Final Zone

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Final Zone
Seventh Zone, Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)
Number of Acts: 1

Final Zone is the seventh and final level of Sonic 1. It is just a big boss fight, where Robotnik tries to kill you with pistons and energy balls. There are no rings available in the original of this zone, although three are provided in when it appears in Sonic Jam.

On each round, two of the four pistons (one of the leftmost two, and one of the rightmost two) will shoot out, one having Robotnik inside. Sonic needs to hit this piston on the side. Following this, generators at the top will shoot out ball lightning. After dodging the lightning, the pistons will shoot out again; the sequence repeats until Sonic gets killed (there are no rings in this level to protect himself with), or until he hits Robotnik 8 times. Then the machine will be destroyed, and Robotnik will try to take off in his hovercraft. Sonic can jump up and hit the hovercraft, making it explode. Whether he does or not, you are treated to the ending sequence.

The hit-stun period for this boss is longer than that of Robotnik's other incarnations in the game; this normally makes it impossible to hit Robotnik more than once in a single piston round. However, upon delivering the 8th hit, the destruction sequence causes the pistons to move more slowly for the remainder of the round, and if the 8th hit was delivered early enough, it's possible to get a 9th hit on the way back down. In any case, a 9th hit isn't advised--it underflows the boss health counter from 00 to FF, and causes the boss fight to continue until you get 255 more hits, which isn't normally possible without getting Time Over.

In Sonic Jam's easy mode, Final Zone undergoes a couple of changes that affect the difficulty of the zone. Instead of having two pistons move out, only one is moved. Also Sonic is provided a few rings before battling Robotnik.