The Doomsday Zone
From Sonic Retro
| The Doomsday Zone |
|---|
| Eighth/Final Zone, Sonic & Knuckles |
| Number of Acts: 1 |
| Maximum rings, Act 1: 194 + 0 |
| Prerequisite: Obtain 7 Chaos Emeralds as Sonic |
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). He transforms into his Super form (Hyper if you have collected all of the Super Emeralds) as the Death Egg is falling apart to catch Robotnik as he tries to escape with the Master Emerald.
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.
To defeat the first form, dubbed the Egg Missile, drive the missiles it fires into the cockpit of the ship. After 8 hits, Eggman returns in the Egg Bomber, resembling the Giant Robotnik boss from Sonic 2. Keep your ring supply up by hanging back when needed, but when you feel comfortable with your ring total, hold right and hit any of the face buttons to begin ramming into him. Hitting his bombs and the asteroids slows you down. After 8 hits, the Master Emerald is freed and Eggman is beaten again. Congrats!
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
- Sonic Rush -- Exception
- Shadow the Hedgehog -- Devil Doom
- Sonic Unleashed -- Perfect Dark Gaia
Glitches
- Sonic is the only character in the game that can access this stage through normal play, but by using level select, you may also play as Tails or Knuckles. However, both of their sprites will be scrambled, and Tails will not lose rings in Super/Hyper form, though Knuckles will.
Instruction Manual Description
| “ | Sonic unleashes incredible Emerald forces in this final shattering showdown with Robotnik! | „ |