With Emerald Hill, the game's soundtrack hits the ground running, the lively, upbeat music setting the stage for the fast-pace fun ahead.The stage music tracks run the gamut from the jaunty to the intense to the heroic to the sinister, every one a winner:.This is the only Genesis game where Super Sonic gets his own theme instead of just borrowing the invincibility theme from the game in question. The Super Sonic theme in itself is almost enough incentive to get all the Chaos Emeralds.As well as the enhanced version used in the hidden 'Proto Palace Zone' in the mobile remake. Hidden Palace Zone's unused music is really good.Where the original game had its own unique flavor and Sonic 3 would later aim for straight-up intensity, this is too iconic to go unmentioned. No variant on the boss music is complete without a reference to the real boss theme.Bonus points for the top melody sounding like some sort of deranged lullaby. You normally only hear a couple seconds of it as you run to the right and face Silver Sonic, but if you stand there and wait for a little while you'll start getting thoroughly creeped out. The Death Egg Zone Theme is, for a 16-bit era track, an eerie, haunting piece of genius, with an undercurrent of madness.One of the most epic final boss battle themes in the series. The invincibility music is probably the catchiest 10 second loop ever.The tune is more epic than the battle is.

You can practically hear the sky clouding over the Green Hill Zone when this music kicks in for the first time. Furthermore, Scrap Brain Zone's theme, along with Green Hill Zone's music, were both included in Super Smash Bros. Notably it, along with Star Light Zone, was reused as the music on the option screens for Sonic Advance.

The Scrap Brain Zone theme (especially the first part) is one of the best tracks ever written to give the impression of 'prepare for insane difficulty'.

The Star Light Zone is something of a Breather Level between the frustrations of the water-based Labyrinth Zone and the difficulty spike in Scrap Brain Zone, and its stage music is appropriately laid back, as well as being well matched to the level's 'city by night' theme.

The bass-heavy Labyrinth Zone stage music takes a lot of the sting out of the series' first water levels.

Spring Yard Zone features an easy-going track that may be somewhat at odds with the chaos of the series' first zone to feature pinball bumpers as obstacles, but it's definitely a winner.

The music for Marble Zone has an appropriately sinister edge for a set of lava-based levels.Like Mario and the very first beats of the Mushroom Kingdom, the melody of Green Hill would make sure Sonic's music stuck around just as long as his rival's. There may be many themes people and fans associate with the Blue Blur, but the Green Hill Zone is the definitive Sonic tune.

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