Christmas Zone

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)

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Christmas Zone

Christmas Zone
level, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive)
Level theme: winter

Christmas Zone is a planned winter-themed Zone from the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Likely conceptualized by Hirokazu Yasuhara, and with graphics created by Brenda Ross, it was intended as an alternative version of Sand Shower Zone, featuring a cool wintery setting in contrast to Sand Shower's hot desert atmosphere. Unlike that Zone, however, Christmas Zone made far fewer appearances in development material, and appeared to have lacked any finalized name before it was dropped from the final game.

The term Christmas Zone derives from Ross' personal name for the Zone. While previous interviews sees her remembering the name Winter Zone in places, a later one reveals her general unfamiliarity with the term and any specifics of a name entirely, with her most recent statement deferring to the name Christmas Zone. In reality, Ross was an artist and not in charge of naming said Zones, with responsibilities falling to Yasuhara. "Whatever Yasuhara called them. I just created what he asked me to create."

Overview

Christmas Zone is nearly identical in appearance to the mockup of Sand Shower Zone, albeit with a wintrier color palette and various types of Christmas trees replacing the background cacti. The sky now appears a pale shade lilac sky, and the occasional mesas in the background have been replaced with a long snowy mountain range and matching pine forest. Unlike the Sand Shower mockup, Christmas Zone lacks the two Buzzers which inhabited its desert counterpart.Media:S2 Winter Zone.png

History

Development

“	"The Desert Zone was as you see in that image, with cactus and assorted plants. It was designed to have a palette change, which turned the sand into snow, and you’d have a winter scene. We had to be fairly ingenious with such a limited palette. In the Winter Zone, instead of cactus, I had created Christmas trees, which I thought looked kinda cool. I remember the Woods Zone having pink flowers somewhere. Hey, I am a girl… heh."	„
— Brenda Ross

Christmas Zone was set to recycle graphics from Sand Shower Zone with a suitable winter palette, and graphics would have been swapped out as well. For example, cacti would have been replaced with Christmas trees. Importantly, the two Zones were to be placed far apart so that the recycling of graphics would be less obvious to players. According to art director Tim Skelly, very little else was produced for the winter theme. Ross herself does not recall exactly who conceptualized reusable Zone art, but believes it to have been Hirokazu Yasuhara's idea. While the Zone's graphics were obviously completed to some degree, it is not believed the Zone was programmed into any playable build of the actual game.

Reportedly, art used in both this Christmas Zone and Sand Shower Zone would be recycled for use in Brenda Ross' Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball level, Underground Caves. Unfortunately, this level was also scrapped, but ironically was later merged with the game's planned second level to form the final Toxic Caves. Whether or not any original Christmas Zone art survived the journey to store shelves is unknown.

Legacy

In December 2023, a VHS tape containing a video resume made by Cook around the mid 1990s - containing her artwork from a number of cancelled Sega Technical Institute projects, and PF Magic's Dogz - was preserved and uploaded to YouTube by The Video Game History Foundation in December 2023. In it, animations and artwork from largely undocumented titles such as Jester and Fat, Daddy were seen by the public for the first time. Among the preserved content was a mockup of Christmas Zone, allowing both historians and the gaming community a glimpse into the once-fabled Sonic 2 Zone.