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Hydrocity Zone (ハイドロシティーゾーン Haidoroshiti Zōn?) is the seventh Zone of the Mania Mode of Sonic Mania and Sonic Mania Plus, and the eight Zone of the Encore Mode of Sonic Mania Plus. This Zone is a re-imagination of Hydrocity Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the Sega Mega Drive.

The Zone is an flooded ruin underneath the surface of Angel Island. As with most other Zones in Sonic Mania and Sonic Mania Plus, Hydrocity Zone is composed of two Acts, with a boss fight at the end of both.

Description[]

Like the original Zone, this Zone is a water-filled underground system with fans and blocks. Interestingly, Act 1 uses Act 2's original background and vise versa. In the background Act 2, some of the walls are shown to have crumbled, revealing large cathedral windows.

Story[]

Mania Mode[]

After being sent to Hydrocity Zone from Stardust Speedway Zone by the Phantom Ruby's power at Eggman's hands, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles literally drop into Zone, where they resume their mission to get the Phantom Ruby away from Eggman. Midway through the Zone, a submerged Eggman tries to blow up the ruins, but the team gets back at him with his Egg Vortex when he tries to escape them. Sonic and co. also manage to escape Eggman's final trap at the end of the Zone, although the egg-shaped scientist again eludes capture. In the aftermath of the battle, a wall leading into a flooded corridor breaks down in front of Sonic and his friends, who use it to escape and head to Mirage Saloon Zone.

Encore Mode[]

Getting themselves caught in Dr. Eggman's usage of the Phantom Ruby again, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Mighty and Ray find themselves teleported from Stardust Speedway Zone to Hydrocity Zone. After plummeting into the Zone, the group tries to escape. Along the way, they find a submerged Eggman trying to blow up the ruins around them. However, they are able to stop him from his Egg Vortex. Later, they manage to defeat Eggman when he attacks them with his Laundro-Mobile, although the egg-shaped scientist again eludes capture. Afterward, Sonic and his friends use a flooded tunnel that erupts from the wall in front of them to escape the Zone.

Gameplay[]

The majority of Hydrocity Zone is underwater, so this requires the player to go slow and steady. Most of the new Zone designs and concepts are implemented in Hydrocity Zone Act 1. This Act's main gimmick is a mechanic that allows the player to control the local water levels by pulling down green switch-based hooks that hang from the ceiling. By manipulating the water levels, players can utilize gimmicks like canoes to cross pools and reach new paths. In the underwater sections, there are also Switches that encapsulate the playable characters in air bubbles that they can ride around in underwater. While riding these bubbles, players can press left/right to steer them, press up to ascend faster, and press the jump buttons to escape them. The underwater sections also have fans in several spots that create currents the player can ride (both with and without an Air Bubble), which are often necessary to reach certain areas.

Hydrocity Zone has several underwater passages that suck the playable characters into them. Within them, the player has no movement control, although they can avoid obstacles by moving up/down the fragile poles that the characters occasionally grab onto when passing through. Some areas also have spears that periodically pop out of the surfaces.

Hydrocity Zone Act 2 features all the original gimmicks and elements from the original Hydrocity Zone Act 2, except for the moving wall and the inclusion of downard underwater currents.

Overview[]

Act 1[]

Act 1 is an obvious recreation of Act 1 of the original Zone, but harder. Eventually, the player will get to a part where they can see Dr. Eggman swimming, where they will fight the Act's boss.

Act 2[]

Act 2 is more straightforward in design in comparison to Act 1, being based on Act 2 of the original Hydrocity Zone, with some level design incorporated from the original Hydrocity Zone Act 1.

Bosses[]

Act 1[]

Main article: Dive Eggman
SMHYDROCITY1-21

Dive Eggman, from Sonic Mania.

The boss of Hydrocity Zone Act 1 is Dive Eggman, who is Dr. Eggman in a scuba suit. The battle "begins" with Eggman deploying bombs that cause the water level to rise, initiating a short segment where the player must reach the Egg Vortex before getting crushed in between the rising ground and the ceiling. The player must use the Screw Mobile to suck up Eggman and damage him with the machine's impeller while avoiding sucking up the bombs he deploys. The depth charges can be used to destroy the bombs though. After four hits, Eggman will be beaten.

Act 2[]

Main article: Laundro-Mobile
SMHYDROCITY2-17

The boss of Hydrocity Zone Act 2.

The boss of Hydrocity Zone Act 2 is the Laundro-Mobile, an underwater vehicle used by Dr. Eggman. The battle begins with Eggman using a propeller to blow the player rightwards underwater. During this phase, the player must avoid spikes while activating bombs. Hitting Eggman with the bombs damages him and produces an air bubble for the character to stave off drowning during this phase of the battle. After six bombs have hit, the battle changes to a regular platforming battle that mimics the Big Shaker from the original Hydrocity Zone. After eight hits, the battle is over.

Giant Ring locations[]

Encore Mode[]

Act 1[]

  1. Tails or Knuckles is needed to access this Giant Ring. After triggering the first drain chute, the player should select the middle hook to proceed right. After being pushed through another fan tube, the player will reach an upward fan shaft which they should take to the top, out of the water. Moving to the right will bring the player to a ledge with a Star Post. Then the player will need to either fly or climb up to the left to reach an area with floating platforms, pulleys and fans. The hidden ring chamber will be through the wall on the left toward the top of the level.
  2. Knuckles is needed for this Giant Ring. The player should move back down to the right to reach the first boat. Moving right, they can grab the hook to move the water level down and then continue right on the boat. Once on land, a launcher will send the player right then left and up through a ceiling to another room. The player should grab the hook to raise the water level and hit the spring through the roof into the next section to the right. They should take the second boat to the right to find a loop followed by a hill. They will have to then jump right to the platform parallel with the to of the hill. Knuckles has to break the wall to the right and then the player should fall through the breakaway floor to find the ring chamber to the right.

Act 2[]

  1. The player has to climb the stairway of breakable platforms to the spinning platforms. They should continue on the spinning platforms upward until they find two falling platforms to the right. They have to continue over them to an upper right platform. To the right, the player can utilize a fan platform to get to a secret passage leading to the ring chamber.
  2. From the ring chamber, the player has to fall all the way to the bottom of the spiral. They should continue to the right until they ramp across the gap. They have to use the spring to ramp over the spikes and take the floating platforms up to the right. They should then continue right down the spiral and up the fan shaft, then continue left up the spiral, right through a loop and down a spiral. Once the player is launched off the large ramp, they need to go all the way to the left to find a spring that will launch them through the ceiling to the ring chamber.
  3. The player needs travel to the right side of the room, staying on the same level as the spring and then go up the shaft with the rotating platforms and fans. They should continue left down the spirals until they ramp up into an underwater room. They need to Spin Dash to the right to break the walls, continue up a spiral, then through a loop and down a spiral. When ramping up, the player must move to the right to catch a spinning platform and continue up the shaft, then to the left up a spiral, then left and down a chute. Upon ramping up, the player will need to move to the right to land on an upper platform which leads to a upward shaft with spinning platforms. The player can launch left and will be redirected right down a spiral. Once the player ramps up again, they must move to the left to land on the upper platform. They must continue left across fans to a secret passage leading to the final ring chamber.

Trivia[]

  • Interestingly, a rather popular glitch in the original Hydrocity Zone where the playable character could run backwards across the water (dubbed by fans as "moonwalking") was not present in the remastered version of Hydrocity Zone in Sonic Mania, but was later readded into the game with the 1.04 update released alongside Sonic Mania Plus.
  • This is the only Zone in Sonic Mania to originate from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (if not counting Angel Island Zone's appearance in the Encore Mode of Sonic Mania Plus).
  • Normally when playing through original stages in Sonic Mania, the first Act is a slight remake of the original stage and the second Act is a complete remake. However, Act 1 is completely remade, while Act 2 is a slight remake of Hydrocity Zone's Act 2.
  • The prediction of Hydrocity Zone being in Sonic Mania started from a tweet from Lucas Carvalho on Twitter. He made a picture of Knuckles running through Hydrocity Zone, but it was later deleted and changed to Flying Battery Zone.[citation needed]
  • Hydrocity Zone has the largest amount of Badniks in Sonic Mania, at seven.
  • Hydrocity Zone features several references and Easter eggs:
    • The spear obstacles in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 and 2 are taken from Labyrinth Zone in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
    • The Jellygnite, an enemy that appears in Hydrocity Zone, originates from Hidden Palace Zone in the 2013 remaster of Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
    • In Hydrocity Zone Act 1, there are levers which are used to open up for new areas. These objects are seemingly based on the same gimmick from Mystic Cave Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
    • The water passages with strong water currents in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 are seemingly based on the same passages from Tidal Tempest in Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
    • The ridable air bubbles in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 are based on the same objects from Aqua Lake Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit) and Tidal Plant Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble. The pose Sonic makes when riding an air bubble in particular is taken from the latter game.
    • The rising ground segments before the fight with the mini-boss in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 are based on the same occurrences from Marble Garden Zone and Flying Battery Zone in Sonic & Knuckles.
    • The Dive Eggman boss fight in Hydrocity Zone Act 1 is a reverse of the boss fight from the original Hydrocity Zone Act 2 in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, with the player using Eggman's vehicle to attack the doctor.
    • The Laundro-Mobile is based on the Big Shaker from the original Hydrocity Zone Act 1 in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. The same goes for this boss fight's second phase.
    • A secret feature can be unlocked in Hydrocity Zone by performing a specific set of actions. While hanging from a hook, input the following command: ← ← ← → → → ↑ ↑ ↑. This is the same code used to activate the Level Select in Sonic 3 & Knuckles and Sonic & Knuckles in Angel Island Zone and Mushroom Hill Zone, respectively. Upon successful entry of this code, the sound effect of a Ring will play. This code changes the sound effects produced by the speed boosting machine to Videogamedunkey, specifically from his Best of 2016 video in which he yells "SHEEEE YEH!" when using a speed boost machine.
      • This cheat code was removed in the version 1.03 (Xbox One and PS4)/RC 1.03.0919 (PC) update released on September 2017. The Switch version retained the cheat code up until the version 1.04 update released alongside Sonic Mania Plus.
    • Statuemania
      The Sonic statues that appeared in Act 1 of the original Hydrocity Zone are now found in Act 2 (since the backgrounds themselves are swapped over from the original). These statues are also based on Sonic's sprite used in Sonic Mania, which is based on his sprite from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Music[]

Name Artist(s) Length Music track
"Hydro City Zone (Act 1)" Tee Lopes 2:10
"Hydro City Zone (Act 2)" 2:08

Videos[]

Sonic_Mania_Sonic_Solo_Part_7_-_Hydrocity_Zone

Sonic Mania Sonic Solo Part 7 - Hydrocity Zone

See also[]

References[]

  1. Live Sonic Mania Developer Playthrough. Stealth (20 August 2017). Retrieved on 22 August 2017.

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