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Drill Mobile

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Drill Mobile
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Level: Marble Garden Zone
Hits to defeat: 8 (including 1 in the air as Sonic and/or Tails)

The Drill Mobile (ドリルモービル)[1] is the third boss of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, fought at the end of Marble Garden Zone Act 2. The boss machine is encountered at various times throughout the Act, with Dr. Eggman/Eggrobo maliciously drilling through the ancient Knuckles Clan ruins in order to set off earthquakes to try to bury Sonic and Tails (or Knuckles) alive.

Strategy

Sonic & Tails

When Sonic and Tails finally make it to the end of the Act, Eggman appears to induce an earthquake that levels the entire Zone, obliging Tails to give Sonic a lift to the skies as the fat man flees.

A cunning tactic here is to hit the boss as many times as possible when he's on the ground, drilling the Marble Garden into oblivion. It's possible to get 7 or 8 hits in when playing as Sonic alone without a Shield by carefully positioning him below the boss and repeatedly using his Insta-Shield. Super/Hyper Sonic can easily achieve this as well. Generally, every character should be able to get 3-4 hits in. Unfortunately, even if the player can deal more than 8 hits to the boss while it's still on the ground, one more hit will always be needed while in the sky in order to win the battle.

After this, Tails will airlift Sonic (or just himself), and Sonic has to jump from the fox's grip onto Eggman's mech to deal the remaining damage. This boss is notoriously hard if playing as Tails alone. Without the ability to Spin Jump, Tails has to damage the pod by hitting its underside with his whirring namesakes; a difficult task, with a drill at the front and a flame-jet at the back. This can also be achieved when playing as Sonic, using the D-Pad to control Tails' position in the sky. A second player can also control Tails. However, to fly upwards, the player will have to use the jump buttons, as opposed to pressing up when fighting this boss alone.

Knuckles

When playing as Knuckles, the boss is completely different (even if the mobile sprites are almost identical). Eggrobo keeps the combat underground, and will send a spiked wire chain through the ground and ceiling, which the player must avoid. Then he will appear and collect the wire back in again. While he does this, the player should hit him 2 or 3 times each time. Strangely, while Sonic's boss plays the standard boss theme, Knuckles' boss plays the mini-boss theme from Sonic & Knuckles.

Oversights

It is possible for Knuckles to fight against Sonic's boss, just like it's possible for Sonic and/or Tails to fight against Knuckles' boss, without using debug mode or other hacking means. However, while the former can be done very easily even while playing normally by using a Blue Spinning Top to let Knuckles get into Sonic's path, the latter can be a bit more tricky because it requires a very precise timing and therefore is used mostly for Tool-Assisted Speedruns, but it can still be performed in real time by skilled players.

References


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