| << Previous stage | — | Sonic Heroes Hang Castle |
— | Next stage >> |
Hang Castle (ハング キャッスル Hanguru Kyassuru?), also known as Hang Castle Zone, is the eleventh stage in Sonic Heroes. It is a giant castle that was built by Dr. Eggman.
Description[]
Hang Castle is a large, mysterious and spooky area filled with many towers under a large moon in the background. The stone hallways outside of the towers are filled with torches, and sometimes contain dull-colored plants to the sides. Some tall, round platforms contain notable illumination marks on the surface resembling spiders. Throughout the level, the castle seems to have red banners with an eye embedded on them. Mist seems to also be present in some parts of the stage. Towards the end of the level, there is a large tower crafted in the image of Dr. Eggman on one side and Neo Metal Sonic on the other.
Story[]
After the second team battle, Team Sonic infiltrates the castle to find Dr. Eggman and Shadow. Team Dark enters the castle while Shadow ponders over his identity and what exactly Sonic is. Team Rose finds the haunted castle and continues after Amy reminds Cream and Big of Chocola and Froggy. Team Chaotix is off to find the keys located in the castle, presumably to get into the Mystic Mansion. Following Mystic Mansion, the next stage, the teams all pass through the Hang Castle area again to fight Robot Storm before moving on to Egg Fleet.
Gameplay[]
Hang Castle is the first of two stages, the other being Mystic Mansion, that contain the mysterious orb switch which seemingly flips the stage upside down. The player must tread around the floating platforms cautiously, especially if they are used to carry the player across bottomless pits. Some of the floating platforms that move up and down will not move until the player stands on them.
Because of their unique Light Dash ability, Team Sonic and Team Dark can find long trails of Rings in this level. Also, as Team Sonic and Team Dark, they will need to run vertically down along the surface of a tall tower, avoiding obstacles and gaining points via Rainbow Rings in the process. The player cannot backtrack in this section.
The stage introduces stone walls that can be destroyed with Power Formation attacks which conceal Item Boxes, switches, or passageways necessary for the player to proceed. Also new to this stage are the torches, which can be used to score points by extinguishing the flames, though if the flame is touched the player will take damage. Some torches are simply flames formed on platforms and in midair, though with the latter they serve to create some sort of an invisible pathway the player can walk on.
Every now and then, Pumpkin Ghosts will pop out in unexpected places. The Egg Magician/Egg Bishop enemy also debuts here.
Overview[]
Team Sonic[]
Mission 1[]
| This section requires an expansion. |  |
- Infiltrate the mysterious castle!
Mission 2[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Get to the goal ring within 6 minutes!
Team Dark[]
Mission 1[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Enter the spooky castle!
Mission 2[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Defeat 100 enemies!
Team Rose[]
Mission 1[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Enter the haunted castle!
Mission 2[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Collect 200 rings!
Team Chaotix[]
Mission 1[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Find the keys inside the haunted castle!
Mission 2[]
| This section requires an expansion. | |
- Collect the keys without being detected by the enemies!
The objective is the same as with the normal mission; however, they must do so without any character being detected by an enemy robot, similar to the extra mission of Ocean Palace. If a character gets detected, the player will respawn from either the beginning of the stage or the last checkpoint touched. Although the player will not lose a life, all character levels and the score will reset to 0.
To avoid being spotted, the player will need to make use of Espio's ability to turn invisible with his Leaf Swirl. It is recommended for the player to use the Leaf Swirl while leaving his teammates far away from enemies and have Espio who is under the effects of Leaf Swirl destroy the enemy robots himself (or using their Team Blast Chaotix Recital on tougher enemies). The player should only switch to Charmy and Vector when their respective formations are required to proceed through the stage and there are no nearby enemies.
Super Hard Mode[]
Team Sonic enters the same way, but now an Egg Spear and a Solid Flapper must be destroyed to open the door. An extra-large Pumpkin Ghost {with its lower half phasing through the ground} appears in the room with an Orb Switch that takes the team upside down. The player must fly up the second step there to defeat two smooth-shielded Egg Spears, a Bazooka with the same shield and a Egg Bishop. After, the player uses Knuckles' Fireball Jump or Fire Dunk at the upside-down torches to unlock a Case with a Switch to activate a Ring Trail. After Light Speed Dashing the Rings, the player must eliminate two Egg Pawns to unlock the cased Orb Switch. Flipping back to normal, there's a caged 10-Ring Item Box that the player can get. They must run through the path with a loop {Pumpkin Ghost appears before it} to a platform that must be stood on to go up to the first Checkpoint. Down there is three spike-shielded Egg Spears with an big Iron Ball in the center. Three red flames light up in front of the Orb Switch as the player approaches it {these can't be extinguished}. They must grind the rail upside-down to a Pulley above a Pumpkin Ghost and take out three Solid Gun Flappers. The next tower's bottom {top upside-down} has three Egg Magicians in front of an invisible path marked by Pumpkin Ghosts {that move sideways} this time. Following the ghost path is a cased switch guarded by two Solid Bomb Flappers. The player then dashes through the rings to the next platform with three Egg Pawns appearing {middle one has a spike shield and spear}. They must switch to Tails to carefully fly to the floating platform and to an opened circular area with three spike-shielded Egg Guns guarding a cased Orb Switch. The door opens returning right-side-up and the following enemies must be destroyed: A Egg Knight with a bazooka and spike shield {the player must primarily defeat it} and three Egg Spears with the same type of shields, another Egg Knight up the little steps with the same equipment {player must do the same with that one} and two Pawns with the aforementioned equipment all guarding a cased 5-Ring Item Box. Inside the left cracked wall is a caged 20-Ring Item Box and a 10-Ring one inside the opposite cracked wall. The player must use Knuckles' Fire Dunk or Fireball Jump to raise up the pole for Sonic. Up there are three Solid Flappers {middle one has a gun} that can be taken out before touching a Dash Panel to the rail circling to the second Checkpoint. An Egg Pawn drops in front of the team in front of the Dash Ramp to the pathway with torches on the sides and some Pumpkin Ghosts in the way. After being launched from the Dash Ramp to the Orb Switch to go upside-down following another ramp, the player grinds a rail through an upside-down path with blue torches lighting up with a Laser Flapper and Pumpkin Ghosts getting in the way. Below the path's end are three Egg Guns and a Wide Spring {rewards the usual 10 Rings}. The player has to defeat two Solid Search Flappers {and possible summoned enemies} without Team Blast and/or accidently destroying the first Flapper in the Homing Attack path. The Flappers in that path move sideways and a Pumpkin Ghost appears at the end on the circle platform. A Wide Spring {with the usual reward} is in front of these enemies: An Egg Magician with four spike shielded Egg Spears is guarding a cased Orb Switch. Falling right-side up to a pool {filled by green liquid from the mouths of the axe-face-heads turned upside-down with an evil look} that has a Case {unlocked with the Orb Switch one from earlier} with a Switch that activates an optional Ring Trail leading to a Item Balloon with a 5-Ring. The player then navigates through an invisible pathway marked by blue torches with an current {with the fan's noise} and Pumpkin Ghosts along with a big one getting in the way, and uses Knuckles to light up two torches to open the door. In there is an Egg Bishop {heals robots around it} with two Solid Cannon Flappers and two Egg Knights {equipped with guns and spiked shields} that appear. A black Weight is in the way of a cracked wall with a cased 5-Ring Item Box inside {guarded by the aforementioned robots}. Up the path above the broken wall has two Solid Bomb Flappers and an Bazooka Egg Knight with the same shield, the latter of which is guarding the door to the last Checkpoint. The player has to switch to Power to avoid large Pumpkin Ghosts and light up big torches {Power Attacks work too} along with destroying Egg Spears with spiked shields on both sides of the tower, then finishing the job with the Gun Egg Knight {doesn't take out the Spears on the sides} with two other Egg Spears all with spiked shields {these in front of the Case aren't part of unlocking it}. Whatever way the player goes, three Pumpkin Ghosts appear in a row while getting to the tower's interior with one last extra-large one inside {its head is mainly seen}. The thin slope pathway circling up the tower clockwise has the following: Egg Knight with bazooka at the start; two Bomb Flappers as the team goes up; A Needle and three Flappers to Home Attack on; three more red Flappers guarding a cased Orb Switch with a caged extra life {this must be collected for sure} to the right. Falling down right-side up, two Egg Spears with the usual shields are guarding a cased switch that activates a long Ring Trail. The player then has to take out an Egg Magician and two Solid Cannon Flappers floating above three unlit torches suspended in mid-air. If Knuckles is used during that while lighting up torches at the same time, the player must be careful doing this as landing on a torch that was just lit up will cause damage. The rest of the torches {total of six to light up} should be activated after destroying enemies. Continuing on, a spike-shield Egg Bazooka along with a Solid Gun Flapper should be destroyed before the player Thunder Shoots a Target Switch {three red flames light up in front of it} to open a cased Orb Switch. Turning upside down once more, the player must carefully destroy a spike-shielded Bazooka Egg Knight {primary target} with two spike-shielded Egg Spears without Team Blast and/or accidently destroying the first Flapper in the Homing Attack path. The Homing Attack path starts with a Needle Flapper and five red Flappers all each moving sideways with a Pumpkin Ghost appearing in the middle of the path with a Ring Trail at the end. The player has to get through this extremely difficult section with Sonic at the moment the Needle Flapper doesn't have its spikes out and when all Flappers are about to get in the middle. The Pumpkin Ghost on the other hand will affect the player trying to Homing Attack the next Flapper as the ghost must be homed on first with the Left Thumbstick/Control Stick aiming Sonic directly at the Pumpkin Ghost or avoiding it, then the Flappers afterwards carefully to the Ring Trail. The player should switch to Knuckles to break the cracked wall to get in the hall with a large Pumpkin Ghost and a Bazooka Egg Knight with a smooth shield along with two Egg Spears with spiked shield {player should destroy the Knight} that will unlock the door when defeated. The team grinds a rail in the next hallway leading to the tower wall with two Pumpkin Ghosts appearing. The player then runs through the vertical wall by collecting Rings and passing Rainbow Rings {as many as possible} with Iron Balls as obstacles through the second half. Like Team Dark, Team Sonic hits the last Orb Switch to fall down right-side up while avoiding pumpkin heads along the way, but there's an Egg Spear and two unlit blue torches that'll unlock the door to the Goal Ring.
Ranking[]
| Rank | Score[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Sonic | Team Dark | Team Rose | Team Chaotix | |
|
45,000 | 65,000 | 45,000 | 35,000 |
|
40,000 | 60,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 |
|
35,000 | 55,000 | 35,000 | 25,000 |
|
30,000 | 45,000 | 30,000 | 20,000 |
|
<30,000 | <45,000 | <30,000 | <20,000 |
| Rank | Score/Time[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Sonic | Team Dark | Team Rose | Team Chaotix | |
|
|
45,000 | 11:00 | 3:30 | 23,000 |
|
|
43,000 | 11:30 | 4:00 | 20,000 |
|
|
40,000 | 12:00 | 4:30 | 18,000 |
|
|
38,000 | 13:00 | 5:00 | 15,000 |
|
|
<38,000 | >13:00 | >5:00 | <15,000 |
Trivia[]
The statue of Dr. Eggman and Neo Metal Sonic in Hang Castle.
- If the Dr. Eggman statue is looked at while upside down, a statue of Neo Metal Sonic can be seen, foreshadowing that Eggman is not the real villain of the game after all. This is seen only in Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Chaotix, and Super Hard Mode's versions of the stage.
- This is the only stage in Sonic Heroes to have two musical tracks: one for when the castle is right-side up, and another one for when it's upside down.
- If Team Sonic and Team Dark are played and start at the beginning of the level, and the player pauses at the gap at the beginning, the buildings are shown to be stretched. A character falling is shown to be a never-ending void if somewhat hacked.
- Hacking reveals that the orb switches don't actually invert the level, but warp the characters to a different part of the level made to appear upside-down.
- Like other stages, it is possible for Team Chaotix to go through the rest of Hang Castle with Charmy's glitch. To do this, the player must use the Warp Flower in the second upside-down to the area with the Neo Metal Sonic statue. The player should spam Thunder Shoot while carefully flying through the gap between the upside down Poles until they reach the statue's mouth. A Hint Ring is there with wall-breaking hints. The halls and vertical pathways are the same as Team Sonic's, but it has Team Dark's ending with the final Orb Switch taking them down through circling pumpkin heads to a platform with three switches to open the door to the Back Ring.
- They can also get to the {very} beginning while upside down. When the player's on top of the first tower's bottom, the first upside-down path with Team Sonic's layout is below it.
- Whenever Team Rose's Flower Festival Team Blast is used in most parts of this stage, there is less flowers appearing and no flowers at all at their ending as this could be a glitch.
The creepy face of Hang Castle's moon was cleverly created by fusing Earth's moon and Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Geologic features from both objects can clearly be seen.
- If Team Sonic and Team Dark are played during this level and reach the end, the player can see that the moon has a face with a creepy smile while going towards the roof of the castle.
- The image of the moon that looms large over the stage is actually that of Earth's moon and Jupiter's moon Ganymede fused together. This gives it the creepy face-like lunar maria.
Music[]
| Name | Artist(s) | Length | Music track |
|---|---|---|---|
| "STAGE 11 : HANG CASTLE" | Tomoya Ohtani | 4:42 | |
| Reversed | Tomoya Ohtani | 2:03 |
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Guess, Gerald (6 January 2004). Sonic Heroes: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima Games. p. 159. ISBN 0761544496.