Green Hill Zone

''This article contains information about Green Hill Zone's many appearences across the Sonic the Hedgehog series, including: Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit), Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) (as Green Hills Zone), Sonic Chaos (as Mecha Green Hill Zone), Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, and others.

=General= The Green Hill Zone is the first, and most famous, zone in all of the Sonic the Hedgehog games; especially to older gamers. Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) shipped with most Mega Drive / Genesis systems, and thus Green Hill Zone was the first Genesis experience for many people. It is a picturesque paradise with green fields and beautiful blue lakes. Perhaps most distinctively, the soil is checkered brown. Obstacles include crumbling platforms and spikes in the original iteration. Subsequent portrayls largely remain true to the zone's theme of being a 'first level', lacking quite the same density of hazards as later zones (although there are still plenty).

=Appearences=

Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)
As previously stated, Green Hill is the first Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit). Like other zones in the Mega Drive game, Green Hill is divided into three full-length Acts, with a boss battle at the end of the third. Dr. Robotnik appears with a wrecking ball that swings back and forth trying to hit Sonic, who must avoid it by standing on two platforms and jumping over it. He can destroy it by jumping off of the platforms and into Robotnik's machine 8 times.

After completing the game, Sonic makes a brief return to Green Hill Zone for the ending sequence. The area is now free of badniks and instead thronged with celebrating animals.

Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit)
Taking after its Mega Drive namesake, Green Hill is also the first level of Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit). As with all other stages in the game, Green Hill Zone consists of two standard Acts followed by a shorter, third Act which contains the Zone's boss (and nary a single ring!).

The zone, again like its Genesis counterpart, is filled with rolling plains of green and jauntily coloured flowers. It's not all natural goodness, though, as Robotnik has installed spike pits and set his ubiquitous robotic minions loose on the verdant landscape.

A rarity amongst Green-Hill-themed levels, this iteration sports underwater areas when Sonic enters a cave system in Act 2.

The boss of the 8-bit Green Hill Zone is an easy one to get you going, though don't forget that you won't have any rings when facing the fat man. Robotnik has eschewed attaching some random kill-weapon to his customary flying machine this time, and instead merely tries to murder Sonic by swooping down and ramming the hedgehog.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit): Green Hills Zone
Green Hills Zone is the fourth level of the Game Gear / Master System Sonic 2. It being the fourth level is somewhat surprising, because the easy platforming would make one expect that (as usual with Green-Hill-themed zones) this level would come first in the game. As with all other stages in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit), Green Hills Zone consists of two standard Acts followed by a shorter, third Act which contains the Zone's boss.

The zone, like the original, is filled with rolling plains of green and loop-the-loops which Sonic must defy gravity in speeding around. It also contains a couple of flip-ramps as in the Green Hill Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit).



"Dosn't that background music remind me of something?" you may ask. Yes. Yes it does. The music for Green Hills Zone is a tinny and downgraded (but strangely catchy) version of "You Can Do Anything" from the opening theme for Sonic CD.

The boss is robotic pig with an inexplicable penchant for sumo posturing. Sonic's porcine adversary will curl up into a ball and either roll or float from one side of the screen to the other. When he unfurls, that's your chance to hit him.

Sonic Chaos: Mecha Green Hill Zone
Mecha Green Hill Zone is the fourth level of Sonic Chaos for the Sega Game Gear / Sega Master System, coming after Sleeping Egg and preceeding Aqua Planet. In keeping with the other stages of this game, Mecha Green Hill consists of two standard Acts followed by a shorter, third Act which contains the boss. Geographically, this Zone is located on South Island (as is the rest of Sonic Chaos).

As demonstrated via the Bad Future levels of Sonic CD, the nefarious Doctor Robotnik seems to take cruel pleasure in converting natural zones into twisted, metallic parodies of their former selves. Although it's never explicitly demonstrated whether or not Mecha Green Hill Zone is a roboticized normal Green Hill Zone, or an entirely new construction, the fact that both areas are on South Island, combined with the Doctor's modus operandi on the Little Planet, means it would not be unreasonable to speculate that this level represents the former: Robotnik's capture and conversion of at least part of Green Hill.

So where once there was verdant, peaceful idyll, now steel palmtrees deploy coconut bombs and 'Bane Motora' beetlebots trundle across bleak fields of synthetic grass. The ground has been metallized, and the azure skies turned sickly, polluted green (or orange, on the Game Gear version). The level also incorporates the 'tilting bridges' from Gigalopolis Zone, that you have to sprint across fast or fall off.



Throughout Sonic Chaos, and in a marked change of his tactics from other early games, our old friend Doctor Robotnik apparently thinks he's too important to face Sonic or Tails personally (until the last boss). Instead the Doctor deploys larger, tougher, nastier badniks as boss robots.

Mecha Green Hill Zone's boss is some kind of trunk-hugging armoured... beetle-sloth-monkey-thing. While shimmying up and down a robotic palm, the machine spits out energy bolts from a cannon hidden inside its back. Not nearly as problematic as its Sleeping Egg predecessor, the boss can be defeated through the standard tactic of 'dodge the attacks and jump on its head'.

Incidently, the boss' name, 'Kamado Max', derives from the Japanese word kamadome, meaning "Do not cut the trees".

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Green Hill takes on a more realistic look, adding rocky textures to loops and other gimmicks, while still retaining certain features, such as chequered walls in certain areas. Wild Boar and Armadillo can be fought, and later, Eggman's robots. This is also home to some of Eggman's bases (potentially vestiges from the area's time as Mecha Green Hill Zone), which can be accessed with flying characters such as Tails or Rouge.

Other portrayls
This zone is so famous in the Sonic series that it reappears in later games such as Sonic Battle and Sonic Adventure 2. Even Sonic Advance 3's Sunset Hill Zone has a remix of Green Hill Zone music.

If you manage to get all A rank in Sonic Adventure 2, you will unlock a 3D version of Green Hill.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Green Hill Zone is an unlockable arena, featuring its classic style and terrain. The background includes familiar Green Hill objects (trees, totem poles), a loop-de-loop, and characters (potentially Tails, Knuckles or Silver, on occasion) running through the loop.

In Sega Superstars Tennis, Green Hill was made into a tennis court with various characters making cameo appearances around the field, mainly the Chao from the Sonic Adventure series, and Silver from the next-gen Sonic the Hedgehog. This is where many missions in Sonic's world in Superstar Mode take place, including a singles tournament with various Sonic characters.

=External Links=
 * Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit) page at The GHZ
 * ...and likewise the Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) page at The GHZ