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Sonic Adventure 2
City Escape
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Attention all units. Suspect seen heading south. Block all major roads and capture the suspect.


— Police dispatch, Sonic Adventure 2

City Escape (シティ エスケープ Shiti Esukēpu?) is the first stage of the Hero story in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and is playable as Sonic the Hedgehog. It also has a two-player battle mode where other characters are playable.

Description[]

This stage takes place on the streets of the capital of the United Federation, Central City. This can be proven by the fact that the cutscene before the stage says, "Above the capital city," and G.U.N. soldiers in Shadow the Hedgehog mention Central City as being the capital.

Story[]

The game begins with Sonic the Hedgehog escaping from a G.U.N. helicopter, fleeing from the military organization's pursuit. He is falsely accused of stealing the Chaos Emerald that Shadow the Hedgehog stole from Federal Reserve Bank.

Gameplay[]

City Escape features regular Sonic, and Shadow, gameplay, as well as a brief snowboarding section at the beginning.

Overview[]

1st Mission: Escape from the military pursuit![]

The stage begins with Sonic riding down the hills using a flap he ripped off of a G.U.N. helicopter. When Sonic jumps off the flap, he is introduced to Omochao, a robotic Chao that acts as a guide to help the player throughout the levels. Then, after fighting many enemies and going down Rails, Sonic is pursued by a massive GUN Military Truck, chasing him to the end of the level until it crashes into a brick overpass as Sonic reaches the Goal Ring.

2nd Mission: Collect 100 rings![]

This mission is very easy due to the number of Rings located during the first part of the stage. Additionally, there are few G.U.N. robots in the level that will cause Sonic to lose Rings.

3rd Mission: Find the lost Chao![]

The player must find Sonic's Mystic Melody before they can complete City Escape's third mission. The Ancient Ruin is found near the bottom of the building Sonic runs down. The player must then play the Mystic Melody beside the Ruin to make a Spring appear. Then, by using this Spring, the player will reach a Pulley. By jumping to the next Pulley, the player will be facing a Mono Beetle. They must use the Homing Attack, but hold down A/A Button GameCube v2/XboxA/Cross, to get a high bounce off the robot. This is done three times, but the third robot is a Spark Beetle that has an electric field around it, so the player must wait until it is lowered before jumping at it. They can then grab the Swing Bar and flip into the air, directing Sonic into the alcove where the lost Chao is located.

4th Mission: Reach the goal within 3 minutes 0 seconds![]

This is a very strict time limit to complete the stage. In the first section of the level, the player must avoid hitting any cars, as they slow Sonic down, and use all of the Ramps to increase his speed. Afterward, the player must take off running and use every Rail to increase speed, especially the one in the building with the stairs and two long Rails. The player should not waste any time fighting G.U.N. robots and collecting Item Boxes. During the large run down the building, it helps to build up the Spin Dash and allow Sonic to roll down the building at a greater speed. During the GUN Military Truck chase, Sonic must simply evade any hindrances that can slow him down. There are no Point Markers in this mission.

Last Mission: Clear Hard mode![]

Hard Mode is not much different besides the increased number of enemies. However, there are two notable changes about City Escape in Hard Mode. The first is that after the snowboarding section, the stairway is blocked off by a gate, meaning that Sonic must jump higher to grab a ledge and pull himself up. The second change is that after the section where Sonic runs down the building, there are no longer floating platforms to jump on and Sonic must now Homing Attack a Mono Beetle and use the Light Speed Dash in order to reach the other side. Otherwise, the rest of the level is the same as in normal mode, including the GUN Military Truck chase.

Level Up Item[]

The Level Up Item in City Escape is the Magic Gloves, which allows Sonic to use the Magic Hands technique.

This Level Up Item is found shortly after running down the side of the building. Sonic must already possess both the Bounce Bracelet and the Flame Ring to access it. At the four Steel Containers found a short distance from the base of the building, the player must use the Bounce Attack to access the room with the item.

Animals[]

Big the Cat sighting[]

Sonic2app 2016-11-04 17-55-51-357

Big the Cat in City Escape, from the 2012 remaster of Sonic Adventure 2.

In the GUN Military Truck chase section, Big can be seen running along the right side of the last stretch of road before the truck crashes. He panics and then gets run over by the truck.

Ranking[]

Score Rank
18,000 A Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
14,000 B Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
11,000 C Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
9,000 D Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
<9,000 E Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)

Time Rank
1:20 A Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
1:40 B Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
2:00 C Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
2:30 D Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
>2:30 E Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)

Time Rank
2:30 A Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
2:50 B Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
3:10 C Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
4:00 D Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
>4:00 E Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)

Score Rank
18,000 A Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
16,000 B Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
14,000 C Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
12,000 D Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
<12,000 E Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)

Score Rank
19,000 A Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
15,000 B Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
12,000 C Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
10,000 D Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)
<10,000 E Rank (Sonic Adventure 2)

Trivia[]

  • The stage is based on the city of San Francisco, California. The reason for this is because Sonic Adventure 2 is the first game that was developed by the US branch of Sonic Team. Since the newly established division was so influenced by their headquarters in San Francisco, the level designers, Takashi Iizuka and Eitaro Toyoda, decided to make some of the levels reference well known locations in San Francisco.[1] The other levels based off of San Francisco are: Mission Street (Mission Street is an actual street in the city), Radical Highway, Route 101, and Route 280 (the latter three were all based on the Golden Gate Bridge).
  • This is the first stage in the Sonic the Hedgehog series to have fully audible lyrics written for its background music. Some stages in previous games had used short voice samples, however.
    • City Escape also happens to be Sonic's only stage to feature background music with lyrics.
  • Sonic being chased by the GUN Military Truck is most likely a reference to the movie Duel (1971), Steven Speilberg's first film, where the protagonist is being chased by a menacing semi-truck.
  • It is possible to reach the lost Chao in the third mission of this level without the use of the Mystic Melody. This can be done by using Spin Dash tricks to roll up the face of the building.
  • In the cutscene before the level where Sonic escapes from the helicopter, the pilot identifies himself in military terminology as "Sigma-Alpha 2", which translates from Greek as "SA2", the game's initials, However, the real military phonetic alphabets (IE: NATO Phonetic Alphabet) do not use Sigma to signify the letter 'S', as it would instead be "Sierra-Alpha 2".
  • In the Dreamcast and GameCube versions of City Escape, as well as Radical Highway, there are many billboards, blimps, and benches that advertise SOAP Shoes.
    • All these advertisements were taken down and were replaced with Sonic Team ads in the Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network/Steam releases of the game, likely due to licensing issues. However, the ads still exist within the game's files and can be restored in the Steam version of the game by removing the file: objtex_stg13.pak located in Steam\steamapps\common\Sonic Adventure 2\resource\gd_PC\PRS.
      • Despite all the ads being covered up in the HD version, Sonic still wears his soap shoes.
  • The stage features many ads advertising objects from the Sonic universe, such as Rings, Springs, and Item Boxes.
  • The G.U.N. helicopter in the opening cutscene appears to be based off the Russian Mil Mi-24.
  • The beginning of the stage featuring Sonic boarding through the city streets is similar to how Sonic snowboarded in IceCap Zone and Icecap in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic Adventure, respectively.
  • During the level, the player can knock out several parked cars while running and boarding, sometimes even knocking down moving cars. According to the bonus video for the HD Version, this gameplay element was added in by the developers in response to frequently getting parking tickets from the Los Angeles Police Department during the game's development.
  • City Escape is Jun Senoue's favorite stage from Sonic Adventure 2.[2]
  • One of the concept art pieces for the stage depicts Sonic grinding down the Rails of a bridge. This was never seen in the actual level, though it is not unlikely this inspired the rail grind segments of Shadow's stage in the same area; Radical Highway.
  • City Escape's music reappears as one of the songs that can be purchased in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games, and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
  • Sonic snowboarding through the city and being chased by a giant lorry are similar to the same events that happened in Pepsiman; Stage 1-Scene 2 and Stage 2-Scene 1
  • This stage has went down in history as one of the most iconic levels in video game history, mainly because of the "Awesome music" And "Insane speed you can reach."
  • The stages 1-7 (and its Final Horizons remix level 4-I) from Sonic Frontiers are based off of sections from City Escape.
    • Stage 4-9 from Sonic Frontiers features original level design, but contains elements comparable to the snowboarding sections of City Escape.

Console differences[]

  • In the original Dreamcast version, if Sonic is going slow enough while entering the GUN Military Truck chase segment, he will be able to back-up when the truck first jumps at the street, forcing the truck to back up as well. The truck then crashes and is immobilized, allowing the player to continue the level at their own pace. This was fixed in the GameCube version, as while the GUN Military Truck still keeps moving back by the glitch, it begins to charge at the player afterward, forcing them to complete the chase as normal.
  • In the Dreamcast version of the level's opening cutscene, Sonic's model has his original shoes when he escapes from the helicopter, but when jumping off the wing, he has somehow switched into the Grind Shoes. This oversight was later corrected later in the GameCube version.
  • In the area after Sonic gets off the Snowboard, there is a Ring Item Box on the wall. It was worth 20 Rings in the Dreamcast version but was changed to 10 Rings when released for the GameCube.
  • Right when Sonic loses his Snowboard, there is a planter of flowers on the Dreamcast version. This was removed in the GameCube version because it was in the way of the camera.
CEDC23

The word "WELCOME" featured in the Dreamcast version was removed in later ports.

  • The word "WELCOME" was removed from the two grassy areas on both sides of the stairs in the GameCube version.
  • In the area with several Gun Beetle robots hovering over floating platforms above a bottomless pit, the end of the line of Beetles was changed. In the Dreamcast version, the line of Beetles ends with a Beetle that is lower than the others. In the GameCube version, the line ends with a short line of Rings and a Spring added to the last platform.
  • Omochao appears just before the Goal Ring in the GameCube version. He will say "That big truck scared me" if the player picks him up and jumps into the Goal Ring. This does not occur in the original Dreamcast version.

Music[]

Name Artist(s) Length Music track
"Escape from the City ...for City Escape" Jun Senoue, Ted Poley, Tony Harnell 2:18
"The Mad Convoy Race ...for City Escape" Jun Senoue 0:48

Stage map[]

Videos[]


See also[]

References[]

  1. IGN Staff (4 June 2001). Interview With Sonic Adventure 2 Director Takashi Iizuka. IGN. "Takashi Iizuka: Since Sonic Team USA is residing around San Francisco and the Bay Area, we see a lot of the beautiful images here in San Francisco everyday. And we wanted to apply those elements in the game."
  2. http://junsenoue.com/site/faq/sonic

Main article · Scripts (Hero, Dark, Last) · Staff · Manuals · Glitches · Beta elements · Gallery · Pre-releases (The Trial, Preview, TRIAL Version) · Re-releases (Battle, 2012)
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