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The lost desert level, referred to as '''Sabaku Zone''' (砂漠 ''sabaku'', desert) or '''Desert Zone''' in a [[:Image:Sket banper.png|very early enemy sketch sheet]], is a level in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2]]'' that was scrapped early in production. No piece of animation or art discovered as of yet to show that this zone was a playable level. Based on the concept art published in magazines, it was going to take place in a typical southwest American desert and feature lots of quicksand. There are cacti in this level, and the zone would have been playable underground and above ground.
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#REDIRECT [[Sand Shower Zone]]
  
This level is also sometimes referred to as [[Dust Hill Zone]], although the community is still split on whether or not this is correct.
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According to [[Brenda Ross]] and [[Tim Skelly]] (Art Director), most of the graphic tiles would be reused (with different colors) in a [[winter level]]. One of the possibilities was that the Desert level would change into a Snow level half way through, but [[Tim Skelly]] explained: ''There would have been two separate zones, spaced far enough apart so that the player wouldn't notice the repetition of the art.''
 
 
 
As a side note, this level was originally planned as being the "present"  version of another scrapped level, ([[Rock Zone]]), but the idea of time travel was quickly dropped and it's quite possible that it never got to be implemented in this game. Additionally, "desert zone" and "rock zone" are just descriptions, or working names, and not proper names of the zones.
 
 
 
==Mockup Image==
 
[[Image:Desertlevel.JPG|center]]
 
In the pictures above, the left and middle ones use inaccurate colours while the one on the right is using the correct colours. The middle one was printed on the back of a Sears, Roebuck and Co. Magazine from a November/December issue of 1992. None of these pictures were accompanied with a caption mentioning any level name.
 
 
 
Before its level artist [[Brenda Ross]] unveiled this screen was in fact a mockup image for promotional use, this could already be deduced based on three things:
 
* The HUD is not in italics, and a "08" instead of the typical "8" is shown.
 
* Sonic is off-centered in the photo.
 
* The running sprite uses a walking sprite from ''Sonic 1'', which would be incorrect for the development timeline the picture was shown in.
 
 
 
==Interviews with Brenda Ross==
 
The first interview conducted by Deviance on February 2001 to [[Brenda Ross]], the artist who oversaw the art production of the desert level, is deemed unreliable, and is believed that confirmation by Brenda on whether this level was called "Dust Hill" is sketchy, mainly from the possible bombardment of e-mails asking about the level and its name "Dust Hill".
 
 
 
Brenda Ross said she had always called this level "desert level" or "desert zone", which is also the name that can be seen in some early concept enemy sketches. However, in the [http://www.randomsonicnet.org/srz/index.php?page=interviews/br.htm first interview] conducted with her, she referred to it as Dust Hill, and in the [http://www.randomsonicnet.org/srz/index.php?page=interviews/br2.htm second interview], as well as stating she always called the level Desert Zone, she also agreed the level was called Dust Hill by responding with "i think it was, yes" when asked.
 
 
 
Unfortunately shortly before the first interview her email address was made public and she received a huge batch of fan mail asking about a desert called Dust Hill. Though she never mentioned this in any of the interviews, she agreed that the fans didn't influence her, even though this was only a feeble "sure" response. At the time, most of the community was convinced that "Dust Hill" was the desert's real name because it made sense to them, but so far no official sources apart from Brenda Ross have called the zone anything other than "Desert Zone" as far as we know. This means for the time being calling it "Desert Zone" is the safest bet, until any conflicting evidence is uncovered.
 
 
 
==Level Inclusion in ROM hacks==
 
Several enthusiasts in the community, such as [[Esrael]] with his hack, ''[[Sonic 2 Delta]]'', and [[Sonic Hachelle-Bee]], with ''[[Sonic 2 Long Version]]'', have used the image of this desert level to create full zones based on the artwork. These levels provide an alternative to perhaps understand how this level would have been had it moved past the concept stage.
 
 
 
{{Template:Sonic2Levels}}
 
[[Category:Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Levels]]
 
[[Category: Scrapped Levels]]
 

Latest revision as of 22:57, 11 November 2019

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