Amidst my mixed feelings for Sonic the Hedgehog as a franchise, City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 nails everything I want in a Sonic level NO A level in general In order to give it the proper
praise it deserves, Iâm gonna break it down to its core from the beginning of the level all the way to the end Our starting point wonât even be at the level itself though, but the cutscene that plays beforehand, As itâll give us context to some things weâll cover later on The military had captured Sonic for a
crime he didn't commit They were in the middle of transporting him aboard one of their helicopters when Sonic decided to actually commit a crime By busting out the door, ripping off a metal sheet of the helicopter to use as a snowboard, and dropping off into the city This cutscene is SO sick It lets you know what kind of person Sonic is while also establishing the conflict he has to go through before throwing you in there with him And man itâs never felt better getting thrown into a level! Instead of immediately seizing control of Sonicâs perspective, The game builds up tension by dimming the screen and blocking your view of him It also uses a lens flare effect that perfectly lines up the moment Sonic comes into vision and lands on the concrete City Escapeâs track âEscape From The Cityâ makes this payoff even better You can hear the bass guitar play a quiet opening rift as Sonicâs falling, Then once he lands, the rest of the instruments crash onto the scene, capping off one of my favorite openings to a level in a video game âȘ Escape from the City âȘ This snowboarding section is full of downward slopes with occasional straightaways and turns Because of how the snowboarding mechanic functions, youâll always be moving forward Which is what Sonic's
about! Heck the song itself says âȘ âMust keep on movinâ ahead" âȘ Going as fast as possible whilst
maintaining your speed and reacting Quickly to incoming obstacles is a big
part of the Sonic formula It's a lesson the level teaches you without you even
having to touch the controller So regardless of your experience with video
games you'll get the message! Once you gain full control of Sonic you'll most
likely run into this row of rings, Indicating that they're something of
value Another row of rings appears on the right side of the road but this time you have to move yourself to grab them So not everything is going to be handed
to you The encounter a sudden though and it's possible you'll miss them Whether you get them or not though, you're taught that you need to react quickly if you wanna grab the goods More opportunities to grab bring show up in other parts of this section So you're shown that making a few mistakes is okay During the first few seconds of this level you can hear a military woman's voice communicating to her team about capturing Sonic So even if you skipped the cutscene beforehand or just didn't get the memo, the level will fill you in Whatâs cooler is the timing for when the lyrics of
"Escape from the City" pick up Take a listen "Attention all units" "Suspect seen heading south" "Block all major roads and capture the suspect" âȘ Rolling around at the speed of sound âȘ This song about freedom and bravery
bumps in the MOMENT the military lady Gets done talking about capturing and
restraining What's even more disrespectful than that is when you take a step back and think about what's going on Sonic rips off a piece of a GUN helicopter, places his shoes on the logo, scratches the metal on his way down through the streets, And performs tricks on it shouting things like "YAHOO!" While he gleefully disobeys three stop signs, three speed limit signs, and two DO NOT ENTER signs Oh, and at the end of these rolling streets, he treats this piece of metal like junk by letting it fly off into the abyss A cherry on top of one of the most INSULTING displays Sonic has ever depicted towards a foe And it perfectly fits his carefree, cocky, and
rebellious nature! Never have I understood what a character's about THIS quickly into a game And we haven't even gotten to Sonic running yet! There are rings here to direct you to a point of interest: the ramp If you jump while on the ramp then you'll gain some nice air along with getting to see Sonic do a slick trick Which varies depending on how fast you were going before you jumped and the angle you were at beforehand too After every ramp there's a crossroads for cars to pass So if you don't time your jump
properly on the ramp then you'll likely Get punished by hitting a car This punishment isn't severe though, as you only lose speed, not rings This is because the level wants to test your skills with easier obstacles before throwing you at harder ones While the first ramp was more of a test and didn't offer much if you performed a trick off of it The ramps afterwards grant you
some items if you reach high enough The view from up there is awesome too! At the end of the section you're met with one last downward slope before launching off And getting a great shot of Sonic falling to the ground with that same lens flare effect we saw at the beginning of the level Upon landing you gain access to Sonic's traditional movement But before speeding things up, let's slow things down to observe some details that might get overlooked by some players If you stay still for a bit then you'll have a
chance of hearing Sonic say Which is a comment on the setting, or Which is actually a sad line when you think about it, since Sonic has NO idea why the ENTIRE military is after him These comments are unique to City Escape Plenty of comments unique to other levels exist too, which is overall a nice touch to make the experience feel more immersive Speaking of which these posters are beyond charming, look at this! We got a cheeky ad for Soap, a real-life company whose shoes Sonic wears throughout this game We've got some refreshing Chaos Cola over here, which sounds awfully similar to a different brand of Cola that won't be named This bench has an EMERALDNOTWORK poster In case you thought this was actually a real website, they put NOTWORK instead of NETWORK That didnât stop someone from making it a real thing though Up here on the wall thereâs an ad forâŠsomething computer related? Iâm not exactly sure since a lot of itâs hard to read The only thing I can really get from this is THAT RAM NUMBER OH MY GOSH This game was released in 2001, NO ONE HAD A...54? 64? gigabytes of RAM back then! So THIS number being THIS big IS
the joke! The posters that show up in this level differ between the Dreamcast and GameCube version of this game Since we're playing the GameCube version, we're only seeing its posters here So I'm gonna give a few shoutouts to these
three Dreamcast posters This Spring Festival one especially, since it depicts half of a normal spring blending into a version of itself that only has the lines of its polygons visible I know that was a mouthful but I just thought this looked pretty cool okay? Anyways you know how guns hunting down Sonic in this
level? Well if you turn the camera around in this starting section, you'll find six gun posters RIGHT behind you Symbolizing their relentless chase for
capturing Sonic The GUN poster is also the only one thatâs present in both the Dreamcast and GameCube version of this level So no matter what version you're
playing YOU'LL KNOW THEY'RE CHASING YOU The camera starts out pointing towards
the main path forward, motioning for you to move in that direction It's tempting, but if you restrain yourself and instead explore what's over to the left Then you'll be rewarded with a small animal
[Explore the gaaaaaame] Hear that voice?
[Here, there, everywhere! Don't let the camera be your guide] [Find stuff, find stuff, find TONS of stuff]
[Go! Everywhere! Anywhere you want!] [Find all the secrets! Find allllll the secrets in the level! Anything you want!
[You can choose! Explore over there? You can have it! Go over there!] Thatâs the game telling you âHey, explore as much as you want, goodies are just waiting to be foundâ If it wasnât already obvious, this level doesnât force you through any long-winded tutorials It instead teaches you through its design, which is how it should be! That doesnât mean youâre left in the dust if you couldnât figure something out though There exists 14 Omochao in this level, all of which will teach you something if you touch one And guess what? It doesnât waste your time with dialogue boxes and it doesnât take away control from you It lets you move how you want as fast as you want while you listen to what it has to say, and thatâs cooooooool Yâknow what else is cool? Splitting pathways! Which youâre introduced to the moment you land in this starting section I know it sounds silly calling these incredibly small parts of the level âsplitting pathsâ, but they really are! And they show you the many ways you can go about progressing through the level If you run up the stairs, youâll see this rail you couldâve grinded If you jump up high and climb up the ledge, youâll see these boxes you couldâve hopped off No matter which method of progression you choose, youâll digest the fact that there were other methods available, Which is important because this level wants you to explore alternate routes Once you pass the starting section, youâll meet your first real enemy! Which you can choose to either ignore or fight! If you choose to fight, youâll quickly realize that it doesnât pose much of a threat... The shots it fires move incredibly slow, and the time it takes in-between firing is long Which is good at this point in the game! You wouldnât want the first enemy to have ridiculous attacks, now would you? You want them to be reasonably easy as you get accustomed to how the game works, and thatâs exactly this botâs purpose You go dude! Have a nice day! So after killing him, youâll notice that the road splits The right path contains a metal GUN crate If you fooled around in the starting section earlier then you wouldâve learned that summersaulting into a crate destroys it, but not this one, so what gives? At this point in the game you donât have the required power-up to destroy the metal crate, But the fact that itâs there and you canât destroy it yet is such a tease! It adds replay value to this level by making you want to return once you have the required upgrade to see what this crate was all about The left path has a Sonic Team ad on the side of this wall And hey! The website shown is still available to this day, pretty cool! OH and hereâs my favorite poster! It starts out saying âPlaying SA2 is habit formingâ, Now whenever I hear something is âhabit formingâ, itâs almost always in negative context The vibe I get here is to take a break from playing SA2 every now and then so you donât get addicted, But then it goes ahead and says âdonât turn offâ, encouraging you to get addicted to the game! This poster is plastered on a curved wall which you can run along to the end If you succeed then youâre rewarded with a ring box If you fail or just donât take the path that requires more skill Then youâll get stuck with another enemy This situation is reminiscent of the ramps in the snowboarding section Where if your precisionâs on point then youâll progress quicker and grab some goods Only this time, you may actually get hurt for failing Which is a step up in difficulty from what you encountered at the beginning This stone pathway seems like it ends at a weird place, until you realize that itâs pointing out the grind rail as a possible route Just like how it pointed out the stairs as a possible route back in the starting section This pathway leads to some wooden crates If you hadnât already figured out what to do about them yet, then you learn here Either through trial and error or through the OPTIONAL TUTORIAL Hereâs the most recognizable poster in the whole game, Chao In Space 2! Nice to see something beloved get a sequel, Iâd love that feeling! The following section is a more straightforward way of presenting the grinding mechanic Youâre shown multiple rows of rings atop grind rails You canât collect these rings by staying on the ground, so youâll likely jump towards them and land on the rail, showing you how itâs done If you didnât get the picture, then you can use the OPTIONAL TUTORIAL Thereâs a speed panel at the end of the hallway, which youâre almost guaranteed to step on because of how narrow the exit is Giving you your first clear example of how a speed panel works in the most dramatic way possible By shooting you up a curved wall Atop it, the camera pans in such a way that it places a juicy ten ring box smack dab in the middle of your screen However, you have a choice of which path you wish to take and they all exist for different types of players Donât care about the reward and wanna play it safe? You can do that! Wanna take your time getting the reward? Go for it! Wanna take the risk and sna- OKAY I canât be the only one that appreciates the thought that went into this I admit that a lot of platformers have alternate routes, But City Escape makes sure each route has a good reason for existing Whether it be to teach you something new, offer you a reward, punish you for failing, or accommodating to the way you wanna play Itâs clear though that the level has a preference for risky routes, as the camera puts this one on full display Only when you walk up to the edge of the wall will the camera pan down to present the other two options with clarity Itâs almost as if the level is encouraging you to believe in yourself and take the most difficult path for the best reward Itâs kind of heartwarming when you think about it If get curious and choose to explore beyond what the camera initially shows you, then youâll discover this corner which has a tutorial on whistling, Which isnât a necessary action to beat the game, but rather one thatâll help out players that enjoy looking around nooks and crannies This is SUCH clever design! The kind of player that would find this tutorial useful is the same kind of player that would find this tutorial in the first place Players that donât care as much about exploration would unknowingly skip this tutorial, Not like itâd do them any harm though since the tutorialâs only useful for players who DO like exploring Itâs one thing to have optional tutorials, But the fact that this one is guaranteed to be helpful to any player that comes across it because of its deliberate placement is crazy! A place more hidden than this one lies directly above this speed panel Itâs a little awkward to reach, but once you do Align yourself with the tire and jump down! Nothing's there *laughs* This next partâs pretty straightforward Just touch the speed pane- STOP *Sires in the background* Hear the sirens of justice? Well they can be heard at every intersection in the level, Which may seem a bit random at firstâŠuntil you consider what the military woman said at the beginning "Block all major roads and capture the suspect" Theyâre forcing Sonic to take certain routes to ensure that he ends up right where they want him Call GUN whatever you want, but they had Sonic on lockdown, and itâll only become more apparent the closer to the end we get This downhill section provides three ramps for you to perform tricks off of consecutively, And itâs the most satisfying feeling to nail the timing on all three of them ESPECIALLY this last one, since it gives you a brilliantly done dynamic shot of Sonic performing a sick trick through two rings of rings If you got the thunder shield from the second ramp, then itâs made even better! Youâll hear a beautiful chime as the rings are all collected at once *Beautiful sounds* You donât even land on the ground at the end, but rather a spring, which just keeps the momentum going I swear this five second section alone makes me love this level a ton, But letâs say your timing on the first ramp was off and you decided to hoof it to the end of the street Youâll notice a billboard in the distance depicting Chaos from Sonic Adventure, which is a cool callback, And a funny one too since itâs hard to take this Chao in armor seriously After making a joke of the speed limit sign once more, youâll hit the end of the road While the level doesnât hurt you for taking the easier route, it makes you go through an uphill climb to rub it in that you couldâve done better Itâs not all bad though since a couple small animals can be found here for the more perceptive player No matter the route you take, youâll end up encountering some enemies Earlier, the foesâ placements werenât a big deal You were either on even ground or had a high ground advantage Here, thereâs THREE enemies and they ALL have the high ground advantage Not all hope is lost though, as you can see a few wooden crates just begging for you to platform them to safely reach higher ground These ledges are also the perfect height for Sonic to quickly pull himself up This section introduces you to the idea of observing the environment around you and using it to your advantage Throughout this endeavor, you may notice the Nights poster, a reference to one of SEGAâs other IPs And the Ring Box poster, which seems to be promoting an expo of some sort The upcoming downhill slope has the seventh ramp of the level At this point, youâre expected to know how ramps work and what youâve gotta do to get as high up as possible So they placed two fantastic item boxes as rewards if you demonstrate enough skill Failing doesnât result in punishment here, the level simply wants you to show your stuff At the end of the road, we get yet another example of how the level design compliments Sonicâs character Since nothing screams rebellious more than running past two DO NOT ENTER signs Also burger Now allow me to present my newest creation! The Speed Preserverâą! That's right, the Speed Preserverâą! Tired of losing speed as you try to transition from one method of transportation to the next? Well Iâve got just the solution for you! Just hop right towards this spring and youâll be right on your way in no time! All for the low low price of YOUR FIRST CHAO I donât have to tell you how cool it is to NOT stop dead in your tracks right? Didnât think so! This grind railâs the longest one yet and has multiple turns to test your skill Due to its downward slope, your speed will get built up to the point of no return Youâll get flung up this sloped wall, where youâll have t- WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? HIT IT! HIT IT!! Donât worry sport, youâll get âem next time... At least you took the top path! Which contains... âȘ Who Wants To Be A Millionaire theme âȘ If you picked âB: More Rewardsâ, then you were right! City Escape has proven time and time again that itâs going to stay consistent with this theme So I feel like if I point out any more splitting paths then Iâm just gonna end up repeating myself Um Iâll just fast forward the video so you donât have to sit through anything boring *Fast forwarding* I love how open this section is! Itâs like the levelâs telling you âHey, we know youâre good at using ramps now, have a playground with two of âem.â If you choose to hop on the bridge, then youâll come across a string of rings It may not be obvious at first, but this is another segment, like the one with the metal crate, where you need an upgrade for the best possible result Have a replayability sticker!
You did a good job string of rings! Take a look at the curves on this wall! MMMM!! It makes the first one you saw look puny in comparison! The first shuttle loop of the whole game comes right after, And itâs â dare I say â the best shuttle loop in the whole Sonic franchise Thereâs multiple speed panels to accelerate you fast enough to go up the loop Instead of bringing you down to ground level instantly like most shuttle loops do This one goes for spectacle by giving you a head-on perspective of Sonic running down a skyscraper at high speeds To top it all off, the trusty speed preserver comes to the rescue at the end, allowing you to keep your pace off that adrenaline rush A new mechanicâs introduced here in the form of horizontal bars When you grab onto the first one, the camera will show where youâre gonna land if you get the timing right within the red Whatâs great here is you can try as many times as you need to without worry Itâs only the second horizontal bar where things starting shaking up I know I said I wasnât gonna talk about splitting paths anymore but this camera angle is game design at its finest! It clearly displays: Sonic The jump indicator The reward if you succeed The punishment if you fail And how much time you have left to jump in the form of the robotâs bullets Iâm gonna need a picture of this up on my wall itâs so beautiful! Disregarding the reward for now, letâs acknowledge that this section of the level is the most puzzling out of them all For starters, weâve got not one, but four metal crates embedded in the ground While the first metal crate was a little mysterious, these four will leave you clueless on your first playthrough Is there something inside of them? Is there a hole below them? Even if I get strong enough to break metal crates by somersaulting, how do I hit these ones? I imagine these are the kinds of questions that might run through a first timerâs head But things get even more confusing if you choose to explore this corner, Where youâll find an object that doesnât conform to ANYTHING youâve seen up until this point At least with the four metal crates from earlier, you had seen a crate before, this thingâs straight up alien! Even Sonic doesnât help out in solving this mystery! Need I say? REPLAYABILITY! You may be wondering âBut Zoom of the Zikes, how in the world is it BETTER level design to create things that players canât access unless they replay the level later on? "That sounds like artificially lengthening playtime!â NO! These little occurrences have two parts to them The buildup, and the payoff The buildup is when you first see them You try to figure out whatâs going on and how you can overcome the obstacle When you inevitably have to move on since you donât have the required power-up, youâll wonder what those sections were all about The payoff is when you get some upgrades, and realize âOHHHHHHHHH, THATâS how I break that metal crate from before!â Conquering obstacles like these is beyond satisfying, for two reasons! One: you yourself figured out what to do, the game didnât hold you by the hand Two: it shows how much youâve grown since the beginning of the journey, and thatâs awesome! Getting back to the horizontal bars though Thereâs an invincibility box as a reward if you successfully time your jump In the event that you miss the invincibility, you can easily jump from the well placed crate here Thereâs nothing like ripping through enemies while a guitar hails your name in the background This is the last and longest grind rail section in the entire level! It feels like one last hurrah before finishing! Youâre even launched into a horizontal bar for the opportunity to show off before reaching the goal! Right? Nope! Checkpoint! Yup! That's not the end! This level started with Sonic happily breaking free from GUNâs helicopter, And now itâs ending with GUN using a MASSIVE, armored vehicle to pursue Sonic through whatever means necessary, Even if it results in MASS destruction of this highly populated city Your ONLY option is to run away from this relentless machine that will happily end multiple lives so long as its objective is fulfilled The intense music that plays throughout this pursuit further fuels the chaos of it all I canât imagine a more climactic finish to one of my favorite levels of all time City Escape is truly a masterpiece of game design It introduces Sonic perfectly with a high speeds snowboarding section just because it can Its level design gives you the freedom to choose which path you want and respects your ability to figure things out It gives you tons of opportunities to show off and be cocky It rewards you for exploring hidden areas It rewards you for replaying the level and revisiting old areas It rewards your ears when you listen to its catchy theme And it has an adrenaline pumping finale that I wonât ever be able to forget It's GOOD GAME DESIGN MAN And it makes me happy! What more can I say!? City Escape is awesome! And I hope that I've been able to convince you that it's awesome! And I hope you have even the SLIGHTEST ounce of appreciation for it as I do! Have a good day, and I'll see you later! "Yes!" âȘ SA2 Level Clear Jingle âȘ
I love this video. Thank you for posting. :)
Nostalgic