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Check Out The Design Document For Sonic Adventure 2's Iconic City Escape Level

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Check Out The Design Document For Sonic Adventure 2's Iconic City Escape Level

Few video game openings make the impression City Escape does in Sonic Adventure 2. After jumping out of a helicopter, Sonic uses a piece of debris to snowboard down the city streets as the generational earworm, "Escape from the City" blasts. It was a defining moment for gamers, whether they were playing it on the original Dreamcast in 2001 or GameCube in 2002. It's also one of the best-designed levels in 3D Sonic history. Ahead of its appearance in Sega and iam8bit's 35 Years of Speed: The Sonic Art Exhibit this weekend in Los Angeles, we got ahold of the design document Sonic Team used to lay out just how this iconic level would eventually play out while Sonic Adventure 2 was still in development.

Originally codenamed Project GAIA 2, Sonic Adventure 2 had the unenviable task of following up the acclaimed Dreamcast launch title, Sonic Adventure. Not only was that a daunting task on its own, but Sega found itself in dire financial straits as the PlayStation 2 was decimating the Dreamcast in sales. Sega, on the brink of exiting the hardware business, dramatically downsized the development team behind Sonic Adventure 2 and relocated them to San Francisco, California, which heavily inspired the hilly urban design of the game's opening level. 

"Our team of 120 got pared down to 11, sent to America, and told to go make Sonic Adventure 2," Sonic Team creative officer and Sonic Adventure 2 director Takashi Iizuka told me in 2016 .



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