Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 16-bit)

Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog 16-bit)
First Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)
Number of Acts: 3
Level theme: tropical island
Boss: Robotnik (Green Hill Zone Boss)
Maximum rings, Act 1: 155 + 70
Maximum rings, Act 2: 123 + 40
Maximum rings, Act 3: 123 + 110

For other similarly named levels, see Green Hill Zone (disambiguation).

Green Hill Zone is the first zone in Sonic the Hedgehog. It is a picturesque paradise with green forests, beautiful blue lakes, and brown checkered soil. Green Hill has many flowers in the foreground, as well as waterfalls and clouds in the backdrop. Hazards include crumbling platforms and spikes. As with all the other levels in this game, Green Hill is located on South Island.

Green Hill's beta is thought to have been set at night (though this is more likely due to poor contrast in the screenshots) and had a "Welcome Sonic" sign and a rolling ball. This ball eventually became Robotnik's wrecking ball in Act 3.

This zone is so famous in the Sonic series that it reappears in later games such as Sonic Battle, Sonic Adventure 2, and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Even Sonic Advance 3's Sunset Hill Zone has a remix of Green Hill's music.

After completing the game, Sonic makes a brief return to Green Hill for the ending sequence.

Instruction Manual Description

“	Go around the giant loop, tumble down tunnels, and jump over crumbling cliffs before you get a chance to blink. Bounce on Springboards but not on spikes. Ouch!	„

Sonic Team Commentary (from Sonic Jam Strategy Guide)

“	This is the stage that took the designers the longest to get properly arranged, and from the beginning of development the graphics were probably redone 4 or five times. The art and maps for this zone alone took half a year to produce! At the time, we were aware of computer graphics, but we tried to get that look by hand (laugh)	„
— Sonic Team, Yuji Naka

Walkthrough

Act 1

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Act 1 of the Green Hill Zone is fairly straightforward. Sonic is confronted with relatively few badniks and a very linear level. Simply continue on to the right, admiring the scenery. After crossing the bridge, there is a fork in the path: Sonic may fall down into the lower path, which contains the very first spikes in the game, or take the top path, which contains a few collapsing platforms and the game's first starpost. From the starpost, Sonic may continue forward to the game's first loop, or jump up some platforms to access a series of collapsing platforms in the air that lead to a shield atop the loop.

After the loop, the path splits 3 ways: The top path contains several rings and leads to the next area via a series of collapsing platforms. The bottom path leads to an S-shaped tunnel (with a starpost in the middle) in which Sonic can gain much speed and be propelled into the air in the next area, where many rings reside (and where the top path ends). The middle path has a shorter S-tunnel and leads to a single floating platform near the large collection of rings.

After the rings, another simple fork with relatively uneventful obstacles both lead Sonic to the act's big ring.

Act 2

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N/A

Act 3

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N/A

Enemies

• Chopper - A piranha bot that jumps up from under bridges
• Moto Bug - Insect bot that rides around
• Crabmeat - Crab bot that shoots fireballs from its pincers
• Buzz Bomber - Insect bot that shoots stinging fireballs
• Newtron - Disappearing lizard bot

Technical Information

Offset	Description
23A8	GHZ level palette
6DDE	GHZ dynamic screen resizing
1C054	GHZ animated pattern load cue
1D17C	GHZ object debug list
3BCF2	GHZ 16x16 block mappings
3C692	GHZ Primary pattern block
3DCF2	GHZ secondary pattern block
3F09A	GHZ 256x256 block mappings
64A00	GHZ 16x16 collision index
68C7E	GHZ act 1 foreground
68D74	GHZ act 2 foreground
68E40	GHZ act 3 foreground
68F62	GHZ act 1/2/3/ending sequence background
6B096	GHZ act 1/4 sprite locations
6B5A0	GHZ act 2 sprite locations
6BB5E	GHZ act 3 sprite locations

Technical Notes

Green Hill Zone is followed by Marble Zone, which uses some of Green Hill's tiles.

There are some bizarre bumper-flower-things you can place in the ending with debug mode. This bumper is actually one of the bumpers from Spring Yard Zone and the special stage, using art from Green Hill to define itself. There is also one pink flower.

Green Hill is a very commonly hacked level, and is usually the level of choice for beginning hackers, since it uses relatively few tags and the tiles, for the most part, fit together.