Stage (InstanceClass, 6)

From Compile Worlds


A stage, also known as a level, world, round, chapter or zone (thank you Fire Emblem series and Sonic the Hedgehog series for breaking the five-letter pattern), is a portion of a video game. Usually, one plays through each stage in order until the game is complete. Some games, however, let you play the stages in any order, and others still let you travel between and return to different stages at will, though in this case the common names are world, zone, area and sector.

Games by what they call their stages

One-way

stage
Touhou series
Streets of Rage series
The Adventures of Batman and Robin
Twinkle Star Sprites
Puyo Puyo series
Sonic the Hedgehog series, as far as Special Stages and Bonus Stages are concerned
level
Usually used by simpler games like Pacman and Tetris and sometimes just refer to the current difficulty rather than a specific "portion" of the game. As such most RPGs now (mis?)use this word to refer to how strong each character is.
world
Mario series
round
Most fighting games, such as Street Fighter
Sonic CD (which, just to be confusing, calls acts zones)
chapter
Fire Emblem series
zone
Sonic the Hedgehog series, except Sonic CD
sector
Iji. Another exception to the rule, as the term sector isn't usually used in a game where you can't go backwards.

Any order

stage
Mega Man series
(image)
This short list needs expanding.  
tagged since unspecified date

Free exploration

sector
Metroid Fusion (and possibly the rest of the series, I'm not entirely sure)
area
.hack//G.U. (and possibly IMOQ too)
(image)
This short list needs expanding.  
tagged since unspecified date

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