Egg Mania: Boss Battles in Sonic Mania (Spoilers)

[Sonictrainer]

Classic Eggman is back once again to capture, collect, and insert animals into Badniks and Prison Capsules, set up traps to knock the Rings and life out of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, find and gather all the Chaos Emeralds, and take over the world. To make matters worse, he's got his hands on the new Phantom Ruby that has unexplained powers of its own that Eggman can't wait to experiment with.

Alongside his original creations, Eggman’s cooked up some brand new designs for regular and Super Badniks, including a group of 5 specially designed Egg Robos called the HBH (aka Hard Boiled Heavies).

Besides the usual, it’s unclear whether or not Eggman created the new Zones like Studiopolis Zone or Mirage Saloon Zone himself, or if he just came and took over. We also don’t know what big project he’s working on, other then the fact that it’s not the Death Egg.

So for this topic let’s review the original Bosses of the remixed Genesis Era Zones and speculate the new bosses Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles will have to fight in Sonic Mania.

 

NOTES: 
1. Now that the game is out, I'm going to be talking about all of the Regular Bosses. THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING!

2. Sonic Mania is following Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles Zone structure, where each Zone has 2 Action Stages (aka Acts) with a Boss Battle at the end of each one.

3. Most of us have agreed that Eggman will appear in Act 2 of the remixed Classics like in Green Hill Zone: Chemical Plant Zone, Stardust Speedway Zone, Flying Battery Zone, and whatever Zone gets picked from Sonic 3.

4. We used to believe that the HBH only appear in the new Zones. However, Heavy Rider is the only exception. Also as far as Acts go, Heavy Gunner is the only one that appears in Act 1.

 

Green Hill Zone

In the Original Green Hill Zone, Eggman appeared at the end of Act 3 with his iconic Green Hill Wrecking Ball. Sonic had to dodge the Wrecking Ball while using the platforms to Spin Jump Eggman.

Sonic Mania turns the original boss into an evil Keychain. At the end of Green Hill Zone Act 1, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have to fight a Super Badnik, which I like to call the “Death Chain”. The Death Chain is a pair of 2 miniature Death Eggs tied together by a chain. One of them will turn red and protrude spikes, acting as the Wrecking Ball while the other one acts as the support. They sometimes even swing together. If they’re not red, Team Heroes can Spin Jump them easily. Once one is destroyed, the chain will break, and the last Mini Death Egg will bounce around.

Continuing the Death Egg theme in Green Hill Zone Act 2, Eggman appears with a 2D Version of the Sonic Generations Model of the Death Egg Robot, which fights and travels from the left side of the screen. It has the extending arms like in Sonic Generations, which can break the ground, and still fires the Eggman Bombs from its back like in Sonic 2. To hurt it, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles have to climb its arms and Spin Jump onto its head.

Chemical Plant Zone

In the Original Chemical Plant Zone, Eggman tries to splash toxic versions of the Mega Muck on Sonic and Tails while both sides of the platforms were unstable and led to bottomless pits.

The Act 1 Boss is a mix between the original and the Ice Cap Zone Act 1 Boss.

We haven’t seen the Bosses for Chemical Plant Zone in Sonic Mania despite most of Act 1 and Act 2. However, in a interview with GiantBomb, it was revealed that one of the Bosses turns into a game of Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine/Puyo Puyo and I believe that Boss Battle takes place in Chemical Plant Zone.

Chemical Plant Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• something like the Yellow Devil from Mega Man or Chaos Zero, but made out of Mega Muck

Stardust Speedway Zone

In the original Stardust Speedway Zone, Sonic raced against Metal Sonic in 1 of 2 Future versions of the Zone. If Sonic didn’t keep a decent enough speed he would be caught by Eggman’s instant death laser, even if Sonic was on one of the higher platforms above the racetrack when Eggman passes by. Sonic couldn't actually do anything to hurt Metal Sonic either.

We haven’t seen a lot of the Stardust Speedway Zone since the Pre-Order Trailer. I did have 2 crazy ideas for the Bosses here.

Stardust Speedway Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• instead of racing Metal Sonic, Sonic has to race Eggman in his Sonic costume from the “Man of the Year” cartoon, that was seen in Sonic Jam
• instead of racing just Metal Sonic, Sonic also has to race Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Egg Robo, and Eggman as well, like a race of Sonic R
• something similar to the Egg Serpentleaf from Sylvania Castle Zone

Flying Battery Zone

In the original Flying Battery Zone, a Mimic Prison Capsule was the Boss of Act 1. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had to trick it into hitting itself in order to damage it. 

In Flying Battery Zone Act 2, Sonic and Tails had to fight a laser, similar to the one from the Wing Fortress Zone, before chasing Eggman through a rising floor maze without getting crushed, and finally fighting Eggman and his very suggestive, flamethrower mech.

It seems that in Flying Battery Zone Act 1, our heroes will have to fight a remixed version of the laser but inside a trash compactor. Who knows how long it will be before the walls close and who knows if there are any hidden Badniks in the trash that are actually still functioning (judging by that Flicky in the screenshot).

Flying Battery Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• Boss Battle where you have to use the Tornado at some point

Studiopolis Zone

We know for a fact that Heavy Gunner is at least 1 of the Bosses for Studiopolis Zone and appears in a running Boss Battle, with a hover car and a group of Egg Robos. Characters will have to knock one of the Egg Robos into Heavy Gunner to do damage.

Studiopolis Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• If Heavy Gunner isn't the only Boss for Studiopolis Zone, I think that one of the Bosses might be a giant TV Monitor

Mirage Saloon Zone

We know one of the HBH is at least 1 of the Bosses for Mirage Saloon Zone but we don't know its name or abilities yet. We did see a leaked animation of it but I'm not sure if anything's changed since then.

Mirage Saloon Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• Something involving a shootout or target practice

Mystery Zone #1

…Let's talk about this "picture" another day…

Mystery Zone #2

So let’s talk about the unknown building Zone for a minute:

• the windows remind me of the structures in Spagonia/Rooftop Run
• I can't tell if Sonic is inside or outside of the building
• the use of the color red, both in the plants and the interior design 
• I wonder if this is the Clock Orc Zone
• the object to the left looks familiar to me but I can't put my finger on it
• the building could be a museum, cathedral, botanical garden, lab, or a castle
• The "Ninja" themed HBH could be here

Discussion Questions
1. Which of the Bosses in Sonic Mania are you really looking forward to fighting?

2. Are there any Bosses that have been revealed that you're not looking forward to fighting in Sonic Mania?

CD. Do you think any version of Silver Sonic/Metal Sonic/Mecha Sonic will appear at all in Sonic Mania?

3. What are your ideas and thoughts about the HBH and other machines Eggman will throw at us in the Zones and Acts?

K. What do you think Eggman's true plan is in Sonic Mania?

[SonicComicFanboy]

 I hope we get a Metal Sonic bossfight.  This may very well be my last ever SEGA/Sonic related purchase and I want it to be as great a game as possible!

 

  Also I may be misremembering but aren't extra chars beyond Sonic/Tails/Knuckles suopposed to be playable down the line?  If so would love to see Blaze as DLC.

 

Overall Mania is probably the first Sonic game i've been truly excited about since Colors.  Hope it ends up being worth the wait. 

 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

2 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Chemical Plant Zone Remixed Boss Ideas:

• something like the Yellow Devil from Mega Man or Chaos Zero, but made out of Mega Muck

This would be rad. Sonic the Comic did something like this.

2 hours ago, SonicComicFanboy said:

Also I may be misremembering but aren't extra chars beyond Sonic/Tails/Knuckles suopposed to be playable down the line?

I don't think this has ever been confirmed.

[SonicComicFanboy]

29 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

This would be rad. Sonic the Comic did something like this.

I don't think this has ever been confirmed.

To bad Sonic Team thinks Archie & Fleetway sonic don't matter, a baddy like ol pink oozie there would be super fun to fight!

 

 And well I guess S/K/T are enough ecspecially for a game trying to have a retro vibe.  Though if they decide to pull a Blast Master 0 and add more characters down the line, that would be cool.  At the very least would be fun to play as classic style Amy .

[Person]

Do you think the piranha plant thing is just a common enemy in Stardust Speedway, or an actual boss/miniboss?

[Salamander]

I think there was a statement, or maybe just an implication, in an article way way back that the Hard-Boiled Heavies would be the minibosses in new zones only.  With that said, I'm also wondering if they might pilot the Act 2 boss machines in place of Eggman for those zones...  We shall see, I suppose!

While we're on the subject of structure, minibosses for classic zones appear to reference (one of) the original zone boss(es).  So the Stardust Speedway miniboss should resemble the Metal Sonic chase in some fashion - or maybe Eggman's pursuing death-ray machine.  It's tempting to say that there's evidence for classic bosses (i.e. in Act 2) directly referencing other video games, such as Sonic 2's final boss or Mean Bean Machine, but that's pushing it a bit right now.  I think they'll be more broadly original.

As for the piranha plant, I think the Mania pre-order trailer also shows it in a normal enemy context, so I think it's more of an obstacle; it's far from unreasonable that a boss or miniboss might appear based on it, though.

[Alienrun]

I want to know how much effort you put into this post?! (How long did it take you?!) Not trying to knock you down or anything...it just seems like such a ton of effort for such a simple thing that will be revealed anyways in a month! Talk about speculation my gosh...I got to hand it to ya good job on this!

(srry if I didn't actually have anything worth while to say, but its all speculation anyways so yeah...that's my excuse!)

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

6 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Which of the Bosses in Sonic Mania are you really looking forward to fighting?

Im really looking forward to cracking those smug hardboiled heavies open!

Actually though, I'm curious as to how they will handle the flying battery zone bosses, in the original, eggman blew up his own freaking ship which you had to escape through to the top. I wonder how they're going to top that.

6 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

Do you think any version of Silver Sonic/Metal Sonic/Mecha Sonic will appear at all in Sonic Mania?

I wouldn't mind seeing rocket metal appear in this game. Or something that metal sonic does that's unexpected.

 

6 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

What are your ideas and thoughts about the HBH and other machines Eggman will throw at us in the Zones and Acts?

I hope they're going to be a challenge.

I think you either fight the heavies in act 1s and fight eggman in act 2, or you fight the heavies in both acts, or you fight a different heavy in act 2.

6 hours ago, Sonictrainer said:

What do you think Eggman's true plan is in Sonic Mania?

I honestly can't say. The heavies are implied to have their own agenda so it's anyone's guess what happens.