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Grand Metropolis (グランドメトロポリス[1] Gurando Metoroporisu?), also known as Grand Metropolis Zone, is the third stage in Sonic Heroes. It is a high-tech, industrial human city[2][3] with factories owned by the HEXAeco corporation. Recently, the city has been taken over by the Eggman Empire under the rule of Neo Metal Sonic.
Description[]
Grand Metropolis is a highly advanced city, set in the middle of a sunny day. The level is set over and inside a power plant facility consisting of tall, green skyscrapers, as well as a massive factory. Skyscrapers can be seen too. Most noticeable is the predominance of hexagons in the city, with the floors and walls bearing a hexagonal pattern and the buildings even having a foundation shaped like a hexagon. Many hovercars can be seen zooming across the screen through the skies. Small, blue and white blimps are also present carrying platforms.
The city is known to be the headquarters of HEXAeco, an energy corporation that promotes "clean energy". This energy, which takes the form of an orange fluid, can be seen running through pipes[4] and is used to power many contraptions throughout the level, including doors and paths. Since the company's power plants are automated,[5] there are no workers there. Also, due to how advanced the technology in the factories is, there is little pollution or noise there.[6] Floating signs with advertisements promoting HEXAeco's energy are also seen throughout the level. Ironically, despite the company promoting clean energy, vegetation is scarce in Grand Metropolis.[7]
Story[]
Grand Metropolis was one of the regions on Earth to be taken over by Neo Metal Sonic after assuming leadership of the Eggman Empire. The empire took control of HEXAeco's local power plants in order to steal their energy, trade it at high prices,[8] and use it to power the Badnik army.
Team Sonic[]
Grand Metropolis is the second region Team Sonic travels through in order to stop Dr. Eggman's plans to conquer the world. Eventually, they infiltrated the city's Power Plant, from where they continue with their adventure.
Team Dark[]
Team Dark comes to Grand Metropolis to continue with their adventure to find Eggman. Here, they make their way through hordes of Badniks and infiltrate the Power Plant.
Team Rose[]
Grand Metropolis is visited by Team Rose, continuing their quest to find their lost friends. Eventually, they infiltrate the Power Plant and continue their adventure from there.
Team Chaotix[]
Team Chaotix comes to Grand Metropolis, where they destroy all of the local Badniks on the orders of their mysterious client. After successfully completing their mission, the team goes to the Power Plant.
Gameplay[]
Overall, Grand Metropolis is an easy stage with some Badniks and many gimmicks. The stage makes use of HEXAeco's energy, which is used to power many unique contraptions. However, this energy has been stolen by the Eggman Empire, meaning that the player must defeat Badniks or activate Switches in order to use it. The most notable gimmicks from this level are paths which propel the playable characters forward when stood on. These paths only appear when energy is running through them, and will not appear until then.
Overview[]
Team Sonic[]
Mission 1[]
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- Rescue the city under the control of Eggman!
Mission 2[]
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- Get to the goal ring within 5 minutes.
Team Dark[]
Mission 1[]
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- Crush the city under the control of Eggman!
Mission 2[]
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- Destroy 100 enemies.
Team Rose[]
Mission 1[]
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- Stroll through the modern city!
Mission 2[]
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- Collect 200 rings.
Team Chaotix[]
Mission 1[]
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- Clear out the enemies in the city!
For this assignment, Team Chaotix are told to destroy all 85 of Eggman's robots around the stage. By the first Check Point, 18 out of the 85 enemies have been passed. Check Point #2 brings that count up to 31/85, and it reaches 63/85 at the third. The player should have defeated 73 total enemies once they pass the fourth Check Point, and once they hit the final stretch all 85 enemies have been accessible. If the player has missed any enemies along the way, Charmy can use a Warp Flower at the end of the stage and teleport back to the beginning.
Mission 2[]
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- Clear out all the enemies within 8 minutes.
The extra mission's goal is the same as the first's, but with an eight-minute time limit.
Ranking[]
| Rank | Score[9] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Sonic | Team Dark | Team Rose | Team Chaotix | |
|
60,000 | 65,000 | 50,000 | 65,000 |
|
55,000 | 60,000 | 45,000 | 60,000 |
|
45,000 | 50,000 | 38,000 | 50,000 |
|
35,000 | 40,000 | 25,000 | 40,000 |
|
<35,000 | <40,000 | <25,000 | <40,000 |
| Rank | Score/Time[9] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Sonic | Team Dark | Team Rose | Team Chaotix | |
|
|
58,000 | 8:00 | 3:45 | 60,000 |
|
|
52,000 | 8:30 | 4:30 | 55,000 |
|
|
42,000 | 9:30 | 5:00 | 40,000 |
|
|
32,000 | 11:00 | 7:00 | 35,000 |
|
|
<32,000 | >11:00 | >7:00 | <35,000 |
Other game appearances[]
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games[]
In the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Grand Metropolis is featured as the setting of the Dream Uneven Bars event. During the event, a remix of the background theme plays.
Trivia[]
- In Team Chaotix's mission, after Vector says "Boy, it doesn't look good", Espio says "I'll handle it". However, the subtitles read "Leave this to me".
- The Dash Ramp on Team Chaotix's placement is misplaced after the door that leads to the area with bottomless pits.
The energy pipe error.
- The energy pipe glass as an object is rendered improperly, causing the walls and all non-object geometry (except for parts of the sky) to be invisible with the sky being viewable from the pipe's glass. This is due to the wrong material render flag being assigned to the object. This happens on all systems besides the PlayStation 2.
- This is the first stage which Team Dark is able to explore the most, since Team Sonic can only traverse the loop course in Super Hard Mode as a teleport collision object is placed in the building's pipe that takes the team to the destination (with two vertical platformed blimps on the between them while landing onto a building roof with three enemies).
- One of the light decorative objects is located outside of the interior building which was not meant to be there. It was discovered with the help of cheats for the jump and speed modifications.
- Ahead from the first Goal Ring in the two-player version of the stage, there are objects that were left unused, such as the Rings that go to the balloon above the metal grill ceiling and the second Goal Ring that is only reachable with the Light Speed Dash. This was originally the location of the goal, but the game developers decided to re-arrange it so that every team had a chance to finish the Stage.
Music[]
| Name | Artist(s) | Length | Music track |
|---|---|---|---|
| STAGE 03 : GRAND METROPOLIS | Jun Senoue | 3:36 | |
| BATTLE : CITY AREA | Teruhiko Nakagawa | 2:05 |
Videos[]
See also[]
References[]
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