Sky Babylon

Sonic Rush Adventure

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Sky Babylon

Sky Babylon
Fifth / Sixth Zone, Sonic Rush Adventure
Number of Acts: 3 (including boss stage)
Level themes: ancient ruins, sky
Played as: Sonic, Blaze
Boss: Ghost Condor
Underwater areas: No
Non-English names: JP: スカイバビロン Sukaibabiron
← Blizzard Peaks | Pirates' Island →

Sky Babylon is a stage in Sonic Rush Adventure, which can be played as either the fifth or sixth stage of the game. As with other stages in the game, Sky Babylon consists of two standard Acts followed by a dedicated boss Act. Gold Material can be found here.

Story

With the Aqua Blast hovercraft now completed after Captain Whisker's escape from Haunted Ship, the team on Southern Island have two possible routes of investigation: north, towards the Vikings of Blizzard Peaks, or east, into regions unknown to Blaze. Should the player opt for east, the first stop they come to is Daikun's Island. An initially hostile koala questions Sonic, Tails, and Blaze's intrusion; but on spotting Marine it turns out that Daikun is another member of the Coconut Crew. He advises the heroes to keep heading east, as he's felt strange quakes coming from that direction.

Hidden Island 2 is the next stop - a curious level where the platforming is built around a vast, bottomless pit. The characters wonder about this oddity in conversation, just as Marine spots an ancient artifact. As on Hidden Island 10, even a supersonic hedgehog isn't fast enough to stop her messing with it... and as if from nowhere, Sky Babylon appears, hauling the four adventurers up above the clouds aboard the floating city. Blaze is very, very quick to back away from the edge, her fear of heights making itself known for the first time.

Captain Whisker is there before them, though! Impressed enough with their tenacity to reveal the legendary name Sky Babylon, the pirate is almost goaded into a fight right then and there. However, Mini and Mum remind him of their "mission", and Whisker takes off, requiring Sonic and Blaze to give chase.

Sky Babylon provides a tenuous link between the Sonic Rush series and the Sonic Riders series, as the ancient floating city of Babylon Garden is a major fixture of the latter games. However, beyond the name and the similar settings, there is nothing concrete to connect the Sol Dimension and the Babylonians of Sonic's world.

Overview

Sky Babylon sees Sonic and Blaze tear across the coloured skyways of the floating city, up twirling ramps and across exploding causeways. This is very much a vertically-oriented stage, with springs aplenty and bottomless (electrified) pits awaiting a single misstep. Purple anti-gravity crystals see the heroes floating across gaps, or rising up through the level's platforms riding golden balloons. Fires rage across the newly-ascended city, so Blaze's flame immunity can come in useful here. A small section of Sky Babylon's second Act takes place in either the background or foreground of the stage.

Level-exclusive gimmicks

• Gold Balloons - These operate kind of similarly to the metal platforms in Sonic Rush's Altitude Limit. Hanging on to one, the player can steer right or left, but can't control how fast the device goes up. If they crash into something, the player has to try to land where they got the device in the first place, because another one will soon appear to replace it.
• Purple Ropes - Functions in the same way as the blue elastic ropes in Haunted Ship, but there's far fewer of them.
• Fire - Not so much of a gimmick as an obstacle. It hurts Sonic but can't hurt Blaze, but Sonic can Super Boost past it.
• Purple Crystals - These have sparkly stars surrounding them, and will make the player float on top of them. The player is vulnerable while floating and can only move left or right until they are out of the stars again, though they lead to higher areas.

Enemies

	Sky Moon — Floating robots. Yellow ones will simply float in the air, while red ones will shoot a small laser at the player.
	Kaizoku Gun — Robots that shoot cannonballs from the cannons they are carrying.
	??? — Skeleton robots that will attack the player with a small cutlass.