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[Tobasco Panda]

I have to most all levels in the first 4 sonic games (1, 2, 3 & Knuckles) had very awesomely crafted levels. Not only were there branching paths in a time when that was less than common, but it also facilitated the speed gameplay AND exploration! That is what has always been missing for me from the 3d Sonic games (not swords, guns or werewolves as Sega seems to believe). Sonic 2, Emerald Hill Zone has enough lamp posts to allow you to gather ALL the chaos emeralds before reaching the boss, allowing you super sonic for the rest of the game.

Oh Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio in the US) had a couple levels where you could grind indefinitely, allowing you to get all the tags but one right near it and then rack up the points for the rest of the remaining time before getting that one at the end. The sewer was my favorite because you had to jump off a grind, ride a wall then jump off that to make a 90 degree turn and grind a wall over the water and then jump off that to get back on the rail going the other direction!

Fun times.

[Renton]

...or werewolves as Sega seems to believe...

I saw the ad for that the other day. It was... weird.
As I little child I loved Sonic, especially Knuckles. I haven't played any Sonic games after that and frankly, it's kinda sad to see the franchise this way.
And yes, first Sonic games' level designs are awesome.

[battlerager]

Oh, I'll add this:


Yeeeehaawww its Supar Castulvania FOOOURRRR

[demolam]

I have to most all levels in the first 4 sonic games (1, 2, 3 & Knuckles) had very awesomely crafted levels. Not only were there branching paths in a time when that was less than common, but it also facilitated the speed gameplay AND exploration! That is what has always been missing for me from the 3d Sonic games (not swords, guns or werewolves as Sega seems to believe). Sonic 2, Emerald Hill Zone has enough lamp posts to allow you to gather ALL the chaos emeralds before reaching the boss, allowing you super sonic for the rest of the game.

I too always liked the level design in the Sonic games (the early ones), and my favorites are:



and



But they are all great. I'm also a bit surprised that no one has mentioned Ristar, specially the music-planet:

Yeah, like I said, I don't remember why I said the Dark Maker Spaceship. If I had to pick a level from Jak 3 now, it would be the one with the explosive mine cart and the targets you had to shoot to make it keep going. That was great.

I think many levels were great in Jak 3, and certainly that one with the mine carts. However it's not surprising since I know that the guy who designed something like 1/3 or maybe even 2/3's of the levels in Jak 3 also made the levels in atleast Sonic 1 and 2 and possibly the rest of the early Sonic games. It's also very possible that he made the levels for Ristar, but that I don't know. But it's sad that he doesn't get the recognition that he deserves, and I don't even know his name.

I also really liked the entire leveldesign in Metroid Prime and all the dungeons in Zelda: Wind Waker.

[Loren Schmidt]

The Wink Waker dungeons are amazing. That game deserves more respect.

I would also like to nominate the Peach sections of Paper Mario, in which you have been kidnapped and are within Bowser's fortress. Does anyone remember the part where you bake a cake?

[Tobasco Panda]

The Wink Waker

[mildmojo]

McKinley Base from the Quake I Threewave CTF packs.  McKinley Station wasn't bad, either, but it was a tad large & awkward.  E3M5, The Wind Tunnels was pretty killer, too.

I had a lot of favorites from the Q1 Threewave CTF maps.  I stopped playing Q1 around 2000 as the playercount was dwindling, and switched to Q3A.  Q3CTF4 was my favorite Q3 map, far and away.

[Facero]

[Pixelworship]

The secret star world levels from super mario world. and pretty much all the other ones too, but super mario world is the best game ever, so that's a bit unfair to all other games.

[Hempuli‽]

The secret star world levels from super mario world. and pretty much all the other ones too, but super mario world is the best game ever, so that's a bit unfair to all other games.

I agree to some point. There's dozens of cool ideas in that gem.

[Lucaz]

The second and fifth levels in Sonic 3 (water level and snow level). And the oil level, metropolis and the ship from Sonic 2. Sonic had great level design.

The second (victorian) and fifth (20's) from Noitu Love 2.

The Wrecked Ship zone from Super Metroid.

The german Ammunition Factory in Castlevania Bloodlines.

The Suburbs, Living End and the Icon of Sin from Doom 2.

The first level of Metal Slug 3. The second ones is a bit better, but the first one has much better enemies.

[laserghost]

DK '94 was really fun to play. I especially liked the levels on the giant airplane.

[William Broom]

I love all the levels in Wario Land 3. If I had to pick one it would probably be the swamp with that horrifying headless gecko boss in it.

[Bree]

Omigsoh, DK '94! I remember getting that as a birthday gift- I was terrible at it, but I loved it all the same.

[Titch]

As much as Sonic and the Seven Rings was such a 'meh' game (I played the whole game because I was happy to play a 3D sonic game that wasn't ass) one of the later levels, Levitated Ruin was fairly amazing. Some of the slow sections grated a bit but the feel of rushing across the fleet of airships was crazy.





Aaand, Silent Cathedral in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. That place was creepy with all the strange noises and mutant vampires climbing around the walls an ceilings that liked to drop on your face.

[Synnah]

Oh Jet Set Radio (or Jet Grind Radio in the US) had a couple levels where you could grind indefinitely, allowing you to get all the tags but one right near it and then rack up the points for the rest of the remaining time before getting that one at the end. The sewer was my favorite because you had to jump off a grind, ride a wall then jump off that to make a 90 degree turn and grind a wall over the water and then jump off that to get back on the rail going the other direction!

Man, yeah, discovering the infinite grinds was a great moment in gaming for me! I wanted to mention a level from JSR earlier, but I couldn't really pick a favourite. I really need to play both the Dreamcast original and the Xbox sequel again. Perhaps I'll try and pick a DC scart lead so I can play it on my parents' HDTV over Christmas.

[David Pittman]

Oh man, I loved me some DK '94 back in the day. Now I want to play that again.

Just recently revisited Psychonauts after not getting into it the first time around, and the Milkman Conspiracy was the point where I finally began to love the game.

For scary levels, I can't think of anything better than Shalebridge Cradle. I liked the first two Thief games better than Deadly Shadows, but this one level is the cinematic and emotional pinnacle of the series for me.



http://gillen.cream.org/thecradle.pdf (PC Gamer UK article on the level)
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=309 (source of the image above)

[Bad Sector]

Too many to remember, but...

- All of Knee Deep in the Dead from Doom 1, as previously said. Also the first city level of the Doom 2 map with the arachnotrons.
- All of Dimension of the Doomed (Ziggurat Vertigo!) from Quake 1.
- The alien-like spaceship levels of Duke Nukem 3D.
- Bluff Eversmoking from Unreal 1 (the level with the bell tower, the green slime/water at the bottom, a castle on the top of a huge hill and prison cells inside it, the ghost nalis and other stuff i can't remember - this level is basically the definition of the epicness in this game). Also Sunspire (although the internals are a little maze-y), The Trench (the outside of ISV-Kran's crash site), NyLeve's Falls (with probably the first game to use a dedicated programmer for fire and water effects, its hard to find someone who wasn't stunned by the falls :-), Noork's Elbow and others. This is a huge game basically, i have a hard time remembering everything from it.
- The free hospital/clinic from Deus Ex. I really like the emptyness and gloomyness of this place, especially the entrance. It reminds me of some old dystopian sci-fi films (well the game has such a setting, but in many cases its not shown in the environment).
- Do boss levels count? If so, the first huge-boss level from Painkiller (the graveyard one). Although its probably the combination of huge boss/flat environment that makes it stand out and not the level alone.

I don't play multiplayer games much, so i cannot think any level from such a game.

[FishyBoy]

- All of Dimension of the Doomed (Ziggurat Vertigo!) from Quake 1.

This.

I love how the levels in Quake really took advantage of the 3rd dimension. I felt more immersion, partly because I was scared shitless that a fiend would burst out of every single dark place and eat me, but also because the worlds had so much to them that they felt like truly solid places, and more than just brown corridor after brown corridor.

[Valter]

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