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Angel Island Zone

From Sonic Retro

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Angel Island Zone
For the eponymous Zone in Sonic Advance, see Angel Island Zone (Sonic Advance). For the Sonic Mania level, see Angel Island Zone (Sonic Mania).
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  • Act 1
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Angel Island Zone
First Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Number of Acts: 2
Location: Angel Island
Level theme: jungle
Sub-boss: Fire Breath
Boss: Flame Mobile
Maximum rings, Act 1: 104 + 50
Maximum rings, Act 2: 306 + 60
Underwater areas: Both Acts for Sonic/Tails,
Act 1 only for Knuckles
Non-English names:
Hydrocity Zone

Angel Island Zone is the first Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. When playing as Sonic, a somewhat lengthy introduction is played in which Sonic and Tails discover the floating island and first run into Knuckles, who then steals the Chaos Emeralds from our heroes.

An alternate version of the intro had Sonic surfing onto the island, which is a leftover from a prototype version of Sonic 3. The surfing sprites can be viewed via debug mode. Nemesis created a savestate with a restored surfing intro sequence, which can be downloaded here.

Overview

Angel Island Zone is a thick, tropical jungle with palm trees and plenty of healthy foliage as far as the eye can see. The thick jungle has a peaceful blue lake resting along the bottom half of the first Act, complete with a large waterfall with log platforms slowly cascading down. If the player takes a higher route, they can go beyond the canopy and catch a glimpse of the sea on the horizon surrounding the island. When playing as Knuckles, the sea cannot be seen as the island is high up in the sky by the time the echidna begins his journey. The jungle even sports vines that the player can swing on, along with zipwires to catch a ride on, and a large, hollow tree trunk that the player can run up if they are going fast enough.

Halfway through Act 1, an armada of Fire Breaths attacks the jungle, burning the entire island. Throughout the remainder of Act 1 and the entirety of Act 2, the heroes will be cutting through a scorching jungle. Despite the jungle being ablaze, none of the flames can pose any threat, though a zipwire is on fire, which will burn the handle when the player zips down it. Near the end of Act 2, a green ship (in the US manual stated to be the "Flying Battery Blimp"Media:Sonic3 MD US manual.pdf[5]) tries to drop bombs on Sonic and Tails but is outrun by the two. At the end of the Zone, Dr. Eggman burns off the bridge to the left and ambushes them with his Flame Mobile, but is quickly defeated.

After Eggman's retreat, Sonic and Tails are dropped into Hydrocity Zone by Knuckles, who destroys the bridge they were standing on. Knuckles was shown to simply jump off the bridge in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles.

Quotes

A zone of abundant greenery, like a tropical paradise.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 JP manualMedia:Sonic3_MD_JP_manual.pdf[1] (translation by Vertekins)[6]

Welcome to the Floating Island. Things will really heat up once Dr. Robotnik sets fire to this area of the island. Beware of the Flying Battery blimp.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 US manualMedia:Sonic3 MD US manual.pdf[5]

We started development on "3" with a story in mind, but it turned out we couldn't make it in time without problems. In the end, the game ended up being cut in half (laugh). This stage starts off with a certain impact, as the flamethrower machines set fire to the island and change the color considerably.

Takashi IizukaSonic Jam Official Guide[7]

Enemies

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RhinoBot — A robotic rhino that charges at the player.
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Monkey Dude — Just your standard (blue) coconut throwing monkey.
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Bloominator — A red flower with a metallic bluestem.
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Catakiller, Jr. — A blue caterpillar surrounded by a shield-like contraption. Only the head is vulnerable.

Animals

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Flicky
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Cucky

References


Sonic the Hedgehog 3
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