SimonM7 said:
I think a lack of tangible coherence to the level progression is the problem rather than individual levels. I think the ones that are in there are fine, and they don't exactly *clash*, thematically, but they're still so hopelessly remote between one another that you don't get a good sense of progress through the game. It really is just a bucket of levels, ultimately, and whether you're playing the first couple of levels or the last ones, you don't *feel* where in a game you're at, and there's no culmination towards the end. That lacking sense of context renders the experience as a whole somewhat unsatisfying, and I doubt a different lineup would change that.
That's a pretty good perspective I haven't thought of before and would explain stuff like the Classic Planet Wisp remix (which I personally quite like despite being a completely unexpected take on the tune) sounding far more dystopian than it did in the original game, being the 'final zone' as it were.
I'm not so sure a different line up wouldn't be able to fix that pacing issue though. How about this, keeping to the same 9 zone limit and (for the most part) following the same tropes Sonic 2 does?
Green Hill (Emerald Hill)
Chemical Plant (...)
Hydrocity (Aquatic Ruins)
Casinopolis (Casino Night)
City Escape (Admittedly breaks the rule, but still
)
Hang Castle (Mystic Cave aka SPOOKY)
Flame Core (Mystic Cave aka it's a cave)
Crimson Carnival (Heavily industrial Eggman area, such as Oil Ocean/Metropolis/that cut Cyber City)
Asteroid Coaster (Terminal Velocity would fit better, but there's literally nothing to the level besides running in a straight line... Either way, both of these levels are in 'space' aka the Death Egg, soooo...)
Hell you could probably even have better pacing issues with the final level list if you broke the unwritten rule of having every zone appear in the order their respective games came out, working your way from lush tropical areas to more urban but still cheery to the more industrial and 'dangerous' and finally to what is literally the apocalypse:
Green Hill
Seaside Hill
Sky Sanctuary
Rooftop Run
City Escape
Speed Highway
Planet Wisp
Chemical Plant
Crisis City
That being said you are consistently the one who seems to 'get' the series the most out of these threads.
