Hidden Palace Zone

Hidden Palace Zone (HPZ) refers to two levels in Sonic games, one being an unfinished (and mostly removed) level in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the other being a level in Sonic & Knuckles.

Sonic 2 Prototypes


The unfinished Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic 2 is a cavern filled with jewels. It has been compared to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 's Ice Cap Zone due to graphical similarities. Hidden Palace took its name from the underground cavern near Mt. Arakai in central Japan. It too is filled with precious stones, as well as ancient rock formations.

In the beta versions of Sonic 2 (the first of which was stolen from a game show in 1992 according to Yuji Naka), Hidden Palace is an incomplete level. Act 2 (as well as Act 3 in the prototype discovered by drx) starts with Sonic stuck inside a wall, and using the debug mode to move Sonic outside the wall reveals that the act is identical to Act 1, but without any objects. Act 1 cannot be completed at all, as it has no end level signpost or capsule. Using debug mode allows the player to get into a second part of the level, due to a steep slope that cannot be climbed up, and even when climbed up reaches to the top of the level map and leads no further. "Sonic Research Zone" has found that if you use the debug mode to place a platform on this slope, Sonic can walk up the slope as if it were flat ground.

The level was one of the earliest shown to the public during production of the game. It appeared alongside the famous Desert Zone in two mock-up images that were some of the earliest - if not the first - shown for the game. The area in the mock-up is found in the beta, and via ROM hacking, the rhino and tricerotops badniks were also found to still be present in the game data. The game was continually used in promotion for some time. Time issues and overall fun factor have been stated as reasons for cutting the level.

There are three areas that cannot be reached without Debug: a small underwater area that leads to an item box (shortly after you leave the tube, it is under a patch of green floor which looks similar to the breakable floors in the Marble Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog), a tube that leads to death below the large emerald, and an area past the slope that cannot be accessed on foot. The latter is assumed to be the top of that slope. It has water slides on it like some areas of the Labyrinth Zone, but Sonic does not slide down the water. At one end is the top of the slope, and at the other just water and an empty space that leads to the edge of the map. A fourth area is in fact accessible without debug, though it is difficult to reach, requiring you to jump to a platform directly below the one you are standing on. It has been suggested that a bridge would have been put there.

The level features a large emerald above a tube, which has caused much confusion and speculation, as many have confused it with the Master Emerald, the equally large emerald guarded by Knuckles the Echidna that keeps the Angel Island afloat, leading to various speculations including Knuckles being planned for Sonic 2 and Tails being the guardian of the Master Emerald in Sonic 2. The level designer, however, revealed that it was simply just a breakable object, similar to the rocks in the Hill Top Zone or Angel Island Zone, only with a purpose.

There is one extra life item box in the level, and it is a Tails icon box, leading some to speculate that the level was a Tails Only level. However, suggestions have been made that the level was also connected to Super Sonic; one by a member of the Sonic 2 team.

Pieces of HPZ are left in the finished Sonic 2 game, including the music (Sound test #10), the sprite layout and code, the title card, the palette, the level select icon (which also appears in Sonic the Hedgehog 3's level select along with all the other Sonic 2 level select icons), and parts of the level data (including size, bounds, and water). Using a Game Genie or mod through emulation, one can enter the zone in the final version. However, the art itself has been removed, and so this results in a glitchy-looking (though still playable) screen causing Sonic to immediately fall to his death.

When the Beta was made public, the appearance of Hidden Palace caused an uproar in the hacking community, which eventually resulted in it being restored to full playability in the fanmade hack, Sonic 2: Long Version, complete with an Act 2 boss that behaves in a way similar to the one in Mystic Cave Zone.

Sonic 3 & Knuckles


Hidden Palace Zone in Sonic & Knuckles is a transitional level between Lava Reef Zone and Sky Sanctuary Zone. It is the only Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Sonic level devoted to a part of the plot, and the shortest of the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Zones. Sonic defeats Knuckles there, and Dr. Robotnik steals the Master Emerald from the Emerald shrine. This causes Knuckles to realize Robotnik is evil. The mosaic in the background of the fight with Knuckles predicts the apocalyptic fight in the Doomsday Zone. The end of the level shows Knuckles helping Sonic transport into the Sky Sanctuary, the next level.

Played as Knuckles, the same level is even shorter, containing no objects other than the teleport to Sky Sanctuary, his final Zone in the game.

Trivia

 * While in Sonic 2, Hidden Palace remains coded as its own level with two Acts (despite glitchy graphics and no solid ground) in Sonic 3 & Knuckles Hidden Palace is coded under Lava Reef 4 on the level select screen (Lava Reef 3 is the boss fight of Lava Reef 2.)
 * Hidden Palace was one of the first Zones to have its name used more than once in the series. Another was Death Egg Zone, appearing in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic 3 & Knuckles. After that was Ice Cap, in various forms present in Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) and Sonic Adventure (like the Lava Reef Zone and Red Mountain, the difference seems to be that of the interior and exterior.) Finally, there was Angel Island, appearing (also in different forms) in Sonic 3 (& Knuckles), Sonic Advance, and Sonic Adventure.