My Favorite Level: Sonic 3 Hydrocity

There are a ton of levels I love across all of the Sonic Universe, but one of my favorites is Hydrocity. This is the second zone in Sonic 3 and is a mixture of a underwater zone and ruins.  You start off after you fall from the broken bridge on Angel Island, if you fall to the left you can find a ring container. Depending on where you fall you will encounter some spikey enemies, spikes or some red colored springs. You sometimes will be spending a lot of time underwater so it’s good to look for bubbles that will give you air or better yet, the bubble shield which keeps you from drowning completely.

Perhaps it is because I always loved water and waterparks, but the different experiences in these two levels were fun to me. Right in the beginning you open a gate and a run of water forces you out and you speed across the underwater city. You also can go up and hover on fans of air and jump from conveyer belts before speeding around loops and slides going above and below the water.

There are multiple ways to traverse the level. You can stay low and underwater, head up and down the various ramps and go to the top of the level via levitating platforms. Of course there are hidden area’s that will take you to get Chaos Emeralds, but there are also power ups, coins and free levels scattered about the level.

Now I love both zones, but my favorite is act 2 mainly because of the water slides. On some of the slides you just use your own speed to go up or down them and others have spinning platforms. On these platforms a hand comes out and you speed up and go rocketing up the slide, just watch out for the shark/missile looking enemies. I can’t talk enough about the slides and if you time it right you can spend a good amount of the level on these slides that spin and twist and take you pretty much all the way to the boss.

I also love the music. On the main page of Obsolete Gamer you will see I have Hydrocity Act 2 music in the music player. Like most of Sonic’s music it matches the level and is a really catchy tune. I like act one music, but act 2 is by far my favorite.

Overall a great series of levels in an awesome game and for me ranks right up there with Chemical Plant zone.

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