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What are some other Sonic levels you think I should cover? -DON'T SAY FINAL RUSH I'M GETTING TO IT- Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/zoomzike - Enter promo code ZOOMZIKE for 83% off and three extra months for free!
Red Mountain from SA1, and Pyramid Cave from SA2. Kinda opposites in that one is super open and the other super linear but I always thought they made great use of the game’s’ mechanics.
As cool as City Escape is, I've always thought that Emerald Coast is the greatest first level in Sonic's history, it's the ultimate showcase to not just how to play this new game, not just to show what Sonic is all about, but it's also a showcase to how impressive and ahead of it's time the Dreamcast itself was, the level starts and the first thing it shows you is how beautiful and vibrant it looks, alongside blasting this awesome music track in the background, the level only goes on to show you crazy setpieces like the loops and the killer whale, and as if all of that wasn't enough, the second half of this level changes the music to something else.
I think Emerald Coast is more important, but I find that the game physics of Adventure 2 make City Escape a more fun level overall: the homing attack has more range, and all of Sonic’s moves feel like they have less “end lag” so to speak, letting you go from one action to another more quickly Regardless, the only reason the physics COULD feel so refined is because SA1 and Emerald Coast laid the groundwork for how Sonic should move around a 3D space, and how that 3D space should be laid out
Emerald Coast is honestly my favorite starting level in a platformer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played it, it’s so fun and never gets old. Hell as a kid I once beat it with one hand because I had ice cream and was like ‘I’m not going to stop playing to eat this.’ Also an interesting story is that in the original Dreamcast version, the sand texture is actually a photo taken during Sonic Team’s trip to Mexico for reference material for the game’s setting. If I remember right, the texture was a photo taken in Quintana Roo. Pretty cool to hear about, definitely makes you think how much of what the team was inspired shaped the game. Also the Kiki’s bombs you can pick up like any object in the game and throw them back. It’s not as fast as just spindashing or homing attacking them but still pretty cool to do. It can even hit the ones in the trees with the throwing arc.
It's funny, I literally didn't know about the bomb thing until last year when I was going for all the emblems in SA2 since the hard mode for Egg Quarters requires using them. Stuff like that kinda makes me wish the games used some of these mechanics more since it showed ST could get pretty creative with the levels when they want to.
Sonic Team always puts an astonishing amount of time and resources into the first level/zone/area of their games, they know that first impressions are everything. Emerald Coast sure was a sight to behold in late 1998. This game released just a month after Ocarina of Time which was already visually impressive for its time but Sonic Adventure was on a whole another level.
One thing i really like about the adventure games that no one really talks about is how they're split into acts like the classic games but in different ways. In Adventure 1, you have a set piece that separates the acts like the orca in emerald coast or the tornado in windy hill. And in Adventure 2, the acts are divided between the hero and dark stories having obvious parallel levels like city escape and radical highway, pumpkin hill and sky rail, eternal engine and lost colony and so on. It's a really nice and unique way of bringing the classic mechanics to 3D
@@manjackson2772 The extra two levels Hero story has is likely Mission Street (uses assets from both City Escape and Radical Highway) and Pyramid Cave (uses the pyramid aesthetic from Death Chamber and Egg Quarter). Every other level can be mapped one to one with another level on the other story. Sonic and Eggman both have two more regular levels than their counterpart: Metal Harbor/Weapons Bed and Crazy Gadget/Lost Colony. That leaves Knuckles with one extra treasure hunting stage compared to Rouge, and Sky Rail is left suspiciously unpaired with one of Sonic's levels, so Pumpkin Hill is Sky Rail's counterpart (even if there's absolutely nothing in common between them other than pumpkins).
It's interesting to see how Sonic Adventure adapts the 2D games into a 3D structure. Lots of things like the capsules that contain animals at the end and even a 2 act structure are here.
The game physics are also much more similar: the Homing Attack is a newer feature in this game rather than a core piece of Sonic’s kit, and as such, it doesn’t carry sonic forwards much at all. Similarly, jumps are REALLY floaty in this game, giving the player plenty of extra time to figure out if Sonic’s feet are over the platform. Later games could get away with “removing the training wheels”, but SA1 is the first Sonic game to require players to interact with physics in a 3D world, so it needed to stick to rules the player already knows
I actually never noticed how the multiple act structure was translated really well in SA1. I can understand why they streamlined it in future games, but that distinct structuring of the levels is something that really makes SA1 stand out from future entries.
Your starting level video essays always end up being some of my favorites. I feel like there's always so much to unpack when it comes to breaking down the design choices the developers make when giving players their first impression of the game, and you do an amazing job at putting a spotlight on them.
Ando to think Super Bunnyhop tore this level apart unfairly in his ''The First Level of Every Sonic Game'' video years ago, this one serves as a perfect counterpart to it.
Haven't started the video yet but I can tell you now my respect for Emerald Coast is already VERY DAMN HIGH. It has always been my favorite (and in personal opinion, the best) opening stage of any Sonic game. From its music to its visuals, Emerald Coast is peak Sonic!
And the Chaos 0 fight (not a level as you do mention in the video, a FIGHT) is a point in-and-of itself that this game doesn't let you start at the usual Sonic level that you'd expect but instead sets the tone by throwing you straight into a boss battle with THE big bad of the game as your starting gameplay.
i will ALWAYS support you in how you forever praise and uphold Sonic and the glory that the Sonic games have brought us over the years . i truly LOVE your Sonic videos... your videos always make me really proud to be a hardcore Sonic fan !!!!
This level is what got me into sonic 23 years ago, seeing my grandfather showcase me and my sister's new christmas present distracted me from the other stuff we got that year. I played the demo-version of this dozens of times before we got the real game about a week or two later.
What i really like about the adventur series, and specifically SA1 and SPECIFICALLY emerald coast was how the extra "pointless" stuff was placed there with care. Like the falling off the rubber band area and discovering the spike ball and rings. There is literally no point except for players to find it accidentally or go "hey, that looks cool, let's go explore over there." With the power ups behind the start of the level or that really obscure one up, to all the other secrets hidden in adventure levels, it had this kind of nostalgic feeling of being able to just go slow in the level and explore, for the kids at home who only had 1 or 2 games and were playing it for the 5th or 6th time. I'm obviously biased because I haven't played any of the modern sonic games past sonic generations, but it never felt as whole and complete as these types of levels.
Man, there's many things you missed in regards of how smart and tight this level design is. It introduces many mechanics then forces the players on later segments to experience those mechanics, making for an awesome reward for being atentive to the developer's intentions, but it also introduces the different level design structures in SA1 with bite sized versions of them. Man, now I wanna do my own video about how Emerald Coast is a great transition to 3D....
Its kinda neat to see this level highlighted like this. I just remember owning a demo to the game on PC a LONG time ago and since this was the only level if I recall for Sonic. All I did was try to speedrun it and beat my times over and over for days. It felt like it was really properly tuned to ease you from learning to mastery and it was just a fun level to blast through
I'm glad someone finally said it! Emerald Coast is very underappreciated in terms of Sonic opening stages and opening levels of gaming in general, I just love the more chill atmosphere of the beach and the music of both acts are as memorable, the section with the orca is a defining moment for 3D Sonic and visually impressive back in the day, lastly the final jump through the hole in the rock and run through the islet with dolphins jumping is just stunning. I don't think there's a better way to introduce the player to the world of 3D Sonic.
I was 5 when I first played SADX, this was my first computer game ever, and I still remember the feelings I had when I first played through this stage, 20 years later. I love everything about it. My god, this is the best introductory stage to the entire Sonic franchise that I could have ever hoped for. The speed, the beauty of a coast, the muuuusic, duuude. It's literally perfect for a kid. I think it might even be a reason why I decided to stick with the blue hedgehog for all these years and proud to call myself a fan. Yes, that wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that. That freaking whale/shark terrified me as a child and I was incredibly happy to beat it, even though that section is pretty much "Hold a button to win", and you need to really screw up to die.
Did you know you can throw the Kikis' bombs back at them? Yep, you can pick them up (same as Chao Garden pickable items) and throw them back, and it even seems to lock on in my experience! Do note that it uses the same input set as grabbing items in the Chao Garden, so you have to move or jump to actually throw it, otherwise you'll just set it down right in front of yourself.
I'm convinced that SA1 (and probably early 3D titles in general) was designed for speedrun. Every path you take, whether it's the obvious path ahead or abusing spindash jump to reach absurd distances, feels like an intentional design from the developers. Never has going out of bounds feel so rewarding.
One thing I really appreciate about the level is that the camera points up at the first bridge you can use as a shortcut. It's almost like it's trying to tell you that all the levels have (probably) intentional shortcuts littered throughout and that you should look out for them.
youre right, Emerald Coast is iconic. i remember constantly playing it on the Dreamcast Demo Disc before i got SA1. i replayed this level over and over (still do sometimes). the most iconic 3d sonic level imo
6:11 Those rubber bands actually show up in Final Egg when you're coming down from the elevator at the start of the 3rd section. I only noticed this recently
Quite possibly my favorite zone in the franchise. That song still makes me excited almost a quarter century later, incredible to experience this game when it released
This is a pretty great video; like a lot of your others, it does simply walk through the level, describing what happens and what the player can do, but the emphasis on what it teaches the player and how it does so makes it feel justified.
I love these video essays of sonic stages! My first experience with your channel was your sonic adventure 2 crazy gadget video and I fell in love with the content ever since!
I don't know why but everytime I hear Emerald Coast's music, I think "yep, I'm home". I don't even know why, I didn't grow up with the game but it's so welcoming.
To me, Adventure 1 is the final Classic game rather than being the first Modern game. Tails as a partner on Sonic levels, animal capsules, 2 act structures, same locales from 3 & Knuckles, Dreamcast models being reminiscent of Classic designs, open ended levels which encourage momentum (Beta Windy Valley is a good example)
I never considered the sheer genius that was put into Emerald Beach until this. Please do more of these in the future, as it'd be really cool to see the thought process for other levels, both in Adventure and in other Sonic games.
fun fact I've learned the hard way. If you don't go into the orca section with enough initial speed for whatever reason on the first turn you'll just yeet yourself off the platform into the abyss. I've done it so many times and its always because I went slow into the section.
Having grown up with this game as a kid with no memory card on my GameCube, I would speed run the heck out of this game every time just to progress further. Emerald Coast is a level that I always have fun going through & this video perfectly encapsulates what I love about it. That said, I was nodding the entire time about all the things you've said & I thought there wasn't much new information I could gather from it, until the very end when the gust of wind was there next to the spring. You bet your bippy, I was excited to learn more about this game & that small section was like a breath of fresh air even deep into the video. Loved every minute of it.
I never played this when it first came out. I didn't even get the game till WELL after sonic and many other franchises had been well established in the 3d space for a long time now. I beat sonic adventure 2 battle before even getting this game. So being accustomed to 3d games I never thought to hard about people's first experiences with emerald coast in 3d. At the beginning of this vid I was saying. WHY ON EARTH!? WOULD ANYONE MESS AROUND THIS BEGINNING PART?! IN A SONIC GAME! You go FAST through level! But then as the explanation went on it became more clear. Wait yeah. Nobody had really PLAYED 3d games before at the time this came out other than maybe ocarina of time. So yeah people would probably be taking the time to get used to how a fast moving hedgehog works in a 3d space. ... Props to you for thinking of this. I certainly wouldn't have. I have some newfound appreciation for this game as a whole.
I actually remember struggling with the wall running when I was a kid playing this game... I came back to it when I was in my late teens, and doing the wall running freely and having fun with it felt so good coming back to it. it was like I used to be tails, inexperienced but still trying, but I'd aged enough to be daring and confident like sonic
I think some ppl always say you overanalyze Sure I don't think all of ur points are what the devs intended but still this is a great analysis And slowed down Alot of the thoughts you describe the player has in just a few seconds And now that it's slowed down, ppl think it's overanalyzed. So actually, it's more of a compliment. It seems like so much when in actuality, all of this happens in just a few seconds
That's how I like to think about it. Many of these points are simply explanations for what we perceive within seconds. Kinda like how anime characters think in tense situations haha
What was funny to me as a kid is the difference between tails and eggman here. Eggman made a huge ass flying ship without any chaos emeralds, while tails needed 1 to make a simple plane work lol
Gotta admit, that Shurfshark ad transition was smoother than the entire level design flow of Emerald Coast. Jokes aside, great video as always! As someone studying game design, I too sometimes find myself over-analyzing the little details in games, so I'm glad to see someone sharing a similar mindset in this platform. Informative, funny, enjoyable to watch, and really well edited. Keep up the good work!
Glad you used the original Dreamcast SA and not SADX, fucking hate when people talk about SA graphics being "outdated" and talk about SADX, for 1998 Sonic Adventure looks the best of the best and it has a nice art style and colors too
Speed booster panels right before loop de loops are a bandaid to hide just how difficult it is to set them up to actually work as intended in 3D. It's a shortcut to let you get the spectacle of running through the loop without the (reasonable) chance of failure.
12:15 I kinda don't like how the lower path here is described as being objectively much worse than the top path, and as some kind of horrible punishment for failing the wall run. To me it kinda seems more like "You didn't want to/couldn't do the fast wall run into the hole? Maybe you'd prefer this slower section that's based more on platforming and timing than high-speed precision." Maybe some people just prefer the lower path. It's slower but there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
I'm sorry but Sonic Schoolhouse's titular Schoolhouse was the first 3D level in any Sonic game (j/k, loved the video! Emerald Coast got so much right despite being the true pioneer!)
The sponsorship jumpscare, i heard you called the dophins sharks, made a ironic comment saying my life ruined because of that, then got hit with the sponsorship 10/10
12:18 Huh, I don't think I've ever seen the lower path of this section.. even when I mess up the wall run, I usually just go back and try again, since there's enough room to build up speed again, and it doesn't take much to get up there. But eeesh, that lower path suucks lol
Игры
What are some other Sonic levels you think I should cover? -DON'T SAY FINAL RUSH I'M GETTING TO IT-
Get Surfshark VPN at surfshark.deals/zoomzike - Enter promo code ZOOMZIKE for 83% off and three extra months for free!
speed highway
Red Mountain from SA1, and Pyramid Cave from SA2. Kinda opposites in that one is super open and the other super linear but I always thought they made great use of the game’s’ mechanics.
Windmill Isle Act 2
Also I hope to see more videos on SA1 stages too because there are so many amazing stages there too. Lost World is supremely underrated imo
@@Comkill117 He already did a video on Pyramid Cave
"Behind the character, 3D platforming levels" I get what you mean. The Sonic Jam Hub World on the Sega Saturn was truly a masterpiece.
Hope you like living underwater
@@zoomzike * laughs in drowning sounds *
... Why do I hear panic music?
Your sponsor transition literally had me laughing out loud like a maniac. Well played😂
IKR FUCKING GENIUS
Fr, that was the best transition I've ever seen
I was literally thinking "Wait a parsec that's not a Shark" and when he SMOOTHLY plugged the sponsor; oh cod this man is a genious
I read your comment _while listening to that part_ and he still got me.
10/10 segue
He got me there, ngl. Thought he was ironically the same dunce as our little friend. 🤣
"Aw yeah this is happening!"
Or "GREAT!" in the Japanese version
"Huzzah! The affairs that are currently transpiring are most agreeable!"
"Too much delight! The events that are currently transpiring at this exact day and time are most certainly occuring!"
“I’m Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog! It’s a bad thing, a very bad thing, You’ve been a bad girl….” (I think y’all know the rest)
@@thefastcommenter7774 no no, by all means, proceed
As cool as City Escape is, I've always thought that Emerald Coast is the greatest first level in Sonic's history, it's the ultimate showcase to not just how to play this new game, not just to show what Sonic is all about, but it's also a showcase to how impressive and ahead of it's time the Dreamcast itself was, the level starts and the first thing it shows you is how beautiful and vibrant it looks, alongside blasting this awesome music track in the background, the level only goes on to show you crazy setpieces like the loops and the killer whale, and as if all of that wasn't enough, the second half of this level changes the music to something else.
Emerald Coast definitely showcases a lot more beauty than City Escape. They're both special in their own way.
I think Angel Island Zone is better, but still love Emerald Coast
I think Emerald Coast is more important, but I find that the game physics of Adventure 2 make City Escape a more fun level overall: the homing attack has more range, and all of Sonic’s moves feel like they have less “end lag” so to speak, letting you go from one action to another more quickly
Regardless, the only reason the physics COULD feel so refined is because SA1 and Emerald Coast laid the groundwork for how Sonic should move around a 3D space, and how that 3D space should be laid out
The Legend.
@@spindash64 and city escape is the best start to a videogame
Emerald Coast is honestly my favorite starting level in a platformer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve played it, it’s so fun and never gets old.
Hell as a kid I once beat it with one hand because I had ice cream and was like ‘I’m not going to stop playing to eat this.’
Also an interesting story is that in the original Dreamcast version, the sand texture is actually a photo taken during Sonic Team’s trip to Mexico for reference material for the game’s setting. If I remember right, the texture was a photo taken in Quintana Roo. Pretty cool to hear about, definitely makes you think how much of what the team was inspired shaped the game.
Also the Kiki’s bombs you can pick up like any object in the game and throw them back. It’s not as fast as just spindashing or homing attacking them but still pretty cool to do. It can even hit the ones in the trees with the throwing arc.
It's funny, I literally didn't know about the bomb thing until last year when I was going for all the emblems in SA2 since the hard mode for Egg Quarters requires using them. Stuff like that kinda makes me wish the games used some of these mechanics more since it showed ST could get pretty creative with the levels when they want to.
If I remember correctly, the textures on the Mystic Ruins temples are also photos that the devs took of the real life structures.
4:30 Sharks are my favorite kind of dolphins :^
Sonic Team always puts an astonishing amount of time and resources into the first level/zone/area of their games, they know that first impressions are everything. Emerald Coast sure was a sight to behold in late 1998. This game released just a month after Ocarina of Time which was already visually impressive for its time but Sonic Adventure was on a whole another level.
One thing i really like about the adventure games that no one really talks about is how they're split into acts like the classic games but in different ways.
In Adventure 1, you have a set piece that separates the acts like the orca in emerald coast or the tornado in windy hill.
And in Adventure 2, the acts are divided between the hero and dark stories having obvious parallel levels like city escape and radical highway, pumpkin hill and sky rail, eternal engine and lost colony and so on.
It's a really nice and unique way of bringing the classic mechanics to 3D
Hero story has two more levels than Dark though.
@@manjackson2772 The extra two levels Hero story has is likely Mission Street (uses assets from both City Escape and Radical Highway) and Pyramid Cave (uses the pyramid aesthetic from Death Chamber and Egg Quarter). Every other level can be mapped one to one with another level on the other story.
Sonic and Eggman both have two more regular levels than their counterpart: Metal Harbor/Weapons Bed and Crazy Gadget/Lost Colony. That leaves Knuckles with one extra treasure hunting stage compared to Rouge, and Sky Rail is left suspiciously unpaired with one of Sonic's levels, so Pumpkin Hill is Sky Rail's counterpart (even if there's absolutely nothing in common between them other than pumpkins).
Sa1 i knew but sa2 i never knew, hot damn
It's interesting to see how Sonic Adventure adapts the 2D games into a 3D structure. Lots of things like the capsules that contain animals at the end and even a 2 act structure are here.
The game physics are also much more similar: the Homing Attack is a newer feature in this game rather than a core piece of Sonic’s kit, and as such, it doesn’t carry sonic forwards much at all. Similarly, jumps are REALLY floaty in this game, giving the player plenty of extra time to figure out if Sonic’s feet are over the platform.
Later games could get away with “removing the training wheels”, but SA1 is the first Sonic game to require players to interact with physics in a 3D world, so it needed to stick to rules the player already knows
I actually never noticed how the multiple act structure was translated really well in SA1. I can understand why they streamlined it in future games, but that distinct structuring of the levels is something that really makes SA1 stand out from future entries.
Hands down BEST ad transition I have ever seen!!
Emerald coast is a great level, and I'm glad it's getting the respect it utterly deserves.
Your starting level video essays always end up being some of my favorites. I feel like there's always so much to unpack when it comes to breaking down the design choices the developers make when giving players their first impression of the game, and you do an amazing job at putting a spotlight on them.
I have to admit, the surfshark segway got me GOOD. super clever.
That sponsor transition COMPLETELY got me, well played sir(fshark)
FRRRRRR
IM SAYIN it was a good one!
15:34
Gotta love that cheekily-placed palm tree that obscures what's in the item box, ehe.
Ando to think Super Bunnyhop tore this level apart unfairly in his ''The First Level of Every Sonic Game'' video years ago, this one serves as a perfect counterpart to it.
Haven't started the video yet but I can tell you now my respect for Emerald Coast is already VERY DAMN HIGH. It has always been my favorite (and in personal opinion, the best) opening stage of any Sonic game. From its music to its visuals, Emerald Coast is peak Sonic!
And the Chaos 0 fight (not a level as you do mention in the video, a FIGHT) is a point in-and-of itself that this game doesn't let you start at the usual Sonic level that you'd expect but instead sets the tone by throwing you straight into a boss battle with THE big bad of the game as your starting gameplay.
And it was a relaxing change from the start of every other sonic title, which basically just used green hill over and over.
i will ALWAYS support you in how you forever praise and uphold Sonic and the glory that the Sonic games have brought us over the years . i truly LOVE your Sonic videos... your videos always make me really proud to be a hardcore Sonic fan !!!!
This level is what got me into sonic 23 years ago, seeing my grandfather showcase me and my sister's new christmas present distracted me from the other stuff we got that year.
I played the demo-version of this dozens of times before we got the real game about a week or two later.
What i really like about the adventur series, and specifically SA1 and SPECIFICALLY emerald coast was how the extra "pointless" stuff was placed there with care. Like the falling off the rubber band area and discovering the spike ball and rings. There is literally no point except for players to find it accidentally or go "hey, that looks cool, let's go explore over there." With the power ups behind the start of the level or that really obscure one up, to all the other secrets hidden in adventure levels, it had this kind of nostalgic feeling of being able to just go slow in the level and explore, for the kids at home who only had 1 or 2 games and were playing it for the 5th or 6th time. I'm obviously biased because I haven't played any of the modern sonic games past sonic generations, but it never felt as whole and complete as these types of levels.
Man, there's many things you missed in regards of how smart and tight this level design is. It introduces many mechanics then forces the players on later segments to experience those mechanics, making for an awesome reward for being atentive to the developer's intentions, but it also introduces the different level design structures in SA1 with bite sized versions of them.
Man, now I wanna do my own video about how Emerald Coast is a great transition to 3D....
Its kinda neat to see this level highlighted like this. I just remember owning a demo to the game on PC a LONG time ago and since this was the only level if I recall for Sonic. All I did was try to speedrun it and beat my times over and over for days. It felt like it was really properly tuned to ease you from learning to mastery and it was just a fun level to blast through
I'm glad someone finally said it! Emerald Coast is very underappreciated in terms of Sonic opening stages and opening levels of gaming in general, I just love the more chill atmosphere of the beach and the music of both acts are as memorable, the section with the orca is a defining moment for 3D Sonic and visually impressive back in the day, lastly the final jump through the hole in the rock and run through the islet with dolphins jumping is just stunning.
I don't think there's a better way to introduce the player to the world of 3D Sonic.
always a great day when zoomzike uploads
It's so fast, vibrant, beautiful, with the wonderful bgm, yet so simple and enjoyable.
Literally, the perfect introduction.
I was 5 when I first played SADX, this was my first computer game ever, and I still remember the feelings I had when I first played through this stage, 20 years later. I love everything about it.
My god, this is the best introductory stage to the entire Sonic franchise that I could have ever hoped for. The speed, the beauty of a coast, the muuuusic, duuude. It's literally perfect for a kid.
I think it might even be a reason why I decided to stick with the blue hedgehog for all these years and proud to call myself a fan. Yes, that wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that.
That freaking whale/shark terrified me as a child and I was incredibly happy to beat it, even though that section is pretty much "Hold a button to win", and you need to really screw up to die.
Just when I was about to sleep you hit me with this. I love emerald coast.
Did you know you can throw the Kikis' bombs back at them? Yep, you can pick them up (same as Chao Garden pickable items) and throw them back, and it even seems to lock on in my experience! Do note that it uses the same input set as grabbing items in the Chao Garden, so you have to move or jump to actually throw it, otherwise you'll just set it down right in front of yourself.
"Behind the Charecter,3D platforming levels" I agree mannnnn the special stages in knuckles chaotix were truly sonic at its best
I was talking to a friend about Emerald Coast 2 minutes ago. What are the odds?!
The checkpoint spun so quickly in that one clip!
So much work has been put into a level that you blast through in a minute or two ... Man , Sonic Team deserve a lot of praise for this
I'm convinced that SA1 (and probably early 3D titles in general) was designed for speedrun. Every path you take, whether it's the obvious path ahead or abusing spindash jump to reach absurd distances, feels like an intentional design from the developers. Never has going out of bounds feel so rewarding.
The second half of Emerald Coast was my favorite part. Especially the area with the two water falls. Also the music.
One thing I really appreciate about the level is that the camera points up at the first bridge you can use as a shortcut. It's almost like it's trying to tell you that all the levels have (probably) intentional shortcuts littered throughout and that you should look out for them.
youre right, Emerald Coast is iconic. i remember constantly playing it on the Dreamcast Demo Disc before i got SA1. i replayed this level over and over (still do sometimes). the most iconic 3d sonic level imo
6:11 Those rubber bands actually show up in Final Egg when you're coming down from the elevator at the start of the 3rd section. I only noticed this recently
Ooooooo, didn't know that!
@@zoomzike Yeah I only noticed it when I charged a spin dash in the elevator, only to release it and end up bouncing off
Quite possibly my favorite zone in the franchise. That song still makes me excited almost a quarter century later, incredible to experience this game when it released
This is a pretty great video; like a lot of your others, it does simply walk through the level, describing what happens and what the player can do, but the emphasis on what it teaches the player and how it does so makes it feel justified.
I love these video essays of sonic stages! My first experience with your channel was your sonic adventure 2 crazy gadget video and I fell in love with the content ever since!
This is why I love you and your channel. Amazing detailed videos about my favorite childhood games. Thank you
I don't know why but everytime I hear Emerald Coast's music, I think "yep, I'm home". I don't even know why, I didn't grow up with the game but it's so welcoming.
To me, Adventure 1 is the final Classic game rather than being the first Modern game. Tails as a partner on Sonic levels, animal capsules, 2 act structures, same locales from 3 & Knuckles, Dreamcast models being reminiscent of Classic designs, open ended levels which encourage momentum (Beta Windy Valley is a good example)
That sponsor transition is the most infuriatingly clever thing I've ever seen. Well played, you witty bastard
Watching you describe the beauty of Emerald Coast with Emerald Coast as my animated wallpaper is meta
🤓UM ACTUALLY Chaos 0 is actu-
I never considered the sheer genius that was put into Emerald Beach until this. Please do more of these in the future, as it'd be really cool to see the thought process for other levels, both in Adventure and in other Sonic games.
fun fact I've learned the hard way. If you don't go into the orca section with enough initial speed for whatever reason on the first turn you'll just yeet yourself off the platform into the abyss. I've done it so many times and its always because I went slow into the section.
Nothing in this video shocked me more than the realization that I have not once seen the lower route on the wall running segment.
Having grown up with this game as a kid with no memory card on my GameCube, I would speed run the heck out of this game every time just to progress further. Emerald Coast is a level that I always have fun going through & this video perfectly encapsulates what I love about it. That said, I was nodding the entire time about all the things you've said & I thought there wasn't much new information I could gather from it, until the very end when the gust of wind was there next to the spring. You bet your bippy, I was excited to learn more about this game & that small section was like a breath of fresh air even deep into the video.
Loved every minute of it.
I've adored this level for ages now and I've had to hear everyone tell me "Yeah yeah it's a first level whatever" NO THIS LEVEL IS AMAZING
I SUBSCRIBED PURELY FOR THE AD TRANSITION YOU DAMN GENIUS!!!!!!
Emerald Coast is my favorite stage in Sonic Adventure!
And people say this game hasn’t aged well
I never played this when it first came out. I didn't even get the game till WELL after sonic and many other franchises had been well established in the 3d space for a long time now. I beat sonic adventure 2 battle before even getting this game. So being accustomed to 3d games I never thought to hard about people's first experiences with emerald coast in 3d. At the beginning of this vid I was saying. WHY ON EARTH!? WOULD ANYONE MESS AROUND THIS BEGINNING PART?! IN A SONIC GAME! You go FAST through level!
But then as the explanation went on it became more clear. Wait yeah. Nobody had really PLAYED 3d games before at the time this came out other than maybe ocarina of time. So yeah people would probably be taking the time to get used to how a fast moving hedgehog works in a 3d space. ... Props to you for thinking of this. I certainly wouldn't have. I have some newfound appreciation for this game as a whole.
I actually remember struggling with the wall running when I was a kid playing this game... I came back to it when I was in my late teens, and doing the wall running freely and having fun with it felt so good coming back to it.
it was like I used to be tails, inexperienced but still trying, but I'd aged enough to be daring and confident like sonic
Perhaps the best sponsor transition in history. Well done
I think some ppl always say you overanalyze
Sure I don't think all of ur points are what the devs intended but still this is a great analysis
And slowed down
Alot of the thoughts you describe the player has in just a few seconds
And now that it's slowed down, ppl think it's overanalyzed.
So actually, it's more of a compliment. It seems like so much when in actuality, all of this happens in just a few seconds
That's how I like to think about it. Many of these points are simply explanations for what we perceive within seconds. Kinda like how anime characters think in tense situations haha
I never knew about the wind thing at the end. Good job!
Played SADX 2 times and never thought about it like this.... This is great
The lead up to the ad read absolutely got me lol. I'm dead
What was funny to me as a kid is the difference between tails and eggman here. Eggman made a huge ass flying ship without any chaos emeralds, while tails needed 1 to make a simple plane work lol
Gotta admit, that Shurfshark ad transition was smoother than the entire level design flow of Emerald Coast.
Jokes aside, great video as always! As someone studying game design, I too sometimes find myself over-analyzing the little details in games, so I'm glad to see someone sharing a similar mindset in this platform. Informative, funny, enjoyable to watch, and really well edited. Keep up the good work!
That was the greatest ad transition I’ve ever seen in my life 😂
Glad you used the original Dreamcast SA and not SADX, fucking hate when people talk about SA graphics being "outdated" and talk about SADX, for 1998 Sonic Adventure looks the best of the best and it has a nice art style and colors too
Emerald Coast will be nostalgic to me- at least, the Generations 3DS version. An underappreciated version of an underloved Adventure-era stage.
The dream cast got a beautiful graphics
Best ad transition, A+
Saw the title: "I'll be the judge of that."
Saw it was posted by ZoomZike: "Yes sir, I agree."
Speed booster panels right before loop de loops are a bandaid to hide just how difficult it is to set them up to actually work as intended in 3D. It's a shortcut to let you get the spectacle of running through the loop without the (reasonable) chance of failure.
man, i love your writting and how your videos are builded, what an analisis.
zoomzike new video at 1 am is god's gift to earth. thank you man
just discovered your channel and i can say please make more vids like this one
12:15 I kinda don't like how the lower path here is described as being objectively much worse than the top path, and as some kind of horrible punishment for failing the wall run. To me it kinda seems more like "You didn't want to/couldn't do the fast wall run into the hole? Maybe you'd prefer this slower section that's based more on platforming and timing than high-speed precision." Maybe some people just prefer the lower path. It's slower but there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
I'm sorry but Sonic Schoolhouse's titular Schoolhouse was the first 3D level in any Sonic game
(j/k, loved the video! Emerald Coast got so much right despite being the true pioneer!)
the best ad transition I ever seen in a video
This was pretty much the start of peak. Great video!
The sponsorship jumpscare, i heard you called the dophins sharks, made a ironic comment saying my life ruined because of that, then got hit with the sponsorship
10/10
The music in the first half of the level is exdordinary my 2nd fav song just behind red mountain
That transition to the sponsor was slick.
I never knew about those packs of rings at the start.
I love this game :D
“Watch out! You’re gonna crash! Ahhhh!”
That ad jumpscare was too clever.
Mmm, new ZoomZike upload. Fun times abound!
16:19 okay, now THIS is something i never knew that existed in the actual game! how nice of the devs
Bro that surfshark sponsor transition was smooth AF
love these analytical videos
Apparently, the theme of Emerald Coast Act 2 in Generations 3DS is going to be in Sonic Frontiers' Jukebox tomorrow
0:05 “EGGMAN?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE”
Real OGs met Emerald Coast on the Dreamcast Demo disk. 💯
"Uh, duh, but ZoomZike, we had behind the camera 3D Sonic in the bonus levels of Sonic 3 "Get Blue Balls"
Wow this is top notch level design!! Truly amazing 😎
ill always like the funny that aquatic animals (whales in particular) dont like sonic due to his speed lol
that surfshark transition was fucking despicable. good job
Dang, did not see that transition coming, come to think of it, i have the sudden feeling to use a VPN now…
This is a neat stage in adventure, an ok zone in generations
12:18 Huh, I don't think I've ever seen the lower path of this section.. even when I mess up the wall run, I usually just go back and try again, since there's enough room to build up speed again, and it doesn't take much to get up there. But eeesh, that lower path suucks lol
Slight error in this video. You say an Orca chases you but it is in fact a shark.
That’s a nice argument, unfortunately “fall through the floor in emerald coast”