Christmas Zone

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)

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Christmas Zone

Christmas Zone
Scrapped Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit)
Level theme: winter

Christmas Zone is a scrapped winter-themed Zone from the development of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Likely conceptualized by Hirokazu Yasuhara, and with graphics created by Brenda Ross, it was intended as an alternative version of Desert Zone, featuring a cool wintery setting in contrast to Desert's hot desert atmosphere. Unlike that Zone, however, Christmas Zone made far fewer appearances in development material, and appeared to have lacked any finalized name before it was dropped from the final game.

The term Christmas Zone derives from Ross' personal name for the Zone. While previous interviews see her remembering the name Winter Zone in places, a later one reveals her general unfamiliarity with the term and any specifics of a name entirely, with her most recent statement deferring to the name Christmas Zone. In reality, Ross was an artist and not in charge of naming said Zones, with responsibilities falling to Yasuhara. "Whatever Yasuhara called them. I just created what he asked me to create."

Features

Christmas Zone is nearly identical in appearance to the mockup of Desert Zone, albeit with a wintrier color palette and various types of Christmas trees replacing the background cacti. The sky now appears a pale shade of lilac, and the occasional mesas in the background have been replaced with a long snowy mountain range and matching pine forest. Unlike the Desert Zone mockup, Christmas Zone lacks the two Buzzers which inhabited its desert counterpart.Media:S2 Winter Zone.png

History

Development

“	"The Desert Zone was as you see in that image, with cactus and assorted plants. It was designed to have a palette change, which turned the sand into snow, and you’d have a winter scene. We had to be fairly ingenious with such a limited palette. In the Winter Zone, instead of cactus, I had created Christmas trees, which I thought looked kinda cool. I remember the Woods Zone having pink flowers somewhere. Hey, I am a girl… heh."	„
— Brenda Ross

Christmas Zone was set to recycle graphics from Desert Zone with a suitable winter palette, and graphics would have been swapped out as well. For example, cacti would have been replaced with Christmas trees. Importantly, the two Zones were to be placed far apart so that the recycling of graphics would be less obvious to players. According to art director Tim Skelly, very little else was produced for the winter theme. Brenda Ross herself does not recall exactly who conceptualized reusable Zone art, but believes it to have been Hirokazu Yasuhara's idea. While Christmas Zone graphics were obviously completed to the extent seen in the mockup, it is not believed either it or Desert Zone ever reached a playable stage in development.

Snow Covered Mountain by Hirokazu Yasuhara

Following the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Ross migrated to Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball as an artist and animator. During that game's early development, she repurposed graphics from Christmas Zone (particularly the thin pillars, decorated stonework, and large smooth rocks which compose the mockup's covered tunnel section)Media:SandShowerZone SSonic2 MD BrendaRossmockup static.png in the creation of Spinball's first stage, the water-themed Underground Caves. However, later in development, one stage needed to be removed from the game. As a result, Ross' Underground Caves also found itself scrapped, with the theme of a water-based stage recycled into the final game's Toxic Caves.

The 1994 MTV television special Rock the Rock, promoting the then-upcoming Sonic and Knuckles, features a brief documentary on Sega Technical Institute. Filmed during the development of Sonic Mars, the special contains a brief segment featuring Hirokazu Yasuhara and some of his concept art used during Sonic the Hedgehog 3. A number of these pieces were repurposed from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, including one labeled Snow Covered Mountain. The concept art features a striking similarity to the known mockup, with both images sharing a covered tunnel section and slope, a Christmas theme, and importantly, terrain drawn at nearly identical horizontal and vertical boundaries - suggesting the Digitizer mockups for Christmas Zone and Desert Zone were directly based on this art.Media:Sonic2 ConceptArt WinterLevel.png

Legacy

In December 2023, a VHS tape containing a video resume made by Cook around the mid 1990s - containing her artwork from a number of cancelled Sega Technical Institute projects, and PF Magic's Dogz - was preserved and uploaded to YouTube by The Video Game History Foundation in December 2023. In it, animations and artwork from largely undocumented titles such as Jester and Fat, Daddy were seen by the public for the first time. Among the preserved content was a mockup of Christmas Zone, allowing historians and the gaming community a glimpse into the once-fabled Sonic 2 Zone.

As a result of Desert Zone's association with the inferred name Sand Shower Zone sometime in the early 2020s, Christmas Zone experienced a similar situation, with the Sonic fandom associating the stage with the name Rock World Zone (taken from the same set of Hirokazu Yasuhara's concept art as the name Sand Shower Zone).Media:Sonic 2 Level Map Concept 04.pngMedia:Sonic 2 Level Map Concept 01.png It was also theorized that, back in early development when Sonic 2 boasted an elaborate time travel mechanic, Christmas Zone would have acted as the past version of Desert Zone. This speculation eventually spilled into broader gaming community, appearing on countless websites and YouTube video essays, mirroring the confusion caused by early fan speculation over the name Dust Hill Zone.