Boss battles are something of a strange occurance in platformers. Unlike other genres, especially in RPGs where they are very prominent fixtures in the entertainment value of the game. Sonic boss battles in general have tried different methods of making a boss work. They've even tried different boss types within the same game! Let's go over some of the styIes of boss battles the Sonic series has used, and for mood music, let's throw up the Generations Egg Dragoon music.
Fixed Position: Prominent in almost all the 2D Sonic games. Encountering the boss in these cases causes the screen to lock up so that there is a set "battlefield" that Sonic must run around in and dodge attacks and wait for an opening to hit the boss. The Genesis titles did a good job of working with this kind of boss, but one can't help but feel they're too overused and in a way contradict what makes a Sonic game a Sonic game. Good examples of the kind of boss with fixed screens include the Green Hill Zone boss of Sonic 1, Launch Base Zone's bosses (all 3!), and pretty much 90% of all other bosses in 2D Sonic games.
Boss Race: To rectify the issue of having the same boss formula, the team working on Sonic CD decided to try one boss level which is a memorable part of the game, and probably the one players look at most fondly (if they look at the game fondly, some people lately I've noticed have grown to form a dislike of the game for whatever reason). Metal Sonic was the original example of this, but others include the Shadow fight in Generations (in a sense it's a more sophisticated boss race), or any of the rival battles of Generations 3DS. Some of these bosses are actually fun, but a lot of them feel like a lazy way of coping with Sonic's need for speed and the need to make a boss encounter.
The Level Itself Is The Boss: I kind of named this as if it were a trope, but there's a few cases in Sonic games where the boss battle is actually taking place across an entire stage, and more of the boss involves actually GETTING to them rather than hitting them. Good examples include the Labyrinth Zone boss and by extension the first part of the Lost Labyrinth boss, and also both Captain and Admiral Jelly in Sonic Colors, where you have to navigate to a switch at the other end of the ship before you can go for a hit on the boss himself.
Double Duty: While not really prominently seen, there's a few bosses in the Sonic series that consist of two targets instead of one, in some form or another. For example, the Whisker and Johnny boss in Sonic Rush Adventure (which is my favorite example), or Sonic and... whatever the hell that GUN thing's name was supposed to be in Shadow's game. In one case or another one target may not actually take damage for the main boss, but both enemies are equally important to the boss battle and thus fall under this. Now, this type of boss battle might have MORE THAN 2 targets, such as a lot of Heroes' bosses.
Hot Pursuit: Also cleverly named, these bosses consist of Sonic chasing the boss along a long stretch of nothing but nice scenery, and the boss will be retreating backward, with Sonic having to chase them and attack as he dodges the boss' attacks. All of Sonic Advance 2's bosses except the final boss use this format, the second half of the Mad Gear boss in Sonic 4 uses it, the final boss of Colors and the Egg Dragoon of Generations. In order to hit the boss, the player must be moving forward constantly and dodge the attacks the boss uses and move when there's an opening to hit them. These bosses are more or less like the Fixed Screen Boss, but Sonic has to be keeping momentum for the fight to work, so it keeps Sonic's trademark speed and makes a boss work into that at the same time.
I'm sure you can find more, but that leads to this: what kind of boss battles do you like to see in Sonic, and what are some specific bosses you enjoy? Now, I don't add Super Sonic bosses as a category because in a gameplay sense they can differ from game to game. Sonic Adventure was kind of "The Level Itself" type while Sonic Adventure 2 was kind of "fixed position" type of boss, Generations was a Hot Pursuit type, etc.
Personally, I like the Hot Pursuit type when it works and I don't mind the Fixed Position type.
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