The Doom Zone (ドゥームゾーン Dūmu Zōn?) is a location that appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It was a parallel dimension created by Black Doom during the Time Eater incident to test Shadow the Hedgehog as he acquired the Doom Powers. Though later on it would become a racing track for Dodon Pa's CrossWorlds Grand Prix.
Description[]
The Doom Zone is made to resemble Radical Highway, but its visual appearance appears distorted like a fractured mirror with pieces of glitching floating debris in the sky.
In gameplay, the Doom Zone occurs in Act 1 of Space Colony ARK, Rail Canyon, and Sunset Heights. During it, Shadow is sent temporarily through a corrupted version of Radical Highway, before coming back to the current stage. In addition, the last stage and final boss fight and can be considered to fully reside within the Doom Zone as well, due to it being a space inside the Black Moon.
While Shadow is within the Doom Zone, Chaos Control will be disabled (except for the very last stages of fighting Neo Devil Doom).
History[]
Shadow Generations[]
In Shadow Generations, aboard the Space Colony ARK, Shadow encounters Black Doom's eye, who unexpectedly transports him to the Doom Zone. Black Doom tries to rekindle Shadow's hatred for humanity by insisting he cannot deny his fate, but Shadow resists and ultimately manages to escape.
Later, as Shadow makes his way through Rail Canyon and has begun to harness some of the Doom Powers, Doom's Eye suddenly appears and transports him back to the Doom Zone, instructing him to follow him. Uncertain of Black Doom's intentions but also not having a better choice, Shadow reluctantly does so. He manages to attack Doom's Eye, who commends him but says it is still not enough and sends Shadow back to Rail Canyon with Shadow pondering what he meant by that.
When Shadow makes his way through Sunset Heights and has harnessed even more of the Doom Powers, he suddenly finds himself back in the Doom Zone. There, he encounters Doom's Eye once again, who attempts to finish him off by using the unnatural terrain against him. Just before sending Shadow back to Sunset Heights, Doom's Eye smugly remarks that the plan is going as intended.
When Shadow unlocks the final ability, Doom Wing, Black Doom envelops White Space in a Doom Zone, declaring that Shadow is complete. He challenges Shadow to confront him, vowing to claim him once and for all. However, after Shadow clears Radical Highway one last time and defeats Neo Devil Doom, the Doom Zone is destroyed along with the Black Moon and White Space reverts back to normal.
After the player has beaten the game, an object resembling the Black Moon appears in White Space. The player can activate it to return the Doom Zone to White Space once more. Additionally, the Doom Zone contains harder versions of the boss fights against the Biolizard, Metal Overlord and Mephiles, as well as harder versions of some Challenge Acts and the Open Zone Challenges.
Music[]
The music for the in-stage Doom Zones, rearranged by The Qemists, remix Radical Highway, to match the visuals of these area appearing to be a distorted version of the original stage.
The music for the White Space Doom Zone, arranged by Yuzuru Jinma, is a mostly original dramatic piece with an orchestral sound, containing a recurring leitmotif based on Black Doom's boss battle theme.
Trivia[]
- Kingdom Valley, Chaos Island, and Radical Highway are the only stages to not have a Doom Zone interference mid-stage.
- However, Radical Highway can be considered to fully reside within the Doom Zone, making the former two the only stages to not have any connection to the Doom Zone whatsoever.
- It is possible that it only occured for Space Colony ARK, Rail Canyon and Sunset Heights as those were key moments in Shadow's history within these games; The Solaris incident was erased from the timeline, and Shadow wasn't present during the Starfall Islands incident.
- The Doom Zone shares similarities to Cyber Space. Both locations involve altering the terrains and serve as obstacles for Sonic the Hedgehog and Shadow the Hedgehog.
- In concept art for the Doom Zone, Speed Highway's gate and the collection room from Sonic Generations can be seen.
- In Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, the last living member of the Black Arms named Eclipse the Darkling was able to disable Shadow's Chaos Control whenever at a close range, similar to the Doom Zone whenever Shadow was inside it.
Gallery[]
Concept artwork[]
Screenshots[]
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