Green Hill Zone

Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone
{{{content1}}} {{{content2}}} {{{content3}}} Green Hill Zone as it appears in Smash.
Universe	Sonic
Appears in	Brawl SSB4 (3DS) Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable (Brawl) Starter (SSB4 and Ultimate)
Unlock criteria	Unlock Sonic.
Crate type	Presents
Maximum players	4 (Brawl and 3DS) 8 (Ultimate)
Music Bolded tracks must be unlocked Brawl Green Hill Zone (100%) Angel Island Zone (20%) Scrap Brain Zone (20%) Emerald Hill Zone (20%) Sonic Boom (20%) Super Sonic Racing (20%) Open Your Heart (20%) Live & Learn (20%) Sonic Heroes (20%) Right There, Ride On (20%) HIS WORLD (Instrumental) (20%) Seven Rings in Hand (20%) for 3DS Main: Green Hill Zone Alternate: Live & Learn Ultimate Sonic the Hedgehog series music Main: Green Hill Zone Alternate: Live & Learn
Tournament legality Brawl Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned Smash 4 Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned Ultimate Singles: Banned Doubles: Banned
Article on Wikipedia	Green Hill Zone

“	The concave landscape and blue Point Marker are iconic to this stage. A Point Marker will twirl when the ball is hit, dealing damage to anyone nearby. The ground can collapse after attacking it, so be careful!	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Green Hill Zone (グリーンヒルゾーン, Green Hill Zone) is the stage that represents Sonic the Hedgehog in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It is unlocked after Sonic himself is unlocked in Brawl but is available from the start in subsequent games. In Brawl and Ultimate, Sonic is fought here for his unlocking battle.

Stage overview

The west view of Green Hill Zone

The stage consists in a single piece of land with a bridge on its left, walk-offs at both sides and a depression in the middle. The ground of the middle part is susceptible to attacks, and chunks of it crumble away if they sustain enough damage, transforming the center of the stage into a pit. The broken parts regenerate over time: players below it when this happens will fall through it.

Occasionally, checkpoint lampposts randomly spring up. They are normally blue, but when attacked they turn red and start spinning: in this state they are able to hurt players other than the original attacker. They only deal 10% damage, but cause decent knockback with KO capabilities. After a few seconds, spinning lampposts stop and can be attacked again. They disappear on their own after a while.

The background features a giant shuttle loop with a 1-Up monitor above it. Occasionally, Tails, Knuckles, and Silver run along it.

Ω forms and Battlefield form

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, the Ω form is a flat version of the normal form's ground that has the checkpoints, walk-offs, and crumbling terrain removed. The stage also extends below the blast line.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the main platform of the Ω form and Battlefield form is similar to the Ω form in SSB4, however, it does not extend below the blast line and is resized and reshaped to match Final Destination and Battlefield, respectively. The three soft platforms of the Battlefield form are reminiscent of the grassy checkered soil of the ground and are unique to this form.

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  Ω form in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  Ω form in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

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  Battlefield form in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Hazards Off

The layout is the same as the standard stage. However, Point Markers will not appear and the ground will never break.

Origin

Green Hill Zone, as it originally appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog.

Green Hill Zone debuted as the starting stage in Sonic the Hedgehog. Located on South Island, it is an area consisting of distinctively checkered ground with a grass surface and a lush biome, including palm trees and multiple flower species. Various other structures are found, such as shuttle loops and totem poles, as well as bridges, tunnels, and swinging platforms that connect the various parts of the stage. The conventions and aesthetic of Green Hill Zone have since been reiterated multiple times throughout the Sonic series, either in the form of its reappearance, or it serving as the basis for a stage with a similar theme, including Windy Hill Zone.

Green Hill Zone also introduced various elements now prominent in the series. Crumbling ground is a piece of terrain often found at the edge of cliffs, and quickly deteriorate once stepped on. A Checkpoint Marker is an object activated upon running past it, momentarily spinning the orb on its top and then making the orb glow red. It records the player's score and time, and maintains their progress in an Act should they lose a life.

The layout of the Smash stage is loosely based on the beginning stretch of Act 1, with the starting area and raised cliff with a Ring Monitor being modeled offscreen, and the stage itself being a condensed version of the following stretch of the level, in which there is a wooden bridge followed by a curved divot in the ground. However, the crumbling floor and Checkpoint Marker do not appear in the part of the level the stage is based on.

Tournament legality

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

On March 17th 2009, the BBR announced that the stage should be banned, as opposed to its former status as a counterpick, and the stage has since been universally banned in tournament play. Many players take issue with Green Hill Zone for its extremely campy nature: the most effective strategy when fighting here is to camp the signposts, which have a centralising effect due to their significant defensive power for an already highly defensive game, can severely elongate the flow of the match. Another major issue with the stage is its deep slope design, which, besides being awkward to fight on, can create a cave of life effect since players can DI and tech into the ground. Furthermore, both sides of the stage have permanent walk-off edges, favoring chain throws or simply camping the edge; the frequent absence of a lower blast-line also negates any off-stage play.

Gallery

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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  Green Hill Zone in Brawl.

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  (From right to left) Tails, Silver, and Knuckles running in the background.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

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  Green Hill Zone in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  Captain Falcon and Sonic on Green Hill Zone in SSB3DS.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

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  Villager caught by the Arcade Bunny's claw on the stage in Ultimate.

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  Knuckles posing on the stage. Note that it is impossible to summon him here in the final game.

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  Bowser, Pikachu, Robin, and Sonic on the stage in Ultimate.

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  Steve at the base of the loop, a viewpoint normally inaccessible in-game. Screenshot from Masahiro Sakurai's Twitter account.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	グリーンヒルゾーン, Green Hill Zone	—
English	Green Hill Zone	—
French	Zone Green Hill	—
German	Green Hill Zone	—
Spanish	Zona Green Hill	Green Hill Zone
Italian	Zona Green Hill	Green Hill Zone
Chinese	Green Hill Zone	—
Korean	그린 힐 존, Green Hill Zone	—
Dutch	Green Hill Zone	—
Russian	Зеленые холмы	Green Hill

Trivia

The error on the DOJO.

• When playing as Pokémon Trainer, they will stand on top of the loop.
• Due to the bridge being destructible and able to be affected by hitstun, the bridge will sometimes slow down attacks like Spin Dash or Wario Bike. This is rather ironic considering that, in the Sonic series, a player would ordinarily use the Spin Dash in an area with this stage's layout in order to quickly accelerate to max speed and jump high into the air.
• A mistake currently exists in the Spanish and United Kingdom versions of the DOJO!! of this stage's page: instead of displaying the Sonic universe icon, Sonic's head's silhouette, it has the symbol of the Mario universe, which is a mushroom.
• Green Hill Zone is the only stage in Brawl to have only one original remixed song.
• The musical selection for Green Hill Zone in Brawl makes a subtle reference towards Sega in the first letters of each track that ends in "Zone": Scrap Brain Zone, Emerald Hill Zone, Green Hill Zone, and Angel Island Zone.
• Green Hill Zone appears as a stage in Sonic Battle, Sonic the Fighters (under the title "South Island"), and in Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. This makes it one of nine stages in the Super Smash Bros. series to be featured as a stage in other fighting games, the others being the Fountain of Dreams, Pyrosphere, Suzaku Castle, Midgar, Northern Cave, Dracula's Castle, King of Fighters Stadium and Spring Stadium.
• In All-Star Mode in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, checkpoint lampposts do not appear on the stage.
• In Ultimate, Knuckles cannot be summoned by an Assist Trophy on this stage, likely due to Knuckles being a background element of this stage.
  • Additionally, Midna, Color TV-Game 15 and the Squid Sisters (due to the center of the stage not being a flat surface) cannot be summoned here.
• The following Poké Ball Pokémon cannot be summoned on this stage: Abra (because the stage has walk-offs on both sides), Entei, Suicune, Kyogre, Palkia, Giratina, Zoroark, Keldeo, Lunala and Marshadow.
• With a total of eight, Green Hill Zone has the most default tracks in a Brawl stage.
• Green Hill Zone is the only third party stage in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS to use music from two separate games.

External links

• DOJO!! Update