longest you've spent on a stage?

[Lucky]

Meteor Herd was horrible. The only reason it took me a while to A-Rank everything on SA2 was because I just did NOT want to go back to it ever again, and I'd agree with Scar that it's worse than Eggmanland just for the fact that it was so mind-numbingly dull. I have no idea how long it took me, but it was definitely way longer than any stage should have. Mad Space was a pain in the ass for the same reason, but not to quite the same extent as Meteor Herd.

Eggmanland is a close runner-up, and I know that took me a good 40-odd minutes on my first attempt.

[krazystitch]

Now that it was mentioned, I probably took a really long time in Meteor Herd as well. God, I hated the Knuckles levels back in Sonic Adventure 2. I mean, I never even liked the ones in Sonic Adventure. I found looking for emeralds like that really boring and tedious, like it just took away from the story, but I was able to deal with it.

Now, whenever I go back to Sonic Adventure 2 and I get faced with one of those overly massive maps, I can only groan and force myself through it.

[Dark Qiviut]

Shadow the Hedgehog's The Doom. Lasted almost an hour trying to finish the Hero mission and STILL couldn't find the last part.

Altogether, approximately six years in Carnival Night Zone, Act 2.

SCREW YOU, BARREL!!!

Considering I had the same issue on that stage for 40 mins. Except I scoured the whole of that ludicrously massive stage and couldn't get the third emerald to even cause the radar to blink. I wandered around aimlessly through the whole stage, accidentally found Knux's sunglasses, destroyed several boulders, was driven insane by the music. I eventually restarted the stage and it still took me half a fucking hour.

…What the hell? I have SA2 on the Dreamcast, and I've NEVER been in Meteor Herd for that long. The longest I've ever been in that stage was about ten minutes. Edited January 12, 2012 by Dark Qiviut

[eXtaticus]

Forty-odd minutes on Eggmanland 360.

I never played that game ever again.

And you know the best part? I didn't even finish the level, or the game.

Why? Because it was a pile of shit, frankly.

[-Mark-]

I was going to say my first playthrough of Aquatic Mine in SA2, until I remembered Eggmanland.

Aquatic Mine was really annoying on my first try; I had the misfortune of the Emerald appearing in one of the most complex, difficult locations, and what with all the changing water levels and platforms etc, couldn't for the life of me reach it. I spent around forty minutes in that level before quitting. Thankfully the emerald shards spawn randomly, so they were relatively easy to find when I came back to the stage later.

But yes, Eggmanland. Bastard took me an hour the first time (as I imagine it did for most of us). Other than those two though, can't think of any off the top of my head that took a ridiculously long time.

...Oh, wait. The Doom. Just the mention of that stage and I can already taste the bile rising in my stomach. I can't remember an exact time, but all I know is that 'too long' doesn't begin to describe it.

[Lucky]

...Oh, wait. The Doom. Just the mention of that stage and I can already taste the bile rising in my stomach. I can't remember an exact time, but all I know is that 'too long' doesn't begin to describe it.

Oh man, clearly I'd repressed all memory of that level, because I completely forgot about it until just now... I still swear they mixed up the normal and hard versions, because expert mode was a walk in the park compared to the regular stage.

[-Mark-]

Yeah, I thought that too. "Hey let's scatter them all around the level" versus "Just chuck them all in one room at the end".

Seriously, I remember the first time I played the Hard Mode version, I was shitting myself because I'd gone through most of the stage and still not found a single researcher. I was starting to worry about just how stupidly well they must have been hidden for me not to have found a single one despite being right near the end of the stage.

...then they were all together in one room at the end. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

[Eternal EX]

Silver's sand stage in Sonic 06. That is the only stage I recal spending almost an hour on just because I could not get the damn ball to the end of the stage. Since that day, I never looked back. And Eggyland was a pain on my 1st run. Only about 30mins. It wasn't to bad since I died mostly because of the werehog pole walking area. And 3rd goes to that DAMN rouge space stage in SA2. Fuck that stage, fuck rouge and fuck sega for making that stage.

[Blue Blood]

Now aside from all the obvious times actual stages have taken me forever, here's a couple of slightly different ones:

1- Getting out of the Mystic Ruins jungle as a kid. Good Lord did that place screw me over. Looking back at it now it's really simple and still probably different take me that long (like 15 minutes max) but I was well and truly lost every time. I'd have to try so hard to avoid as much of it as possible, which is simply impossible when you need to get Knuckles to Lost World.

2- Soleanna Castle Town. Again this is just an Adventure Field. The largest one in the series and even if it's all grey and the game plays like crap, I can't help but enjoy running around this place. Breaking it's even better in fact. Purple gem here, sky blue gem there... oh look it's Amy's corpse from where she spawned and died on the spot! I love that place. I can spend well over half an hour just mucking about there.

Bottomless pits are

All around

So many loading screens

To be found

Playing in a city where everything gets you down!

Hey!

Glitching in the city! ~

Edited January 12, 2012 by Blue Blood

[Silver*]

Forty-odd minutes on Eggmanland 360.

I never played that game ever again.

And you know the best part? I didn't even finish the level, or the game.

Why? Because it was a pile of shit, frankly.

[Burnt Ash]

First would go to Eggmanland, 45 minutes the first time around. I hate those three titan things at the end.

Second would go to Sonic's Aquatic Base from Sonic 06...30 minutes on my first try.

Third would go to any Maria stage from ShTH. There's just so many rooms to explore, it's pretty much a massive maze that's extremely tedious to get through.

Fourth would go to Mad Space from SA2. That stage alone is my least favorite thing about SA2. It's weird, cause I found the rest of the hunting stages to be easy for me.

[JezMM]

Now I'm REALLY convinced the Wii version is superior.

It really isn't. Eggmanland is long and hard but it's a great level in terms of design. A lot of people cite the endless lives they give you as being "proof Sonic Team knew it was broken", but I saw it as "proof Sonic Team knew it was hard". They wanted you to finish, they didn't want you to run out of lives and have to do the whole thing again.

Personally no final stage in a Sonic game has psyched me up as much as Eggmanland did. I don't think they could get away with doing a stage that long again without splitting it into acts, but I just LOVED the intense trek. No Eggman base has felt as vast and overwhelming as that since Metropolis' terrifying three acts of hell in Sonic 2.

Oh yeah, The Doom and Meteor Herd were pretty bad. I've played those games so much now they're no problem at all, but I'm PRETTY SURE I hated them as much as everyone else upon first few plays.

One more: Kingdom Valley on 2006. The stage itself is Sonic's longest, but it's hard, making lots of deaths first time, and GODDAMN the water section is SO hard first attempt. It was upon this Game Over that I realised the game only prompted you to save after stages and bosses - not missions. I had to do those fucking stupid three trials again in Soleanna Forest to have another go.

Edited January 12, 2012 by JezMM

[#EndyGate]

A good hour or so in Meteor Herd ;<;

[Scar]

Eggmanland was better than SA2's hunting stages, specifically Meteor Herd (the rest were a pile o' shit too) because you were actually doing something. Yes, there were a lot of bottomless pits, and extremely challenging balacing sections, but at least you had an objective, an obstacle to overcome, some platforming to do.

Meteor Herd, was gliding around pointlessly around a enormous, cavernous room waiting for the radar to respond and to guide to the emerald shard it wanted you to find; rather than the nearest one (which makes sense and existed in the vastly superior predecessor).

[JezMM]

So then, we've reached an agreement.

Edited January 12, 2012 by JezMM

[Jacky]

*insert eggmanland response here*

That level was pure balls, no joke.

[Komodin]

The longest amount of time I've spent in any Sonic stage is (what else?) Sonic Unleashed (HD)'s Eggmanland, having spent over 90 minutes there in my first run-through. Mostly, I got stuck in the later half of the mega-act. I love the stage, though, and I can now clear it in 15-20 minutes, but still...

[isawbluejays]

Nighttime Spagonia in HD Unleashed. I got somewhere around 60 minutes, mostly due to deaths. Many deaths.

And Modern Sonic's Planet Wisp: 20 minutes, because I didn't know what to do during the final parts of the stage (Where you scale that tower)

[Old dead account]

IIRC, I spent 69 minutes in the first run of Eggmanland.

I spent 57 minutes in Mystic Mansion for team Chaotix.

Spent 48 minutes on a Mission in Shadow the hedgehog

Spent 40 Minutes on fucking mad space once

Spent at least 20 minutes on most werehog levels

Yeah. Obnoxiously long and pointless. I think 20 minutes is as long as I can stand of any level

[Eternal EX]

Basically, if you beat EGGY land (HD) you grew hair on your chest. It was a bitch at the time but once it was beaten, you felt like you really accomplished something.

[Indigo Rush]

There are 2 that stick out to me.

For obvious reasons. Those Werehog sections take a LOT of time to get through, and the daytime sections are VERY unforgiving.

...

...

And...

...the coup de grace:

That ball puzzle had me on this level for 2 hours.

You heard me right.

2.

HOURS.

[Silver*]

ball puzzle is tricky, but you have to know where you want it to land and figure out how to get it there. Sorry if this was corny but thats how I did it.

[sonfan1984]

I remember spending 20 minutes playing through the sand stage as Silver and another 20 minutes on the ball puzzle my first playthrough. Luckily, I beat it on my second try on my second playthough.The game decided to go easy on me that time.

[SuperStingray]

Eggmanland was easy, it was the hotdog challenge for it that took all my time.

[Dreamcast]

Now I'm REALLY convinced the Wii version is superior.

No way!