Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Join the Neat Club: NeatOnTheRocks.com
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One of the reasons I think I was drawn to Sonic over other games as a kid is the absolutely incredible and evocative level design. Sega knew they had to to create something flashy to pull eyes away from Mario, and the designers, artists, and sound team did not disappoint. Every Single Zone brings unique themes, music, obstacles, and hazards that play into the strengths of Sonic’s simplicity, and I think that was not only essential to Sonic’s success in the 90s, but the franchise’s impact on the future of game design.
So today, we’re going to break down each Zone in Sonic 1, evaluate what makes them great, and then rank them in a tier list as we go, just for added fun. We’ll score each Zone on a scale of 1 to 5 in Theme (which will cover the Zone’s concept, music, and art) and in Design. (which will cover the level’s structure, layout, difficulty, and how all those things tie into the theme)
In the future, we'll do the same for each Zone in Sonic 2, then S3&K and CD as well, until we have a definitive analysis and tier list of every level in the Classic Sonic games.
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Discord: discord.gg/pYXaAxq
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Join the Neat Club: NeatOnTheRocks.com
---------------------------------------
One of the reasons I think I was drawn to Sonic over other games as a kid is the absolutely incredible and evocative level design. Sega knew they had to to create something flashy to pull eyes away from Mario, and the designers, artists, and sound team did not disappoint. Every Single Zone brings unique themes, music, obstacles, and hazards that play into the strengths of Sonic’s simplicity, and I think that was not only essential to Sonic’s success in the 90s, but the franchise’s impact on the future of game design.
So today, we’re going to break down each Zone in Sonic 1, evaluate what makes them great, and then rank them in a tier list as we go, just for added fun. We’ll score each Zone on a scale of 1 to 5 in Theme (which will cover the Zone’s concept, music, and art) and in Design. (which will cover the level’s structure, layout, difficulty, and how all those things tie into the theme)
In the future, we'll do the same for each Zone in Sonic 2, then S3&K and CD as well, until we have a definitive analysis and tier list of every level in the Classic Sonic games.
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Discord: discord.gg/pYXaAxq
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