Emerald Hill Zone


 * For other subjects named "Emerald", see Emerald.

"Speed through this tropical bayside resort with palm trees, loop-de-loops and corkscrew speedways. Watch out for monkey-business!"

- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 manual description

Emerald Hill Zone is the first Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. It is a tropical paradise on the shores of West Side Island. Although Emerald Hill Zone is not visited by Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends quite as often as with Green Hill, the Zone remains nonetheless a frequently recurring locale within the super-speedy hedgehog's adventures. As with most other Zones in this game, Emerald Hill consists of two standard Acts with a boss fight at the end of Act 2.

Description
Plains of verdant grass and beautiful beaches draw instant comparisons with South Island's Green Hill Zone, but Emerald Hill has a character all of its own (although only small parts of the soil have checkered pattern, for one). The level is a grassy, green zone with plenty of easy obstacles and secret passageways. Idyllic waterfalls cascade amidst the tropical meadows and the coconut palms of West Side Island rise amidst natural gardens of red and pink flowers. Wooden bridges and ring-filled Mobius strips are the only signs of artificial intrusion, aside from Dr. Robotnik's retracting spike beds and Badniks.

It is possible to obtain all seven Chaos Emeralds in both Acts; there are three Star Posts in the first Act and four Star Posts in Act 2. While this requires time and extensive traveling of the Zone to regain Rings, it is possible to reach Dr. Robotnik the first time as Super Sonic.

Boss


The first boss in the game is Dr. Robotnik in a drill car, which he docks the helicopter-bladed Eggman Mobile to. This is not very challenging as it is easy to dodge his attacks and jump on him. After the seventh hit, Robotnik will fire his drill like a missile; jump over the projectile to deliver the final hit.

Sonic Drift 2
Emerald Hill also appears as a racecourse in Sonic Drift 2 for the Sega Game Gear. This stage (as "Emerald Hill 1") is the very first race in the game, before Hill Top 1 in the Purple Grand Prix; the racers re-enter the region during the White Grand Prix, where "Emerald Hill 2" is the sixth and final track, coming after Mystic Cave. As with most other racetracks in the second Chaos Grand Prix, the player has to complete three laps of the track to proceed, and the fastest racer gets a Chaos Emerald.

Sonic the Comic
The Emerald Hill Zone appears in the UK publication Sonic the Comic as the home of Sonic the Hedgehog and the setting of many stories. A large number of Mobians, known as the Emerald Hill Folk, live in the Emerald Hill Zone (until temporarily relocating to the Floating Island).

Tails left his home in the Nameless Zone and traveled to Mobius because he believed (incorrectly) that the Emerald Hill Zone was literally paved with real emeralds.

Unlike other continuities, STC places the Emerald Hill Zone on South Island, along with the other "Hill Zones" like the Green Hill Zone. (This is presumably to explain away continuity errors in early issues of the strip, in which the Green and Emerald Hill Zones were used almost interchangeably.)

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog pilot, Robotnik's minions are shown chasing Sonic through the Emerald Hill Zone.

Trivia

 * In the Simon Wai prototype of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Emerald Hill Zone was referred to as "Green Hill Zone."
 * This zone has eight Star Posts (three in Act 1, five in Act 2), meaning that all seven Chaos Emeralds can be earned in this zone.
 * In the Sonic Jam strategy guide, Yuji Naka said that Emerald Hill Zone got its name from a town called Emerald Hill just south of San Francisco. The team had noticed the name on a location test and decided to use it. The neighborhood is in fact referred to in the plural as Emerald Hills, and is part of a larger area called Emerald Lake Hills.
 * The background music from Emerald Hill Zone is available in the Green Hill Zone stage of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Bustedtees.a524c70fe59d0e3d568bef106868d219.gif shirt company Bustedtees made an Emerald Hill Zone shirt.
 * Emerald Hill Zone is the first stage in the Sonic franchise to use corkscrew loops, a staple of the series.
 * It is possible to change Sonic's color palette to the colour palette referred to by fans as Ashura through the use of Debug Mode.
 * It is possible this zone might become a part of a unknown skiing event (regardless of real or dream) for Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
 * The two-player music of this zone is often thought to be the theme for Wood Zone, a scrapped zone. However, no theme was ever composed for it before it got scrapped.
 * In Sonic Advance, there is a remix of the two-player music of Emerald Hill Zone.
 * Emerald Hill Zone and Hill Top Zone both use the same assets, and as such, Emerald Hill Zone has unused lava pits.
 * In SonicDOOM, a one of many storylines for the canceled Sonic X-Treme game, the Castle of Light (home of the Boobowski family) is located in Emerald Hills Zone.
 * The background music sounds similar to Green Hill Zone's.
 * This is the first zone to feature Tails.