Bonus Stage

Bonus stages, which only appear in Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball and Sonic Advance 3, are used to gain extra points, rings, shields and/or lives.

Sonic 3 bonus stage

• Name: Gumball Machine
• Location: checkpoint with 50 rings
• Gains: rings, shields, lives
• Layout: A large vertical space with a gumball machine at the top, Metropolis Zone-style bumpers on the sides, and springs on the bottom. Spheres come out of the gumball machine: clear - nothing, black - bounces you off it, pink 1-up - extra life, green "REP" - replaces the springs at the bottom, blue/red/yellow "B" - shield (water, fire, lightning respectively), grey ring - 10 rings.

Sonic & Knuckles bonus stage

Glowing Spheres

• Location: checkpoint with 20 rings
• Gains: rings, shields, lives
• Layout: Bumpers and flippers on the sides, magnetic balls, star bumpers, rings and grey circle thingies in the middle, and a rising laser thing that will knock you out of the stage when you touch it. Touching one of the grey circle things will change it into a sphere that are the same as the ones from the Sonic 3 bonus stage.

Rotating Maze

• Location: checkpoint with 20 rings
• Gains: rings
• Layout: Like a Sonic 1 special stage, but minus the up/down circles and plus a ring gambling machine like the ones in Sonic 2's Casino Night Zone.

Sonic Spinball bonus stage

• Name: ????????
• Location: end of level
• Gains: points
• Layout: A mini-pinball machine where you hit targets to score points.

Sonic Advance 3 bonus stage

Capsule

• Name:
• Location: star teleporter
• Gains: lives
• Layout: Large capsule with 5 buttons on it. Press the buttons while they are red to score 3 points, blue for 2 points and yellow for 1 point. Get a certain number of points in 30 seconds to clear the stage.

Clear All Enemies

• Name:
• Location: star teleporter
• Gains: lives
• Layout: Area with 8 or 9 enemies which you must destroy in 60 seconds to clear the stage.