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Hydrocity Zone (ハイドロシティゾーン[2] Haidoroshiti Zōn?), also written Hydro City Zone,[2] is the second Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and the lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It is an underground aqueduct on Angel Island. The stage is predominantly set underwater, but it also features fast-paced sections with blue, twisting tubes.
As with other Sonic 3 Zones, Hydrocity comprises two Acts: the player fights the Big Shaker at the end of Act 1, and Doctor Eggman in the Egg Vortex in Act 2. The stage has reappeared a few times in the series, particularly in Sonic Mania. It has also become infamous due to disputes over its spelling.
Description[]
Hydrocity Zone is a large area of underground waterways on Angel Island,[1] and resembles Labyrinth Zone from the original Sonic the Hedgehog. In the background, large, purple colored pillars are seen supporting the Zone. The entire temple is also made of light brown, aqua green and gray stone bricks, some of which appear polished. In Act 2, the background also features statues in Sonic's likeness.
Story[]
After Knuckles had activated a trap in Angel Island Zone that sent them plummeting into Hydrocity Zone, Sonic and Tails continued their adventure on the Floating Island to stop Dr. Eggman and his relaunch of the Death Egg.
Making their way through the Zone, Sonic and Tails eventually found and destroyed the Big Shaker, one of Eggman's robots. Later, they found Knuckles again, who activated another trap that sent the heroes into a large room where they fought Dr. Eggman in his Egg Vortex. After defeating the doctor, Sonic and Tails were sent to Marble Garden Zone via a geyser erupting from the floor underneath them after opening the Capsule.
Much time later, Knuckles went to Hydrocity Zone after defeating an EggRobo in Angel Island Zone. There, he found and destroyed the Big Shaker, and later fought the EggRobo in the Egg Vortex. After defeating it, he was sent to Marble Garden Zone by a geyser.
Gameplay[]
Hydrocity Zone is designed with a lot of underwater sections. As such, Water Shield monitors are commonplace here. Additionally, the various underwater sections have air bubbles for the player to replenish their oxygen supply with before they drown. It should also be mentioned that in underwater sections, Tails cannot carry Sonic and swim at the same time if he tries to do so underwater, instantly becoming tired the moment he tries to carry Sonic. In some cases though, the player can avoid the underwater sections by simply running across their surfaces if they build up enough running speed. However, if the player slows down or does not have enough speed when crossing water pools, they will fall into the water.
The underground aqueducts here are as well a maze of Fans that blow the playable character upwards, corridors with powerful fans that blow sideways, and more. There are also gears that rotate a cable between them that the playable character can hang on to, but will fall off upon reaching one end or another if they do not jump beforehand. Some have small metal maces rotating on them, making it harder to use them. At some points, a glove on a stick might be found to allow the player pass through water tubes they would not have been able to scale otherwise. Other tubes have water pouring down into them, making them very slippery, but will help the playable character gain further speed for avoiding falling into water pools, where numerous Badniks lurk in wait, when skimming across them. Purple-tipped columns of blue cylinders also help the playable character climb up to higher areas that they would otherwise be unable to reach unless Tails airlifts Sonic and makes it up before he grows fatigued. The cylinders move up and down, so timing the scaling of them with jumping is necessary in order to proceed higher up. Furthermore, while the rotating columns can help the playable character get up to higher areas, the ones moving horizontally can risk crushing the characters if the player is not careful. There are even many slides that help the playable character's move on in the Zone.
The Zone is full of Badniks like Jawz, Mega Choppers and Pointdexters. However, in some instances, the Blastoid turrets have to be defeated to open up passageways that only crumble when the Badnik is defeated.
Overview[]
Act 1[]
The Act opens with the playable character free-falling into the Zone. If controlled during this, they can land on dry land and take a dry, upper route over going underwater and risk drowning if a Water Shield is unavailable or popped by one of the Badniks swimming in the water, which consist of Pointdexters and Mega Choppers. If taking the lower route, smash the wall to cause the water to be swept down the passageway. Along the way, the playable character will grab vertical poles at a couple of points in the corridor to hold on to against the powerful current. If the player does not jump in order to make the playable character let go of the poles, the poles will eventually break apart in the process. When the playable character is released from the poles however, they can potentially fall into the spikes pointing against the current. Once blown out of the corridor and into the main reservoir of the Zone, the playable character can either proceed along the underwater route or use the fans hidden among the spikes in some places to be blown up above the water pools to safer routes. Turbo Spikers and Bugernauts are found above the water. Regardless, the routes eventually meet up at one point where the playable character can pass through several loops and bounce off red Springs to continue further in. Hidden Springs and other paths also can be found, especially if Tails airlifts Sonic to the upper routes and away from the water if a Water Shield is not currently equipped.
After bouncing out of the room that the last Giant Ring in Act 1 can be found in, proceed to the right to reach the last Star Post in the Act. After passing this final Star Post, a loop will take the playable character to the basin where the Big Shaker appears.
Act 2[]
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The Act opens with the playable character being pulled deeper into the Zone by a whirlpool from the basin where the Big Shaker was fought in. As they proceed, the large wall to the left of the first Checkpoint pushes to close in on them and will threaten to crush the playable character if they do not keep passing through various obstacles to reach a narrow corridor that the wall is stopped at.
From there, the playable character continues through the deeper parts of the Zone, using various water tubes to navigate the underground aqueduct. Turbo Spikers, Pointdexters, Mega Choppers, and Jawz guard the area. Upon reaching the narrow corridors similar to those encountered in Act 1, larger fans will drop down and begin blowing air, pushing the playable character further down the corridor, where more grabbable poles from Act 1 appears.
Near the end of the Act, the player will encounter some cylinders that move horizontally, threatening to crush the playable character if they do not get out of the way in time. After then smashing through the last several barricades with the Spin Dash, the playable character will end up trapped on a bridge over a narrow vertical shaft. There, Knuckles appears once more and blows the bridge up, dropping the playable character into the shaft where they are blown down one last corridor by large fans into a large open room where the Egg Vortex appears as the water level lowers before the boss fight begins.
If Knuckles is exploring this Act, then at the area with the bridge with the switch and the big brick wall, Knuckles will instead break his way through the stone wall and proceed through another small corridor filled with more rotating cylinders, a large Spike pit Knuckles must glide across, and another room with horizontally moving cylinders with spikes on the wall. The proceeding hall at the end contains more breakable walls, which then lead to an identical area where Knuckles encounters the Egg Vortex.
Bosses[]
Act 1[]
The sub-boss of Hydrocity Zone is the Big Shaker, a spherical contraption with four rockets. This device spins back and forth through a water-filled, U-shaped pit in which the player is trapped, before settling on a pole in the middle of the arena. It is only safe to attack this device while it is in the middle, but the player must do so quickly, as it will soon begin to rotate the pole and stir the water, spinning the player around and leaving them helpless. The player needs to hit the Big Shaker six times to destroy it while at the same time, trying to survive underwater.
Act 2[]
The boss of Hydrocity Zone is the Egg Vortex, a modified Egg Mobile with a massive screw propeller attached to its underside, which is used to swirl the water in the arena into a tall vortex. It also throws depth charge bombs from the back of the craft, which explode to create plumes of water. Eight hits are required to destroy this boss.
Giant Ring locations[]
Act 1[]
- At the start of the Zone, as Knuckles or Tails, the player must go to the top of the starting right wall and keep going left until the first non-brick crumbling platform. They should hold left at this point to find a Ring. As Sonic, the player should take the lower path until Sonic is launched through a large blue tube. The player must then backtrack to the same crumbling platform, hold left, and hop into the Ring.
- After the first Giant Ring, the player should lift the characters back up. They must then carry on through this path to get to a left-facing wall beyond some fans. The player can run into this wall for a Giant Ring.
Act 2[]
- After the first waterslide that ends in a curve, the player must hold left and hug the left wall until the characters enter a Ring room.
- After the second waterslide that ends in a curve, the player should position the characters in the middle of the two walls and hop on one of the rotating cylinders. They can then go to the top of the right one's path and jump up to the Ring room.
Other game appearances[]
Sonic Mania[]
Sonic riding a giant air bubble in Sonic Mania's rendition of Hydrocity Zone
Hydrocity appears as the seventh Zone in Sonic Mania, coming after Stardust Speedway Zone and before Mirage Saloon Zone. As with the original stage, it comprises two Acts, but also features gimmicks from other predominantly underwater stages, like Labyrinth Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog and Hidden Palace Zone from the 2013 remake of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Team Sonic Racing[]
In Team Sonic Racing, a Paint Kit based on Hydrocity can be unlocked at random by opening Mod Pods. The colors in this kit are as follows:
| Paint Kit | Colors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | |
| Hydrocity Theme | |||||
In other media[]
Books and comics[]
Archie Comics[]
Hydro City, from Knuckles the Echidna #32.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Hydrocity Zone (known as Hydro City) was an ancient and abandoned underground city located underneath Angel Island and was filled with water. It was supposedly constructed before Echidnaopolis, hundreds of years ago.
Sonic Adventures[]
In Sonic Adventures, Hydrocity is a region located on Mobius, but is never shown.
Spelling dispute[]
Sonic and Tails debate Hydrocity's pronounciation in Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day 2022.
The pronounciation of the word Hydrocity has been controversial in the Sonic fan community. Some argue that it is pronounced as a single word–similar to velocity–while others have argued that it is pronounced as two words. This was referenced in IDW Publishing's Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day 2022, where Sonic and Tails briefly argue over it.[3] In June 2022, Sega made a poll on Twitter over how users pronounce the word.[4] In July 2022, in response to a user's interrogation, Yuji Naka expressed on Twitter that he believed the correct pronunciation to be "hydro-city".[5]
Trivia[]
- In Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the rather unhelpful yellow Spring that bounces the player back in the section with the moving wall has been replaced with an extra life.
- This is the first Zone in the series to have the player run on top of the water's surface.
- Hydrocity Zone's music is unlockable in Sonic Generations under the name of "Hydro City Zone".
- The music for Act 1 was remixed as the music for Aquatic Relix Zone Act 2 in Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure, while the music for Act 2 was remixed as the music for Secret Plant Zone Act 2.
- In Act 1, the surface of the water is visible in the background and changes its view angle depending how close the player is to the surface. This graphical effect is absent in Act 2 for some reason.
Changes in Sonic Origins[]
- The splash effect from Turbo Spikers now display properly.
- The previously non-moving decorative black orbs on the area before the Big Shaker boss fight in Act 1 now move like any other in the level, as intended.
- The fan platforms pop out earlier, causing the player to visibly pass through them as they ascend.
- Sonic and Tails now use their falling animation after encountering Knuckles in Act 2.
- A bug from the original game causing the player to become invisible while travelling up a translucent white tube water jet was fixed.
- When entering Debug Mode during the transition to Marble Garden Zone, the game will crash.
Music[]
| Name | Artist(s) | Version | Length | Music track | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Hydro City Zone Act 1" | Sega | Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 2:03 | ||
| Sonic & Knuckles Collection | "FM Synthesizer" | 1:59 | |||
| "General MIDI" | 0:58 | ||||
| "Hydro City Zone Act 2" | Sega | Sonic 3 & Knuckles | 1:54 | ||
| Sonic & Knuckles Collection | "FM Synthesizer" | 1:47 | |||
| "General MIDI" | 0:52 | ||||
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Sega Mega Drive) Japanese instruction booklet, pg. 41.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 (in Japanese) ソニックジャム オフィシャルガイド. SoftBank. 2 October 1997. p. 62. ISBN 978-4797303377.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog Free Comic Book Day 2022, "Deep Trouble"
- ↑ Sega (11 June 2022). So... how do you pronounce Hydrocity Zone?. Twitter. Retrieved on 19 June 2022.
- ↑ Yuji Naka on Twitter. Twitter (2 July 2022). Archived from the original on 3 July 2022. Retrieved on 2 June 2022.
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