Green Hill Zone

Green Hill Zone is a video game level that serves as the first level of the 1991 Sega Genesis video game Sonic the Hedgehog. The level is grassy and lush, with environmental features like palm trees, vertical loops, and cliffs. Like the other levels in the game, Green Hill consists of three acts; in the third, Sonic fights antagonist Doctor Eggman before moving on to the first act of the second level, Marble Zone.

As its game of origin has gathered popularity and acclaim, Green Hill Zone has been remembered as a classic level within both the Sonic the Hedgehog series and video gaming in general. It has made reappearances in the games Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Battle, and Sonic Generations, and critics have also noted a Green Hill-like aesthetic in levels of other games.

History and characteristics
Green Hill is the first level of Sonic the Hedgehog. It is a lush, grassy stage with unique features like droopy palm trees and crumbling cliffs. In addition, as with later levels in the game, Green Hill has environmental features and obstacles like ramps, vertical loops, tunnels, spring-boards, spikes, and checkpoints. It is normally populated by woodland creatures, but antagonist Doctor Eggman imprisons them inside robots prior to the events of the game, so playable protagonist Sonic the Hedgehog can destroy them to free the animals. Green Hill consists of three acts, and the end of Act 3 features a boss battle with Eggman. After beating Eggman, Sonic moves on to the second level, the lava-themed Marble Zone.

Sonic the Hedgehog was created by the newly formed Sonic Team, a 15-member Sega subsidiary formed to create a character that could compete with Nintendo's Mario. The game's level design was handled by Hirokazu Yasuhara. While the original game was a 2D side-scroller, Green Hill was remade in full 3D as a secret level in the 2001 game Sonic Adventure 2; the player unlocks it after collecting all 180 of the emblems found by completing the game's many objectives. The 2011 game Sonic Generations, a title that revisits past entries in the Sonic series' history, features both 2D ("Classic") and 3D ("Modern") versions of Green Hill, as well as of numerous other Sonic levels. In addition, Green Hill appears as a stage in the 2.5D fighting game Sonic Battle and in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Reception and legacy
Green Hill Zone has been described as "classic" by Samit Sarkar of Polygon and by Jim Sterling and Chris Carter of Destructoid. Comparably, Joe Skrebels of Official Nintendo Magazine called it "nostalgic", while Christopher Grant from Joystiq considered it to have a place "in the center of your retro-gaming shrine". Game Informer's Tim Turi found the level's music "catchy". In 2010, Sega's community manager, Aaron Webber, returned from a vacation to find his cubicle redecorated to resemble Green Hill; IGN's Levi Buchanan claimed that "everyone wants to come back to" this, and Owen Good of Kotaku exclaimed "I want to work in Green Hill Zone, too!"

Craig Snyder at MakeUseOf named the level as one of the five best levels in video games, calling it "a great way to prepare for what’s to come". Shaun Munro of WhatCulture listed it as the second best level in video games, describing it as "such an immaculate level design that it’s something developers still aspire to nowadays, though resolutely fail to live up to". He also praises the level's soundtrack and frenetic pace.

Critics have compared levels, particularly first levels, of later Sonic games to Green Hill. Turi considers Emerald Hill from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mushroom Hill from Sonic & Knuckles, and Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes to fit the same general mold as Green Hill, noting repetition in Sonic level design and stating that "gamers have played Green Hill Zone dozens of times." However, he has opined that the Generations version of the original Green Hill "trounces them all" in both its 2D and 3D incarnations. Justin Baker of Nintendo World Report and Skrebels both analogized Windy Hill from Sonic Lost World to Green Hill, while Carter thought similarly of the Legend of Zelda downloadable content levels. In addition, a hoax website for Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 that featured level artwork resembling Green Hill generated excitement from fans.

To mark Sonic's fifteenth anniversary in 2006, Sega released a papercraft version of Green Hill as a PDF on its website. In 2011, not long after Generations release, Sega held a contest inviting gamers to upload playthroughs of Generations 3D version of Green Hill completed in under one minute and fifty seconds to YouTube; winners were eligible for Sonic merchandise.