Press Garden Zone

From Sonic Retro

Sonic Retro emblem.svg Sonic Mania
Press Garden Zone
  • Act 1
  • Act 2
Press Garden Zone
Fifth level, Sonic Mania
Number of Acts: 2
Level theme: ancient ruins
Secondary level theme: industrial
Tertiary level theme: winter
Quaternary level theme: East Asian
Sub-boss: Shiversaw
Boss: Heavy Shinobi
Flying Battery Zone | Stardust Speedway Zone

Press Garden Zone is the fifth zone in Sonic Mania, which is a brand new original zone. It's an industrialized ancient ruin, resembling a printing house full of press-related elements. After defeating Dr. Eggman and his Spider Mobile in Flying Battery Zone, the player takes a hang glider to glide to Press Garden.


Act 1 features a factory-like environment full of various crates, repurposed as a printing factory for Dr. Eggman's propaganda, as posters can be seen being printed in the background. Some of the crates lying around the factory appear fragile and can be destroyed using a Water Shield or a Fire Shield, sometimes revealing hidden goodies. Some crates are stacked in giant presses that will gradually break through the crates, crushing everything within them, including the player if they are not fast enough to escape.

Among some of the other features of Act 1 are conveyor belts of paper that the player can bounce off of, and by holding down a button the player can bounce higher, while touching the wheels of the conveyor belts will catapult the player in the direction they are spinning. Breaking lights on the walls and ceiling will cause doors and platforms to open, creating new routes, and typewriter blocks from the background serve as additional platforms.

Act 2, however, changes completely, revealing a frozen Japanese garden with snow and sakura leaves falling from the sky. Ice-blowing machines are placed around the act that will freeze Sonic and friends, making them slide around uncontrollably as living ice cubes. Unlike other instances in past games, freezing is harmless, and the player can break free by mashing the buttons or by colliding into a wall at high speed; alternately, Fire Shields will prevent the player from freezing at all and will also melt ice cubes and ice spikes within the act on contact with the player. The aforementioned ice cubes can contain things such as rings, springs (some being icy springs that break after the first use), item monitors and spikes, and wood-cutting machines that will grind up tree logs into wood chippings can also be found.


References and Easter eggs

Reference Appears in Source Game Source Level
Dragonfly's appearance. Act 1, Act 2 Sonic & Knuckles Mushroom Hill Zone
Splats' appearance. Act 1 Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) Beta
Horizontal rotating cylinders. Act 1 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Launch Base Zone
Lightbulbs that make doors and platforms move when broken, much like red switch boxes. Act 1 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Launch Base Zone
Spinning platforms that the player revolves around on. Act 1 Sonic & Knuckles Sky Sanctuary Zone
Structures which shoot the player upwards. Act 1 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Launch Base Zone
Ice-blowing machines. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 IceCap Zone
Sliding around uncontrollably as a means of getting around. Act 2 Sonic 3D Blast Diamond Dust Zone
Breakable ice cubes. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 IceCap Zone
Hollow tree trunks the player can enter. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Aquatic Ruin Zone
Pairs of platforms which knock each other into a swing. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Mystic Cave Zone
Carry's appearance. Act 2 Knuckles' Chaotix Techno Tower
Arrows shot from platforms which can be stuck on the walls like in Aquatic Ruin Zone's boss fight. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Aquatic Ruin Zone
Heavy Shinobi's sound effects. Act 2 Shinobi
Asteron's appearance as one of the Heavy Shinobi's weapons. Act 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) Metropolis Zone


According to the filenames for the game's music tracks, this zone was originally going to be called Pulp Solstice Zone.



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