Sunset Hill



Sunset Hill is the second stage of Sonic Advance 3. It is heavily based on the first level of Sonic 1, Green Hill Zone, but with a dusk type setting, complete with palm trees and checkered soil. Even the palm trees are checkered! It also has Green Hill's music in a remix form.

Unique features here include waterslides, tall segmented springs that recoil the player a short horizontal distance, and vertical poles which the player can slide down and jump off of to either side using the jump button and the D-pad. There are also large, slow-moving floating platforms that can either assist you in navigating the stage or crush you, resulting in an instant death. Act 1 introduces water mechanics to Sonic Advance 3.

This zone ends with a boss fight against Gemerl in Act 3. If this act is completed with Sonic in the lead (although at this point, the only other possible combination would be Tails-Sonic), a cutscene will play. It will feature Sonic and Tails meeting Knuckles, who expresses his desire to support whatever are they doing, to what Sonic just says that they won't need any help by now. Knuckles, even angry at this, is unlocked for the main game and time attack modes.

The boss of Sunset Hill Zone is a large Eggman mech/Gemerl wheel, which rolls around a circular arena and is vunerable only in a small section (Eggman's cockpit). A switch on the ground temporarily activates a floating platform that both offers protection from the boss and allows you to damage it on the ceiling. This boss takes 8 hits to defeat on Normal Mode, and 6 hits on Easy Mode. As the boss accumulates damage, it will roll faster and faster, making it more difficult to avoid and precisely attack. Following the defeat of this boss, the player is taken to Ocean Base Zone.