Emerald Hill Zone

Emerald Hill Zone is the first zone in Sonic 2, and is the analogue of Green Hill Zone. It fills the tropical island cliche for the game.

The zone contains bridges, waterfalls, loops, and flowers like the standard Green Hill Zone. However, it doesn't have totem poles. It introduced a new corkscrew path feature, which became a token symbol for the game, and was later reused in Sonic Advance 2's Leaf Forest.

A slightly modified version of Emerald Hill Zone's art is also used in Hill Top Zone, with different coloration. No one knows why for sure, but Hill Top Zone and Emerald Hill Zone was developed during the same time which can be proven by playing Sonic 2 Beta where they are both completed.

Instruction Manual Description

Speed through this tropical bayside resort with palm trees, loop-de-loops and corkscrew speedways. Watch out for monkey business!

Villains

Enemies

• Coconuts - Monkey enemy, throws coconuts at you from up a tree.
• Buzzer - Wasp enemy, flies along and stops to fire a missile at you, then continues flying.
• Masher - Piranha enemy, jumps vertically from inside waterfalls.

Boss

• Dr. Robotnik's Drill Car
• Hits: 8

Differences Between Beta and Final

• In the Beta, Emerald Hill Zone is referred to as Green Hill Zone.
• There is a snail badnik that did not make it to the final ROM. Its art offset is at 7C514 (Nemesis Format, 26 blocks).
• At one point, there is a hidden wall which is supposed to contain an extra life; it does not.

Technical Information

00 Level Value

2A22 EHZ Palette (04, 05, 07, 0D)

C57E EHZ layer deformation info

3FF94 EHZ animated pattern load cue

40372 EHZ, HTZ misc sprite mappings

41D2E EHZ/01/02/03/DEZ object debug list

44E50 EHZ and HTZ primary 16x16 collision index

44F40 EHZ and HTZ secondary 16x16 collision index

45AC4 EHZ act 1 level layout

45C84 EHZ act 2 level layout

4E74 EHZ 16x16 block mappings

95C24 EHZ/HTZ main level patterns

98AB4 HTZ pattern suppliment to EHZ level patterns

99D34 EHZ/HTZ 128x128 block mappings

E4344 EHZ act 1 ring locations

E456A EHZ act 2 ring locations

E684A EHZ act 1 sprite locations

E6B7A EHZ act 2 sprite locations

Resources

s2-ehz.zip S.L.E.E.P. tileset for Emerald Hill Zone. Compiled by Tristan Penman.

Emerald Hill Zone.cca A pretty good Emerald Hill Zone collection with animated backgrounds, foregrounds, and platforms by Gold Sonic. In Multimedia Fusion/Click n Create format.