time gear
Eternity in an hour
Fans of the classic Genesis/Mega Drive era of Sonic can probably remember the surreal, cartoony environments of the series roots. From the spiky background mountains, checkerboard dirt, and striped grass of Green Hill Zone to the Star Wars-esque orbital space station that is the Death Egg and everything in-between. Many long time fans might remember that these surreal environments persisted into the 3D era with stages such as Pumpkin Hill and Hang Castle, as well as 2D stages such as Music Plant, Chaos Angel, and Sky Babylon. Even into the later half of the 2000's we got stages such as Dinosaur Jungle, and the early 2010's gave us stages such as Planet Wisp and Dessert Ruins. The Sonic series was never particularly grounded in reality, and wasn't afraid to put loops in highways and rails suspended in the sky for the sake of fun level design.
I'd like to see a return to this mindset towards level aesthetics and design in future mainline titles. The islands of Sonic Frontiers have some surreal elements in them such as the huge towers sticking up into the sky and floating platforms that suffer from severe pop-in. However, they're comparatively grounded in reality compared to stages even as recent as Sonic Forces such as Luminous Forest. I'd love to see fully realized 3D stages similar to Music Plant or Chaos Angel. I'd love to explore through a more open ended Hang Castle type environment or something akin to Twinkle Snow. There's a lot of untapped potential in this direction that I think the Sonic series could really benefit from.
I'd like to see a return to this mindset towards level aesthetics and design in future mainline titles. The islands of Sonic Frontiers have some surreal elements in them such as the huge towers sticking up into the sky and floating platforms that suffer from severe pop-in. However, they're comparatively grounded in reality compared to stages even as recent as Sonic Forces such as Luminous Forest. I'd love to see fully realized 3D stages similar to Music Plant or Chaos Angel. I'd love to explore through a more open ended Hang Castle type environment or something akin to Twinkle Snow. There's a lot of untapped potential in this direction that I think the Sonic series could really benefit from.