The Doomsday Zone

The Doomsday Zone.

The Doomsday Zone is the eighth zone in Sonic & Knuckles (the 14th zone in Sonic 3 & Knuckles). Only Sonic may play the level normally, and only after collecting at least 7 emeralds (i.e. only in Super or Hyper form).

The Doomsday Zone is set above the planet, in asteroid-filled space. You must fly through the asteroid belt and fight Dr. Robotnik to recover the Master Emerald and foil his plans again!

Because Super Sonic must play this stage, you start out with 50 rings instead of 0, and you lose rings at the traditional Super rate of one per second. There are extra rings along the course of the level, but if your ring total drops to 0, you fall out of super form and lose a life.

The Doomsday Zone set a precedent that would become the template for most final boss battles in future games. Among them:

• Sonic Adventure -- Perfect Chaos
• Sonic Adventure 2 -- Finalhazard
• Sonic Heroes -- Metal Overlord
• Sonic Advance -- The Moon Zone
• Sonic Advance 2 -- True Area 53
• Sonic Advance 3 -- Nonaggression