pretty much completely original, illustrated not too subtly by having the stack of spitting statues from the Aquatic Ruin boss rise up from the ground in the first battle, only to be knocked away by mechanical vines almost immediately. The final boss is particularly unique, yet also, particularly frustrating.

Lastly, we can't forget the Special Stage, which takes its cues, as most others always have done in some way, from the Sonic 2 half pipe. Another feeling of deja vu. It does at least offer a chance to make some much needed refinements to that classic formula however, namely to do with Tails. You remember, he used to walk straight into bombs and lose your rings, making the whole thing, well, pretty pointless, and actually probably one of my least favourite Special Stages. He's much better behaved this time, moving more in time with Sonic, and even when he gets hit I don't think he loses rings, though I may be wrong. I'm only about half way through my emerald collecting challenge at the moment - a bit stuck on the fourth emerald - but early indications show that this hunt for the shiny jewels is as tough as it ever was. I can only hope that one day we'll see the "collect blue spheres" Special Stage make a much needed return, if any more cloning must be done.




Retro Sounds

Next stop on the up and down rollercoaster ride that is this review is the musical stylings of Jun Senoue. Now once again he appears to have been given the sole task of coming up with the entire soundtrack for this game, which actually is quite big, and I do think he could have used a hand with it as it might have ensured a more consistent and higher quality. The bottom line is that it's much the same story as in episode 1; lots of unique pieces of Mega Drive style music, some maybe a little bit catchy (albeit "growers"), others seem to lack any sort of memorable tune whatsoever. Sylvania Castle Act 1 is definitely a baffling example of the latter, which seems to get itself all keyed up but never goes anywhere interesting whatsoever, while White Park Act 1 by contrast has a much more defined, pleasant melody. Strangely Oil Desert and Sky Fortress abandon the Sonic 4 rule of having completely different tunes for each act and instead go the traditional route by handing out variations of the same tune for two or all of their acts - perhaps Jun ran out of either tunes, time, or both. I wouldn't really say any of them jumped out at me as immediate favourites, and I don't think I'll be distributing too many iTunes 5 star ratings, but it's perhaps not as much of a melodic disaster as the first few pieces of music in the game would make you think it would turn out to be.

What is a bit more of a train wreck though is the general quality of them. I really don't think he's got the hang of this retro sound that he's going for, because many pieces are difficult to like just because they sound instrumentally repetitive (yes, he loves that annoying Sonic 1 and 2 drum sound), awkward and just plain uncomfortable to listen to. Oil Desert Act 3 and even the slightly re-done Sonic 4 title theme, along with several others, are really not easy on the ears. I'm no musical expert, but I know what I like to hear, and there's just no sign of the kind of beautiful complexity heard in the likes of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, and you get the impression that he doesn't quite understand that just because it's retro, it doesn't give him an excuse to make music that sounds awful. I appreciate he was probably under a lot of pressure to get them all done, because good quality or not they still take time, but most of his recent work in general hasn't entirely impressed me to be honest, as I felt he had some of the weakest offerings on the Sonic Generations soundtrack too. I wouldn't be all too sad to see him step down from his current role as all-important Sonic music guy in favour of someone more capable, such as Tomoya Ohtani. Sorry Jun.


Full Metal Episode

Do you have Sonic 4: Episode 1? Do you have Sonic 4: Episode 2 on the same system? Wouldn't it be nice if you could connect them together, or "lock on", if you will, to create the complete Sonic 4 experience? It would wouldn't it? Oh well, moving on..

Well, I assumed that probably wouldn't be happening, given the changes to physics and graphical styles etc, but as it turns out, it probably would have been possible, because if you have both episodes, you can unlock a bonus level called "Episode Metal", in which you play as Metal Sonic in one act of each of the levels in episode 1. These acts are edited heavily to create more of a "hard mode" experience, and demonstrate how Metal Sonic got his groove back, discovered some sort of secret glowing purple power source in Lost Labyrinth, and stole Tails' little space rocket thing in order to catch up with the duo in time for episode 2. It ties up a few (albeit not really that crucial or interesting) loose ends and offers a nice new challenge on existing content.

However the key thing here is that Metal Sonic controls exactly like Sonic does in episode 2. i.e. we have episode 2 physics in episode 1 and you can really feel the difference. I can't imagine it's going to take a gargantuan amount of work to import the rest of the acts, albeit with any necessary object placement tweaks, so that we can have that full continuous experience and make episode 1's content that little bit more enjoyable. Future DLC? Maybe if we ask really really nicely but my personal suspicion is that now that it's done, sadly, SEGA will just draw a line under Sonic 4 and move on. A safer bet is that one day a clever hacker will come up with something and who knows, maybe more clever people will be able to soften all the hard edges and shape a complete Sonic 4 into a more refined and smooth, fan-assisted package.


Worst Episode Ever?.. Nah, not really..

I've been a bit hard on the game in some places, and even though it took me on a bit of an emotional journey, I did enjoy it, and would recommend it. It's well constructed, has genuine challenge, and the new graphics engine looks beautiful, particularly the lighting effects and the vivid, busy backgrounds. Control over Sonic, while not perfect, has improved subtly yet significantly, and moving him around feels as solid and smooth as I would want.

Aspects of the level design could be better; they still rely too much on existing ideas rather than new ones, and I genuinely don't know if that's down to the misguided view that we want loads of throwbacks, or just simply a lack of new ideas. The latter isn't entirely true because there are new little touches, in both episodes for that matter, but most of the new obstacles and features in this game are fairly simple platforming ideas. It's also a shame that there doesn't appear to be a great emphasis on exploring multiple routes - a key ingredient of classic Sonic that I'm still not confident that they entirely understand. I feel that they were barking up the wrong tree with the musical direction all along, and this is a shame, as it too impacts greatly on how much you want to go back and experience these levels.

That said, what I really took away from this is that, at least in part, this felt like a truly new 2D Sonic experience, the likes of which I haven't enjoyed in quite the same way in years and years. Say, Sonic Advance 3, or possibly even earlier, because everything since has either felt like it's been designed in an entirely new, faster style that, while entertaining in its own right, is not the same, or in the case of episode 1 or Generations, feels too close to existing material to really feel unique and unexplored. This episode, even if just relatively briefly, captures that feeling of exploring bright, imaginative and varied worlds that are new, exciting and distinct from each other in every way. You're not forced along them at breakneck speed, the pace is comfortable and individual, and each act has its own specific challenges to throw at you. Rather than innocently slipping through different parts of the floor every couple of minutes, the art of creating specific "tricky bits" to work out and try to understand has well and truly returned and though you'll lose lives on them, you'll at least be accepting of these points as genuine challenges, and that's what gaming is all about after all.



I think it's safe to say that there probably won't be a third episode, and I think that's for the best. So as a complete game, which I actually find harder to comprehend than I first thought I would, Sonic 4 is not a perfect attempt at continuing the original series, but no matter how good it could have been, I don't think anyone would really consider it as another proper instalment of those games. They were of a specific time and made for a particularly optimistic and youthful fan-base that has since come to worship them as the untouchable religious icons they are, and there's no real way of just capturing that all over again, because so much has happened since. I don't care what it's name is, this game isn't really Sonic 4 in the way that Sonic 4 always should have been - but that's ok, it doesn't have to be. What it is, is a neat little blast from the past that attempts, mostly successfully, to recapture the important aspects of classic Sonic level design as opposed to modern Sonic level design. It could have been better, but it could also have been much worse. Vaguely, they've got the right idea.

And besides, if, five years ago you'd have said that one day we'd be playing a new game where Sonic and Tails chase Eggman and Metal Sonic up to Little Planet, which was being transformed into a new Death Egg, you'd have been laughed out the building (assuming you happened to be in a building full of Sonic fans). This kind of old Sonic lore was almost entirely ignored by SEGA for years, but now it's back and that at least is something to be really happy about. And if you want to see more of it, and more refined classic 2D Sonic gameplay, buy this game, enjoy it, and let them know you're interested, because otherwise we're in danger of losing it all over again.]]> <![CDATA[Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated]]> Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:44:21 UTC LiQuidShade
No, I just wanted to highlight that I haven't done much on Zone: 0 since the last update to be honest, but to assure you that I will, and that the coming months will see it finally reach its completion. I've just been involved in a couple of other unrelated projects, day-to-day work, social interactions (yeah I know, hard to believe isn't it?) and sadly any other time I've had in the last couple of weeks has been decimated by a sudden increase in eye-strain from all the excessive computer use. It's a recurring problem, so I have to remember to take it easy from time to time, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Oh, and I've been on Netflix a lot as well. Sorry.

As far as the schedule goes, we're very close to the end. I have started on the Other Modes page of Sonic & Knuckles, which will be followed by the Misc page, and both will be released together in the coming weeks as the penultimate update. Finally, my last ever level guide, Death Egg Zone, plus Doomsday and other stuff like Downloads and the game endings and all other bits and bobs will complete the Sonic & Knuckles guide, and the Zone: 0 pentalogy of Sonic game guides, after eight years of work.

Well, I say complete. There's a lot of maintenance I need to catch up on and tweaking here and there across all guides, adding in things people have suggested and accounting for ports or discoveries that have occurred since, but as far as significantly new content goes, that'll be it I'm afraid. However, as I've said before, everything will remain available for as long as it's still needed, and I do have interesting ideas for what the site might also evolve into alongside. I'm still not definite as to whether those ideas will actually become of anything, but hopefully you might find out more about them anyway around the time of completion.

Start getting excited! Or mournful, whichever seems appropriate.]]>