Flying Battery Zone
From Sonic Retro
| Flying Battery Zone |
|---|
| Second Zone, Sonic & Knuckles |
| Number of Acts: 2 |
| Sub-boss: Flying Battery Zone Sub-boss |
| Boss: Flying Battery Zone Boss |
Flying Battery Zone is the second zone in Sonic & Knuckles (the eighth zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles).
This level was originally meant to be between Carnival Night Zone and Icecap Zone in Sonic 3, but it was moved over to Sonic and Knuckles to balance out the amount of full levels in the games (6 Levels Sonic 3, 6 Levels S&K, not counting Hidden Palace and Doomsday, which are actually sublevels.) A custom icon has been found in S3, so we can assume it was very near completion before it got scrapped.
The level itself is Robotnik's flying skyship. It comes after Mushroom Hill Zone when playing Sonic & Knuckles or Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
Flying Battery Zone has three bosses: one in act one, two in act two.
The first boss is an animal capsule with a boss in it. Get on top of the button on its head. When its eyes flash, move off the button and it will hit itself. Repeat this five more times to defeat it.
The second boss is another self-defeating boss. Avoid the laser as the cage gets smaller and it will eventually defeat itself. You will then be forced to race upward away from an upward-moving platform to avoid being crushed.
The third boss is Eggman swinging on a pair of chains. Avoid being hit by the spiky arms and bursts of flames it shoots, and when the ship starts swinging up and down, use this chance to hit it. It takes eight hits to defeat.
Instruction Manual Description
Go flying on Robotnik's warship. Watch where you step—sneaky traps are everywhere!
Sonic Team Commentary (from Sonic Jam Strategy Guide)
This zone has particularly distinctive music, doesn't it. With Sonic 1 and 2, we were working with Nakamura-san, so we couldn't get any extra music, but since with 3 we had the music done in-house, we were able to have a whole lot of music made up for us. We picked out from that selection the music that fit each zone best. (Iizuka)
Enemies
- Blaster - Badnik that fires small projectiles
- Technosqueek - Small robotic rodent