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We might be getting levels based on real world locations a la Unleashed again? Sign me up.
Not sure how I feel about this myself, one of the charms of the Sonic series was its ability to create a unique fictional world with fantastical and surreal environments coupled with intricate detail and a strong sense of wonder and mystery. Apologies since this'll get into the Sonic narrative a bit.
Take city environments, the designs for cities that appear in Sonic CD, Chaotix, and Heroes are pretty much entirely original, expanding on the fantasy aspect of Sonic's world with unique structures/architecture and colorful buildings:
The buildings are vibrant and quite futuristic, the giant inward facing structures indicate that the city is inside of a dome, these are structures that just wouldn't exist in our world.
Grand Metropolis Zone, a big bustling futuristic city accompanied by with hover cars, while not an entirely original idea it does suggest Sonic's world is far more advanced than our own.
Taking a look at a stage that is based on a real-world location.
City Escape from SA2, for example, was basically just San Fransisco, it had rings and a shuttle loop but it's still pretty close to the real place. basing a level in a real-world environment and just sticking rings, checkpoints and a shuttle loops just to show us it's still Sonic just doesn't do it; it's still just San Fransisco, it's a place that you could basically visit in real life which is kinda boring. The Classics took you out of the real world and created it's on unique environments and world(s) ( with things like Little Planet and alternate dimensions).
The stages in Unleashed do a lot better job of making them feel more unique and a bit more distant from the real locations, but I feel they still sort of lack a sense of wonder and imagination the classics established ( and subsequent Modern games set in that style like Heroes and the Advance series ) they still look like the places they're based on and it kinda meshed with the apparently normal humans that live there ( like....how the hell do they even get around all the loop de loops and floating platforms? ).
I'm fine with stage environments being inspired by real world locations as long as it still has that Imaginative flare we've come to associate Sonic with. Make it feel like it's a part of his world and not just ripped straight from ours. Sonic Adventure actually based some of its environments on places from South America, Windy Valley ( both beta and final versions ) were based on Machu Pichu as seen here:
Windy Valley still manages to distance itself enough from feeling like just Machu Pichu with rings and loop de loops and still looks like a completely unique location set in Sonics world.
All in all, I'd much prefer completely unique locations that expand on the fantasy aspect of Sonic but I'm not opposed to real world based locations as long as it still feels like it' apart of that same world.